2007 Archives

At the moment, my PC is in the middle of a reboot. This morning, Outlook crashed. The diagnostics from Microsoft reported that I needed to install the Service Pack (SP1) for Office 2007. After downloading the 200Mb 'patch', my PC wanted to reboot ... so, as I sit here waiting for that to complete, I thought I'd put some end of year thoughts down.

My PhD work continues -- I hope to complete the last few bits of data collection in the next two months (before getting back into the fray of 'normal' academic life).

I've got a lot to do this year. I hope to produce some good articles for EGOS (the conference is in July) and for SMS (their conference is is October). I hope to attend the EGOS conference, and Lililan (with whom I'm co-authoring the article--along with Yvon Dufour) will attend the SMS.

The problem (?) is that submissions for those conferences have to be in by the middle of January.

The EGOS article should be a straightforward of the work we (Liliana, Yvon, and myself) have been doing on pluralistic contexts (e.g. such as those found in professional service firms and not-for-profit organisations).

The SMS is more challenging. I'll meet with Liliana next week to work out the 'road-map' for that article.

There is also a third article (also with Yvon and Liliana) which is targetting a French speaking conference.

Those three conference papers should then be refined and developed in to more substantial journal articles. That should keep us busy for a while ....

I thought it might be interesting to others and useful to me, if I documented what's been going on with the sale of our section of land in Upper Queen Street.

Last year, Lisa and I brought a piece of land with the intention of building a home on it. It took as a while to find an architect who understood what we wanted. However, by August of 2007 we were working with a friend, and ex-MBA student, JH, to build something for us.

Around 10 August 2007, I was approached by an agent who had a client interested in buying the section. We'd had the odd agent approach us before so I wasn't surprised at the approach.

By the 13 August 2007, JVV brought us an unconditional offer with settlement on the 27 September 2007. He said he also had a cheque for $60k as the deposit. JVV explained that the purchaser was friends of the people who were redeveloping and planning to live in a redeveloped 900 m2 (or so) commercial property across the road from our section. JVV said the purchaser had been unable to renew the lease on the property he currently used and had decided to buy and build his own place, and would like to be near his friends. The purchaser was offering $600k.

As we had previous interest at $650k, we went back to JVV and suggested a price of $675k.

JVV returned with an unconditional offer, the same cheque for a $60k deposit, but settlement was to be 90 days from the agreement, i.e. 15 November 2007.

Lisa and I were unsettled by the long settlement period. When asked about this, JVV responded that we had annoyed the purchaser with the revised price and he was going for a longer settlement so he could do more of the planning work with Council before settlement. Later that evening, when Peter met with JVV, JVV reassured Peter saying that the purchaser was well known to him, and he thought it was very unlikely that the purchaser wouldn't settle on time.

The deal seemed fair, albeit it somewhat distant in the future so we signed the contract and the purchaser also signed it (as a director of the limited liability company that was actually purchasing it). Thus, on the 17 August 2007 everything was signed by both sides, and the deposit was paid into the agent's trust account.

It took over a week, and many phone calls for us to obtain the deposit from JVV's trust account.

On the 16 October, we were surprised, and not in a nice way, to receive a request from the purchaser, via our solicitor, asking for an extension of the settlement date to 14 December. The purchaser wanted to delay settlement by one month. With little information to go on, we declined the extension.

We were now on tenterhooks, as to whether the purchaser would settle on time. Nevertheless, we continued our own search for a new property to purchase. As an aside, we've found a lovely place that was due to go to auction a week or so after the planned (original) settlement date of the 15 November 2007.

Two days before the settlement, I received a call from the agent JVV. He explained that the purchaser was a builder and was in some difficulty. The purchaser had placed three properties on the market (two apartments he had built in Remuera, plus his own home). According to JVV the two apartments were each worth over $1 million and the house was worth about $2 million. The purchaser had expected at least one of the properties to settle by the time he needed to settle with us; but that had not happened. He had sold one of the properties, but he was not due to settle on that property until mid-January. So, could the purchaser have an extension until then. In consideration, JVV said the purchaser would pay an extra $20k deposit. I suggested that in such a case, the purchaser should be able to get a bridging loan from the bank, rather than get an extension for the settlement date. JVV explained that the purchaser had exhausted his line of credit and couldn't possibly get a bridging loan to complete the sale. He also said that the purchaser had indicated that he was 85% certain that he couldn't settle on the agreed date.

