Posts Tagged ‘european’

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.

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).

Statehood in the European Union

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

This article has been in an eternal “draft” state since, well, forever- at least few months.

Actually, the title has been on my whiteboard for at least one week.

Why the wait? Because I live in Brussels, and I wanted to wait the results of the negotiations.

Euro: costs and benefits

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

An interesting, curious article on the Wall Street Journal about the 500 EUR banknotes and seignorage made me think about the headless chicken.

As no revisions to the article have been published, I assume that the information that it contains is confirmed- and I wanted to share some comments.

2015

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

First and foremost: why the title?
Since 2009 I posted few (ok- well over 100) articles.
Eventually, technologies and political options intertwined.
But each bit of technology, and each political development require a couple of interpretation keys: experience in relevant activities, and plenty of readings to update experience.
In the end, each article is semi-self-contained, as there is, [...]

An interesting case: GM policy shift in Europe

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

As I wrote before (”viral politics”), integrating XX century politics with the XXI century environment requires sometimes moving beyond the mere reaction to what happens in the “blogosphere”.

Today’s proposed decision has been considered in some quarters worth of Pontius Pilate: it has been defined by various newspapers, from Turkey to Spain and beyond, as a non-decision.

Maximizing costs, minimizing ROI

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

The title of this article is both a provocation and a simple statement of facts.

It is funny to observe as something that was often the most critical issue with startups and growing SMEs is now visible in sensibly larger organizations.

The issue? The temptation of reducing risk by spreading too thin across multiple line of activities.

In theory, this could mean having multiple “fall-back” opportunities, should one or more of the alternatives fail to deliver the expected results.

In reality, this implies that you have multiple initiatives to coordinate- a tough call, made even more difficult to manage if you are within a competitive environment, where external issues could require a constant refocus.

In this article, taking the lead from the first public speech of the European President, a “what if” story on the application of the streamlining approach to the external relations of the EU 27.

AGB2009: Bridges

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: BRIDGES

BACKGROUND

I know what some of the locals would say.

But, on an overall “helicopter view”, it is irrelevant.

ABSTRACT

Mixing change in politics and business is always a risky affair- and I am not referring to the tulip craze.

Just read the enclosed bibliography.

I might be wrong- but changing a culture requires a long-term view, that sometimes requires more real-politik and less short-term results.

Interesting times: Internet, copyright, patents

Monday, October 5th, 2009

We are heading toward interesting times but, as usual, time is the main constraint.

It is a small world- and, moving online, borders become even more irrelevant.

There are some calls to stifle innovation by creating artificial online borders- but it is akin to re-instating border controls within Schengen: a temporary, cumbersome, and annoying palliative.

AGB2009: a balancing act

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: a balancing act

BACKGROUND

In my business experience from late 1980s, I almost never saw a coherent organization- it is more a work-in-progress.

ABSTRACT

Few decades ago, the European Parliament started being directly elected by citizens.

Accordingly, a sequence of treaties and agreement gradually strengthened the European institutions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This bibliography is slightly more “technical”- nothing is worse that an uninformed discussion on the future of political or business organizations