從亞洲金融危機看現在

最近正在很用力的研究亞洲金融風暴與亞洲經濟體制與亞洲企業經營模式的關係
理論有很多, 各派說法也都不一樣
除了喜歡唱反調克魯曼之外大致都很明顯的指出亞洲的崛起
甚至TED裡面有個演講者用150年統計的數據大膽預測中國國民所得追上西方國家的時間就在2048年
我相信未來機會是在亞洲的
但是我也相信與世界接軌後
要如何適應及改變是亞洲國家是否能夠繼續成長的關鍵
至少,生產力與需求的提升是讓亞洲國家穩健成長而不是泡沫的重要因素

孫震
台灣的經濟學家
覺得它的文章滿有意思
值得一讀
丟連結給大家看看
http://blog.udn.com/rong3827/3231935
http://blog.udn.com/delph168/1569071

再補充一個Foreign Policy的文章
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/think_again_asias_rise
然後critics
http://www.taiwanonline.cc/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1101
我也相信
要走進先進與富強的國家
加強社會照護與利益全民均分(而不是政治人物與大企業均分)
是國力達到富強的唯一道路

International Business Strategy

最近要寫一個Internaional business strategy的報告, 架構非常之大但是字數非常有限. lecturer講的也是不清不楚, 讓人明白身為一個consultant就是不能說的太明白, 才會讓人有需要的感覺.

總之, 又把人拉回大學剛畢業的時候, 人人心中夢想進入的顧問界. 能夠進入到那個領域的人都是牛人, 但是目前看看手中的知識累積, 好像應該多少也完成了70%. 雖然顧問界未必適合我, (畢竟一周工作80的小時真的不是正常人該有的生活) 但是訓練自己看事情和解決問題該有的頭腦和架構, 應該也是對未來職涯發展一個很好的自我鍛鍊.

以下這篇文章是對岸的人寫的很好的一篇文章, 對於要進入consulting firm的人有一個很不錯的picture. 我就當做筆記留下來. 最後面的提到的case analysis希望可以用在這次的作業裡面.

Case Interview in Point 通網諮詢的必經之路
http://www.360doc.com/content/07/0620/17/27419_569964.shtml

接著, 管理學策略學之神 Michael Porter的 business strategy教我們cost leadership, differentiation or focus 也是非常重要的concept, 在Wiki上面也可以看到:

Strategic Management
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_strategy

-------------
In sum, 整個strategy架構十分的複雜, 善用MBV, RBV, OBV 以及international and corporate condition都很重要. 沒有固定的模式分析, 只有切入的角度和確實problem sloving的關連. 共勉之

The story of how to cause Finacial Crisis

Today we just saw this vedio in the class. It's easy but clear explaination will give you basic understanding of the incident. Learn it~

文章分享 History Never Ends -- I Hate to Bother You

昨天早上我們的Tutor寄了一篇文章與我們分享

他總是提醒我們要看 flip side of things, 而且反對主流媒體 (尤其是美國) 的 propaganda

卻永遠對我們說 Don't get me wrong. 他還是永遠支持語言學習與學習商業知識

只是因為他太喜歡"人"所以無法忘懷一些道德面與被人忽視的意見

造成縱使他是MBA畢業卻有著 "Anti-Brand"的反骨

先進國家使用"3C"控制著世界, 侵蝕弱勢國家與文化

• Culture -- 從 clothes開始, Jeans, T-shirt...
• Currency -- Control the economic power
• Communication -- Language

也許我們班比較特別 (謠傳的高分群),

剛開始我也比較沒辦法接受一個Pakistani是我們的tutor

But I have to confess, he is the best. 當別人在語言學習的時候

我們學的是thought-provoking, inspiration, out-side thinking的 skill

Anyway, 先貼這文章給大家分享

來源:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23262.htm

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History Never Ends

I Hate to Bother You

By Eduardo Galeano

August 13, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- I’d like to share with you some questions--some flies that keep buzzing in my head.

Is justice right side up?

Has world justice been frozen in an upside-down position?

The shoe-thrower of Iraq, the man who hurled his shoes at Bush, was condemned to three years in prison. Doesn’t he deserve, instead, a medal?

Who is the terrorist? The hurler of shoes or their recipient? Is not the real terrorist the serial killer who, lying, fabricated the Iraq war, massacred a multitude, and legalized and ordered torture?

Who are the guilty ones--the people of Atenco, in Mexico, the indigenous Mapuches of Chile, the Kekchies of Guatemala, the landless peasants of Brazil—all being accused of the crime of terrorism for defending their right to their own land? If the earth is sacred, even if the law does not say so, aren’t its defenders sacred too?

According to Foreign Policy Magazine, Somalia is the most dangerous place in the world. But who are the pirates? The starving people who attack ships or the speculators of Wall Street who spent years attacking the world and who are now rewarded with many millions of dollars for their pains?

Why does the world reward its ransackers?

Why is justice a one-eyed blind woman? Wal-Mart, the most powerful corporation on earth, bans trade unions. McDonald's, too. Why do these corporations violate, with criminal impunity, international law? Is it because in this contemporary world of ours, work is valued as lower than trash and workers' rights are valued even less?

Who are the righteous and who are the villains? If international justice really exists, why are the powerful never judged? The masterminds of the worst butcheries are never sent to prison. Is it because it is these butchers themselves who hold the prison keys?

What makes the five nations with veto power in the United Nations inviolable? Is it of a divine origin, that veto power of theirs? Can you trust those who profit from war to guard the peace?

Is it fair that world peace is in the hands of the very five nations who are also the world’s main producers of weapons? Without implying any disrespect to the drug runners, couldn’t we refer to this arrangement as yet another example of organized crime?

Those who clamor, everywhere, for the death penalty are strangely silent about the owners of the world. Even worse, these clamorers forever complain about knife-wielding murderers, yet say nothing about missile-wielding arch-murderers.

And one asks oneself: Given that these self-righteous world owners are so enamored of killing, why pray don’t they try to aim their murderous proclivities at social injustice? Is it a just a world when, every minute, three million dollars are wasted on the military, while at the same time fifteen children perish from hunger or curable disease? Against whom is the so-called international community armed to the teeth? Against poverty or against the poor?

Why don’t the champions of capital punishment direct their ire at the values of the consumer society, values which pose a daily threat to public safety? Or doesn’t, perhaps, the constant bombardment of advertising constitute an invitation to crime? Doesn’t that bombardment numb millions and millions of unemployed or poorly paid youth, endlessly teaching them the lie that “to be = to have,” that life derives its meaning from ownership of such things as cars or brand name shoes? Own, own, they keep saying, implying that he who has nothing is, himself, nothing.

Why isn’t the death penalty applied to death itself? The world is organized in the service of death. Isn’t it true that the military industrial complex manufactures death and devours the greater part of our resources as well as a good part of our energies? Yet the owners of the world only condemn violence when it is exercised by others. To extraterrestrials, if they existed, such monopoly of violence would appear inexplicable. It likewise appears insupportable to earth dwellers who, against all the available evidence, hope for survival: we humans are the only animals who specialize in mutual extermination, and who have developed a technology of destruction that is annihilating, coincidentally, our planet and all its inhabitants.

This technology sustains itself on fear. It is the fear of enemies that justifies the squandering of resources by the military and police. And speaking about implementing the death penalty, why don’t we pass a death sentence on fear itself? Would it not behoove us to end this universal dictatorship of the professional scaremongers? The sowers of panic condemn us to loneliness, keeping solidarity outside our reach: falsely teaching us that we live in a dog-eat-dog world, that he who can must crush his fellows, that danger is lurking behind every neighbor. Watch out, they keep saying, be careful, this neighbor will steal from you, that other one will rape you, that baby carriage hides a Muslim bomb, and that woman who is watching you--that innocent-looking neighbor of yours—will surely infect you with swine flu.

In this upside-down world, they are making us afraid of even the most elementary acts of justice and common sense. When President Evo Morales started to re-build Bolivia, so that his country with its indigenous majority will no longer feel shame facing a mirror, his actions provoked panic. Morales’ challenge was indeed catastrophic from the traditional standpoint of the racist order, whose beneficiaries felt that theirs was the only possible option for Bolivia. It was Evo, they felt, who ushered in chaos and violence, and this alleged crime justified efforts to blow up national unity and break Bolivia into pieces. And when President Correa of Ecuador refused to pay the illegitimate debts of his country, the news caused terror in the financial world and Ecuador was threatened with dire punishment, for daring to set such a bad example. If the military dictatorships and roguish politicians have always been pampered by international banks, have we not already conditioned ourselves to accept it as our inevitable fate that the people must pay for the club that hits them and for the greed the plunders them?

But, have common sense and justice always been divorced from each other?

Were not common sense and justice meant to walk hand in hand, intimately linked?

Aren’t common sense, and also justice, in accord with the feminist slogan which states that if we, men, had to go through pregnancy, abortion would have been free. Why not legalize the right to have an abortion? Is it because abortion will then cease being the sole privilege of the women who can afford it and of the physicians who can charge for it?

The same thing is observed with another scandalous case of denial of justice and common sense: why aren’t drugs legal? Is this not, like abortion, a public health issue? And the very same country that counts in its population more drug addicts than any other country in the world, what moral authority does it have to condemn its drug suppliers? And why don’t the mass media, in their dedication to the war against the scourge of drugs, ever divulge that it is Afghanistan which single-handedly satisfies just about all the heroin consumed in the world? Who rules Afghanistan? Is it not militarily occupied by a messianic country which conferred upon itself the mission of saving us all?

Why aren’t drugs legalized once and for all? Is it because they provide the best pretext for military invasions, in addition to providing the juiciest profits to the large banks who, in the darkness of night, serve as money-laundering centers?

Nowadays the world is sad because fewer vehicles are sold. One of the consequences of the global crisis is a decline of the otherwise prosperous car industry. Had we some shred of common sense, a mere fragment of a sense of justice, would we not celebrate this good news?

Could anyone deny that a decline in the number of automobiles is good for nature, seeing that she will end up with a bit less poison in her veins? Could anyone deny the value of this decline in car numbers to pedestrians, seeing that fewer of them will die?

Here’s how Lewis Carroll’s queen explained to Alice how justice is dispensed in a looking-glass world:

“There’s the King’s Messenger. He’s in prison now, being punished: and the trial doesn’t begin until next Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of all.”

In El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero found that justice, like a snake, only bites barefoot people. He died of gunshot wounds, for proclaiming that in his country the dispossessed were condemned from the very start, on the day of their birth.

Couldn’t the outcome of the recent elections in El Salvador be viewed, in some ways, as a homage to Archbishop Romero and to the thousands who, like him, died fighting for right-side-up justice in this reign of injustice?

At times the narratives of History end badly, but she, History itself, never ends. When she says goodbye, she only says: I’ll be back.

Translation from Spanish for CounterPunch: Dr. Moti Nissani

Among his other achievements, in 1971, Eduardo Galeano wrote The Open Veins of Latin America and, in 1976, escaped death at the hands of CIA-financed Argentine death squads.

留學生活第一po

今天非常的忙碌...
不過總算出門了
從爸媽身邊離開這麼久
真的有點想哭的感覺

雖然限重只有20
跟check in小姐說了一下要出國
馬上他就說還可以再加, 硬是湊到了25kg
接下來塞滿的電腦背包可以不計
剩下的手提行李塞到滿, 我想我也不用再需要台灣補給了吧

到東京...總有點陌生又熟悉的感覺
在飛機上跟旁邊日本先生聊天, 很有趣
原來他也算是個鐵道迷, 特別來台灣坐普快車的 (我從來不知道這麼慢又過隧道空氣不好的火車還有人專程來坐)
而且他在電力公司上班 (很神奇, 我才知道日本的電力公司除了是私營的不說..還分了9個地區9家公司, 還有14座核能發電廠, 電費還有那種用越多越便宜的方案...)

anyway, 接下來就來到要投宿的日航 (JAL) 旅館, (無料!!)
所以現在才可以自由自在的在房間打msn
而且可以借到轉接插頭, 真是不錯
以下就是旅館的內裝

還有我最愛的免治馬桶耶~真是好的開始
其實還有發現日本人細心的地方
譬如說電梯裡面有橫檔可以給人坐著休息之類的
接著兩個日本超好朋友特地打電話進來...講到好累
希望以後都可以繼續把網誌寫下去

The second and the third offer

One day comes two!! Really thrilled!!
I think it's time for me to deeply valauate each program and decide whcih offer I should take beforehand. These two are really good offers, though, keeping waitting for the others.

1. MSc in Marketing Management - Aston University
2. MSc International Business - University of Birmingham

---------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr Chung-Ming Wang

Diploma in Marketing Management Full Time 2009/10

We thank you for applying to the MSc Postgraduate programme, you have made a wise choice! I am pleased to offer you a conditional place as a full time student at Aston Business School commencing in September 2009 to study the Diploma in Marketing Management Full Time.
This offer is conditional upon the following entry requirement(s):
~~~~
Please accept this email as your formal offer. Please note the offer letter cannot be used to obtain a student visa. When you accept your place at Aston Business School we will send you a formal letter by post which you can then use to obtain your student visa.

You have until 6 April 2009 to confirm acceptance of your offer.

Your £1000 deposit will secure your place on the course. It is fully credited against the course tuition fees and it is non-refundable except where you fail to meet any condition(s) we have set or you are unsuccessful in obtaining a visa, if one is required. For candidates who fail to meet conditions, an administration fee of £50 is retained by the university.

After that time, if we do not hear from you, the offer will lapse and the place will be re-allocated to another candidate. However, if for any reason you require additional time to respond, then please contact us before your offer expires, as we may be able to make arrangements to keep your offer open.

For non UK students there will be an orientation programmes which you must attend along with an enrolment week which is compulsory for all students to attend. Full details of the programme will be forwarded to you in due course. It is essential that you attend orientation (For non UK students or students that have not attended a university in the UK before) and enrolment.(for all students) so that we can provide you with all the necessary documentation and information, that is required for you to make a successful start to your studies at Aston Business School.


The MSc course commences on 5th October for all students, after the enrolment week.

Please note that you have been classified as an overseas student (non EU countries) for fee-paying purposes based on the information you have supplied in your application.

Tuition fees for the 2009/0 academic year are £13600.

Aston Business School is one of only twenty seven business schools worldwide to have achieved triple accreditation from EQUIS, the Association of MBAs and the North American based AACSB, ensuring our academic programmes are recognised by employers around the world. In addition to these prestigious accreditations Aston also performs consistently well in key rankings and league tables. In 2008 The Financial Times Masters in Management ranking placed Aston Masters programmes 3rd in the UK and 18th in Europe. It also ranked us number 1 in Europe for career progression and Marketing. With official top ratings of 5 for Research Quality and 24/24 for Teaching Quality, places at Aston are in great demand.

Please note we will be not be able to create an acceptance letter until we have received your passport number, this in accordance with the new passport procedures further information can be found at www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk, and all acceptance documents along with 2 passport sized photographs.

Please also note all documents will be checked and verified and any false documentation submitted will result in the offer being withdrawn and the full deposit will be retained by the university.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr Chung-Ming Wang,

We are delighted to inform you that we wish to offer you a place on the M.Sc. (Taught) International Business programme, and official confirmation with full details of the offer is being posted to you today. To accept our offer you will need to complete and return the Acceptance Form that will be included in your offer pack.

如果真的出國唸書之後

早上聽了陳文茜的分享
趕快來po一下感想
畢竟她也是我一直很敬佩的一個人
對於多領域知識的廣泛和深入的確使她成為一個非常具有魅力的一個女生
我其實也是對知識非常渴望的
但只是放空自己的時間比較多~:p
anyway, let summarize some points:

1. 年輕人要多往外走, 最好有國外的生活及工作經驗, 現在正是時候, 因為很多國家正在破產當中
2. 具有跨領域的思考能力, 最好不要只有一項專長, 可以參考大前研一的新書 π型人
3. 留學不是為了學位, 學到知識最重要, 像她自己就修了很多不相關的課好像會讓她無法畢業一樣

以上, 大概又給了我ㄧ些想法
我是跨領域的人， 目前也正走上這條路，語言是我的武器，但知識才是我的根基
就算最後國內的研究所也有考上，應該還是選擇出國吧
出國以後會想盡一切辦法看是否留在國外工作或是繼續求學
The New School 似乎是個不錯的選擇 -- 在當初二戰的時候由愛因斯坦捐助收留許多德國大師級教授的學校，在研究社會學和哲學領域上，相信可以成就這個領域的深度
不管未來會做什麼，我相信能帶給我的思考力絕對是 be different的

The Fisrt Offer

其實收到這個offer已經有一段時間了,不過因為還在等其他的學校,所以其實不算是很興奮. 不過其實對我來說應該也算是一個不錯的backup了. 學校的ranking也不算太差,前兩年的也還有到12th的位置. 算是已經妥協很多了,從當初堅持的MBA到MA or MS, 也許人生的路還會再繞但至少我覺得目前能前往UK算是個不錯的選擇(環境及匯率及歐洲旅遊種種因素的考量下). 感謝Kiku的開導讓我不再stick to MBA的迷思. 學習都是看自己吧,我想只要學校和教授不太差,其他的就是自己的積極度吧.

我還不確定自己最後會不會選擇出國,不過至少可以開始存英鎊了~~XD

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Chung-Ming Wang,

Student Reference Number :XXXXXXXX

Thank you for your application for the MA Asia Pacific Business degree here at Royal Holloway. I am pleased to tell you that we will be making you a conditional offer based on you obtaining 6.5 overall in IELTS, with 7.0 in writing. The course starts on September 21st 2009 and the mode of attendance is full-time. We will send you a confirmation letter of this offer very soon for your records.

I hope you will consider and accept our offer and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions with regards to your application or the admissions procedure here are Royal Holloway.

We would appreciate it if you would keep us up to date with any changes to your contact details, e.g. postal address, to ensure that you do not miss out on any vital information about your application.