Dodgy Brothers Inc.

I thought I would start a thread along a creative line. Touching on Lethal’s search for an entrepreneurial idea, what could a bunch of guys like us come up with? We come from different backgrounds which is a great strength and we are all smart and talented fellows. I propose Dodgy Brothers Inc. (DB) and will kick it off. From crazy to simple…reinvent the wheel or just make a better one…all are welcome…you just never know

DB’s Express

• Cross between home/online shopping and traditional push a trolley shopping.  There seems to be a lot of resistance to online shopping in many countries, even though it is simple and readily available. Instead of trying to break this human behaviour, why not improve the process.

• Upon entering each customer will be given a simple scanning device. This allows the customer to scan the product they want, multiple if required, delete option if needed and has a progressive total on the screen. Once finished they walk to a cashier which takes the hand held and swipes the total, you then pay and leave. Groceries are then delivered to your door just like online shopping and you are free to wander off without lugging shopping bags.

• It still gives you the wandering around shopping experience, which I have to say I don’t mind, combined with the convenience of online services.

• Capital expenditure is vastly reduced as floor space is kept to a minimum. Staff costs are also minimal as you remove the need for stocking, excessive cashiers and security/floor personnel. Stores can be designed in a nice simple way, with standardisation also allowing for a Franchise model.

• Sourcing would be the major problem as developing some economies of scale and supply relationships could burn some time and cash at the beginning.

We live in exponential times

I went to a workshop today run by the top creative director in Brisbane and the topic was about engagement. How to create ideas that people will talk about to spread a brand. At the end of the session he made a point about how there is a lag between the new and the acceptance of the new in business and they shouldn’t be afraid to embrace new ideas because we as a race are growing exponentially. Not only in number but in ideas and creation. He then went to this link -

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI

 I know we weren’t going to post many links anymore but the presentation of this video really struck something with me. I won’t go in to what it says but if you have 6 minutes it really brings up some interesting points about where society is going.

Does anyone else get that eerie feeling watching this? 

The War

I recently caught up with Liz, as she was on 2 week sabbatical from Iraq, and it was really interesting to hear a report from someone who is on the ground as we speak. A bit of background, she lives in Uday’s hunting lodge, is working in one of Saddam’s palaces on the lake, where’s 15kg of flac armour to work everyday and is providing briefs to some of the most senior US commanders. I think we forget sometimes that even in Green Zones you are not safe.

She paints a pretty damning picture of American leadership in the war and confirms what we already think, they really have no idea what they are doing.  On top of that the US Army bureaucracy is that convoluted and full of patriot zealists that they might as well be killing Indians with Custer.

Even though there is alot of pressure mounting back home to withdraw, most people on the ground think that it would be a grave mistake. I tend to agree, however how do you stop a sectarian war…will it ever end? Nobody doubts that removing Saddam was a good thing, but will he just be replaced by another? At what cost? The human count continues to rise and civilians once again bear the brunt.

How does this all pose for Iran? The recently detained a bunch of British soldiers and it looks like it could turn into a sticky situation. The USA just launched there largest gulf air combat exercise today…interesting timing. Surely they can’t realistically be considering fighting another front…they are spread on all sides and public opinion is swinging…the only way they could complete a clean sweep of the East is if they had another 9-11…

On top of this we have a zoo built in Cuba so the American people have someone to throw stones at and blame for their hard lot in all of this. The last time we saw such facilities they were called concentration camps, and so loud was our protest against these injustices, where are these people now? The trials are turning into a farce, does anybody actually believe that people held and tortured for 5 years will be able to give a true account. All they want is to escape from the hell they find themselves in…the innocent are always the ones to suffer. I do recommend watching ‘Road to Guantanamo’, i’m sure many more accounts of this black mark on human rights will surface.

The floor is open on this very topical issue!

