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.

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

Nokia drops Kallasvuo as chief executive.

Kallasvuo who? you might ask.

The world’s largest mobile phone maker is now suffering from the game change with the onslaught of serious smartphones like Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and phones using Google “Android” operating system.

Nokia is a product of the mobile phone era. It perfected the art of re-packaging a mobile phone with a new shell. This created a churn in mobiles. However, the game changed with the coming of the iPhone with added on-line functionality and introduced with the “Apple Hype”.

Admittedly, Nokia had come up with smartphones with similar functionality and earlier to the iPhone, but nobody knew about it. Nokia is known for churning out new mobiles and people just got bored with all these new models. But when it introduced significant new technology, no one noticed. It was always associated in the repackaging of mobiles. Nokia had been crying wolf too long.

Who have they employed as the new CEO? Stephen Elop from Microsoft. Just making an observation, Microsoft has also lost its way. It stuck in the previous generation of technology.

In my opinion, Nokia probably had difficulty in attracting a serious game player to be their CEO. If you are already in the fast stream (Apple, Google, Facebook etc), would you want to move to a “has been” technology company?

I have previously posted a blog Technology companies are one product companies.
The exception is Apple because of Steve Jobs and his background.

The business environment of the Technology companies changes faster than traditional businesses. Companies are a collection of people. Individual people do not like change. Change is even more difficult when there is a group of people. It is even more difficult when success had been achieved by working in that particular way.

Change happens all the time. Adapt to change and survive.

Here are some relevant quotes:

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” Bill Gates (Co-founder of Microsoft)

“Stay: hungry.” Steve Jobs (Co-founder Apple Inc)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin

Dr Michael Oon

Suits

It is generally accepted that you need to have the appropriate attire for the job. For example. you are making a presentation to a corporate, you wear a suit to show, not only respect for your audience, but, credibility and authority. The suit gives you the confidence but also provides the appropriate mindset to do the job. Therefore, people wear a suit and not a jacket with tatty jeans. However, when you are going to a social occasion, the casual attire is more appropriate – you are going to have a good time.

Cars

Cars are equivalent to clothes; you are inside them and your behaviour reflects the personality of the car. As soon as you step into the Veyron, a high speed road cruiser, your mindset is about the pleasure of high speed driving, not about saving the planet. However, when you are driving a Prius, your mindset is about transportation but with a eco-friendly consciousness about saving the planet – you do not drive this car on high speed pleasure drives.

Offices or Working areas

The environment influences your thinking.

This small room is used as an home office and the client is not happy. Why?

You take the personality of the room when you are in there. A small room has a persona of a small minded person; narrow and small thinking. This would be reflected in your actions and therefore, your business.

Secondly, in this configuration, the person faces a corner because of the position of the computer. Facing a corner reminds me of a school punishment but more importantly, the walls meeting together to form a corner. People who spend a lot of time facing a corner tend have closed mindsets.

The ideal office is a larger room but with the desk facing an open space. A larger room allows the person to have a bigger thoughts and an unhindered mindset. An open space allows the freedom of thought; open mindset.

Conclusion:
We adopt the persona of the environment that we are in. We wear the clothes and adopt its characteristics; we drive the car and adopt the characteristics.
We work in an office and we adopt the characteristics of the office. A small office will reflect small thinking. A large office will reflect a larger thinking.

Of course, a ordered and tidy office, will reflect an ordered and tidy mind.

Dr Michael Oon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck

Richard Wiseman, psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire made empirical observations and found that your could make your own luck
The book – The Luck Factor

He observed that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles.

- They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.
- Make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition.
- Create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
- Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

He has come up with a set plan of action to “make your own luck” using three easy techniques that can help to maximise good fortune:

1. Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell – a reason to consider a decision carefully.

2. Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

3. Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck.

But, after reading the article, I said to myself, “Are these not the basis of Personal development?”

1. Relax and use your intuition to assist you in making decisions?
2. Extend your comfort zone; do not have any limits or say “I can’t”
3. Be positive.

Some useful links:

Be lucky – it’s an easy skill to learn

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3304496/Be-lucky-its-an-easy-skill-to-learn.html

How To Make Your Own Luck

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/72/realitycheck.html?page=0,0

The Luck Factor: Change Your Luck and Change Your Life (Paperback)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luck-Factor-Change-Your-Life/dp/0712623884/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266269874&sr=8-1

I would like to state by opinion after having worked as a Forensic Scientist in the implementation of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971).

