A Simple Strategy for Success in Business

A talk by Tony Pidgley, Managing Director of Berkeley Homes at the Surrey Chambers of Commerce meeting held in Guildford on Thursday (13th May 2009).

His philosophy of having high moral and business standards shines like a beacon in this present time.

1. Moral and Business standards – leaders lead (to set the example) and others follow

2. Working to a set of indicators and not the emotion of the market – house price rise of the past several years – this was caused by house price inflation and not by good work. All bubbles crash. This has made the price of land for new developments expensive. Berkeley Homes has returned to the Home Counties after 10 years; for example: just bought a development plot for £1.7 million; this was previously purchased for £7.0 million at the top of the market.

3. Berkeley Homes have a good reputation; purchasers know of the quality and the space of their products. 4. Berkeley have a substantial cash reserve £350 million, sufficient to ride the storm and will re-start building when the conditions are right.

Opinion: The Berkeley Homes have followed these guidelines since its inception in 1976 and it is still trading very successfully indeed. It has gone through at least 3 cycles of boom and bust. This is a very simple formula for success and used in a similar manner by Warren Buffett in his management of Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffett is the world most successful investor who is worth more than US $37billion.

Can Governments be brought down by a single person (the blogger)?

1. We saw Brown’s Labour Government run into serious turbulence when the blogger “Guido Fawkes” publish an e-mail from the Prime Minister’s Office on smear stories.

2. In Malaysia, the ruling party (Barisan Nasional) of the last 50 years suffered a major loss of Parliamentary seats from a two-thirds majority to 72 seat majority in the 2008 election.

What prompted this major change?

Bloggers have been clarifying the opaqueness of the political situation which in turn has helped mobilise the opposition parties. The Government arrested one blogger – Raja Petra Kamarudin on “anti-terrorism laws” but these charges could not be justified in a court of law. It appears that Raja Petra is outside Malaysia and he blogs no more. However, other bloggers are keeping up the vigilance .

What is this New Order – the previously almighty Government being blown off course by a single person (the blogger).

This New Order being Social Media – the use of modern communication technology so that people can collect and share information. This leads to systems being open, random and supportive.

As a result, we get transparency – single persons have the power to disseminate “hidden” information so that the masses can ask the “right” questions.

Everyone has to adapt to survive as this is part of human evolution. In a Democratic system, the incumbent can be changed by voters and replaced with a new Government that has adapted to the change. For example, in the USA, Obama successfully used Social Media to raise funds and get votes in his Presidential campaign. And, Obama is still using it.

Feng Shui is a study of the space and time dimensions. It forecasts major structural changes in society including an increase in the collective power of the individual person.

Social Media – here we come.

Michael Oon

With Focus and Determination – you will Win!

On Wednesday night

The Apprentice (BBC tv episode 7): Philip Taylor did not focus on the team task set by Sir Alan Sugar as he appeared to be distracted by another person in the team. He did not sell anything and this contributed to the team losing the task. As their team lost, they had to appear before Sir Alan in the board room to explain themselves. Philip concentrated his comments on the project manager Lorraine Tighe and not on his own work. As a result, he was “fired” by Sir Alan.

Chelsea Football Club: At Stamford Bridge in the Champions League semi-final match against Barcelona, the Chelsea players were disputing a number of poor calls by the referee during the match. Some of their players were distracted by the referee’s poor calls and were not on playing to win the game. Barcelona scored the “winning” goal in injury time so Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League. In a football match, all decisions made by the referee are final, in other words, the referee’s decisions are all correct.

In both cases, Philip Taylor (The Apprentice) and Chelsea Football Club were distracted and not focussed to win. Of course, had they focussed to complete the task, they would have won!

Message: Focus your sights on the objective and you will win. If you get distracted, you will lose.

Commercial Buildings –Site Selection 1

The tale of 2 Greek Restaurants

“Location Location Location” is the mantra of many Property Experts. However, have they thought of the Feng Shui considerations?

Two Restaurants (Halapi Restaurant and Zorba Greek Restaurant) are located at either side of a parade of shops in Leinster Terrace in London.  From the standard business analysis, you would expect similar levels of business as they would have access to the same clientele. However, from the Feng Shui perspective, one restaurant has really good Feng Shui characteristics whereas the other, is poor.

Halapi Restaurant very cramped but full most nights with regulars. Such is the “pull” of the restaurant that people from many different countries make it a point to dine there whenever they are in London. As for Zorba Greek Restaurant, it has just closed its doors after many years of having poor business.

When selecting a property for business, a Feng Shui analysis will reveal whether good business can be carried out in this building or not. Let the buyer beware especially at these times of economic stringency. Had the owner of Zorba Restaurant sought Feng Shui comment, it would have not only saved him money, anguish and many years worth of time. Life would have been much more fulfilling and productive with a business in a different location.

Michael Oon; 7th May 2009

Halpati Restaurant

Zorba Greek Restaurant

Joanna Lumley – A National Treasure

The Labour Government lost a vote in the House of Commons earlier this week on the issue of the Ghurkha solders. This is the first time the incumbent has lost a vote since coming to power in 1997.

Joanna Lumley campaigned about the unfair treatment of the Ghurkha solders by the Government using traditional grassroots methods including lobbying and the press. She does not have an E-mail account and it is unlikely that modern electronic communications were used by her. Traditional communication methods work but, they take a longer time and harder work to succeed.

Well done Joanna. You are a National Treasure!

Joining the Nick and Vanessa Experience

I drove home after spending a day with Nick and Vanessa at their Social Media course at the Guildford Holiday Inn. I was mentally exhausted from the session but knew very well that I had understood the basis of Social Media. But to get any successful results from it, it was up to me to execute the necessary work.

From experience, attending relevant courses is probably the best way to learn more of that subject. However, choosing a suitable course is fraught with obstacles especially when the subject is the internet itself. How do you sort the wheat from the chaff?

I am sure spectacular offers like this have been made:

• Course list price: value US$1,000; especially for you US$50
• Mentoring: Price for life US$1,000

It is not easy as I have been “burnt” many a time. In general, before committing to any course, I have always made it a point to meet the speakers. On this occasion, I had met Nick and Vanessa at a the Guildford Ecademy club meeting which gave me the confidence that I would benefit from a workshop session that they organised.

It is now up to me to use the tools that I have learnt at this session. Want to join me on this rollercoaster ride?

Michael Oon

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