SURPRISE, SURPRISE
In a research finding that will surprise absolutely nobody, an exhaustive study has concluded that the key to gaining promotion is - wait for it - getting on with the boss. The survey of more than 1500 firms in Britain, the US, China, Brazil, Germany, France and Australia was
commissioned by Futurestep, an international recruitment company. It also found that poor intellect was not a major factor in any lack of promotion. Reporting this startling news, the Telegraph said the finding has been dubbed the "Don Draper effect", named for the TV show Mad Men, in which the character Peggy's relationship with Don does her no harm when it comes to promotion.
GOOD FROM BAD
The Roger Awards were handed out last week. The awards are bestowed by a group of anti-capitalists to highlight those who they believe are bad corporate citizens. One stock trader also uses them as a guide on what to buy, and claims he has never once lost by investing in companies damned by the Roger Awards judges. This year's winners were Rio Tinto Alcan, Westpac, Korean fishing company Sajo Oyang and the Oceania resthome company.
VERBAL OVERKILL
Adman John Ansell's excited assertion on TV this week that the Government's constitutional advisory panel was the "tool" of John Key and Pita Sharples to create a "animist, communist, and racist" state was more than a little over the top. Key is hardly what most people would consider a communist, and the panel has been virtually mothballed for the past few months. If it ever gets to do anything in the near future, its output is most likely to create the next collection of doorstops around the Beehive.
HOME-TOWN DOLLARS
While some economists shudder at the thought of the Greens' policy of widening the Reserve Bank's mandate so it can somehow lower the exchange rate, others don't reckon it goes anywhere near far enough. The fringe New Economics Party has been calling for local authorities to be allowed to print their own currency. It claims this would lower the Kiwi dollar and boost employment. Finance Minister Bill English is said to be still chuckling at the idea.
NO MORE TABLE TALK
The partial sale of the energy SOEs can't come quickly enough for some. In particular, Genesis Energy boss Albert Brantley, who will welcome his operation no longer being subject to the Official Information Act. He had his fellow SOE bosses tittering at his expense over his and his guests' dining habits. There in his expense claims was proof of fine dining that would put many gourmets to shame. The other energy bosses' lifestyles looked much more mundane - well, at least the part for which they claimed expenses.
