F1 as I see it and a Comment on McLaren F1

Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull car has taken the 2011 F1 World Championship by storm. This makes it his second Championship, making it two in a row. This confirms his dominance in the F1 Motor Sport.

What has happened to the McLaren F1 Team?

In 2011, they struggled in testing and in the start of the season. In 2010, they also had serious delays at the start season. In both years, there were big changes in the regulations in the car design.

In the 2011 season, the McLaren cars lacked pace compared to the Red Bulls BUT, as the season got on, they were of a more equal match.

In the first 10 races, Vettel (Red Bull) had won 6, Hamilton (McLaren) 2, Button (McLaren) 1 and Alonso (Ferrari) 1.
This shows the dominance of Vettel driving a Red Bull and the lack of competition from both McLaren and Ferrari.

As I had stated in a previous blog, the McLaren F1 building has a circular design. Based on Feng Shui interpretations, there will be inherent delays in the products coming from this building. This has been shown in the results of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

McLaren has a reputation for their technical and organisational ability and they catch up as the season goes on. However, in the 2011 season, Vettel had already sewn up the championship before McLaren had got up to speed. In other words, the champion was already in Vettel’s bag when McLaren “woke up.”

The 2012 season will have the minimal of changes in the Regulations.

McLaren want quick start to 2012, says Martin Whitmarsh

McLaren will therefore, have lesser delays than the previous seasons. I look forward to a more competitive season where both McLaren and Ferrari will be challenging the pace of the Red Bulls of Vettel and Weber from the start of the season.

Secondly, the early lack of pace in the McLaren Cars have been one of the causes of the frustration in Hamilton. Hamilton does not react well to the lack of pace of the cars.

McLaren F1 - orange lights signifying VICTORY

I look forward to a more productive start for the 2012 season for McLaren F1 team which are based in my home town of Woking in Surrey.

Good Luck McLaren.

The Hamilton Massa bust-up at the F1 Indian Grand Prix 2011

Once again, there are hundreds of columns inches in the media of the apparent feud between McLaren’s Hamilton and Ferrari’s Massa. It was a boring race and, as a result, the main news worthy focus has been on this incident Lewis Hamilton centre stage in F1′s Indian adventure

Previous to this Indian GP race, both have been have been in collisions with each other Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa’s five collisions in 2011.

I thought that I would give my opinion on this continuing feud, adding to the column inches of this topic.

Felipe Massa: There has been talk about Massa underperforming this season and could be replaced by Ferrari, Is Felipe Massa under-performing on purpose? And will he have a say in the title race?

1. One common technique is to use distraction to blame for your “failure”? Who better than Hamilton whom you have had a number of incidents in the past?

2. Massa appears to show a lot of emotion in these incidents. This adds fuel to the feud.

Lewis Hamilton: He has not been delivering the results that he usually does. It is said that he has been distracted because of a number of reasons.

1. His team mate – Jenson Button is doing better than he is. Hamilton is “destabilized” as he has never been the lesser partner in the McLaren Team.

2. The break up a long relationship with Nicole Scherzinger (a singer based in Los Angeles, USA). There will be the emotional turmoil prior to the break up.

3. Hamilton is an aggressive F! driver. Much comment has been made, especially in 2007, his first year at the F1 level.

But, why do these drivers come together so frequently?
As I see it – simply – they are thinking about each other all the time; especially Massa. Massa is blaming Hamilton for all his woes. The Law of Attraction is working – it is attracting both persons to “meet” each other. With the negative energy, the chances of a bad outcome are high.

In my opinion, the best outcome for both drivers is to ignore each other. Both want to do the best they can in the race and gain the best possible result. Every time they collide or have an incident, they both loose out. Just look at the Indian Grand Prix where both cars were damaged and get mentally “de-focussed”. Massa did not complete the race and Hamilton can a poor seventh. It is a lose–lose situation every time. If they ignore each other and complete the race, it will be a win-win situation.

It is really simple; just bury the hatchet and get on with the racing. Go for a Win-Win situation.

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

He did not have any qualifications or specialism – he was not a hardware engineer nor was he a software engineer. He was not chained to either. He was a technologist visionary. He could see the big picture where others were stuck in the detail.

I have written about him previously and have considerable respect for him and his work.
Comment: “Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has been voted the CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine.”

