Category Business

Entries 19 Total

Labor Laws

Apr 27, ’21 2:06 PM

In the United States, the labor laws are very much in favor of the employer rather than the employee. In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the United States as having the absolute weakest laws protecting workers from dismissal in over seventy countries worldwide. Pennsylvania is, like all states but Montana, an “employment-at-will” state, meaning that an employer can fire someone with or without cause. In direct contrast, in the European Union (EU), companies cannot fire people “at will”; the EU commission states quite clearly that employers cannot fire their employees simply for the “wish of the employer.” Yet, in the United States, there are very limited protections to the “at will” rule.

The Tolls of Uncertainty, How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, Sarah Damaske

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Brexit.

Feb 8, ’21 12:15 AM

“When the UK was in the EU, and during the transition period, (Andrew) Moss and other small businesses did not charge VAT (value-added tax) to customers in other EU countries. But EU rules dictate that VAT must now be paid before goods are received from the UK.

“Moss could not believe what was happening. Loyal customers were being told to pay about 20% extra on top of the quoted price for his goods. Of course, if this continued, they would look elsewhere.

“Moss had three options – and none would be easy. First, he could bite the bullet and pay the VAT himself. This would mean running at a huge loss and was not possible for the long term. Second, he could stop all exports to the EU – this would reduce the size of his business overnight and mean that years of hard work finding customers abroad had been for nothing. Or third, he could set up and register a company in the EU, ship all his goods once a week to avoid the delays and individual Brexit-related payments, and distribute his goods from there. The European branch of his company could then pay the VAT and claim it back from the government of whichever EU member state it was based on.

“To Moss, this looked like the best option, albeit one that would involve short-term costs and effort.

“As he pondered what course to take, Moss contacted his MP, the Conservative Lucy Frazer, warning her that if no help was offered he could have to “sack lots of people”. Frazer put him in touch with a civil servant in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy who knew nothing about the VAT problem. “It was a complete surprise to him,” said Moss. But the civil servant did refer Moss to a senior trade adviser in the Department for International Trade.

“He confirmed that he couldn’t see any other way,” said Moss. “He told me that what I was thinking of doing was the right thing, that he could see no other option.”

[…]

“I just want somebody to tell me [admit] that Brexit is not about making Britain great again, not about empowering us, not about giving us back our sovereignty, Brexit is about the engine room of Britain investing significantly in Europe.“

“False Dawn”, The Guardian (January 29, 2021)

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2019-20

Nov 2, ’20 2:13 AM

“It is we in particular, those remorselessly skilled at not giving up, who need to hear a curious-sounding lesson in being a little less loyal. We need to hear that, surprisingly, some people just don’t change: that their characters have been bolted shut through trauma and there is no chance that they will ever – whatever they may say and however intensely they promise – display any evolution. We need to hear that surprisingly, some people aren’t entirely good and we aren’t necessarily the problem. We need to learn to blame and get annoyed with someone other than ourselves. We need to do something very strange: walk away. This is no sign of cowardice or weakness of character. It’s a sign that we have (finally) learnt to love ourselves and so place our needs where these should always have been: at the center of our considerations.”

The School of Life, The Capacity to Give up on People

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Yvonne Reichmuth

Oct 25, ’18 9:42 AM

Excerpt from an interview by Tanya König from CNN

You don’t follow seasons. You do one main collection a year. What is the main idea behind that?

I don’t really believe in the system with the seasons anymore. I just think it went way too fast, there are way too many collections, and I don’t want to be repetitive, and I think it takes time to really develop a new idea. Not just to have the time for a great design but also make sure the fit is perfect and the quality is perfect so I’d rather do less and do those pieces really well.

Is mass production the opposite of style?

I wouldn’t say it’s the opposite of style but it’s just not a way I feel comfortable working with. Because I really started with this whole craft because I like the material, I like the crafting itself, I really enjoy doing the pieces as well, so I don’t want to be on the computer and order 3 million pieces and I think its not sustainable the way how we shop and sell, how we produce, and the way we do it it’s different in a lot of ways. We also don’t release a collection, put it in sale after three months, and then just throw it away. 

I feel like that’s an insult to your design because I want to do a design that’s timeless and that’s just as attractive two years after I released it. So people can choose which piece they like the most based upon their personal taste, depending on the style they’re looking for and not because it’s Fall/Winter 2017 or whatever.

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Softbank.

May 18, ’18 12:34 PM

“Those doubting his grand visions have been proved wrong in the past. In 1981 he founded SoftBank to distribute personal-computer software in Tokyo with two part-time employees. On the first day the diminutive Mr Son stood on two apple cartons and announced to those befuddled workers that in five years the firm would have $75m in sales and be number one. They thought “this guy must be crazy”, Mr Son later told the Harvard Business Review, and quit the same day. But Mr Son’s drive and ambition saw SoftBank eventually distributing 80% of PC software in Japan.”

“The impact of Masayoshi Son’s $100bn tech fund will be profound.” – The Economist

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History Lessons

Mar 31, ’18 2:33 PM

“A century ago cars were seized upon as a solution to the drawbacks of horses, which were clogging city streets with manure. The broader social consequences of cars, both good and bad, were entirely unforeseen. Today the danger is that AVS will be treated merely as a technological solution to the problems associated with cars and that, once again, the wider impacts will be overlooked. AVS have the potential to transform physical transport as radically as packet-switching transformed the delivery of data. But as with the internet, realising their benefits is a matter of politics as well as technology. AVS offer a chance to forge a new and better trade-off between personal mobility and social impact—but only if the lesson of the horseless carriage is applied to the era of the driverless car.”

“Who is Behind the Wheel,” The Economist, March 3, 2018

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Attention III – Tactics to Strategy

Feb 11, ’18 9:07 PM

While the previously shared tactics helped improve my raw productivity score, the approach wasn’t airtight.

For example, the use of Evernote helped me distinguish writing from communicating, but was I using Evernote too heavily now? Was the reduction in email traffic somehow giving the perception that I was disengaged? Am I focusing too much on productivity?

As with any shift in approach, there are pros and cons. Focusing too heavily on productivity did pose the potential that I would become further disconnected from the day-to-day reality of the agency. And perhaps I was spending too much time writing, and not spending enough time in other essential creative and technical pursuits.

These were indeed liabilities, but they didn’t reflect my primary concerns. The shift from communicating to writing (read: transactional emails to critical thinking) was a primary tactic. Tactics typically build from a core strategy, and I was absent one.

What does a productivity strategy really mean? Am I interested in further improving my productivity, or is there something else?

One answer came in the form of a best-selling book entitled Rapt – Attention and the Focused Life by Winfred Gallagher.

The book addresses the topic of attention, and how “your life – who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love – is the sum of what you focus on.”

My focus on productivity is to do more with less. Given the diverse subjects that interest me, and the work required to learn and “realize” the material, transforming what would otherwise be “routine” work into a continuous stream of “high density” engagements is a critical and necessary shift.

If I can refine my focus even further, both in terms of subject-matter and the actual practice, I believe I can accomplish far more than what I’ve accomplished to date and in areas that would have otherwise been left unturned.

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Attention II – Realization

Feb 11, ’18 8:31 PM

While I have always been focused in pushing myself along professional, personal, and physical dimensions, it’s only been recently where I’ve identified the fact that one’s ability to focus is what ultimately matters when it comes to taking on harder challenges.

When I was in high-school, I had a desk that had four small storage areas located towards the rear of the primary work surface. These areas were originally designed to hold small items such as envelopes, tape, and writing instruments, but they frequently attracted many other items that I simply didn’t know what to do with.

While my workspace was fairly well-kept, I found myself distracted by these random items that would find their way within or adjacent to the work area. To alleviate this, I built a wooden structure that encapsulated the work area and allow my mind to focus on the work instead of these random belongings. I also went as far to purchase ear protection headphones (!) in an attempt to eliminate, or at least further reduce, all distraction.

This “physical barrier” strategy had a positive effect on my ability to produce, although I recall struggling internally whether all of this was really necessary. After all, my friends seemed to focus reasonably well void of such scaffolding.

Over the next two decades, I continued to refine my ability to focus and made steady improvements across fairly diverse contexts. However, I always felt that more could be done.

Several years ago, after realizing that the vast majority of my time appeared to be spent compiling and responding to emails, I decided to try a new approach; I signed up with an online service called RescueTime.

The premise behind RescueTime is that it assumes that you spend most of your time on the computer, yet you aren’t really sure how much time you are spending on activities that add real value.

RescueTime monitors the applications that you are using and the time spent on each. It identifies, with your help, those applications that are considered “productive” (e.g., Adobe InDesign) and those that are “distracting” (e.g., YouTube). Further classification ability is also provided for those who wish to dive deeper into the underlying data.

