East Eats West

High voltage 911

PS: A Porsche dreamed up by AC/DC!

0-100km/h in 7sec, 225km/h top-speed, 650nm, up to 300kms on one 'tank', does that sound exciting for a car? What if I tell you that this high-power car looks like a Porsche, is made by the car manufacturer Ruf in Germany and runs on electricity? I recently had the very exclusive pleasure of being present at the world-premiere of the brand-new street-legal eRuf electrical Porsche. The car is, besides the American/British-made Tesla, the only street legal production car at the moment. It is the brain-child of the charismatic owner of Ruf automobiles, Alois Ruf. Unfortunately I was not able to test drive the eRuf but I shall in the near future.

Picture: Petrol-head on the outside, high voltage on the inside.

Read more about the Tesla here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/east_eats_west/2007/05/go_fast_and_cle.html

Cars looking for owners

Picture: A lucky Aston Martin not for sale yet.

In June this year I predicted that the sales of SUV and luxury cars would go down in the next 12-18 months. Well, I was wrong: they are going down five months after my entry! I was told by an English hedge funds manager that Aston Martin sold over 150 cars in September 2007. This September they sold apparently three! I am sure the same applies to other luxury car brands. In Switzerland the sales of small and petrol-efficient cars is crisply picking up while sales of big and expensive models are going down.

Read about my prediction here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/east_eats_west/2008/06/bye-bye-porsche.html

MYPhone

Picture: IPhone in black and with keyboard; the HTC Touch Pro.

Let’s face it: the iPhone is good-looking, it is sleek and it is a multi-tasker. So why has no one else come up with a similar product? Well, HTC from Taiwan did with the HTC Touch Pro. This brand-new phone has similar features as the iPhone: touch-screen, Opera-web browser and easy navigation. And it has two advantages: it runs on Microsoft Mobile, therefore easily synchronizes with Outlook, and it has a wonderful smooth QWERTY-keyboard. So if you get tired of the iPhone’s touch screen typing, try the HTC. The only downside is the short battery life.

Read more about the phone here: http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro/overview.html 

Middle-class luxury

Picture: Soon Japanese ladies have to do with less luxury handbags!

Which is the world’s biggest luxury goods market? Nope, not Europe and neither is it the United States. It’s Japan. With about 40% of world luxury consumption luxury goods, they have achieved the mainstream market in the land of the raising sun. Gucci, Louis Vuitton and the lot grew not because of superrich buyers, but because the middle-class Japanese buyer kept on splurging. With Japanese’s economy stagnating and spending power decreasing, so do sales at the luxury brands outlet. And maybe the Japanese market is just the first luxury market to go into decline. The USA and also Europe will surely follow. In the future the waiting-lists of Hermes bags and Panerai watches will surely decline.

Read more here: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12270950

Fairy-tale railway

Picture: Not Tibet but Switzerland.

As a kid I used to have a German-made Märklin toy electrical railway that was situated in small landscape that included bridges and trees. Ever since that time railways have kept a special place in my heart. Luckily I live in Switzerland that is a railway heaven. After Japan Switzerland has the second longest railway network per person in the world. And true to the cliché they mostly run on time. It is therefore not surprising that one of the most scenic railways can be found in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The Bernina railway goes from St.Moritz up to the Bernina Pass, 2253 meters above sea level, and then on to Tirano in Italy. The red coaches cross stone bridges, run through picturesque valleys and climb steep mountains slopes that are covered in snow. The Bernina railway became this year a UNESCO world heritage railway and is with its 400 kilometers the longest mountain railway in Switzerland. Because of the amazing mountain scenery and the incredibley beautiful stone bridges it is clearly the most beautiful railway I ever been.

Picture: Railway dreams come true.

For more pictures click here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/photos/bernina_railway_swit/index.html 

http://www.rhb-unesco.ch/index.php?id=3?&L=4&fontsize=100.01&MP=&kt=&bezirk=

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Put the bull back in the art-market

Picture: At least you should be able to resell the golden hooves and horns.