We agreed in principal, but said we would need to see contract for the sale of the property that the purchaser was using to fund the purchase of our section. We also said that whilst we wouldn't contractually tie the two property deals, settlement on our property should be close to the settlement of the purchasers other property that he was selling.

In the meantime Lisa and I did a little digging. Rather than a builder, the purchaser seemed to be a well-known property developer. He had been a director (often the only director and shareholder) of about 55 companies. Furthermore, he was in the process liquidating about 15 of them at the present time. Indeed, several of those liquidations had begun only after we had signed the contract to sell our little section. One company may have been liquidated by the IRD several years before, but it looked as if all the others were voluntary liquidations. Most (if not all) of the liquidations were handled by the same trustee. The weekend before, the purchaser had been mentioned in an article in the Herald linking him to a high profile sale of a $21 million dollar property.

On the afternoon of the 14 November, I got a call from JVV. The purchaser will do an electronic transfer of the money to our account. I point out that there is no variation agreement yet, and that we haven't agreed a date nor have I seen the contract for the sale of the other property of the purchaser. JVV says, let's say the 29 January, "that way the solicitors have time to get back from holiday". I point out that a) I haven't seen the contract, and b) the date should be dependant on the date of settlement of the other contract.

So, it's the day before settlement. JVV has said he is transferring the $20k in to our bank account. There is no agreement yet as to the new settlement date and there has been no agreement as to the variation to the contract. Nor have we seen the contract that shows there is another property being sold in January.

If we go ahead, the purchaser would have had the benefit of sitting on at least $600k for about five months. What would you do?

On aethestics
I met with Amit Chand yesterday. He is a former MGMT 301 student. Since then he has worked with Unilever in Australia and with Telecom New Zealand (in New Zealand). Anyway, he starts work in a few weeks time at McKinsey. He will start his training in Chicago, but will return to--and be based--here in New Zealand.

Over coffee, we talked on to the topic of the disinterest--i.e. not pushing a particular agenda--of consultants. In summary, I asserted that whilst the consultant may be (should be/likely to be?) disinterested, the nature of consultants results in the 'solution' the present will come from a particular set of solutions. Specifically, the practices (Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 2001; Turner, 1994) they draw upon bounds the type of solutions offered to the client.

For example, a consultant/consultancy where economics practices loom large is likely to produce a solution that accommodates those type of practices. In this way, the 'biography' of a person shapes the solution. I don't think I want to go into the agent-structure debate here, so I won't dwell any further on that point.

Amit then asked me a very interesting question; "What shapes your solutions?"

Without thinking, I immediately said "For me, the elegance of the solution is important." Thus, finding a solution is an exercise in good judgement. This may be a folktale, but when asked "What is good taste?", the Queen responded, "I'm not sure, but it is important to have it."

I think elegance, is related to aesthetics (which takes me back to work and discussions I had with David Barry). As I write this now, and as I think back, what strikes me is the strong relationship between practice (and those who write about it) and aesthetics. Perhaps, at the EGOS conference next year, I'll catch up with Daved/David and explore this in more detail.

References

I've just come across Saku Mantere's blog, and I'm left wondering How does he do it?

He put's so much effort into his writing and research, and yet he manages to be so productive in other areas of his life (music, watches, astronomy, and so on).

Maybe I should stop being a lazy so-and-so, and just get on with things. Which is a timely thought as Giles Burch presented me with my NEO reports today.

For those who might be interested here are the edited highlights...

Problem solving skills
Ability to organise thoughts ... typical of the average person ...
Open-mindedness and originality ... curious and inquisitive you are usually comfortable in exploring new ideas and inventive solutions ...
Confidence in problem solving ... [you] proceed confidently through problems with only an occasional doubt ...

Planning, organising, and implementing skills
Action orientation ... easy going and slower to become frustrated than most ... often bored with the familiar and routine ... adventurous and versatile ... often involved in a wide variety of activities ... Some will see you as disinterested ... a realist who makes decisions based on logic rather than emotional appeal ... little sympathy for those who are unwilling to try .. Usually enthusiastic
Conscientiousness ... as competent and sensible as most people ...you are too easily discouraged and often quit trying much sooner than will the typical person¹ ...
Openness to possibilities and alternatives ... You are intellectually curious about a wide variety of topics ... somewhat idealistic.

Style of relating to others
Outgoingness ... on the reserved side .. somewhat detached ... more of a loner than a people person ... you like to be in control
Accommodation ... typically modest ... more results orientated than compassionate under most circumstances
Trust .. midway between skeptism and trust
Quality of relationships ... open-minded and tolerant of the views of others

Personal style
Level of emotionality ... typical ...
Patterns of emotion ... neither great concern nor optimism about the future ... seldom angry ... you retain a clarity of thought and action under stress and difficulty
Control of emotions ... typically procrastinate starting tasks ... [You] balance prudent deliberation with quick action
Outlook on life ... willing to question the way things are ... while you enjoy some art forms, you are unlikely to be artistically sophisticated ... you tend to view the glass as half full

Looking at the individual factors what stands out. On the big-five I am:

• Low on emotional reactions,
• Average on interpersonal patterns,
• High on openness to change,
• Average on agreeableness, and work ethic.

However, the individual facets tell a more wide-ranging story. I am:

• Very low on frustration/quickness to anger
• Low on sensitivity to stress, warmth, and outgoingness
• High on assertiveness, excitement seeking, and positive emotions, imagination, willingness to experiment, intellectual curiosity, tolerance for diversity.
• Very low in candour (I play my cards close to my chest), and sympathy. The full clinical report may well tell a different type of story.
• Low on need to achieve, and deliberateness
• Very low on self discipline¹

Anyway, I think this is good picture of me. Some (Giles) will be interested in what I haven't mentioned here.

¹ This is a bit of a surprise--the NEO doesn't seem to have picked up on my tendency to be somewhat mono-maniacal and focused. Maybe it's a reflection of the hole I feel I'm in at the moment with my PhD.

Of late, I've been reading a number of things by Theodore Schatzki. In particular, I have just finished reading:

Schatzki, T. R. (2002). The site of the social: A philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park: PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

I am continually struck by the subtle, but important, differences in the use of language in difference 'genres' of academic writing. This fact will come as no surprise to those who study discourse.

Schatzki, has a propensity to use two words that I rarely come across in my usual reading. He likes qua and pace.

Qua:
In so far as; as; in the capacity of
Example:
When considering people qua strategists, one needs to distinguish 'strategic practices'.

Pace
With due deference to; despite
Example:
Pace, those who study discourse, discourse is just another practice.

I wonder how pretentious it would be to use those words in my own writing -- after all they aren't really part of my 'genre'.

Chintaka put me on to Going Private. He rate's this as the best blog on Private Equity. It certainly is worth a read.

In my quest to sort out what I think might be international bandwidth limitations, I've been passed on to level-2 support (whatever that is).

Anyway, in case I forget their number it is 0800 55 2000

I notice that in Orcon's Terms and Conditions for broadband, there is a paragraph that says:

6.1 You acknowledge that any claims made about speed of service are best effort peaks and not guarantees. Speed claims are line speeds only and no guarantees are made for national and international traffic, or any particular type of traffic.

For sometime, I have been experiencing significant 'slow-downs' at peak periods for international traffic. For example, most of the time for national traffic I get about 4,000kbs downstream and 500kbs upstream (I'm on their max/max plan, so that seems reasonable).

At off-peak, I get similar speeds (using SpeedTest) to Australia and the US.

Alas, at peak times, my downstream speed is often lower than my upstream speed (i.e. less than 400kbs). In other words, I'm getting at least a 90% reduction in speed.

I've been talking to Orcon for sometime about this, and I'm not sure I'm making progress. They seem to be taking the line about there being "no guarantees are made for national and international traffic".

However, what they don't seem to be talking about their "best efforts" at all.

My feeling is that a 90% reduction is well beyond what might reasonably be expected--on any plan, let alone a max/max plan--and there is little evidence of them using their best efforts.

Oh well, we'll see how this plays out.

This evening Lisa and I went to a diner party hosted by Giles Burch and Catherine. It was a most enjoyable evening.

Giles' parents were at the dinner too. As always, they were very convivial company. Afterward, I thought I would Google his father as he has a number of achievements to his name -- but I came up somewhat empty. I wonder if his generation is the last generation whose past won't be written indelibly on the web.

Lisa and I went to see The Pillowman tonight.

It was marvellous. We both enjoy a black comedy and this was very black and very fun. The crucification scene was particularly well done--and particularly harrowing. Hat's off to Brooke Williams for a great performance.

I also thought that Jonathan Hardy was very drole as the policeman Tupolski.

All in all, I recommend this play.

Some time ago, I played around with Django. Having spent far too much time with writing my own blogging platform, I gave up. In some ways, this was because I couldn't get Django working on my current host. However, today, I spent a little time getting Django working at A2 Hosting, and this is how I did it.

