What applies to business applies to life?

We all know by the sheer volume of DIY and property shows that have originated in the UK that there must be some thing of a knack for business and project management ingrained in the average citizen. Applying high levels of advanced planning to this kind of project usually pays dividends. Naturally English have thought to apply the same levels of diligence to other facets of life.

On favourite pastime of the English is to plan Holidays. Whether this is related to a sense of project management, or ingrained desire to leave cloudy Brittani for some sun remains to be seen. I'm not just talking about planning a holiday, I'm talking about planning a holiday to the max, all included in a nice package - complete with payment plan (should one chose). Thing is Brits book these package holidays that far out, that anything could happen in the mean time. The travel company could go bust. Their personal circumstances could preclude them being able to make the trip. etc. Naturally all this leads rather conveniently to another rubbish financial product - travel insurance - the kind that includes all that extra crap that covers these eventualities. So why do Brits do it? Why do they pay through the nose for all manner of questionably unnecessary holiday extras (when in all likeliness they are just going to get drunk at night and lie on the beach all day), then take out a ridiculously priced insurance policy on the whole shebang, and potentially ice it off by paying for it on personal finance. I reckon it has to be a desire to plan ones pursuits in life like a business - planning months or years ahead in business is common practise, and progress in business often comes with coughing up cash in regular payments. Perhaps on the one hand it looks like holidays in the sun is all they have to look forward to, or to brag to colleagues to!

So you don't believe me on all this holiday stuff - go and open a British tabloid (or even a flashier broadsheet) newspaper - these are loaded with holiday 'packages'. Funny thing about these holidays is that if the protagonists involved simply got educated on their destination rather than the deals, i'm sure they could snag even better offers on accommodation and activities. Furthermore a bit of freedom never hurt anyone - booking later, and booking activities/ accom when you use them may cost a little more, but also leaves more options open. Potentially it may even be cheaper given the opportunity to haggle with poorly occupied hotels.

Holidays are not the only thing English people like to plan as if they were running a business. As i have touched on before, they also like to purchase assets ina similar manner to businesses - in payments - also known as finance. Finance is not really a new concept to an Australian such as myself, Aussie Bogans have been maxing out mortgages and credit cards for decades - not to mention buying furniture on x months interest free terms. 
What is staggering by comparison is the manner in which English employ yet another rubbish financial product. I'll give two examples of acquaintances of mine. The first earns a reasonable salary for someone his age, and decided to treat himself to a new car, on finance of course. All and good i suppose, if it enables you to get to work reliably in order to earn money. Nope, he has a new performance car that cost about 10k - yet today he complains about social commitments to going out for dinner - but surely for a once a month event that is cheaper than the interest he pays per week !
Another ludicrous example of finance is yet another acquaintance of mine who intends to buy a 1k bicycle frame. on finance. over 2 years. Few things here - you would want to be bloody good to pay that much for a frame - I've represented my country in the sport, and by current steed which sees probably 5k miles a year cost 80 quid. On this form i would not dream of spending any more. Thing is this bloke hasn't turned a pedal in 2 years! Then he intends to put a race bike on Finance? They are usually obsolete / worn out within that pay off period!


Not only do English love to pay for things in instalments, they also like to 'pre-buy' - in a similar manner that a business does when setting up or launching a new product. The classic English example is buying a car prior to having a licence. Yepo i know someone in this boat too. He's just bought a near new car on finance - a few months prior to actually being able to drive it!

Whats the moral to all this? Don't run your life like a business. The key thing about buying things in advance and in payments in business is the capital cost of these things, and the fact that they are purchased in order to pay for themselves by value adding to the business. Critically anything bought with personal finance is likely to depreciate in value, and is not likely to earn it's keep. clearly then, business concepts should not be applied to individual lives! Perhaps this is also where it needs to begin when it comes to the debt crisis too?

Electric cars

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to go to an event run in aid of recruiting young people to the automotive industry on behalf of work. Initially I was amused that work would be supporting this (I work for a manufacturer of industrial diesel engines), given that the event promotes a ‘green’ electric car future – naturally I felt even odder driving a massive yank tank there in the middle of the UK countryside!

Seeing some of the other manufacturers there, it really is hilarious the state of affairs with electric cars – Peugeot were offering a ‘zero emission’ vehicle. Pitty is the way they package it; customers are able to swing into a dealership and borrow a gasoline powered car, should the electric car not be fit for purpose for a longer journey – essentially going against the whole idea in the first place! Hearing the sales bloke crack on about it to a rather educated skeptic who was having a good dig, it would seem that you would be spending a significant amount of time at that bloody dealership – the electric thing is targeted at commuters who have a significant amount of time during the day to charge the car at work.

Nissan was also there with an electric car – with a claimed range of 100 miles. The guy selling the thing clearly had a massive chip on his shoulder – accelerating the thing madly in front of people – so electric cars produce peak torque from the word go? All well and good that is – until it comes to battery life! Yep the guy ran it flat and had to plug it into a diesel generator for several hours in order just to make it home! BUT had he had a diesel engine in the car itself, it could have been running for a mere fraction of that time, and with a fraction of the transmission losses! Thing is too, in the UK market, these things would most likely be charged from the national grid – which is largely coal fired. Not really an improvement over a light duty internal combustion engine given the the compromises.!

This all got me thinking, so I did a bit of research on Peugeot’s offering – the iOn – offered new for a shade over 33k GBP with a 93 mile tank range. Interestingly you can score yourself a 207 wagon for a shade over 13k that has a diesel donk capable of 67 combined MPG – I’d be taking the up front saving and banking on that – particularly with 800 mile or so tanks! Don’t even get me started on the energy or materials required to make either of them – I’m pretty sure the conventional car uses a ton less energy and rare earth metals to manufacture.  

Overall I think this excitement over electric cars as a solution to commuting raises a very fundamental issue – the massive trend in society towards commuting. Fundamentally if resources on this planet are to be conserved this is one of the first places to look! People should not be so hung up as to where they live – driving hours per day for work to enjoy so called ‘lifestyle’ benefits is a joke – can anyone seriously enjoy these benefits during the week when they are working massive hours, and then stressing themselves driving back in the evening?

Similarly, in this day and age it is lunacy that employers in specialized industries insisit on the ‘bums on seats’ mentality – imagine if those with family lives already setup away from their new employer do not necessarily want to drive to work everyday – well it’s here folks – in most parts of the civilized world internet is now fast enough to effectively enable this – with the ability to dial into meetings, and sharing data. If we are to improve our carbon footprint – why are countries such as Australia not supporting the rollout of high-speed broadband. This nicely brings me to my next point of capital investment.

Another reason why commuting culture is so damn prevalent is the lack of viable alternatives – in countries like Australia there are no regional railways, or any other suitable transport networks to travel long distance apart from the car for commuting – In Britain it is a similar problem – even with ridiculous fuel prices, it is often cheaper to drive than take the non-subsidized public transport. What needs to happen to get public transport up and rolling is capital investment in infrastructure, and long- term government subsidized fares  It works in the rest of continental Europe, but of course Business is king in Britain, so the public naturally gets a short tax break, and otherwise raped.

Of course the best solution must be a bicycle or walking – no emissions, and a bit of exercise to boot. I’ll keep riding mine – It takes less time than the train to cover 30 miles per way, it’s less stressful than the car, and it means I can eat whatever I like. Now I just have to wait for my ankle to recover so I can start doing it again!

So for starting on electric cars, I have ended up quite a while off. In essence the very problem these things set out to solve, are already technologically solved – what needs to happen is a cultural and political shift to crack down on car commuting, to ensure that the alternatives become reasonable and culturally acceptable.