Herbie O'Brien died 26th January 2015... 1.30pm Detroit time.

My very good friend Herbie O'Brien died today, 26 January 2015.
I worked with Herbie in Flint Michigan. He was a former GM employee. Both Herbie and Ginny have stood by me in good times and bad.
Herbie had been ill for some time.
Lots of love and best wishes to Ginny, Herbies wife, and family.
RIP Herbie. A good man.

Proposal for an educational institution in Johor

Johor is in the process of building a grade one circuit.

Presently, it doesn't have an educational campus on its grounds.
I have added one... Its an imaginary one right now.
Johor has an EDU city as part of of its development plan.

I have to think such an institution would meet with its approval.

My friend Claus recently wrote and asked,
 "Where is this imaginary institute?"

So Claus, now you know!

 
 



I recently upgraded my computer skills

I recently upgraded my computer skills.
I took a course with a local training facility (http://www.go-train.co.uk/)
Finally, I managed to get this certificate.
I learned a lot, and enjoyed it.

The vast majority of the learning was delivered online.

We are very fortunate in this country, that our Government actually pays for this training. I have had experience with microsoft programmes. However, this course get me a much better overview.
You can buy online courses for about £125.
They are well thought out. Some microsoft tasks are similar in all programmes... Copy, Delete etc and this is repeated in all modules.

I got a little bored at one point and mixed the course with some other learning material.

The video's by Oliver Leamy, were in my opinion very good.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08ptDrhwYwVoDeTDj9PBA

 

Plus, for a small fee (£5 per course Excel, Powerpoint, Word) a company called screenlesson, give a good selection of mock exams with videos that show you best practice answer for each question.

http://www.screenlesson.com/

 

This gentleman, Sali Kaceli gives a good overview.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1D1aQhYKvsIYqHLUNgaqA

I can't claim to be a microsoft genius, but I did learn a lot and enjoyed.
Very worthwhile.

Would I work with Doctor Mahathir?

As anyone who reads this blog knows. I have been championing an educational based initiative since my time at Lotus Engineering Malaysia.
I believe it has merit (obviously). I however need a large well funded institution to fund and support the proposal.
Lotus are presently owned by the Malaysian consortium DRB Hicom.
They own Proton, who in turn own Lotus.
Dr. Mahathir, the ex Malaysian Prime Minister is the Chairman of Proton and Lotus.

Dr M now chairman of Proton and Group Lotus (Malaymailonline)

Dr. Mahathir is controversial. He appears to embrace controversy, and is not afraid to express his opinion.

Let’s have a ‘white’ PM next, says Dr Mahathir over new MAS boss (themalaysianinsider.com)
Dr Mahathir’s latest gaffe on Bible burning — Koon Yew Yin(themalaymailonline.com)
Dr M lauds Umno for keeping Sedition Act, bemoans silence on controversies (themalaymailonline.com)

Now speaking as an individual, I can’t say I would necessarily agree with burning bibles, or any other religious book come to that.
However, unlike Dr. Mahathir I was brought up in the “West”. I associate book burning as a prelude to authoritarian rule, quite possibly followed by World domination for the book burners particular brand of religion and political philosophy.
So would I work with Dr. Mahathir?
Well yes. I have a vision. It is based on a combination of industrial expertise, hardware and academic learning delivered online and in the classroom.
Dr. Mahathir is the chairman of my preferred partner. I would not throw the baby out with the bathwater because of fundamental differences of opinion.
Here is a picture of Dr. Mahathir meeting with Hilary Clinton.

Dr. Mahathir appears to be enjoying her company immensely, I am sure the same would apply to me.

Only time will tell.

Times they are a changing

I recently had a conversation with my friend at a hostel in KL.
Whilst supposedly promoting my pet project in Malaysia, I
stayed at RED PALM a lovely hostel in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
I became more than a guest during this time, and mucked in as and when required!

Here I am painting the toilet/shower room

Tilo, a partner in the hostel being highly artistic

The painting team: Naim, John, Herry, Sofie, Siti, Tilo, Fahan
Life is about the journey. You meet some interesting people along the way. I can honestly say this was the case with my REDPALM experience.
I wish them all the very best.
Talking of KL I read today that Tengku Djan and his Proton R3 team won the Sepang 1000km race today (Sunday).
When I’m not painting hostels, Tengku Djan is one of the people I try to get on board for my MUM proposal.

