The name of a Russian-Nigerian gas joint venture: Nigaz. In Africa, but of course. Very appropriate. Not to mention sensitive.

The latest to join the queue:
Chevrolet Nova = “doesn’t go” in South America.
Ford Pinto = “small penis” in Brazil.
“Come alive with the Pepsi generation” = “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead” in Taiwan.
Rabobank = “ass bank” in Portuguese (thanks Sandro!!!)

Read more over at The …

“Kia-su” is Hokkien (the Chinese dialect commonly used in Singapore) that literally means “fear of losing”. According to the unkind, this “fear of losing” is allegedly a Singaporean trait – though I would postulate that it is more of a universal trait when it comes to how some practice business.

“Kia-su” has its basis in fear. The fear of scarcity. Which in turn drives greed:
Take it even if you …

Here are my thoughts from reading the Tellus Institute’s Global Futures (their terms in italics).

Which outcome do you want?

Scenario A: Conventional World ? minor improvements, more of the same, increasingly insurmountable problems ? Fortress Worlds

Scenario B: Conventional World ? revolutions, Great Transitions ? Renaissance 2.0

How do you make your choice? By supporting the contributing causes.

Scenario A Contributing Causes:Scenario B Contributing …

My friend Dennis White recently said to me: “We have Pay TV and yet we seem to spend a lot of time flicking through the channels trying to find something too watch. I have this theory that if you have a lot of choice then you expect you should be able to find something really interesting and you’re not willing to settle for something less than expectation. When …

Excuses:

Sick laptop – have moved to backup laptop but kept forgetting to bring across the Word file of blog posts.
Too much work. Even more than usual.
Insufficient sleep. Even less than usual.
Mystery sniffles – not swine flu.

Saw this book by Jonathan Salem Baskin in a bookshop recently.

Another proponent of actions speaking louder than words – or fancy logos, or fake marketing. Yay.

Buy now from Amazon:
Branding Only Works on Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (and drive your competitors crazy)

Wow – what a great (sub)title!

Business is personal. When I first started saying this in 2003, people were amused or sceptical. It is good to know that other (more notable!) people have said it before me, and that many more voices are saying the same thing today – I keep seeing this phrase in various books.

How many times have we all heard the opposite: …

Hands up those who associated “happiness” with “business model” right off the bat?

Lots of wisdom and insights built into a beautiful set of slides by Tara Hunt. Thanks for sharing this with the world!

Spotted via Justin McMurray’s twitter feed.