2021 is proving to be another good year for the wealthy. Most listed companies outperformed earnings forecasts in the third quarter. Earnings are largely returning to pre-Covid levels across all industries and regions. You know what that means. Shareholders, CEOs and execs are collecting hefty dividends and bonuses. Meanwhile, people on the other side of the socio-economic spectrum lost their only respective means of income during an unprecedented increase in job losses. Regrettably, We’re seeing record unemployment rates all over the world. I don’t mean to antagonise anyone, it’s just an observation I’ve made. Here’s another, the climate crisis that planet Earth is now facing was largely caused by the carbon emissions of highly industrialised economies but the effects are disproportionately borne by developing nations.
Climate Crisis
The foreign minister of Tuvalu recorded a message for the UN climate conference in Glasgow standing knee deep in water to illustrate just how serious the threat of rising sea levels is for small island nations in the Pacific Ocean. The poorest nations that contributed the least to the climate problem are suffering the most. We’re running out of time. If we do not electrify transport, decarbonise the grid, fix food, protect nature, clean up industry and remove carbon we will cause irreversible damage as soon as 2030.
Eswatini was unexpectedly hit by devastating hail last weekend. Those suckers were the size of golf balls in certain areas severely affecting at least 8 200 people according to reports. This sort of extreme weather may soon become the norm through no fault of our own. The Eswatini Meteorological Service came out with an apology on Monday for failing to warn the nation soon enough. What bothers me is their use of the word “surprise” in their apology.
International Travel
The US is relaxing international travel restrictions. This is the type of news airlines all over the world are here for. British airways makes $1 billion from the London Heathrow and New York JFK route alone. According to Bloomberg, this is the most lucrative route emhlabeni.
Declining ZAR
Things have not been the same since the turmoil that ensued after president Zuma’s arrest earlier this year. The Rand was the best performing currency in the world during the first half of the year. That’s all ancient history now. The Chinese Yuan and the Taiwanese dollar have since supplanted the Rand. When you also consider that last month’s load shedding rollouts were the worst in the history of South Africa, you look ahead and shudder. Our big brother is having a horrible time of it. How long until we feel it too?
More News
UK approved a Covid pill. Clinical trials suggest that the pill reduces the chance of hospitalisation and death by half. This is the first antiviral medication that can be taken orally.
New York City marathon was last week. The NYC marathon is the largest marathon in the world attracting over 33000 runners this year (down from over 50 000 in 2019). The winners under the male and female categories were, surprise, surprise, Kenyan! East Africa is a dominant force in long distance running and the world just has no idea what to do with us.
Astro world crowd surge killed 8 people. Travis Scott tweeted his apologies.
Bitcoin and Ethereum hit record highs this week. Crypto market cap is now above $3 trillion.
Portugal makes it illegal for a boss to text subordinates after work. How bad were Portuguese bosses that the employees decided they’d had enough and lobbied parliament to legally prohibit texts after work? Lol. Interactions with the boss after work are not very pleasant are they.
What I’m Reading
I’m reading Measure What Matters by John Doerr. I think I’ll come right out and say that this is a book written by an engineer. You can feel it. It’s straight to the point. He doesn’t place too much emphasis on the entertainment factor. It’s valuable for all you present and future CEOs. This book details why you should place accomplishment over credentials. Success is not about what you know, it’s what you can do with it.
The main idea of the book is how to use OKRs to achieve your company’s aims. OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results. Objectives are the overarching goals of the team, organisation or employee and Key Results refers to all the measurable milestones that need to be reached to achieve the Objectives. It’s a simple system that Intel and the wonder twins, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, among others, credit to their respective companies’ success.
Sergey and Larry had the ambitious goal of organising the world’s information back in the ‘90s. They built the company we have come to know as Google. They were the 15th web search company which was huge disadvantage. They blew their competition out of the water through diligent application of OKRs. They always held that Key Results are measurable. There can be no arguments there. No ambiguities. Key Results will usually have a number attached to them. In order to achieve Google’s objectives, they avoided the activity trap and focused on output. Maybe you and I should too.
OKRs work because they are public. Everyone in the organisation can see them. Every team has OKRs, every employee, even the CEO. Everybody knows what everybody else is working on at all times to allow for seamless alignment across all functions. A meritocracy flourishes in sunlight. Transparency kicks off virtuous cycles. It becomes easy to see where the company’s ideas come from. More importantly, it becomes easy to detect misalignment in teams which can cause many inefficiencies. I recommend this book. It will assist you in identifying what matters most as you deliver on your professional responsibilities.
If anything else happened this week, I missed it. Till next Sunday 👋🏾.
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