Excel rules

There is simply no getting around the fact that Excel is a spectacularly useful and powerful tool.

News of some simple miscalculations in the analysis of a couple of economists heavily referenced by politicians to justify austerity measures just serves to reinforce this: read the full article here and then remember to check those formulas properly before you publish!

Book review: "Civilisation: the 6 killer apps of western power"

So, the pilot has just announced a 15 minute delay before takeoff (let's not talk about the previous two hour delay this adds on to!); just enough time to get down a thought or two on the book I just finished reading, "Civilisation - the six killer apps of western power", by Niall Fergusson. 

To be up front, unlike most of my posts, this review does not have any particular business context.

I am a fan of the work of Niall Ferguson (see here and here for a couple of absolutely cracking books), so was definitely looking forward to this one, irritatingly populist subtitle notwithstanding.

Ferguson poses the question why "The West" has been more "successful" for the last 400 years than eastern civilisations. The answer to this question is not as banal as one might expect (luck and a few great renaissance innovations that positioned the west for Empire, followed up by ruthless exploitation, would have been my ill-informed answer).

The author suggests that the reasons are manifold (undisputed, I would say!) and that they stem from the complex interaction of the following "killer apps":

• Competition; European mercantile capitalism and competition in context of many small countries
• Property rights and the rule of law (particularly in US)
• Medicine and impact of health improvements across world from colonialism
• The consumer society and the demand driven innovation during the Industrial Revolution
• The work ethic - Western religions and impact on conscience et al.

This collection does seem to provide a robust collection of valid ideas, and the author has dozens of great examples juxtaposing the West with the East in each of the categories. However, I remained slidely disappointed with the overall book. 

I may be getting a bit simple with progressing middle-age, but Ferguson's argument would have benefitted greatly from a good cause and effect diagram, showing the interactions of these apps - without it, I have remained unable to properly understand whether his answer is complete, or indeed whether it stacks up.

This niggle notwithstanding, Ferguson provides a huge amount of food for thought, with literally hundreds of interesting references backing up his claims. And the topic is, obviously, very relevant at a point in which the tide seems to have turned irrevecorably against the West.

For those who do not want to read all 350 pages, Ferguson held a lecture at the Cambridge Union, in which he outlines the key points in an hour or so (posted on YouTube here). Enjoy!

How many things can you focus on?

I had hoped to be at the Exceed Expectations 2013 conference in Berlin earlier this week, but due to work commitments have sadly had to make do with catching up on the presentations vicariously through a colleague and via the blog buzz around the conference:

In this context, I stumbled across the "bare-bones" of Alexander Graf's presentation on his highly readable blog, kassenzone.de. The presentation itself is interesting - an appeal for us to try to see the business model opportunities left and right around us and the danger of focusing on one thing - but I like the embedded YouTube video even more. Try it out here (I won't comment on it, because that ruins the impact, but go ahead and try it before you read on!).




It has become a cliche that focus on one thing and doing it well is everything and yet at the same time we observe the necessity to be constantly aware of what is going on all around us.

How to handle this?

....I don't honestly know, so suggestions are most welcome ;-).

....My amateur answer for myself thus far, however, is to try to compartmentalise my time, to focus during the week on the job in hand (whatever it might be) and then to very deliberately block time in my month (typically one Sunday afternoon, as this blog entry attests ;-)) to try to look around and reflect on what else is going on. I am finding that this time is enough to get a few impulses and the thoughts/ideas then gestate in the background during the rest of the month, without me really thinking about them.

How many things can you focus on?

Getting the Inbox under control

As long term readers of my blog know, I am a fan of manager-tools.com (even though I don't like the name, since it is as much about professional effectiveness as it is management, see also here for previous posts on their best podcasts).

In recent years I have found that the casts have gotten a little short on content - typically, the team have 1-2 key messages and get them covered in the first 5 minutes - but I guess this is as much a question of learning style (multiple reptitions). This week's cast (here) is a good one.

The messages are few and simple, but do make sense:

• plan to do your email at regular times only (and not all the time when you are at your desk) 
• budget time in accordance with the priority that you give to mail 
• work through all your mails in this time, even if that simply means creating an action for an email and filing the actual email away, or responding that you will respond once you have time 
• switch off the auto-download of mails 

These recommendations are completely in keeping the the GTD ("Getting Things Done") model and, in particular, the psychological impact of having a clear inbox (even if it simply means that the actions are in their appropriate lists) is definitely a winner for me.

I am constantly impressed by a smart colleague of mine that literally deletes all mails that she does not absolutely need (including her own sent mail) and saves key messages into her normal filing structure - she never needs long to find what she needs and in 6 years I have only once had to provide her with an email that she had overzealously deleted.

Too often keeping up with emails becomes a task in itself and it simply should not be. This is just good common sense.

In the interests of full disclosure - I have tried this several times over the last few years, but never managed to be this strict. Hopefully, practice will make perfect...

Maps That Explain The World

A fascinating set of maps, though quite cynical in places - here

Recent TED talk on managing life

Having shifted my holiday planning to an explicit priority driven approach to avoid the typical arguments around what we "absolutely have to do" in the timebox that is a two-week summer break (with appropriate sticky note visible backlog that is adjusted and burnt down daily ;-)), I can relate to this guy:

Latest Google Glass video

Although the latest video preview of Google Glass does not really show anything particularly new (video/pictures using Glasses), I have to admit I am really looking forward to the Glass launch - there are so many possibilities with this technology! Here is the video: