Fenton Research Weblog

The impact of research

Interesting article in the March 14th edition of The Economist, discussing effective web collaboration among scientists, of their research, to aid development.

Apparently scientists are reluctant to publish their research on the web, instead preferring to track citations and paper acceptances, particularly as "these numbers can readily be put in a curriculum vitae to impress others".

The article goes on to say, "No one yet knows how to measure the impact of a blog post or the sharing of a good idea with another researcher in some collaborative web-based workspace."

Ring any bells re: measuring the value/KPI's of (in-house corporate or otherwise) research?

What women want

Apparently, women make more than 80% of discretionary purchases, in the US anyway, and as male dominated industries continue to make redundancies (manufacturing and construction for example), the share of household income and buying power that women have may increase further in the coming months.

To encourage more 'purse opening', The Economist reports that Frito-Lay, OfficeMax and McDonalds are all directly targeting the female market, with 'woman only campaigns', redesigned notebooks and file-holders (with flowers on?) and 'a new line of hot drinks (for) trendsetting women'.

The shame of Thain

An enlightening profile of John Thain, the ex chief executive of Merrill Lynch, in the March 14/15 edition of FT Weekend, asks the question "Was Thain the man in the bubble - brilliant at understanding the complex technical issues surrounding turn-of-the-century banking but deaf to the world beyond Wall Street, or even to dissenting voices in his own ranks?  And if so, was he really so different from his peers?"

So different from his peers?  How many other investment banking CEO's offices had rugs worth $87,000, sideboards costing $68,000 and curtains for $28,000 (total redecoration of $1.2mn)?!  I'm beginning to wonder...

Royal Mail

On reading an interesting article regarding the possible part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, I came across this useful source which includes competitive market reviews and quarterly updates: Postcomm (the business regulators). 

Car market in parts

The steady decline of the global car manufacturing market has been well documented.  New car registrations in the US fell by 37.1% year-on-year* in January 2009, for example.

An article in the February 21st edition of The Economist* highlights, not only the troubles for GM, Chrysler and the like, but the plight of car parts-makers, the largest manufacturing (motor and equipment manufacturers) employers in the US.  The extreme interdependency of the car part supply chain, specialisation within it and decline in new vehicle demand means financial trumoil is far further reaching than just the big Detroit Three.

Fourbucks

Did you know that, according to The Economist 21st February 2009, "blended and frozen frappuccino's earn Starbucks $2bn a year..", perhaps helping them to earn the nickname "Fourbucks"?

CiG Events 2009

The City Information Group has published its list of events for 2009.  Events are held in London with one almost every month of the year.  They are a mixutre of free and fee-paying.  Non-members can attend a maximum of 2 events without joining CiG.  Any events are subject to change:

March 12th        VIP = Valued Information Professionals:  Unlock the value that information professionals bring to businesses.  Understand how they can help enable companies to survive the current financial storm!

April 2nd           Credit Crunch: One year on

May                  Entreprenuers in the industry

June                 Open Day - personal development theme TBC

July                  Summer Quiz

August              Library visit - TBC

September        AGM

October            How good is your IT vocabulary

November         Christmas Party

December          Online Exhibition

CiG are also offering members a 'Recruit a Member' reward.  As a thank you for spreading the word about CiG, they are offering all Member recruiters a free ticket to the July Summer Quiz.  See the CiG website for more details.

Serendipity?

I recently joined Twitter and am beginning to really appreciate it's potential usefulness as a current awareness tool.

Last night I just caught the end of the Money Programme's Media Revolution: Stop Press!, describing how "newspapers are facing tough times, with advertising sales falling as a result of recession cutbacks and readers switching to online media".

And today, from BBC Business Twitter (Twitting?) and the FT, I read:

bbcbusiness Rupert Murdoch's News Corp makes a $6.4bn loss as falling advertising revenues force it to write-down assets. http://tinyurl.com/bxjp4p

financialtimes News Corp hit by $8.4bn writedown: News Corp swung to a net loss of $6.4bn in the last quarter as an $8.4bn non-.. http://tinyurl.com/dgfcxs

Very useful indeed!

The library of the future?

What and who are the library and librarians of the future?  Read my review of the recent Internet Librarian International event in the February edition of FUMSI.

Understanding your client

Following on from my 'Things to watch' blog, have you seen Million Dollar Traders on BBC?

Fascinating though it is watching trading novices attempt to play the market, the real-life examples of how industry, sector, economic, political etc etc news and information is used to influence an apparently unrelated market movement (e.g. an earthquake triggering the buying/selling of X stocks) are a gift to us information professionals compiling 'seeing the bigger picture' type training materials.

See my past presentations of why understanding your client includes understanding their bigger picture.