The first year’s score came as somewhat of a surprise: 52% productive

RescueTime confirmed my suspicion, and I felt good knowing that improvements were not only desired but necessary. I decided to take action through two simple tactics:

  • Tactic #1: Send less email. The less email I send, the less I’ll receive. Volume problem solved.
  • Tactic #2: Stay out of email completely, and turn off all notifications. Distraction problem solved.

This didn’t mean that I stopped sending email, but I found that what I was really interested in doing was thinking critically, and I accomplished this through writing. The solution? I replaced Outlook with Evernote.

Now I had a tool for writing versus a tool for communication. Both are necessary, but recognizing this difference is what really matters.

Using these two simple tactics, my productivity score improved nearly 30% over the next 4 years, and I am just getting started.

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Constant Struggle.

Oct 7, ’16 12:24 AM

“What’s the point?” is a title of an art piece I’m currently designing. The visual design I’m considering is a collection of notes, designs, and other (project) artifacts I’ve created over the past ten years, with an explicit mid-point marker representing my efforts “pre-agency.”

In my view, it’s critical to question the purpose and value of projects/endeavors in which I’ve invested considerable time and energy. Taking the time to examine this creative history can enable one to examine and consider new projects with a much different perspective. It’s a perspective that’s more intelligent and purposeful. This combination enables a greater emphasis on the core “creative” and helps to minimize (not eliminate) wasted energy.

(It’s worth mentioning I’m purposefully omitting the definition of “creative” to open this perspective to projects of all types.)

One goal (I’m also avoiding distilling the number and type of goal at this early stage) is to maximize the “output” or end-result. Maximization, to me, equates with intense concentration and creative contribution, while minimizing the time spent in non value-add activities. These latter activities, while necessary, are “supporting” and thus do not necessarily require the level of engagement the “maximization” activities require.

While I will examine this in greater detail, this is likely to be a constant struggle that will require frequent re-examination.

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Immersion: Challenges & Opportunities

Dec 23, ’10 7:22 PM

Portfolio Development: My portfolio has evolved fairly well over the past several years – particularly in the graphic design arena.  The evolution from where I began and where I am today shows a clear positive trajectory.  Recent digital illustration work using the Cintiq and Photoshop also show tremendous potential.  The opportunity here is two-fold.  First, when solid progress is being made, I tend to move on to another challenge without spending additional time to further develop / refine my existing skills.  In some strange way, the possibility for greater success deters me from moving forward.  Second, while the portfolio is looking increasingly professional, it is heavily weighted in graphic design and less so in other disciplines (e.g. 3D modeling, rendering).

Community Engagement: The past several years have focused heavily on portfolio development and the creation of my personal brand.  While there has been significant success in both fronts, the communication and level of engagement has been unidirectional.  My original belief of “build it and they will come” places heavy responsibility on external parties to not only learn about me, but to engage in further discussion.  There is an opportunity to change this unidirectional approach through increased engagement / participation on my end.

Process of Elimination: One of the challenges that I’ve faced with Big Generator is that it has lacked clear direction.  While it started out as a pure information design firm, it quickly expanded to become involved in brand strategy and other related offerings.  The opportunity is to refocus the company and establish a clear business strategy so that it can truly be successful over the long-term.

Out of Balance: One of my biggest challenges that I’ve been working to correct over the past two years involves a clear imbalance between my professional career thus far and the skills that are required to move beyond this realm of expertise.  While my efforts have shown true promise in correcting this “right brain / left brain” imbalance, there is still more work to be done.  The opportunity here is to take greater and more strategic steps to bridge this gap and clearly convey my strengths and potential as a design leader.

Emphasis on Innovation: Being creative for creative’s sake is beneficial, but leveraging creativity to solve real-world problems can be extremely powerful.  While my thoughts and designs are truly “mine”, the bulk of my efforts has been focused inward (self-development, strength building, creative exploration).  The opportunity is to shift gears and transfer more energy towards addressing real-world challenges and designing and creating with true purpose.

Mental Barriers: One of the keys to one’s success is the ability to maintain a high-level of optimism independent of the challenge faced.  With a realization that my optimism level is classified as “average”, there is a clear opportunity to employ constructive techniques to quickly move past barriers that would have normally impeded progress.  With the world moving at a faster pace, there is no better time to find ways to accelerate my ability to navigate through these challenges.

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