Budgets

A question for you Al, and maybe you as well Lethal, it’s regarding budgets. I sat down and watched Gordon Brown deliver the budget speech for the Blair government the other day, and the subsequent response from the opposition Treasurer. What is contained does not confuse me, rather it is how do you attribute real change or value? How easy is it to sift through 1000 page ‘red book’ and understand exactly what is on offer?

Things can be given on one hand but taken quite as easily on the other…a percent here…a percent there…how do you know if it really is a good budget and what things can you look for to tell you otherwise?

I realise it is a bit of a vague question and probably requires alot of analysis and comparisons, however elections are built on these speeches and the ‘budget highlights’ and pretty little figures they pop out can swing an election in the matter of days. Most voters are punters and if the Courier Mail said vote for uncle Bills dog down the street they probably would. But how do they more ‘enlightened’ of us sift through the garble…keen to hear some pointers!

Wages

I have an economics related question for anyone who wishes to try and answer.

 

Over the last few days my activities at work have required me to look at the payrolls of a couple of different companies. One of which manufactures furniture for the interior of boats and ship, while the other refurbishes and repairs the outside, so both companies are similar in that they require skilled labour.

 

While I was going over the payrolls for them I noticed that most workers there are not on huge salaries and even those people who had been there for quite a few years and had quite specific jobs still did not receive much more then new employees.

 

I realise that in general market forces set wages and those jobs that require higher education and specific skills, and jobs that are in high demand will and short supply will have relatively high wages; and those specific jobs that add a lot of value to an organization such as CEO, CFO, etc… will also demand very high salaries.

I also understand that these lower paid skilled workers are in very short supply and that these companies and many like them are always looking for more people to work often resorting to temp agencies to fill gaps in the short term.

 

This being the case, why do wages for these skilled labour jobs not rise as quickly as wages in more specific trades like plumbing and building where people can earn in excess of $100,000 if they are good at what they do?

DON’T DRINK DRIVE

Don’t drink Drive, it’s a laundry detergent.

Google going down the Youtube?

i’m sure everyone has heard about Viacom planning to sue Google because YouTube has copyright material streaming on their site. What does everyone think? Do you think Google made a mistake buying YouTube in the first place? Me, myself and I have not come to a decision on that but here are my thoughts about a few different aspects of it –

Lets say Google does get done for a billion. Will it really hurt them? Last year, besides buying Youtube, Google bought 5% of AOL for $1bil to lock up search and ads, $900mil to News/Fox to lock up search and adspace on Myspace. So they now have ad space and search control on Google, Youtube, AOL and Myspace. Basically Google has control over how and what price marketers pay to reach customers on probably the top 4 sites/networks on the net.

Advertising dollars is where these sites survive. YouTube has 992 million streams with over 150 million visits per month, thats a pretty good return on your spend if you’re looking for exposure. Google runs it’s ads as pay per click, you only pay if some one clicks on your link. Next time you google you’ll see them in a seperate list to the right of the organic search. Costs can be as low as a dollar per click or up to 5 or 10. Now think how many people are on Google globally every day. So I guess being sued by Viacom won’t really hit them too hard.

Other thoughts –

* Viacom is the first big player to sue. YouTube has been going for a while now and many people are suprised this hasn’t happened already due to the amount of copyright material on site. Why not? Because a lot of the ‘copyrighted’ material is placed by the companies who produced them eg music videos, film trailers, tv. Sneaky but true, it’s their way of reaching customers through a more credible source becuase the media channel is user generated.

* NBC and Fox are launching a high end content service that will give users access to their content. If you could get episodes of Lost, Heroes, Prison Break etc at high quality almost as soon as they are screened on TV for a minimal cost would you do it? Is this the first step before TV networks move content exclusively to the net?

Doesn’t really contain a question or an answer but I look forward to roastings

Still here?

Hello all, can I get some indication from you if you still check here and if you are still keen to keep it going?

With Amon in London, Pete off to Switzerland, and Leigh having been in Sydney for some time, I still think this is a good place to keep in touch and allow us to argue with each other in different countries.

Anyway, let me know if you are still here.