Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

If I had the opportunity to meet Bill Gates’ father, the first question I would ask is how did you do it? What’s the secret? So it is indeed humourous to find that everyone from “reporters at Fortune to the checkout person at the local grocery store”  ask these questions of Bill Gates Sr. His response is even funnier: “Oh, it’s a secret all right … because I don’t get it either!”

Bill Gates Sr has just released a book called “Showing Up for Life“, and you can read an excerpt here in last week’s Fortune Magazine.

In this Fortune Mag article, Bill Gates Sr talks about how Bill (his family calls him Trey) started his first business before Microsoft, a company that created and marketed a piece of equipment they had developed called the Traf-O-Data, that basically analysed raw traffic data and created a graph that gave a picture of each day’s traffic flow.

Obviously Traf-O-Data was no Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Bill Gates Sr shares: “Perhaps the lesson here is that every success involves a few false starts.”

The most powerful story in the article was the reaction of Gates Sr to Trey dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft.

Gates Sr: “Perhaps there’s a lesson in this for the parents of other curious children who, from the start, require the freedom to meet life on their own terms: It is that there is no statute of limitations on the dreams you have for your children. And there is no way to predict how much delight you might feel when those dreams are realized in a far different way than you could have imagined.”

It’s a really good story. The book is coming out in the US next week. $14.96 on Amazon.com:
Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime

One day when I have kids I have to remember not to make them to go to Business School… they will have to go for language classes though

This is an amazingly heart-warming story. Susan Boyle is an unemployed 47 year old who has never been kissed before in her life. She hails from a small Scottish village – where the heck is West Lothian?  At the April 11th show of “Britain’s Got Talent” 2009 , she sang “I Dreamed A Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables”. The people were cynical when she got on stage, because she was a bit stocky and didn’t have the look of a music star. Her favourite singer is Elaine Page. People rolled their eyes and sniggered… but that was before she started singing.

She brought the stunned crowd to several standing ovations. You will see why…

As at 17 April, her youtube video had about 17 million views. The common theme everywhere I look:  never judge a book by it’s cover. This is a must-watch.

This is really funny. Catherine Tate plays an interpreter that had to stand in at the last minute because the professional didn’t turn up.  All of us hold prejudices and stereotypes, and this short video shows us some of the subconscious ones.

My apologies if you find this offensive. You know who to call to prevent yourself from getting into a similar pickle.

Charlize Theron says she wants to start taking up Spanish classes. The 33-year-old worked with Mexican director Guillermo Arriaga on “The Burning Plain”, and the moviemaker helped improve her Spanish skills by teaching her a string of swear words.

Theron says, “Of course he taught me the dirty stuff! I had this fantasy, ‘cos I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish, that I would learn Spanish before I shot the movie with him, that he would be really impressed with me, that he could direct me in Spanish but of course it never happened”

And the experience has made Theron realise that she needs to start taking Spanish language classes. She adds, “I’m really embarrassed to say that I don’t speak Spanish, I’ve lived in California for eight years and I just think it should be a prerequisite, you should be able to speak Spanish if you live in California.”

Very international this girl. South African American. Named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive in 2007. In late 2008 she was asked to be a UN messenger of peace by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.  And now she’s learning Spanish…

A while back I saw Charlize being interviewed on Letterman.

[UPDATE 13 July 09: I review Xero again 3 months post-implementation.]

[UPDATE 12 October 09: MYOB vs Xero 6 months post-implementation]

OK, I can see some of you asking what has accounting packages got to do with language and culture? Well, for starters accountants speak a different language. To understand them is no easy task. I spent some time in a Big 4 accounting firm, so I can now act as an interpreter for some of my poor business friends who have no idea what their accountants are going on about.

Anyway, I have decided to switch over from MYOB to Xero starting 1 April. Why? Especially given Xero costs $49 + GST per month, and MYOB is essentially free, after you pay the upfront cost of buying the software (much like buying MS Office and other software). Given the need to tighten spending, why spend money on paying a fixed fee forever, plus the cost of swapping over?

Accounting software by definition is pretty sticky. Business owners typically find it too cumbersome to swap. Because your staff would have to relearn a new system, and you can imagine the hassles involved with just switching say, photocopier suppliers, let alone a critical system integral to the running of the business.

Thinking of the hassles involved sends shivers down the spine of most business owners. So why did I decide to do this? For the following reasons (in no particular order):

1) Staff can access Xero from anywhere.

Right now, MYOB is hosted on a file server at the office. Major hassles because you can’t get to it from outside the office without setting up a remote connection, which is slow even with naked broadband at home. It’s a major hassle if something happens and the PC connection is lost, as I would then have to physically be at the office to fix this.

2) Instant and easy access, with no backups required

Getting into MYOB is quite a hassle. You have to look for the filename, and when you have an unfamiliar staff member, you have to explain where the file is etc. Xero is pretty intuitive. It’s idiot-proof. If you forget the site URL, you can just google it.  We don’t have to run backups and wait 15 seconds and specify a “save as” location. We also do not have to worry about backing up this information remotely anymore.

3) Interface looks pretty

This is not a key reason, but high usability and visual aesthetics are important in order to generate buy-in from staff with no accounting background. Most people panic from the moment they open MYOB because it’s not designed for non-accountants. My initial feeing is that using Xero is like playing a game. Using MYOB is like washing dishes; you don’t like it, but you have to do it.

4) Integrated with ipayroll

Makes it easier than having to make sure the accounts person import / export journals correctly.  If only ipayroll can learn some lessons from Xero and update their interface.  Ipayroll is just plain ugly, but at least it works, and it’s online. We already ditched MYOB Payroll.

5) Xero is an amazing business

They employed an “agile design and development” process to build their business. I like their story. Doubled their client base in the last 6 months. Cool!

6) I can access Xero from my Iphone.

This is a stupid reason I know, but basically with this last accounting portion now on my phone, I can pretty much access 90% of the information I need to operate the business using a phone. How cool is that?

7) Bank transactions automatically flow into Xero

It’s great because we don’t have to wait for bank statements or download them from the bank. Bank reconciliations can be performed with ease and it’s so much easier to stay on top of things.

At the cutting edge

Xero boss Rod Drury blogs about technology and implications for business eg check out his write up on provoking customers. They even have a twitter account! My bet is the senior guys at MYOB have no clue what twitter is, let alone what it does! Why is this important? You want your technology provider to know more about technology than you. Betting on the right horse increases your chances of success. You wouldn’t want your GP to not know the difference between a pharmacist and a pharmacologist.

When I find time, I will write about the transition experience from MYOB to Xero. [Jul 09 update: Xero implementation experience]

Dsclosure: I have no investment interest in Xero or MYOB. My company has been a loyal client of MYOB for years, but the time has come to switch.

[UPDATE 13 July 09: I review Xero again 3 months post-implementation.]

[UPDATE 12 October 09: MYOB vs Xero 6 months post-implementation]

The Prime Minister John Key gave this speech at the KEA World Class New Zealanders dinner two nights ago. I went along last year, but missed out on this year’s.  It’s great what KEA is doing to celebrate the success of Kiwis.  Well done Ivan. Check out PM’s  speech on youtube:

In this speech PM talks about ordering pizza on 0800 838383 for her daughter, and sitting next to Dan Carter and Joe Rockocoko on the plane, leaning over and asking for an autograph for his son.

Also recognising the contribution of ex-PM Helen Clark, being the first politician to head the UNDP.

Part Two on Kiwis travelling overseas, broadband, and other topics. He talked about his chat with the Korean PM on ultra-fast broadband, and poking fun of politicans . In this speech, John is eloquent,  passionate and funny. It’s John Key at his best as he talks about what it means to be a New Zealander. Awesome stuff.

Unfortunate that I missed out being there.