A Tale of Two Cows...

This infographic uses two cows as a medium for explaining the various types of socio-economic systems in a fun, educational and interesting way.

http://www.howardlindzon.com/two-cows-take-your-pick/

Strategic Vision Limited

@strategicvisio

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Vertical gardens - the future of the environment

Vertical gardens could and should play a key role in modern urban planning both for its environmental and cost saving impact.

Environmental Impact

Vertical gardens can improve the air quality of and improve the environment in urban cities, including carbon sequestration, pollution filtration and by creating an habitat for animals and insects.

Cost Saving Impact

In addition to the environmental benefits living walls and green roofs can also have an impact a building's bottom line, saving thousands of pounds in reduced heating and cooling while extending the lifespan of roof membranes and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) equipment over time.

"With technology allowing those behind vertical gardens to grow bigger and better plants in the most awkward of spaces, it appears that the sky really is the limit when it comes to vertical gardens."

Below follows a few examples of how vertical gardens have been implemented in London and Milan 

A vertical garden i Milan

A vertical garden in Piccadilly, London

A vertical garden in North Greenwich, London

Sources:

Strategic Vision and Metro

Strategic Vision Limited

@strategicvisio

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Consumers Say Companies Should Do More to Solve World Problems

85% of consumers expect companies to become actively involved in solving social and environmental challenges and 72% of consumers does not think that companies are working hard enough to solve these issues.

• 44% say they'd punish irresponsible companies
• 51% of consumers say they'd reward responsible companies by choosing to buy their products
• 53% say they'd pay a 10% premium for a product produced in a responsible way

All three figures are up substantially from last year.

So doing good in the world can in addition to give the company a better image also give the company more loyal and happier customers who might be willing to pay a slightly higher price for a product produced in a more responsible way.

However, "only 20% trust companies when they communicate about their social/environmental commitments and initiatives" so 'doing good in the world' and addressing these issues needs to be more than a PR-exercise.

Source: Meaningful Brands—Havas Media launches global results

Strategic Vision Limited

@strategicvisio 

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

"A National Strategic Narrative" is an interesting and thought provoking article published by "Y",  two top-ranking members of Admiral Mike Mullen's team, the Joint Chiefs of Staff  that is likely to influence the American foreign and national policy of the 21st century.

The article argues that the United States has embraced an entirely wrong set of priorities, particularly with regard to its federal budget. The US have overreacted to Islamic extremism and pursued military solutions instead of political ones.

Y says we are underinvesting in the real sources of national power - our youth, our infrastructure and our economy. The United States sees the world through the lens of threats, while failing to understand that influence, competitiveness and innovation are the key to advancing American interests in the modern world. Y says that above all we must invest in our children. Only by educating them properly will we ensure our ability to compete in the future.

Y also argues that we need to move from an emphasis on power and control to an emphasis on strength and influence.

Y goes on to say that US shouldn't even talk about national security as they  have for the past 60 years; instead they should be talking about national prosperity and security.

Very smart stuff for the new world we are all entering but it's even more important and influential in particular, given the source. This article that is arguing that the US needs to rely less on our military has been written by the highest echelons of the Pentagon.

Mr. Y is actually two people, both top-ranking members of Admiral Mike Mullen's team, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They are Captain Wayne Porter of the U.S. Navy and Colonel Mark Mykleby of the Marine Corps. It's likely that the essay had some official sanction, which means that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or perhaps even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had seen it and did not stop its publication.

So why did the authors call themselves Mr. Y? It's a play on a seminal essay from Foreign Affairs magazine more than five decades ago. The title was "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," and it was signed simply X. The author turned out to be the American diplomat George Kennan, and the article turned out to have perhaps the greatest influence on American foreign policy in the second half of the 20th century.

It set out the policy of containment, that if the US contain the Soviet Union, countering its influence, eventually the internal contradictions of the Soviet system would trigger its collapse, and it worked.

"Mr Y", Porter and Mykleby, says the basic approach, a massive military to deter the Soviets, a quasi-imperial policy to counter Soviet influence all over the world, is still in place and is outmoded and outdated. They call their policy proposal sustainment, and they hope it just might be the policy that will carry us forward for the next 50 years.

Washington needs to make sure that the United States does not fall into the imperial trap of every other superpower in history, spending greater and greater time and money and energy stabilizing disorderly parts of the world on the periphery, while at the core its own industrial and economic might is waning.

Fixing America's fiscal problems - paring back defence spending, healthcare costs and entitlements while ensuring that corporations pay their fair share of taxes - making the economy competitive, improving the educational system, the infrastructure, dealing with immigration and outlining a serious plan for sustainable energy use are probably the best strategies for the US to stay a superpower, not going around killing a few tribal leaders in the remote valleys and hills of Afghanistan.

Strategic Vision Limited

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

How Facebook can change to bank industry and other industries.

With Facebook approaching a billion people there are lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things including developing completely new business models in areas such as banking.

Peer-to-peeer lending could be such as an area where Facebook could develop a global lending business similar to Zopa side-steping banks.