(A big thanks to Jeff Croft and Seamusc -- they laid out pretty much what needed to be done)

First of all I set up www2.petersmith.org (which is basically a sub-directory on my host). Let's call the directory $DJHOST/www2

Into $DJHOST/ww2 went .htaccess

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(cgi-bin/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(media/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(admin_media/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(dj\.cgi/.*)$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cgi-bin/dj.cgi/$1 [QSA,L]

I had enless problems, which I eventually traced back to the AddHandler line shown above

Next, I created a cgi directory, i.e.

mkdir $DJHOST/www2/cgi-bin 

and in cgi-bin went dj.cgi

##!/usr/local/bin/python
# encoding: utf-8
"""
django.cgi

A simple cgi script which uses the django WSGI to serve requests.

Code copy/pasted from PEP-0333 and then tweaked to serve django.
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0333/#the-server-gateway-side

This script assumes django is on your sys.path, and that your site code is at
/home/mycode/mysite. Copy this script into your cgi-bin directory (or do
whatever you need to to make a cgi script executable on your system), and then
update the paths at the bottom of this file to suit your site.

This is probably the slowest way to serve django pages, as the python
interpreter, the django code-base and your site code has to be loaded every
time a request is served. FCGI and mod_python solve this problem, use them if
you can.

In order to speed things up it may be worth experimenting with running
uncompressed zips on the sys.path for django and the site code, as this can be
(theorectically) faster. See PEP-0273 (specifically Benchmarks).
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0273/

Make sure all python files are compiled in your code base. See
http://docs.python.org/lib/module-compileall.html

"""

import os, sys
# insert a sys.path.append("whatever") in here if django is not
# on your sys.path.
sys.path.append("/home/psmi045/public_html/www2/django")
sys.path.append("/home/psmi045/public_html/www2/psc")
sys.path.append("/home/psmi045/public_html/www2")
import django.core.handlers.wsgi

def run_with_cgi(application):

    environ                      = dict(os.environ.items())
    environ['wsgi.input']        = sys.stdin
    environ['wsgi.errors']       = sys.stderr
    environ['wsgi.version']      = (1,0)
    environ['wsgi.multithread']  = False
    environ['wsgi.multiprocess'] = True
    environ['wsgi.run_once']     = True

    if environ.get('HTTPS','off') in ('on','1'):
        environ['wsgi.url_scheme'] = 'https'
    else:
        environ['wsgi.url_scheme'] = 'http'

    headers_set  = []
    headers_sent = []

    def write(data):
        if not headers_set:
             raise AssertionError("write() before start_response()")

        elif not headers_sent:
             # Before the first output, send the stored headers
             status, response_headers = headers_sent[:] = headers_set
             sys.stdout.write('Status: %s\r\n' % status)
             for header in response_headers:
                 sys.stdout.write('%s: %s\r\n' % header)
             sys.stdout.write('\r\n')

        sys.stdout.write(data)
        sys.stdout.flush()

    def start_response(status,response_headers,exc_info=None):
        if exc_info:
            try:
                if headers_sent:
                    # Re-raise original exception if headers sent
                    raise exc_info[0], exc_info[1], exc_info[2]
            finally:
                exc_info = None     # avoid dangling circular ref
        elif headers_set:
            raise AssertionError("Headers already set!")

        headers_set[:] = [status,response_headers]
        return write

    result = application(environ, start_response)
    try:
        for data in result:
            if data:    # don't send headers until body appears
                write(data)
        if not headers_sent:
            write('')   # send headers now if body was empty
    finally:
        if hasattr(result,'close'):
            result.close()



Change this to the directory above your site code.

os.chdir("/home/psmi045/public_html/www2")
Change mysite to the name of your site package

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'psc.settings'

run_with_cgi(django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler())

And that's pretty much it. The rest was a matter of following Jeff's instructions. Well amost it. Alas, A2 Hosting has several versions of Python lying around and not all of them have the necessary libraries; when I was using /usr/bin/python the MySQLdb module wouldn't load. But that was fixed by moving to /usr/local/bin/python.

This sounds like a fun course:

The past decade has seen a convergence of social and technological networks, with systems such as the World Wide Web characterized by the interplay between rich information content, the millions of individuals and organizations who create it, and the technology that supports it. This course covers recent research on the structure and analysis of such networks, and on models that abstract their basic properties. Topics include combinatorial and probabilistic techniques for link analysis, centralized and decentralized search algorithms, network models based on random graphs, and connections with work in the social sciences.

Enjoy this at Cornell

I see my brother now has his website up and working. It's called askBillSmith.com. I really like his logo (and the t-shirts look great too).

I note that, according to the BBC.

The British Army's emergency operation in Northern Ireland comes to an end at midnight on Tuesday [tonight] after 38 years.

Operation Banner, as it was called, was the longest in the Army's history.

No doubt, there will be much rejoicing in many quarters and the end of the need for military support for what were called the troubles.

That reminds me, I went to Beijing in 1994 and our Chinese guide would use the phrase "and something happened" when talking (on not talking) about protests and deaths that occurred in Tiananmen Square.

At the time I found the use of the expression "and something happened" somewhat obtuse. But, in hindsight, the 'sensibility' of saying "and something happened" is no more strange than calling what went on in Northern Ireland "the troubles".

I have some fun working out my genealogy. So far, I'm back to about 1812. But after that date it gets a little tricky.

The problem is that census data pre-1841 isn't very helpful (genealogically speaking), and prior to 1937 the birth, marriages, deaths indexes weren't centralised.

So, if I'm to go any further back, I'll need to get creative.

I've spent a happy few hours this weekend putting together a website for Team Cru Vin Dogs. It's been a nice distraction from writing (my PhD thesis).

The design work was done by Grant Hunter at Hunter Creative, and I assembled the plumbing using:

• Drupal as the CMS
• A2 as the hosting company
• Network Solutions for the domain name

It will be interesting to see how much financial support for Mobility Dogs will be generated; after all that is the main purpose of the Team Cru Vin Dogs site.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of Cru Vin Dogs who are funding the racing team.

From time to time, I find myself using some words too frequently. When this happens I turn to Word's thesaurus (good old F7).

Today, I unleashed the awesome power of Micro$oft on 'broad', and was rewarded with:

Minor road, byroad side street, lane

WTF? Then Lisa points out, I'm using the English thesaurus, and Word thinks I'm talking about a B-road (as opposed to main, or A-roads, such as the A1). What is odd, is that it doesn't list all the other meanings of broad.

Switching to the US thesaurus gives me more of what I expected.

Now, I wonder what the mechanism is to let Micro$oft know of this feature -- or will it remain forever causing English writers to say Doh!

Sometime ago, Jeremy Zawodny published a piece entitled Desktop Tower Defense Considered Harmful

Well he is right.

Desk Tower Defence is a very addictive flash based game. I've finally given up. I never cracked 8000 points, but I did get over 7000. Playing the 'challenge' games, I got hooked on the 'one hundred', but I've never gotten past level 77. Anyway, as the voice at the end of each game says "Right, I better do some work then"

Well it is only a couple of weeks now until I leave for the EGOS conference in Vienna. So, this week I plan to download and print all of the articles for the Strategizing: Activity and Practice stream (i.e. Strategy-as-practice).

Unlike many conferences, EGOS has streams which participants are expected to stay with. There is no moving around because so-and-so is giving a paper in a different stream. There are great advantages to the EGOS approach. The two most important ones is that it does foster a strong sense of community in the stream, and secondly it increases the intensity of what goes on in the stream -- after 30+ papers, one can't help be very involved in the topics.

I'll use this conference as a chance to polish off my literature review on the subject, and to catch up with colleagues who I rarely get to see.

(Oh, having said I'll print the articles, I will read them too, but I'll save that for next week).

At yesterday's PhD Club meeting, Barbara Grant from the Academic Practice Group of the Centre for Academic Development came along to talk about Embedding writing in the PhD process. Many people know Barbara; she runs a number of writing retreats (for women) and she has a great 'rep' for helping people with their writing.

One techniques she talked about was fast writing. In fast writing one writes, non-stop, for about 10 minutes. One doesn't worry about the typos or getting the words right. It is just a matter of getting the words out on to paper (or as in this case on to the screen).

This blog entry started as a piece of fast writing -- although I did go back and tidy it up a little (but not too much).

The purpose of fast writing is too fold, firstly and perhaps most importantly, it gets one more practised in the writing process. To of tern we spend time worrying about "is that word the right/best one", or "what am I really trying to say". And when we do that that, we don't actually put anything down on paper-- we simply tinker with what's on the screen/paper.So, fast writing gets one to actually start producing content. As a side effect, sometimes one will be surprised by the insights that come out during fast writing - when one is really thinking about the material and not about the get the expression "just right".

