REVIEWS — Shoes are an often underestimated element of design.
But the design of such a basic item, is a design challenge. Especially a design that has to be practical (at least for 10 minutes walking!). And also entice women to spend money.
What’s the Trend?
Shoes, especially hand-crafted, hand-decorated.
National Gallery of Victoria had a hand-decorated sneaker exhibition. There’s a ’scene’ in Melbourne.
Handmade/decorated will be important in days of sustainability & local sourcing. We’ll need to transition to craft, trends suggest it will be the new local service economy.
The folks at Handmade Nation …

ANALYSIS, USA — According to The Age newspaper online:
“The economy suffered its biggest decline since 2001 in the third quarter, ushering in what may be the worst recession in a quarter-century … Gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3% pace from July to September, according to a Commerce Department report.
“The crisis really kicked up in late September,” Ethan Harris, co-head of US economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re going to be looking at a very unfriendly GDP number in the …

COMMENT, Australia — A German doctor & his family have been refused a visa for his family to stay in Australia, because his son has Downs Syndrome.

Source: Wimmera Times
Dr Bernhard Moeller was on Channel 9’s Today show with his family. There is an ABC version of the Doctor’s story here and The Age here. The Australian has an excellent piece on it.
This Doctor is the sole source of specialist medicine in Wimmera, a country town. He has been providing medical care for 2 years. Australia has chronic Doctor shortages.
The Doctor …

Environmentalism is not all complex plans, and Emissions-Trading. There are some simple basic concepts – here Arzu Durukan of Alinga Consulting outlines them.

COMMENT, Melbourne — John Brumby’s Victorian government has tabled over 200 reports in one day according to The Age.
>  Avalanche of reports ‘a joke’
> 300 reports in 24 hours
The back-story is that Brumby complained about Kennett’s lack of transparency. And now he ‘one-ups’ Kennett.
Something to Hide?
Sure. Grand Prix losses. Failed environmental targets. Massive Treasury losses.
And bear in mind these reports are retrospective.
Immediately following a boom, such mediocre results indicate incompetence and a lack of management.
I’ve worked on government & corporate financial reports, so they’ll bury all the bad news in …

This morning noticed these excellent slides on slideshare, of creative workplaces.
Well done to Serdar Belbag.
The 2thinknow view is that companies seeking to become employers-of-choice, need creative workspaces as an element of their strategy.
What do you think? Would it inspire you to work in these offices?
Or is your work or dream office more creative?
Post the photos in our new flickr group: Creative Companies

About Creative Companies
Creative workplace. Employers of choice. Ethical corporations. Nice seats. Micro-finance projects. Creative Capitalism. Innovation Teams. Inspiring workplaces. Not cubicle farms (unless they are cool). Cool.
The places you …

ANALYSIS, Melbourne — 2thinknow have predicted an Australian recession since 2007.
In October 2007, I indicated 2thinknow’s concerns of recession, in December 2007 I made clear predictions of recession and in February foresaw nationalisation of banks & various other consequences.
It’s worth noting that most commentators using economic predictions were wrong in October 2007-February 2008. None raised nationalisation, nor believed the ASX would go as low as 4500. 2thinknow was a lonely voice in specific correct prediction.
2thinknow take a different view, because we have foresight based on proprietary nascent trend analysis.
And, in …

REVIEWS — SlideShare has created a contest on the Economic Crisis. Tell the crisis in 30 slides, it has over 200 entries. A few entries are good summaries from different views.
Of course 2thinknow entered, given the positive feedback we have been receiving on our  predictions of the crisis.
Today, our “Credit Crisis. The Short Explanation.” slides were spotlighted on the main page of the slideshare.net website.
Pretty nifty profile for a set of slides, we thought. Even better in PowerPoint with the animations. You can download them!
Another one I really liked was …

Please vote.
World’s Best Presentation ContestWorld’s Best Presentation ContestWe thought this was a pretty concise, accurate description of the economic crisis.
If you liked our work so far, in accurately predicting the crisis, please logon to Slideshare & vote for our entry. You only have until Monday!
And your vote helps quality rise-to-the-top. Not just those with voting-circles!
2thinknow correctly predicted the current market crisis in 2007. Using our propietary nascent trend analysis techniques, we were able to predict a September 2008 shock event (specifically) in October 2007.

COMMENT — Across the Western world increasingly large chains dominate most products you buy. Groceries. Petrol or gas. Liquor. Books.
In difficult times,  support independent stores not large chain stores. Not mega-supermarkets.

Cheaper Groceries & Fuel.
Genuine competition means we pay less. Smaller players create competition.
Small independent stores are friends of the family.
Consumer choice is one of few weapons we have to create competition. Sometimes, we can sell our shares in such monopolies.
The only two forces controlling many industries are:
a) consumer choice and
b) shareholder activism.
Especially since, any Govt regulation or constraint on market …

ANALYSIS, Global – Salaried employees in the C-Suite being paid obscene sums of money they ill-deserve, is an inflationary disease that has spread to executives in most Western countries.
Kevin Rudd is one of a chorus of international leaders to draw our attention to this short-termism & greed as a philosophical cause of the international economic crisis.

Pay Solutions.
How can we simply link executive pay & control it? Without something as unwieldly as a black-letter figure…
Simple. The 2thinknow view is that we set executive pay based on a market capitalisation and a …