Purchasing is another area where Facebook could use the massive negotiating power of a huge network to change how people are purchasing goods and services.

In this video Thomas Power from Ecademy talks about some of these ideas and possibilities.

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Could the new iPad be a game changer for the printed press/ print industry in the same way as the iPod/iTunes changed the music industry?

iPad has the opportunity to change a whole industry and the way we consume printed media.

Content is still king but the way content is distributed and the business model for how to distribute and monetize content will definitely challenged by the introduction of iPad. Much in the same way as iPod changed the way music is consumed, purchased and distributed.

TBC

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Apple, now the largest mobile device company in the world introduced a new category of products.

The upcoming release of iPad sees a completely new way of accessing and interacting with the Internet. IPad fits in between the iPhone/iPod touch and the Laptop in Apples mobile devices product suite.

Could this be a game changer for the printed press/ print industry in the same way as the iPod/iTunes changed the music industry?

Those companies who see these new opportunities have a great opportunity to develop their business model and see new additional revenue streams to a business that has been declining for a long time.

TBC

For more information see:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ 

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Interesting video on different or opposites viewpoints
One of the most interesting opposites were the chinese doctors who got paid to keep you healthy. So they make money on keeping you healthy as opposed to the healthcare system in the west, US, Europe etc. where the money are made from sick people on medication. Enjoy!

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Haiti how can we help?

Larry King Live, CNN

2 hour fundraiser on Monday, 8pm ET

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

The leading advocate for children’s rights, active in 190 countries through country programmes and National Committees.

As part of the effort to help avert a second wave of deaths across Haiti, a DHL cargo plane carrying UNICEF water-and-sanitation supplies landed early Saturday morning in the capital, Port-au-Prince. It was the second such shipment to arrive there in 24 hours.

Water tanks and water-purification tablets were offloaded from the plane for distribution in concert with UNICEF's partners on the ground. The air shipment also contained oral rehydration salts, which can save children's lives by combating the effects of diarrhoeal dehydration. Two water-and-sanitation experts were on the flight as well.

Meanwhile, 5,000 litres of drinking water have reached residents of the coastal city of Jacmel, along with 2,500 kitchen kits for displaced families. The supplies were dispensed in coordination with the World Food Programme.

And beginning today, UNICEF and its partners will distribute 26 water bladders in badly affected areas. Haiti's main water companies are providing tanker trucks to fill the bladders, which can hold between 5,000 and 10,000 litres each.

More aid en route

Two more planes loaded with UNICEF aid for Haiti were scheduled to land this weekend in Santo Domingo, the capital of the neighbouring Dominican Republic. The planes are carrying essential medicines and shelter materials, among other needed items.

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Our colleague Winn talks about the turnaround market in this article

"It is currently proving difficult to find capital and financing, so one option is that people who are part of a turnaround, such as myself, will invest some of their own money to help save the business."

"Next year there will be a greater demand for my work. The market is going to get more competitive, so there will be the creative tension between an increase in work and more turnaround funds competing for that business. To succeed you will need either a unique selling point or to offer the client something innovative, such as a cash injection to show that you believe in the business."

"The added value also comes when, as a turnaround professional, you move on, having empowered the client to run their business successfully again on their own, thus not outstaying your welcome."

To read the full article see: click here

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Welcome to follow us on Twitter

http://twitter.com/strategicvisio

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt claims that within five years we will be consuming a 'radically different' internet, dominated by Chinese language and social media content delivered via super-fast broadband.

Google's Eric Schmidt claims the web will look radically different in five yearsSpeaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009, Schmidt outlined his vision of the future, claiming that how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age,"

He also advised brands to listen to youth consumers when drawing up their marketing strategies. "Talk to a teenager about how they consume media and remember in five years they'll be your employee," he said.

Here's an overview of Schmidt's vision:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.

2. Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.

3. Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.

4. "We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video.

5. "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."

6. "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"

7. It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Business Trends Blog

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision ask the business community:

How's your business compared to one year ago?

Click here to take part and see the results

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision now has it's own channel on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/strategicvisionltd

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

OVERHEAD COST REDUCTION

With our unique "no win - no fee" we offer businesses a guaranteed overhead costs reduction solution

• We will visit you on-site to analyze the potential savings in over 150 purchase categories (including electricity & utility costs,telephone costs, stationary, rental cars, ...)
  
• You will know exactly how much you can expect to save per year
• We will help you implement these savings by assigning you a dedicated account manager
• You will be in control if you want to switch suppliers or not
• The quality of the products remains the same
• We will do all the hard work and analysis for you
• Average saving for our customers £22.000 per site
  

If we can not identify savings of at least twice the fee we will refund the fee for you.

For more information: click here

Contact us for a free presentation. info@strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk

Outsourcing in China Today

Hong Kong-based consultant Peter Zapf talks about the risks and benefits of moving production to the mainland

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2007/sb20071015_563438.htm?link_position=link10

To read more about how we could help you develop your business and production in China click here

Strategic Vision Limited
www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk