What a year! 2010

XXI century utilities – states

Friday, December 10th, 2010

More than one week later than expected, this third article will start not from the point where the first one ended, but some of its implications (a second article was published yesterday).

Specifically: I referred to the potential side-effects of initiatives such as the enforcement of mobile number portability and SEPA, the not-so-new-but-yet-ill-known first step toward a EU-wide unique financial space extended beyond the corporate world.

A missing piece of the puzzle is the increased need, due to obvious security concerns, to be able to share information that used to be accessible on a national level within our EU- and I enclose the recent announcement of other structural changes to increase the internal and external cohesion.

Of course, including the introduction of the normative and structural changes due to the Lisbon Treaty.

Following yesterday’s article about the downsizing of utilities, or, better, the streamlining of the supply chain from the producers to the final consumers, a jump into the future.

This article is focused on potential long-term structural changes that could produce significant direct and indirect benefits- extending way beyond our current and foreseen borders.

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XXI century utilities – downsizing

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

More than one week later than expected, this second article will start not from the point where the previous one ended, but some of its implications.

Specifically: I referred to the potential side-effects of initiatives such as the enforcement of mobile number portability and SEPA, the not-so-new-but-yet-ill-known first step toward a EU-wide unique financial space extended beyond the corporate world.

A missing piece of the puzzle is the increased need, due to obvious security concerns, to be able to share information that used to be accessible on a national level within our EU- and I enclose the recent announcement of other structural changes to increase the internal and external cohesion.

Of course, including the introduction of the normative and structural changes due to the Lisbon Treaty.

This article is focused on potential short-term changes that could produce significant direct and indirect benefits.

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Christmas 2010

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

This article was supposed to be just a follow-up on previous articles, focusing on how social and technological advances could enable new consumer-friendly services.

But tonight the attention will be focused on Wikileaks- therefore, I will chip in my pre-emptive 5 cents.

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Change and organizational continuity

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Few days ago I wrote on Facebook that I am currently reviewing books at the source of my formal knowledge on change, marketing, coaching, and the relationship between organizations and their environment (both in the private and public sector).

This article is about change- and continuity, along with resistance to change.

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Bringing utilities into the XXI century

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

At a time when consumers are asked to tighten their belt across the European Union, it is interesting to review how the XXI technology benefits are spread between industries and consumers.

I lived in Italy, UK, Belgium, and therefore I will limit my case studies to these three countries.

Anyway, thanks to the open internal market, most of the companies are actually multinational companies, whose practices extend beyond individual EU Member States.

But I will stretch my review across three decades, starting from when, in mid-1990s I finally surrendered and got a mobile phone (I waited for the GSM service), and then reviewing also other utilities.

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Of rules and watchdogs

Friday, November 19th, 2010

As today is Friday, an article with considerations on rules and consumers rights within European Union- using some personal experiences as practical examples.

Last Sunday I was watching a news show reporting on watchdogs in Italy, as I reported on Frype/Facebook few days ago.

It was quite interesting to see how it was simply a confirmation that, also when an institution is built around a purpose that is not fulfilling as originally expected, it will shift its purpose from the original one to… its own survival.

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Hegemony in an era of turmoil – Essay (July 1995)

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

In 1994 and 1995 I attended two Summer Schools on International Political Economy, the second whose official title was “The Politics of Global Finance” (albeit we agreed on a slightly more “neutral” title for the diploma, “International Political Economy”).

In July 1995 I had to prepare a short essay- and my assigned title was: “Hegemony in an Era of Turmoil” (the focus was in global finance, not on military issues).

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Hegemony in an era of turmoil – EU outline (July 1995)

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

In 1994 and 1995 I attended two Summer Schools on International Political Economy, the second whose official title was “The Politics of Global Finance” (albeit we agreed on a slightly more “neutral” title for the diploma, “International Political Economy”).

In July 1995 I had to prepare a short essay- and my assigned title was: “Hegemony in an Era of Turmoil” (the focus was in global finance, not on military issues).

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Managing the cultural heritage

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

I think that everybody heard about what happened in Pompei- just the last of a long series of cultural heritage losses due to mismanagement.

As I wrote before, I think that the Italian cultural heritage is a shared heritage- and Italy lacks the resources to manage everything: what you find inside the UNESCO list (45 sites) is just the tip of the iceberg.

But I read over the last few days too many articles talking about principles, not practicalities.

Therefore, I would like to share some considerations derived from data (on the actual costs involved in protecting cultural heritage) and experience (on project/programme and service management).

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Changing politics, the politics of change

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

As I wrote yesterday on Facebook (Rainy week-end… and mid-term elections considerations), this article is about change and resistance to change.

Why politics? Because it is something that is part of the everyday experience of each one of us.

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