Jobs started Apple twice. The first time with Steve Wozniak in the 1970s and the second time when it had problems in 1998. He now leaves Apple the largest company by stock market valuation (larger than Exxon/Mobil). Isn’t this the dream that every founder wants – retire when your company is on a high?

Apple is in now leading the field in personal technology. As he retires, I am sure that he has already laid the ground work for future generations of products. His successor, Tim Cook, excels in getting the product to market efficiently and effectively.

Some observations of Steve Jobs.

1. Apple concentrates of specific areas. They do it very well. Also, they bring it to market very quickly, That is their speciality. They do not grab any opportunity. In the PC/windows, there are lots of good but also bad areas,

2. Jobs was driven my passion and not financial success. This passion is reflected in his products which people LOVE. In return, he gets the passion and Love from his customers. They not only adore his products they buy them in droves.

3. It is Jobs vision in the application of this technology. Hence his successes in Movies (Pixar) and music (iTunes).

4. Apple do not use Focus Groups in the design of new products. Steve Jobs uses Apple Staff who use the technology already. They are the best persons to give informed opinions. KISS (Keep it simple)

5. Apple products are designed to be used – its designs are intuitive enough so that so no user guide is supplied. Should you require help, there is a superb after sales including their Genius Bar.

6. Jobs vision in the technology field has led Apple to dominate scene with the next generation of technologies – the tablet (iPad) and the smartphone (iPhone) and now the fading star – the music player (iPod). It goes to show, Microsoft had recognised that the tablet is the next generation of computing but after decades or work, it is Apple that is dominating the tablet market with the iPad.

7. One of the most inspiration quotes that I have read.
“Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

8. One of the most inspiration videos that I have seen. Steve Jobs: How to live before you die

I will be posting a feng shui analysis of the current Apple Campus. A feng shui analysis of the future Apple Campus has been posted

I am sure, he will be appearing in future Apple presentation. This is not the last of the Apple co-founder.
Steve Jobs – Technologist Extraordinaire

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

Yauchacha - Broadwick Srreet

 
 
This is an upmarket Michelin star “fast food” restaurant. A short background to Alan Yau (Chinese Restaurateur Extraordinaire)

Yauchacha - Broadwick Street - Google Earth view

It gets its energy from the junction of Poland Street and Broadwick Street. Again, this is energy from a junction – appropriate for a fast food restaurant.

Chachamoon - Ganton Street

Chachamoon (Ganton Street).
 
 

This restaurant is located on Ganton Street which is a side street to both Kingly Street and Carnaby Street.

Chachamoon - Ganton Street - Google Earth view

It is getting the energy from these 2 streets.
(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

Wagamama - Wigmore Street

Wagamama was Alan Yau’s first foray into Restaurants in 1992. It was a noodle bar with a healthy take on fast food in central London. A short background to Alan Yau (Chinese Restaurateur Extraordinaire)

Google Earth image of Wagamama Wigmore Street

 
 
 
 
 
 
An example of this is the Wagamama (Wigmore Street). It is located by a junction of Wigmore Street and Baker Street. Locations by junctions are extremely good for “fast food”.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hakkasan - Hanway Place

 
 
 
Hakkasan is a Michelin star restaurant with a night club feel. Hence the location in a quiet corner of a side street.

Hakkasan - Google Earth view

The restaurant gets it energy from vehicles turning the corner along Hanway Place. This is the appropriate type of energy for a “night club”.

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

Alan Yau - Restaurateur Extraordinaire

Alan Yau understands the marketing of Chinese Food in the UK.

I have lived in the London area for the past 30 years. As I appreciate good Chinese Food, I have followed the restaurants and kept aware of areas for good Chinese Food. As a result, I have got to know the owners of these Restaurants, their mindsets and the challenges they face.

They have 2 choices. They could go down the “authentic“ route where the dishes are prepared in a manner in keeping with taste of their Chinese Heritage. The other option is to prepare Chinese dishes geared to the taste buds of the British – preparing dishes like Chicken Chop Suey.

The restaurateurs going the authentic route takes pride in the preparation and pay top dollar for the best chefs. However, the local Chinese population are very critical of the food quality and are not always prepared to pay the extra for this quality. They are in a double bind situation. The cost of maintaining the standard of authentic Chinese food in very price sensitive market is a very delicate balancing act.

How does this involve Alan Yau?

