Flying high in Chang Mai

I WAS sorting through a pile of some old stuff a few weekends ago and look what I found?!

This photo was taken in Chang Mai, Thailand.

I can no longer seem to pin down the date, however. In my recollection I was attending a regional conference conducted by the IBM Software Group at the time. Cross-referencing it against my job history in my CV I am guessing that it was some time between 2001 and 2003.

Nobody knew where I was and what crazy stuff I was doing at that very moment – not my family, not my colleagues in the conference, no one.

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Good, Better, Best

good-better-best

“Good, better, best” used to have an entirely different meaning to us a decade ago. †Burt, Dyk, JB, Poms and myself coined “good, better, best” as our not-so-secret code to describe our once-in-a-bluemoon escapades. †After weeks of hard-core, geeky work we would decide to paint the town red on Pom’s trusty old Honda Civic ESi. †As you might have guessed, “good” refers to the first stage of our 3-stage adventures. †”Best” is the ultimate stage, and though we might have bragged about a lot of “bests,” the truth is we often hardly reach that stage. †Either we were already all too drunk mid-way on “better” or our cash reserves had already ran dry. Continue reading

How much is a name worth?

Image Credit:  www.neutronllc.com

Image Credit: www.neutronllc.com

OUR GREAT grandparents would contend that a family’s name is priceless. Once the family’s name is besmirched, no amount of money is enough to restore its honor. I believe that is true.

In the world of business, a name — or more precisely, a brand name — does have a price tag. Ever wondered how much value is attached to your favorite product’s brand name?

Consider this: The value of Coca-Cola’s brand accounts for an unbelievable 60% of its market capitalization! (Well, believe it!) To graphically illustrate its implication, imagine a Coke bottle. Without its brand it is effectively half empty. Of course, optimists would argue that it is half full. :->

Apparently, however, computing for a brand’s worth is not yet an exact science. The lists I’ve seen over the recent years vary widely year-on-year, though some brands have been consistently in the list.

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Here are the more recent two of these lists:

Top 10 Brands According to Research agency Millward Brown (as of 2009)

  1. Google ($100 billion)
  2. Microsoft ($76.2 B)
  3. Coca-Cola ($67.6 B)
  4. IBM ($66.6 B)
  5. McDonalds ($66.5 B)
  6. Apple ($66.1 B)
  7. China Mobile ($61.2 B)
  8. GE ($59.7 B)
  9. Vodafone ($53.7 B)
  10. Marlboro ($49.4 B)

Download Millaward Brown’s “Top 100 Brands” Report

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Top 10 Brands according to TopTenz.net (as of 2008)

  1. Google
  2. Apple
  3. Nike
  4. Target
  5. Starbucks
  6. BMW
  7. Nintendo
  8. Whole Foods Market
  9. Disney
  10. Coca-cola

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Interestingly — for me, at least — a few months back I came across this Web service that puts a value on blogs. I entered A ‘Wonderful’ Blog and it was assessed to have a value of†$3,387.24! Whoa! I was so thrilled! Of course my blog’s worth is nothing compared to some of the really popular blogs in the world.

Friendly (and a bit older) faces from a not-so-distant past

ex-acis

THERE IS something terribly wrong with this photo. †I am not on it!!!

The photo was taken on February 27, 2009 somewhere in Makati. ††I was supposed to be with the group but something urgent at work prevented me from making it. Continue reading