A Scientific Adviser advises by stating his point of view. The final decision is made by the Minister or Cabinet after looking at the bigger picture which includes the scientific viewpoint. A scientific adviser is responsible to the minster who had appointed him. The Government is responsible to the Parliament and to the electorate eventually.

The Scientific Adviser can disclose is viewpoint to the public BUT, he does not criticise or comment on Government policy. That is the basic tenet of scientist or scientific adviser dealing with Government. He is only an advisor not a Cabinet minister or governor.

In my opinion, David Nutt was right to state his opinion based on the scientific viewpoint but he pushed it too far when he commented on Government policy.

Dr Michael Oon

This was the very first time that I have seen Ray Mears on TV even though I have noticed his name on several TV programmes. He impressed me with his views which I am sharing on this blog. Ray Mears is an authority on Bushcraft and Survival.

1. He was taught judo in School by Kingsley who was a Chindit (British guerrillas in the Burma campaign 1939-1945 war). Kingsley taught him –”You don’t need equipment, you need knowledge to survive in the wild”, In other words, the important part is developing the skill of the person, in modern parlance – personal development. In the commercial pressures of the world today, equipment manufacturers and retailers give the impression that it is the equipment that matter more.

Comment: I would like to narrate an experience in fishing that we had in Florida. My wife Helen was brought up in a small town by the river. She had spent much of her childhood fishing and understanding the behaviour of fish.

We had noticed that the bridges were lined with men using lavish fishing gear. Having a free day, we prepared to go fishing but she just bought a hook, line and sinker. She enquired which was most popular bait and then prepared her own bait from the soil (worms). She chose a spot on the bridge where the fish would more likely to congregate at that time of the day and started.

She appeared to be the only person who was actually catching any fish. Word got round the bridge and they were amazed with the simplicity of our equipment “Gee, they are catching fish, only using a line!” It was my impression with the people on the bridge, the more sophisticated the gear, the better the chance of getting the fish.

At the end of the day, we re-collected the event. She attributed her success to understanding the behaviour of the fish. She had not only chosen a spot more likely to have fish, she used worms whereas the others were using squid. The fish could easily identify the squid but were curious with the worm as bait.

The point is – Helen’s skill was the understanding the behaviour of fish. This was the reason for her success even though her equipment was basic, It is the person that matters; the equipment is secondary. Finally, she presented the fish with something different, worms. They bit it.

2. Ray commented that the leadership skills in the UK can be improved. People are not thinking the consequences of their decisions through, they are just making decisions because they believe it is leadership. He suggested that, going on survival training is one of the best ways to learn about leadership. You bear the consequences of your decisions that you made earlier on.

Comment: After this economic downturn, we are going to see many changes and this includes the style of leadership. Currently, there is the expectation of instant results but this will change. I will be discussing this in future blogs or in talks.

Dr Michael Oon

I have just come across an e-commerce web site selling the same natural therapy products for 2 different markets – humans (mainstream) and the horses (equine). The products and the pricing were the same but there were slight differences in the labelling. It was the owner’s proposition to offer good value to the equine market by bringing in mainstream products.

I was mildly surprised with the web site as the 2 markets were very different. The equine market is similar to the luxury market where prices can be 5 times that of the mainstream market.

Therefore, I decided to do an analysis of the business model by looking at the mindset of the customer of the 2 markets (mainstream and equine).
Mindset is defined as the attitude of the mind, in this case, the attitude of mind of the customer. Once the vendor (in this case retailer) understands the mindset of his prospective customers, he can then tune his marketing strategy to the relevant customer mindset.

The mindset of the mainstream customer for natural remedies – price sensitive market with focus is on value and familiarity (branding). Which is appropriate for this website.

The mindset of the customer in the equine market – price insensitive with focus on packaging. It is highly likely the customer is indulging her horse.
Recommendation: Create 2 different web sites, each focussed on their respective market with a different pricing structure. A well presented and informative web site for the equine market on the use and benefits of natural therapies for horses would be appropriate. I would suggest packaging the products in gift boxes with elaborate product notes including instructions.

Dr Michael Oon