In March earlier this year, there was a Channel 4 TV documentary on new editor Rachel Johnson taking over at the helm of The Lady magazine. This is an attempt to boost its circulation. The owner’s logic, based on the documentary, that in bringing a high profile journalist and novelist, whose brother is Boris Johnson, [...]
In March earlier this year, there was a Channel 4 TV documentary on new editor Rachel Johnson taking over at the helm of The Lady magazine. This is an attempt to boost its circulation.
The owner’s logic, based on the documentary, that in bringing a high profile journalist and novelist, whose brother is Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London would improve the circulation of the money losing magazine.
The documentary was called “The Lady and the Revamp” and described the magazine as “Once the Grazia of its day, The Lady was a highly respected and influential magazine featuring on its pages anything from the correct length of hem for a Sunday Service to a cure for baldness.”
To understand whether this bold move will work, I looked at the building.
Observations and Analysis: The building is at the end of a block; Tiger side (Right side) larger – a predominantly feminine environment in the buildings. Not surprisingly, publishing “The Lady” and it is owned by a woman,
There is a road directly in front of the building (from where this image was taken). The energy flows away from the main door of the building. Therefore, there isn’t much energy getting into the building. With very little energy coming into the building, the business will struggle to survive.
Conclusions: From the analysis of the building, the business will continue to lose money as long as they are in that building. They have employed a high profile person as editor, but that might improve the circulation numbers in the immediate term but it is not the long term solution.
My suggestion: For the business to improve over the long term, it is best to move out of this building.
The second question, is the current magazine format suitable? It has moved a long way since Rachel started her job as editor. It has a more current feel to it that the older editions. The main question is – is this magazine relevant to this day and age?
Dr Michael Oon
Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon and the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (April to August 2010) For the past 3 months, we have been hearing emotions vented about the oil leak from some 5,000 feet beneath the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Macondo well has now been sealed and we are witnessing [...]
Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon and the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (April to August 2010)
For the past 3 months, we have been hearing emotions vented about the oil leak from some 5,000 feet beneath the waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Macondo well has now been sealed and we are witnessing the aftermath.
So, what is going to happen to BP? The company’s press releases have stated that it will be a smaller but wiser company.
This has been a very painful and expensive experience. The financial cost has been enormous, a US$ 20 billion compensation fund, setting aside monies (US$ billions) for other liabilities and major loss of reputation to the brand. On the other side, lives have been affected and the damage to the environment. What matters is what comes out of this debacle.
As this blog is about feng shui, let us look at BP from this unique perspective.
The previous BP Head Office was at 1 Finsbury Square until 2003 when they moved to 1 St James’s Square. The feng shui of the Finsbury Square building is good was discussed in a previous posting .
Between the 1960s and 1990s (40 years), there were 2 major incidents on recorded in Wikipedia
1965 – Sea Gem offshore rig disaster
1993-1995 – Hazardous substance dumping (Alaska)
This new Head Office in St James’s is at a considerable distance from the flow of energy. Therefore, very little energy gets into the building (link) and it will suffer “misfortune”. This misfortune could be interpreted as, persistent problems and problems get highly magnified. This leads to loss of business which leads to a smaller business or a merger or a takeover.
The previous owners of the building – Ericsson mobile communications downsized to smaller offices and merged their mobile phone operations with Sony to form the Sony Ericsson brand. This merger is corporate speak for “unsuccessful”.
This is the list of problems since BP moved to their new head office at St James’s Square within 7 years in Wikipedia .
2005 – Texas City Oil Refinery explosion
2006-2007 – Prudhoe Bay Oil spill
2010 – Texas City Chemical Spill
2010 – Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Secondly, when I looked that the PR campaign by the CEO – Tony Hayward, what he said was inappropriate in a highly emotionally charged time even though, with hind sight, he had spoken the truth. BP, with its might and wealth, can afford the best PR money can get, but look what it produced. It scored an own goal and a disaster on the career’s front. Tony Hayward is no longer the CEO of BP.
My prognosis:
BP will lurch from one crisis to another as long as it remains in the St James’s Square Head Office. For the company’s sake I hope I am wrong but from the evidence I have stated, a very rocky road downhill remains ahead for BP.
Dr Michael Oon
I have been following England in Football as I see it as a reflection of society. Having lived in England for more than a couple decades, I see the same constant repetition of human behaviour before and after England’s World Cup experience. This is neatly summarised by Simon Kupar and Stefan Szymanski in their book [...]
I have been following England in Football as I see it as a reflection of society. Having lived in England for more than a couple decades, I see the same constant repetition of human behaviour before and after England’s World Cup experience. This is neatly summarised by Simon Kupar and Stefan Szymanski in their book “Why England Lose”. Iain Dale’s Diary
The performance in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was so bad and it hardly resembled the pre-match publicity. The England Football Team did well in the qualifying rounds and it was assumed that, because of the talent they had, it would do well in the competition. They had beaten Germany in Berlin by 2-1 in a friendly in 2008.
However, developments occur when England was “sitting on their laurels”.
An article describes how the Germany team was transformed after a serious injury to a key player Michael Ballack at the FA Cup Final.
We are currently in an age of instant communication, as soon as you do something different at any major event, the information is available instantly on the internet throughout the world. Using the example of the World Cup, the performance of each team is instantly available to all to see.
The World Cup is a competition and the team with a competitive advantage will have a better chance of progressing up the competition. This is just like in the business world or in nature.
Having watched England play in the qualification matches and the World Cup, the overall pattern of play seemed similar to me. If you were a potential opponent, you would know how to counter this method of play.
The point I am making is in a competitive environment, we should change or adapt to the changing situation that is happening around us. This is the Darwinism – adapt or die. This is what the German Squad did, they adapted to the new situation. Their opponents (England) did not know how to handle the situation.
However, with regards to the FA choosing Fabio Capello, as I understand it, he has the distinction of winning the domestic league title of every club he has coached. His specialism is league football but is he good at knock-out tournaments? It is a different mindset where change or adaptation is required to have a competitive advantage for the moment.
The type of manager England should be looking for one who has an adaptable mindset. A person who is prepared to change with the situation. I do not know enough about football managers but perhaps one whose mindset adapts to the situation – a translator becoming a successful manager – Jose Mourinho or someone with an adaptable mindset.
The issue is with the FA board of directors, do they want to change? Or else, England will be just repeating the same old process as described in Iain Dale’s Diary
I had a look at the feng shui aspects of the FA head office in Wembley, I do not see anything about change, it is more about insecurity. With this insecurity, it goes back on relying on tradition; this is how we have did it before. There starts another cycle.
Dr Michael Oon
