Archive for the ‘ Business and Finance ’ Category

Focus IT Investment on Training in 2010

I read with interest an article in the magazine “business minds” emphasising  the  importance of IT investment, and how the tough economic climate has been forcing companies to cut their IT spending. It reported that  small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the worst off, with their already lean budgets being squeezed even tighter. I agreed [ READ MORE ]

70% of us think about starting our own business

I recently read in a book that “out of a 100 people, 70 will want to start a business, 15 will actually do so in the next few years, and only 5 will succeed on the first try.” (from the book bounce! by Barry Moltz) I hadn’t realised that so many people were actually thinking [ READ MORE ]

Getting a Job During a Recession

A program on the BBC about a week back talked about getting a job during a recession. “Graduates,” they said, “who got jobs during recessions were likely to be paid less than their peers who got jobs during times of prosperity.” I am, unfortunately, one of them. Graduating at the end of 2008, I went looking [ READ MORE ]

Entrepreneurship and Full-time Work

A couple of days ago I had a talk with a good friend of mine, also an aspiring entrepreneur, regarding entrepreneurship. Though we shared many similar thoughts regarding this subject, it was when we differed that I learned the most. At one point of our conversation, the reasons why we were so driven toward becoming [ READ MORE ]

Internal Talent Scouting

I went for an “interview” with a corporate HR person yesterday, from a department called Talent Management. Before you think how to yourself, “wow”, allow me to admit that I wasn’t exclusively chosen for it — I was one of the 200-or-so (probably more) marketing people who were. Though I must applaud the company for [ READ MORE ]

Living a RADical Life

I recently came across the (wonderful) essays of Paul Graham while searching for entrepreneurship material. Paul Graham (co-founder of Viaweb (aka Yahoo! Store), essayist, programmer and more) is a big believer in the idea of rapid application development (or at least a variant of it) (it’s also known in is abbreviated form, RAD). He often advises [ READ MORE ]

Without Goals

Due to a start-stop run-training routine, I completed the Army Half Marathon yesterday in what was one of my worst timings ever. I also ended up with terrible muscle aches and a recurrence of an acute pain in my left knee, and as a result I was forced to take medical leave to visit a [ READ MORE ]

My ships are burned. I am an entrepreneur.

My ships have been burned – there is no turning back. I am an entrepreneur, there’s simply nothing else for me. I recall that day in the train, hand-in-hand with the girlfriend. The leaflet she held in her hand was the burning torch that she would use to set alight my salary-man ships. “Look,” she said, raising [ READ MORE ]