Secondly, fast writing does what? I'm not sure what the second thing is. I could go back and refer to my notes, but then I'd have to stop writing; and writing is what its about. Ah yes. That's it. Fast writing gets you to keep on going, to get past the blockages that come up (rather like the one here -- which wasn't a pre-considered example, it really happened).

So, given the advantages of fast writing, Barbara recommends that is becomes part of ones practice as an academic. She says, that one should try and do five sessions of fast writing each week (i.e. one each working day). Mentally, I had to laugh at that -- I don't know any of my fellow PhD candidates who limit their work to the five-day working week.

Having said that, my supervisor, Peter Boxall, is there keen that his PhD students (such as myself) do find a healthy work-life balance.

Anyway, my 10 minutes of fast writing up so, I'm endding here, and go back and tidy up this entry.

I was tracking down some information on methodology (in particular the work of J-C Spender when I came across his web site.

It put me on to a good Org. Theory site, called (unsurprisingly) OrgTheory

Anyway, going back to John-Christopher, one of his best works is:

Spender, J.-C. (1989). Industry recipes: An enquiry into the nature and sources of managerial judgement. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.

This book is no longer in print, but JC is distributing from his web site. It's an absolute classic, so if you don't have a copy download one. What I didn't know is that the book was based on his PhD thesis — That must of been one outstanding thesis.

I see that Colin Campbell-Hunt has something new in Human Relations. The full details are:

Campbell-Hunt, C. (2007). Complexity in practice. Human Relations, 60(5), 793-823.

The abstract says:

Theories of social practice point to a wide domain of largely tacit social accommodations as the source from which the dynamic structures of social practices are sedimented. The strategy-as-practice initiative seeks to use these insights to widen our appreciation of the origins and evolution of strategy in organizations. This article suggests that this domain, and its components, can be substantively and literally represented as a complex adaptive system. Complexity gives access to a considerable body of theory on the emergent orders that may arise from social practice, and on the evolution of social order over time. These carry important implications for the scope of practitioners' agency in leading strategic change, for the locus of strategy in organizations, and for the design of research strategies to investigate these complex phenomena.

I wonder if this came out of the workshop at the 2005 ANZAM conference that he, Paula Jarzabkowski and I put on.

This year, I'm working on a paper with Liliana Erakovic and Yvon Dufour. The paper is due on the 29 June 2007, but both Liliana and I leave in the next few weeks to go to Europe for the EGOS conference in Vienna. Let's hope we have enough time to complete it.

The paper is based on some of the work coming from strategy-as-practice folk on pluralistic contexts (since that's what all three of us have in common).

We went an saw the Oscar winning The lives of others this evening. As Mark Kermode said, its good but Pan's Labyrinth is better.

Both of these films are well worth seeing.

Another three months, another check up.

Blood pressure is pretty stable at 130/85. More exercise and less eating is still needed.

Overall, a big tick from Doc Budelmann.

Quick summary then

Sometimes, one is asked to teach a new course. In such a circumstance, what is one to do. Judging by the various listservs, e.g. Management Education, the most popular thing to do is to see what others are doing when they have to teach that type of course.

Now finding that information got a little bit easier with Dan Cohen's very clever Syllabus Finder.

Dan's also a leading light in the Zotero project that adds a citation/bibliography engine to FireFox

Following on from my previous comments on the Official Cash Rate it occurs to me that the people making serious money at the moment are those who are able to tap into the great engine of arbitrage that this behind the housing boom.

Anyone who can "clip the ticket", particularly Banks and Real Estate Agents must be making a bundle. One, only needs to look at the number of Aston Martins being driven round Auckland to realise how well some people are doing out of this boom.

There is a general expectation that Allan Bollard, the Governor of the Reserve Bank will act today by raising the Official Cash Rate (OCR) in order to slow the economy. In particular he is expected to want to slow the booming housing market.

Whilst the economics of the situation might be obvious, what many have ignored is the business imperative that almost entirely negates Bollard's control of the housing market. In other words, the official cash rate is largely de-coupled from the housing market.

As you probably know I am not an economist, so let me explain the business issue here.

