Thursday, April 23, 2015

CSR projects and the spirit of giving

Today my Sister put her book on Kindle.
ALL ROYALTY PAYMENTS GO CHARITY
Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Centres Trust (Maggie’s)
 
As you may know, I along with Claus and Tilo Werner produced a book. This book is available on Amazon (POD) and Kindle.
This was done to benefit charity, ROKPA and was used as a CSR project for my MUM proposal.
Whilst we publicised ourselves doing this, none of us received any cash for our efforts. Nor will we in the future.
Follow this link if you want to read the story behind the story.

In my Sisters case, the writing of the book is a personal account of her feelings. So it helped her cope while being diagnosed with and receiving treatment for cancer.
 So out of a negative experience, something positive arose. Feel free to read her story and by doing so help a cancer charity help others in a similar position.
Corporate social responsibility and Personal social responsibility are both laudable.
I think most of us hope to leave the World a slightly better place than we found it.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Lotus and Goldstar sign off on a joint venture.

Lotus International have signed another agreement to offer design support for Youngman in China.
In return Youngman can sell their cars as Goldstar Lotus.
This was reported in the Malaysian media today.
I have borrowed this picture from Paul Tan who reported this.
Proton Chairman Dr. Mahathir is in the centre. The respective representatives of Goldstar and Lotus are shaking hands.

Last time this happened, Lotus Engineering Malaysia supplied some of the Manpower. In fact a lot of the people who worked on the last such project remained in China. Many working for Magna. I assume Lotus will be looking for people. Proton might supply some from their own R&D centre in Shah Alam. Proton and Lotus are both owned by DRB Hicom in Malaysia.

Goldstar, if my memory serves me correctly were also the initial Chinese partner of choice when Tengku Mahaleel was CEO.

I suppose in the same way GM use the Chevy brand to sell (Daewoo) Korean produced cars worldwide Lotus may find its name on cars far and wide. Its down to money. Lotus doesn't make any.
It is a pawn in this game, in my personal opinion.

I'm sure Lotus and DRB Hicom will hope this works commercially. Lotus has a much stronger resonance abroad than Proton.

I would love to able to use the Lotus brand on my Educational proposal. Hopefully, some of the people in the picture read this blog!


Sunday, April 12, 2015

Linkedin buy Lynda.com online training portal for $1.5bn

Last night I watched Linda Yueh interviewing three high level University heads about online education.
It is now a serious business.
If you are in the UK you can view it on iplayer now.
In addition I see that Linkedin have paid $1.5bn for an online training portal.
Their shares rose by 1.5%
Good stuff.
Hopefully, I can garner some support for this project!
Wish me luck!