This Djan driving round Sepang in his R3 Proton earlier this year.
Certainly more glamorous than painting and decorating!

He would definitely be a good ally should he ever decide to support the initiative.

UNIQUE SELLING POINT

Over the years, I have met and been in contact with several CEO’s regarding my Educational plan.
Whilst none have dismissed the idea out of hand, none have proactively decided to move forward.
Here is an ex CEO of Lotus.
In many respects our starting point is the same. I would have to say Dany is a far better salesman than me!
Dany's recent TOPGEAR interview
TG: What exactly did you see in Lotus? You saw something there deeper even than some of its most partisan fans.
DB: I learned a lot from Ferrari, especially with regards to history. It’s taken 67 years to build what it has. Perhaps I was naïve, but I saw similarities. Being pragmatic, you start with the foundations. Maybe the Lotus heritage is not currently present in people’s minds, but at least you don’t have to create everything from scratch – the history is already there! The 007 Esprit. The Ayrton Senna connection. The JPS cars. Seven F1 world championships… All there. Obviously it was more difficult than I thought, but there was so much wonderful heritage… I thought with the right investment and the right people, we should be able to unlock that potential. Look, I’m ambitious. If we wanted to achieve 100 per cent, I would go for 110.
MY PLAN WOULD ALSO UNLOCK THAT POTENTIAL.

Today, in the UK there are many good quality educational facilities offering Motorsport based learning.
http://www.ukmotorsport.com/starting/jobs.html

Bolton Institute,

Brooklands College,

Cranfield University,

East Berkshire College,

Farnborough College of Technology,

Highbury College,

Leeds College of Technology,

Loughborough University,

Myerscough College,

University of Central Lancashire.

Northbrook College,

Oxford Brookes University,

Football has similar courses…

One appears to be somewhat unique!


UCFB are a Football based University.
They have now opened their second Campus. Yes, at Wembley Stadium.

This Football based educational institution is a mirror of the physical campus aspect of my proposal.

Here are some of the people backing this institute.



Here is a picture of me trying to get this project off the ground.


Any help from people of real influence would be much appreciated!

My thoughts on the new Lotus plan... SUV and Sedan

I read that Proton and Lotus Management have met to discuss the way forward.
The plan may be to design and build an SUV and a Sedan car.
OK.
The last time Lotus designed a new car, the Evora, it competed with Porsche. Porsche did not notice any impact on its sales. I assume the R&D plus tooling costs for the Evora have not been effectively amortised in the sales.

So, is this the same thing, design an SUV which competes against Porsche?

The money for all this R&D will probably come from Malaysia. Certainly not from any profit Lotus makes.

So who is paying for this?

The Malaysian Government. Proton will ask for a grant.
Or
Petronas (Malaysian Government owned).

These two bodies will ask... "Whats in this for us?"

Convincing them that this will give long term employment to "Malaysian" engineers and will be highly profitable raising their profile internationally, and locally will be difficult. IMO.

Both DRB Hicom and Petronas have bona fide Universities, as standalone businesses.

Petronas has a large Motorsport budget/prescence... You can see where I am going with this!

If Lotus Styles and designs and new platform or two. Use this R&D work to produce saleable educational modules.

When the business case is made and successfully implemented, produce saleable "Entreprenuer" educational modules.

Package the homologation process into saleable educational modules.

Marketing the products can be modulised and sold as educational products.

I won't go on. I'm sure you can see where I am going.

This would be a Unique selling point.

University students are normally government funded (cheap loans or free) and often spend enough per year of study to pay for a small car.

So if we said a three or four year spend per pupil would equate to a car sale we wouldn't be to far away.

In America, Phoenix University has about 1/2 million students.

If we (yes I want to be part of this) target 1 million clients globally, lets say this would be like selling 250,000 cars per year.

This global exposure would give Lotus/Proton/Petronas a positive exposure.

It is potentially, financially sustainable. It is ethical. However, it requires a little bit of "Outside the box" thinking.

I'm sure the Proton/Lotus board would be more than capable of selling it to "Potential Investors".