The Reserve Bank acts to control inflation by controlling the Official Cash Rate. This has resulted in interest rates in new Zealand that are significantly higher that many other countries. E.g. Right now, the offical cash rates from Interest.co.nz are:

NZ = 7.25%
AUS - 6.25%
USA = 5.25%
UK = 5.25%
Canada = 4.25%
Norway = 3.75%
Japan = 0.5%

There is quiet a spread, and the big the spread the more opportunity for arbitrage. And business, is all about arbitrage; buying in one market and selling in another. So, the bigger the gap, the bigger the business opportunity.

In my mind, what is happening is that the banks are borrowing in low interest rate countries and using that money to lend to Kiwi homeowners, making somewhere between 1% - 7% on the deal. It's easy money.

Of course there is exchange risk, but that can, and is being managed.

Consequently, the big banks don't really need to work about the OCR when it comes to mortgages. Indeed, I predicate that it is possible and likely that the OCR could actually be higher than mortgage rate - just look how slim the the margins are between the OCR and the typical fixed rate mortgage. It can be less than 1% and if the OCR goes up today, it will be less than 0.5% for some lenders.

But that doesn't matter. As I said, the banks can still make money from the deal because they are borrowing overseas. So, whilst they can still make money out of the deal, they will.

No doubt some will argue that the OCR can be used to change consumer sentiment, and that is true. But, is it working in the housing market -- apparently not.

So, what is Allan Bollard to do. Well, the proposed levy on mortgages could be effective, but such a move is likely to guarantee that whichever government supported it be voted out at the next election.

This all means that Allan Bollard is in a now win situation when it comes to mortgage rates...

I've mentioned elsewhere Emirbayer & Minche's great article on agency. In that article they refer to projects of action, and in particular an piece by Alfred Schutz, namely:

Schutz, A. (1962). Choosing among projects of action. In M. A. Natanson (Ed.), Collected papers: Volume 1, The problem of social reality (pp. 67-98). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

Here are my notes from that chapter

1. The concept of action

2. The time structure of the project

3. In-order-to and because motive

4. Fancying and projecting

5. The foundation of practicability
a) The world as taken for granted
b) The biographically determined situation

6. Doubting and questioning

7. The problematic and open possibilities according to Husserl

8. Choosing among objects within reach

9. Choosing among projects

10. Bergson's theory of choice

11. Leibniz's theory of volition

12. The problem of weight

13. Summary and conclusion

My comments

In moving this site to its new host at A2, I set up Movable Type slightly differently. This meant that many of my old links into and out of the site didn't work any more.

So, I've spent a little time setting up some mod_rewrite rules (Thanks Mike) and tweaking the configuration.

So, hopefully there will be no more 404 Page Not Found errors.

As part of Spark, we had a brief seminar from Tony Seba today. He was presenting his research (that turned into his book Winners take all: The 9 fundamental rules of high tech strategy. He is a very suave and compelling speaker.

Here's a summary of the his main points

• Rule 1: Feel The Pain. Then Develop Your Product
• Rule 2: Focus, Win, Grow, Repeat
• Rule 3: Add Value Not Features
• Rule 4: Have a Story. Communicate Clearly
• Rule 5: It's a Risky World. Sell Confidence!
• Rule 6: Convert Champions Not Deals
• Rule 7: Choose The Right Partners. Manage Them with Clarity
• Rule 8: Design Products and Services That Are Easy to Adopt
• Rule 9: You're Doing Well. Congratulations. Now Change or Die.

Even in this rather terse format, there are a lot of lessons to be learnt (especially with number 3 for Chinataka).

I've spent a little time today updating the help on BadDog with some help infromation .... oh well it is a start.

I seem to have spent msot of the weekend working on the paperwork for our upcoming AMBA review. I've been sending versions of our self-report document backwards and forwards to Sue Laurenson

It really is a time consuming process, but it is really helpful to take stock of the MBA programme this way. It reminds me of what Sarah Kennedy of Healtheries was saying at the MBA Business Breakfast last Wednesday. Talking to the MBA students she talked about how Healtheries had been put up for sale and had to go through vendor diligence. As part of that process they were reviewed by PWC and found the process very helpful in highlighting some of the gradual changes that might have otherwise been unnoticed.

Anyway, for me, and I hope for our MBA programme the AMBA self-review has been very useful.

We went and saw Cirque du Soleil. Actually, there were quite a few of us from the University who went. It's nice to get out as a bit of a group.

What did I enjoy the most -- the people on the swings at the end. I do enjoy flying through the air myself, and I'd really like to try those swings.

