Designing a Way Forward

The human brain and our society are programmed to build upon our pre-established building blocks. This is very helpful, because we don’t have time to reinvent the wheel for every action or task we’re required to undertake. But it also means we tend not to think creatively and look at the bigger picture. We map out where we…

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How to avoid a public relations disaster on Twitter

Anybody been following the recent tirade by a Marc Jacobs intern who somehow was given the keys to drive Daddy’s Twitter account? I can’t imagine CEO Robert Duffy would have been too impressed! Any exposure is not necessarily good exposure, and if Marc Jacobs have a “social media policy”, I suspect this fell well outside the policy guidelines.…

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Myer is not my store anymore

Myer may consider themselves to be positioned as an upmarket department store, but the customers they are trying so hard to appeal to are starting to disagree. Myer staff would only need to spend a few minutes on the floor of one of their suburban locations to sense the sentiment, but the problem is precisely that — there are no…

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KL Sentral

KL Sentral is the hub of Kuala Lumpur's transport system, making it a very convenient location from which to get to any of your destinations. It also has a number of 5 star hotels beside the Sentral Terminal/Station, and when you head West from Sentral you'll find Brickfields, which is substantially Indian (Tamil) with heaps of cheap Indian…

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Read more about the article A thoroughly culinarily disappointing New Years Day
Seafood Platter for Two

A thoroughly culinarily disappointing New Years Day

New Years Day in Jakarta is frantic, frenetic, hectic, and every other tic that denotes crowded and intense public spaces. Asians have a tendency to eat out far more than Westerners, and shopping malls in particular attract huge crowds on significant days such as New Years. In Central Park, this was further exacerbated on 1st January 2011 by…

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Fit n Fast Gyms employs creative social marketing

I like it! Fit n Fast Gyms are a new player serious about making a huge impact in the fitness/gyms marketplace — and I reckon they could have a winning marketing formula. Using a combination of Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter, they’re spreading the word through the power of personal social networks on what I imagine is a shoestring budget. Arrive…

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Is Poverty a State of Mind?

Are Australians living in poverty just as much as Filipinos? Is it not about how much money you have? During my visit to Davao City last week, I had the opportunity for several great chats with my good friend Glen Biggs, from Global Impact. One of our evening discussions involved late night coffee at an excellent, relatively new,…

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Milton Friedman got corporate Social Responsibility wrong

On my flight back from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne yesterday, I took the opportunity afforded by flying AirAsiaX (sans onboard entertainment) to read another sizeable chunk of “Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and other Economic Leaders”. I guess I’m a bit slow in getting to the literature of leading global economists but I can…

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Whirlwind trip to Philippines is over again…

The past two weeks have flown by, and although I’ve been constantly ‘on the go’ I was still unable to meet with everybody that I would like to have. I missed out on meeting with Mellany Ramos Stametalaky from Kids Hope this time around, and didn’t get to International Needs in Marikina. I didn’t see my friend Raffy…

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3 different lives in Philippines — Part 3 — the unnamed poor

When I started writing this mini-series of posts profiling different Filipinos I had a few different specific people in mind for the Part 3 feature. But in just 2 weeks I’ve encountered so many people in such a variety of circumstances, that I couldn’t decide upon just one person for this 3rd profile. In fact, I’d also encountered…

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