In consumer goods marketing distribution is key (or as they say: the three most important things in retailing are location, location and location). Constantly companies find new ways to sell products in order to save costs. Just think about Ebay, Amazon or Dell even made away with physical brick-and-mortar retail-stores. One line of business that has resisted the new ways of retailing is the art-market. Traditionally artists are fostered by galleries who help them finance and sell their works. The gallery-owner also sets the price and gets a cut. British artist Damien Hirst, the bad boy of contemporary art, has just created a big rupture in art retailing: he sold 223 new works directly through Sotheby’s in London, therefore cutting out the middle-men, Mrs. Jopling and Gagosian, his long-standing dealers. The auction was a clear affront to the art-establishment but Mr. Hirst pulled off the trick, selling all 223 pieces for a total price of $199m! He also proved that despite the financial crisis art is still a buoyant market and like luxury handbags, producing more makes the pieces more desirable for the every increasing global money-elite. In fact, Mr. Hirst has become the first truly global luxury art brand. So maybe Mr. Hirst’s next coup will be to sell directly via Ebay? Last but not least Mr. Hirst seemed to have timed the market perfectly and he might be remembered as the artist who sold the last big lot before the art market, following the stock-market, went into a tailspin.

PS: Producing art nowadays resembles more and more the production of luxury handbags: Mr. Hirst has a team of 180 people situated in two wartime aircraft hangers who produce hundreds of pieces a year. His fellow contemporary artist Jeff Koons has a similar set-up in the USA.

Read more here: http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12267585 

Mao and the CEO

In business schools today one gets taught that everyone who works hard and is creative and innovative enough will get wealthy or rich. Well, look around and you will easily see that this is not the case. So what makes you a top-earning CEO? You might be surprised to learn that Mao Zedong knew a thing or two about leading big public companies, pardon me, countries. Here is what propelled Mao to fame and fortune: first and foremost one has got to have big ideas. So tell everyone about it and rally the troops behind you. Then start a flurry of activities and put your able aides in charge. Then use the media to praise your efforts so that everyone knows that you are the brain behind this grand-scheme. Slowly your grand-scheme will come apart. But do not panic, you can easily blame your aides for the failure of your great idea. You might even consider moving on to another idea (try a ‘Great Leap Forward’) or another country/company. The bottom line is that many public companies today are led by men who are good in political maneuvering but bad at executing ideas or adding value (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). Being CEO does not mean that you are the best leader or the one adding the most value. Being CEO is like being member of a global elite club and is the key to riches (think bonuses, share-options and ‘golden parachutes’). As a CEO you are a member of an elite club and the most important rule of this club is: do not question compensation schemes of your fellow board members as they will reward your complacency with an equally generous remuneration package. Be generous to your peers and you will be given money in return as well.

For more about Mao and management visit the Economist website: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10311230

R.I.P aerobics!

Picture: Imagine what happens if you use real weights! (courtesy of www.figureathlete.com)!

I have been working out in the gym for many years and I always wondered why all the hours never really paid off. Then I came across an article that was an eye-opener: Rachel Cosgrove, an American personal trainer, explained that all those hours of steady-paced cardio do not help to get rid of your fat. And the reason is simple: the body is extremely efficient at adapting to any steady-pace workload. The more you do, the less energy the body needs and the less fat it burns. So after an initial improvement the results trail off. Therefore your mantra should not be long hours but intensive, brutal, short interval-training. The concept is simple: constantly keep your body on its toes. Shock it. Keep it off balance! So I recently started to train weights and cardio in the same workout of 30-40 minutes. The work-out consists of a full-body routine with about 12 weight-lifting exercises and 5 sessions of 2 minutes boxing routines. I only go 2-3 times a week to the gym. That totals to less than 1.5 hours in the gym. And the result after a few weeks, and less hours at the gym, is visible: 3kgs less flab! So the secret is not long hours of steady-pace cardio exercises but intensity and interval. For more background information read here:

http://www.figureathlete.com/free_online_article/training/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin&cr=

http://www.figureathlete.com/readArticle.do?id=1881918