Lisa asked if anyone has written a case on Cirque du Soliel. I'm aware of one in:

De Wit, B., & Meyer, R. (1998). Strategy process, content, context: An international perspective (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Thompson Learning.

and I think Yvon Dufour (who is about to join the Business School) has also worked with them.

I'm a little old fashioned. Aside from keeping up with things using RSS, I also subscribe to a number of mailing lists. One of them mentioned a book, namely:

Clawson, J. G., & Haskins, M. E. (2006). Teaching management: A field guide for professors, corporate trainers and consultants. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

What a great read. This has to be one of the best (and most practical) books on teaching I've read. There will be a lot I take back to teaching (when I get back into the classroom in 2008).

On the JISC Plagiarism mailing list, I came across an interesting article at Slate.Com by Meghan O'Rourke.

Not wishing to step on anyones' copyright, I haven't reproduced the article here; rather here is a quote from the opening of the article to get you interested enough to visit Slate.

We may know pornography when we see it, but the same can't be said of plagiarism. Ever since it was revealed last month that several passages in Ian McEwan's Atonement closely resemble sections of Lucilla Andrews' World War II memoir, No Time For Romance, critics have debated whether the similarities constitute wholesale "plagiarism" or mere literary "discourtesy." The one thing everyone does agree on, apparently, is the necessity of policing plagiarism, whatever it may be. A partial list of authors recently accused (rightly or wrongly) includes Dan Brown, Yann Martel, Kaavya Viswanathan, J.K. Rowling, playwright Bryony Lavery, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose, and Alan Dershowitz. In an op-ed in early 2003, Condoleezza Rice even cited Saddam Hussein's habitual plagiarism as evidence of the leader's fundamental treachery.

Anyway, the article is a good read - I commend it to you.

For several years I've played a freindly game of squash with my brother every weekend. His children (Mac, Oscar, and Stevie) come along and play too (to a greater or smaller extent based on thier ages).

This week, for a change, I had a game with Lincoln Kyne. He is one of the MBA students. I was roundly thrashed. FIve games to nil, and I rarely got passed 3 points. I think it highlights:

• My general lack of fitness,
• A certain malaise from playing the same person, and
• Linconln's skill and energy.

Well I hope to have a few more games with him, and hopefully I be able to give him a better fight.

Nevertheless, it was good fun (but I bet I ache tomorrow).

It occurs to me that that in any research there are three elements to the process, namely:

• The question
• The data
• The answer

Any one of these elements can be used to drive the research process. Of course all three elements have to be present in any successful research project. But, one element is the driver; one element is the point of departure for the researcher's activities.

Traditionally, and firstly, there is the approach that is question driven. This question centric approach can be characterised as "Given everything I know about X what unresolved questions remain?". The question centric approach is typical of many idealised approaches to research--as seen in theses, journal articles, and in many textbooks on research. Classically, the question centric approach is drive by a question (hypothesis) that arises out of the literature. The researcher, having come to terms with a body of literature is left wondering about a particular curiosity. I.e. why is related diversification generally more successful than unrelated diversification? From here, the researcher collects the data to test/prove/investigate the question, and come to some answer. The pathway in the question centric approach is: question -> data collection -> answer.

The second approach is data driven. It can be characterised as "Given all of this data [that I have to hand], what question(s) can be answered?" This is often an approach orientated to wards convenience and is much beloved of students and those new to research. In this approach, when confronted with requirement to do research, the researcher's point of departure is "To what data can I easily gain access?" or "What data do I already have?" For example, possibly having spent a lot of time collecting data for another project the research begins to wonder what else the data might reveal. This approach is often associated with poorly enacted or open-ended qualitative research, where the original research question wasn't tightly defined and data collection went ahead because it was possible/practical to so do, rather than because there was a clear need for the data. Here the pathway is typically: data -> question -> answer.

The final approach, the know it approach, is answer driven. This approach can charactered as "I know X to be true, what do I have to do in order to prove it". The researcher, having been immersed in the literature (or more likely) embedded in the field comes to realise (or assert) that a particular thing is true and that no-one has done much (any) work on it. The researcher then works backwards, from the answer, to the data, then thence to the question (which they ground in the literature). Having the answer in mind, they begin collecting data to prove¹ their contention. They will then ground the question (and ultimately the data and the question) in the appropriate literature. Thus the pathway in this approach is: answer -> data -> question.

The question I will leave you with is, which approach is best/most effective/most efficient?

¹ Of course, the researcher who is scientifically orientated will be a good falsificationist, and will be looking for evidence to disprove the assertion.