Latest McKinsey Global Survey: Corporate Governance

The latest global survey from McKinsey Quarterly is out and is a very interesting insight into making boards work more strategically.

The key issues the research highlighted were:

• Directors want to focus on maximising shareholder value by spending more time on long-term strategies
• Directors lack a decision making foundation. Only 45% report having good access to key company performance data and leading industry indicators
• There is also a lack of communication with less than half of the respondents having in-depth discussions with management or consider scenarios and trends when developing value creation plans
• The boards that can make a difference and influence value creation are different. They focus on the long-term strategy and have the necessary expertise as well as internal access to employees and management in order to ensure a good flow of communication

To read the report click here.
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The 101 most useful web sites

The Daily Telegraph published an article on March 30th about the 101 most useful sites on the Web, and I have to agree that there are some very interesting candidates in there. I normally pride myself on knowing what's happening in the world of the web, but even I could find some sites that I had never heard of as well as looking very useful indeed. Naturally, there are also loads of the more well-known sites like Google, Digg, Wikipedia, Lulu, BBC's iPlayer, and Football365 :-). Well... there had to be at least one site in there which I have been responsible for marketing ;-).

Have a look at the full list here. You might not agree with all of the sites, but I actually find it quite useful so two thumbs up!

Luxury house rental in Provence this Summer?

Would you like to rent a stunning 6 bedroomed house in a picturesque Provencal village this Summer? The house has 6 bedrooms all with en-suite bathroom, a large open plan kitchen/dining room, large living room, two large covered and one open terrace, a full outdoor kitchen and dining room, a very large (17 x 7.5m) swimming pool, and parking for several cars.



The house has been finished to the highest standard with Scandinavian and Italian designer furniture. The house is located on a fantastic, large parcel of land of more than 4 acres (1.7 hectares) on the outskirts of Cotignac, often mentioned as one of the most beautiful villages in France. There is easy access to a number of airports including Nice (1 hour 20 minutes); Marseille (1 hour 20 minutes); and Toulon (1 hour). The local area has numerous restaurants, wineries, golf courses, and markets as well as the world famous Gorges du Verdon (Europe's answer to the Grand Canyon) within a 45 minute drive.



Please contact me if you would like to find out more about this unique property available for rental for the first time during the Summer of 2008. Additional details, pricing and photos available on request. Please send me an email to enquire about the property.

I'm fed up with Ken Livingstone

Having lived in London for the last almost 11 years I've seen Ken Livingstone come back into power at the helm of the Greater London Authority (GLA). While there he has done everything he can do make life a misery for car owners. When the original Congestion Charge was put in place, the goal was to cut the CO2 emissions by 11%. A year later it transpired that not only had the target been achieved, but also far exceeded as the emission levels had fallen by 16%. However, instead of celebrating this fact, Mayor Ken decided to turn the thumbscrews even further by both extending the Congestion Charging Zone as well as raising the price from £5 to £8. No matter how much I've looked I have been completely unable to find any legal justification for this change. Now, with the news last month that the charge will be raised to £25 per day for drivers of vehicles which emit more than 226g of CO2 per km or were registered before March 2001 with engines above 3l, I've had enough. I don't currently drive a car that falls into the £25 band, but I still think the charge is so deeply unfair that the only people happy to see it come into effect will be the militant environmentalists and the hippies who are living off income support. For all of the families who find London expensive enough to live in already and perhaps drive a 10 year old second hand car with a 3l diesel engine they will find it almost impossible. Unfortunately, I don't believe that Porsche's lawsuit helps the matter of us drivers - had it been Peugeot or Toyota that would have been entirely different.

Personally, I believe that Ken has failed the voters who put him in office in the first place and now the time has come to boot him out on his fat bottom. Rally around and make sure you vote against Ken on May 1st.

I don't even think I have to touch on the other issues which have plagued his time in office: his blatant anti-semitism; his use (or, rather, abuse) of public funds and his support for some rather shady characters.

Thankfully it seems that I'm not alone and quite a few anti-Livingstone sites have started popping up:

• KenLivingstone.org
• The Guardian political article
• Critical article in the Daily Telegraph

Now, if we can just get more people to speak out against his hypocrisy to counter the hundreds of people that he spends taxpayer money on paying to write articles that place him in a positive light, we might actually get somewhere.

Office moves online (finally)

More than 10 years after Larry Ellison of Oracle, Scott McNealy of Sun and Bill Gates started talking about Network Appliances, thin clients, hosted software etc. Microsoft have finally made the step that we have all been awaiting for a very long time: the launch of Office Live Workspace. NMA reports that Office Live Workspace has today gone into beta and you can read more about the announcement here.

You can sign up for the beta at www.officelive.com.

BBC's new design is a hit

BBC's new design premiered last week and I have to admit that I'm very taken with it. Some people might call it boring, but I love the simplicity of it and the fact that it is so easy to find whatever you need. Naturally it also has all of the bells and whistles of Web 2.0 so you can customise it even further to suit your own needs. Once again the Beeb show that for a public service broadcaster they're most definitely at the forefront of developments.

New productivity blog ready for launch!

Just wanted to let you guys know about my new productivity blog, where there are now 7 worthwhile posts for your delectation. Please feel free to email me with your own tips on productivity or just comment on the stories already there. You can also drop me a line with some suggestions for future blog posts as the only way we can bring any real value to this new blog is through active community participation.

The latest blog posts is about "The Ultimate Guide to Productivity" a project initiated by Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog, where people from all over the world submit their single best tip on productivity for inclusion in a free eBook. I hope that you like my tip and that you'll also find some useful ideas in the article about how to make the most of your commute based on a blog post and TV interview of my good friend Christian Ørsted in Denmark.