Known as a serial restaurant entrepreneur. He started Wagamama in 1992 and sold the business in 1997 for GBP 60million. He has opened Hakkasan (2001) and Yauchacha (2004) which have won Michelin stars.

When you start any marketing course, you are told about 2 marketing platforms. Market led or product led. Alan is distinctively market led. The other restaurateurs are product led in their quest for authentic Chinese Food,

Alan Yau’s focus
1. The large Local British Market where he can market to the whole population rather than the niche of Chinese Food aficionados.
2. The food served is “fast” food but of an extremely high standard – noodles, dim sum, rice. This minimises the time in the food preparation in the kitchen.
3. At Chachamoon, their noodle restaurant, customers are encouraged to have at least main course, side dish and a drink. This amounts to about GBP 15 per cover. This price is for good wholesome food of high quality.
4. Many of his “fast food restaurants” seat about 150 to 200 persons. With the fast service, I would expect the restaurant to do more than a thousand covers a day.
5. These are large restaurants, it needs to be filled with paying customers.
6. The locations of his restaurants are chosen carefully. I visited a number of his restaurants and analysed it using Feng shui techniques. The energy going into the site are for “fast food” and this would ensure, the restaurants being filled.
7. Does he use Feng Shui? Alan “then enrolled for franchisee training with McDonald’s in Hong Kong”.
8. In Hong Kong, nothing moves without Feng Shui. It could be in his time in Hong Kong that he appreciated the use of the good practise of feng shui to get restaurants filled with customers. Future postings of the feng shui analysis of Alan’s restaurants will be made.

Feature 1

Feature 2

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

Professor Jim Al Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili – The Secret Life of Chaos

Professor Marcus du Sautoy

Marcus de Sautoy – The Code.

Each has a different view point on Chaos Theory.

What is Chaos theory?
Chaos theory is a study of the mathematics of the dynamic systems found in natural processes (Nature) – physics, economics, weather, biology etc. The start the process is of known numbers but the result can be so different. It depends so much on the initial conditions.
This is so different from the laws devised by Newton where the results were predictable as calculations were linear. Chaos theory explains many “unexpected” occurrences in Nature accurately.

What is the point of this post?
Jim Al-Khalili looks into this subject from the outside. He is very good in explaining the subject to a person curious about Chaos theory. Jim communicates this subject well.

Marcus approach is so different. He lives and breathes this subject and his passion shows. He is the “go-to” person for Chaos Theory.
Therefore, if I wanted to know more about the subject, I would attend a lecture from Jim Al-Khalili. However, if I wanted to be student or researcher of Chaos Theory, I would go and learn it from Marcus du Sautoy.

The main point of this post is where do you get your knowledge from? If you want to understand the subject, you learn it from a teacher,
If you want to research or practise the knowledge, go and learn it from a research or practitioner. The information, attitudes, passion and procedures are different, in fact, so vastly different.

A good teacher might not be a good practitioner. He might be a good communicator. A good practitioner might not be a good teacher, but he knows how to use and apply the knowledge.

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

I heard Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, a major pharmaceutical player in the UK, in a TV interview on the BBCnews. He used the right words in our times – corporate social responsibility, sustainable approach, priority of public health over commercial interest. This could be said in any PR campaign but then, he expressed his personal view which made me notice.

I had previously written about the financial implosion of at least 2 pharmaceutical corporations. – Pfizer and Merck. Both these corporations had decided to go for profits aggressively before the welfare of the patients but this strategy got them into serious financial problems.

The history of successful entrepreneurs are of persons who not only solved problems for their clients but had put their clients first. For the pharmaceutical industry, it was the entrepreneurs who put the patients first. This was the founding ethos of the entrepreneurs who founded Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Wellcome Boroughs (forerunner of the Wellcome Trust) had the philosophy where the patient would come first, do the right thing for the patient and the business will follow.

In the interview, Andrew Witty expressed his personal view of putting the patient first. He also explained that there is a new generation of leadership with a more enlightened approach where profits is not the only goal. He also described the new pricing policy for his products. There would be price cuts for the poor countries.

There are 2 points to this post.

1. There appears to be a wind of change in the leadership of GSK. They are going back to the values that were at the heart of the success of the original business.

2. If you want to know the methodologies that work where real people have become successful from it, just look into the history books. It has been done.
Why invent a new completely “mousetrap” when the best designed “mousetrap” is already out there. Just do the research in the history books and then add your take on it.

