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 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 “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

BP Head Office in St James’s Square in London’s West End. It is a modern office building which was purchased from Ericsson mobile telecommunications.
It is at the corner of St James’s Square and Charles II Street.

Google Earth Image of BP head office in St James’s Square, London.

The red arrows show the direction of the energy flow,

Feng Shui Analysis:

The energy comes into St James’s Square through 2 roads
- Duke of York Street (north side of the square)
- Charles II Street (east side of the square).

Most of the energy flows through Duke of York Street to the Square. In the Square. the energy flows southwards through the central park area and leaves at the junction of St James Square and Pall Mall.

Interpretation:

The energy flow by-passes the entrance of the BP Head Office. There is hardly any energy getting to the main entrance to the building. Also, there are no entrances to the building from the side street – Charles II Street.

This building is not good. Either the business is not as good as previously or the repeated occurrence of major problems and missed opportunities.

Dr Michael Oon

Britannic House in Finsbury Square

The latter period 1991 to 2001 was a very successful time where BP emerge to become a top player in the North American Oil market. Let us have a look at the Feng Shui of this building.

Google Earth image of Britannic House

Where is the energy flow?

The energy moves along Moorgate from the North to the South.
The back of the Britannic house is on Moorgate and the doors are the energy entrances to the building.

Conclusion:

The building taps the path of the following energy. The main tenet in Chinese Philosophy, where there is energy, there is life. meaning, the occupants of this building will have good luck and good fortune. When this was the BP Head Office, it did well and joined the top tier of Oil majors in North America and there were no major catastrophes that were in the headlines.

Dr Michael Oon

This HQ was responsible for exploration and transportation. The methodology it used to estimate oil reserves, as I understand, was the industry standard amongst the oil majors then, but it was caught for overstating it. The crucial decisions were made in this building.

For more information on this unfortunate episode:

Oil giant Shell’s investors shocked

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3890045.stm

Shellsettlement details

http://www.shellsettlement.com

Dr Michael Oon

However, it has:
- an operating loss of £342m (apr – dec 2009) with a £3.7 bn pension deficit.
- no longer UK’s largest airline by passengers, this has passed on to Easyjet.
- continually mentioned in the press about staff problems and the infamous Terminal 5 launch in march 2009 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7704846.stm), (wikipedia).

What has happened to this almighty airline?

In 1998, Waterside became its new Global headquarters (HQ).

Google Earth image of BA headquarters – Waterside

It has a very complicated building outline. From the feng shui perspective, the occupants of this building will have an extremely difficult time running their business.
Certainly, BA has had no end of problems and will continue to have as along as they use Waterside as their HQ.
Its previous CEO Sir Rod Eddington (2000-2006) is quoted in saying: “I’ve had a lot of luck at BA – all of it bad.”

Complicated building outlines are examples of poor feng shui. The next posting, I will show successful corporates who have the ideal feng shui building outline.

Dr Michael Oon

The Ark in Hammersmith is a landmark building by the flyover (A4). It is conspicuously unoccupied.

The building was designed by Ralph Erskine and completed in 1992. It was designed with a number of ecological features – energy conservation systems which were then, way ahead of its time. It has struggled to find tenants. The then only tenant – Seagrams was taken over in 2000 and the building remained unoccupied for about a decade. In 2007, it had a £20 million refurbishment and there is now at least one tenant on the 9th floor.

The Ark occupies a very small site, between the Hammersmith flyover on one side and a railway cutting on the other. The design is very unique – oval in overall shape with the middle of the building protruding out, larger than the base. Also unique is the 370 sq ft “crows nest” which can be used for meetings by the tenants.

Location: Hammersmith has many good communication links to central London and Heathrow Airport. Also, this area has the offices of many multinationals (Disney, Coca Cola, Sony Ericsson, L’Oreal) amongst others.

The question is, why has the Ark been unoccupied for such a long time?

Feng Shui analysis.

It is quite complicated; three different levels and disconnected energy moving in different directions.

1. The Hammersmith Flyover – at this point, the energy rolls downhill; from the west to the east.

2. Talgarth Road – energy appears to be flowing from the east to the west.

3. Railway cuttings – down a steep embankment. Unable to determine the direction of energy at the lower railway level. However, energy at the road level will eventually leak down to the railway level.

The Ark has 2 entrances. The main one at the east and the service entrance in the west. The entrances are isolated from the flow of energy on the roads. Therefore, very little energy gets to the entrances.

This energy flow totally by-passes the entrances. Therefore, the energy does not get into the property. Understandably, as no energy is getting into the building, there is no “life” in the building; it therefore, does not attract new tenants.

It is the main tenet of Chinese Philosophy, “Energy brings life”. In feng shui, the energy in the environment brings life to the building. Therefore, a building with energy will prosper.
Conversely, a building without energy will not prosper.

It is the job of the Feng Shui consultant to identify the flows of the energy in the environment and then tap or “pipe” this energy into this building. The business in the building prospers.

Comments:

Possible Remedies:
Have an opening by the side of the building adjacent to Talgarth Road so that it can tap the energy flow on the road. An entrance facing a flyover is another “can of worms” which is best to be avoided. The service entrance collects more energy than main entrance but, in my opinion, is insufficient to make good a building of this size.

Site Selection
It is extremely difficult to develop a large building in this location and achieve commercial success. In my opinion, a smaller building is preferred.

Sustainable buildings
There is the current trend to have buildings built to a “carbon” neutral standard to compensate for the climate warming changes. However, should a building be unoccupied or un-liveable because of the above reasons, surely, this is a huge waste of resources. In my opinion, to achieve success in a property development and also, minimise the effects of potential waste, a feng shui consultant should be called in the site selection for a new property development.

Some useful links:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1370/1383147830_08706b36c6_o.jpg

http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/ark/index.htm

Dr Michael Oon