(c) Copyright – Dr Michael Oon. All Rights Reserved Worldwide 2011.

Sebastian Vettel, at 23, became the youngest World Champion in the final race in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. I found that it was the most exciting season that I have ever followed with 4 possible contenders on the last race. It was certainly exciting!

I look forward to the 2011 series with anticipation. It is only 15 weeks away.

A look at the teams with their drivers.

Red Bull: They had the fastest car.
Vettel: A worthy champion with immense talent. Has a good positive attitude which is shown in how he performs. He also learns from his mistakes. He made a number of serious mistakes in the 1st half of the season but these mistakes did not re-occur. This is a wonderful quality.
Webber: He has an attitude of being the victim. He needs to get over this to progress significantly above where he is. He had spent years “struggling” in the mid-field where he appears to be most comfortable. He has to make the most from this opportunity of driving the best car in the business. Or else, someone else would be sitting in that seat!

McLaren: The team home base (factory) is just down the road where I live. Superb technical skills but, the upgrades did not work immediately. As mentioned earlier, their building of a circular design, this slows down the progress of the business. McLaren showed how competitive their car could be only on the last race of the season. Just think if they could get it right for the 2nd half of the season. They would have won both championships – constructors and drivers. Weren’t they leading the championship at the half way stage?
Hamilton: Superb attitude and driving skills for a F1 driver. Always on the go.
Button: A much more relaxed type of person than say Alonso and has managed to fit into the McLaren system in his first year.

Ferrari: Not the fastest car but managed to solve some aerodynamics issues to catch up with Red Bull. Hence it was far more competitive towards the 2nd half of the season.
Alonso: One of the best drivers around and had a superb 2nd half season. However, he was unlucky not to get 4th place in Abu Dhabi to win the 2010 Drivers Championship. A credible performance for this season.

Tony Fernandes – A man that I admire. He built up AirAsia by understanding the changes in the social environment that we are in. He is now indulging in his passion – F1 Motor Sport. He had a credible 10th position or the best of the new entrants. However, his team did not fulfil the initial promise when they started. They did not get a single point in this season.

Let us see what happens in 2011 when Proton cars are going to be part of Renault racing as Lotus-Renault. He will have to re-name his own team from Lotus to 1Malaysia perhaps?

Dr Michael Oon

At the Woking Means Businesses 2010 exhibition earlier this October, Richard gave a talk called – “Achieving more with less: welding strategic purpose to daily priorities”.

I was seriously in two minds whether to attend after having been to so many talks with so many clichés. Speakers have been promising so much, delivering so little that I have become sceptical of these time management efforts. From my experience, many are totally impractical or extremely expensive to implement.

However, I have known Richard from local networking for quite some years now. He has a no-nonsense and practical attitude to life. So I attended the talk.

He related the story of Ivy Lee acting as a consultant for Charles W Schwab of the second largest steel producer in the US – Bethlehem Steel on increasing productivity.

Ivy recommended that Charles write down the 5 most important tasks to do for the next day and prioritise them accordingly. In the next day, complete each task before starting the next. Repeat this process at the end of the day in preparation for the following day.

Charles asked for the fee but Ivy replied: “Pay me what you feel it’s worth to you.”

It is said that Charles Schwab paid him USD 25,000 after 3 months. At that time, the US worker was being paid USD 2 a day.

It is said that this priority system helped Charles Schwab lead Bethlehem Steel to become the second largest steel producer in the US.

I have been using this priority system since this presentation together with
Seth Godin’s Shipit Workbook.

The Ivy Lee system is about when to do it – a time management system.
The Seth Godin method – using with Shipit workbook draws up the requirements of the project or job.

As anybody in Social Networking, there is always too much to do in only 24 hours. Secondly, there are so many distractions like twitter, facebook and the almost instant update of the news. I used to have many uncompleted tasks, did not know where I was with each and as a result, disorganisation. The Ivy Lee system makes me complete the task before taking on the next task.

The Seth Godin Shipit workbook specifies the exact requirements of the work; fitness for purpose!

I have found both systems complimentary and extremely effective.

Unfortunately for Richard, I did not make any agreement about what I should pay him for the benefit that I have received from his timely talk. The best I can do is to acknowledge the benefit and write a post on my blog of his practical and effective advice.

PS Ivy Lee is credited as being the founder of Public Relations as we know today.

Dr Michael Oon