"Management theory is becoming a compendium of dead ideas"

This week's Economist gives a compelling comment to the guru business in management, by drawing the parallel to the reformation of the Catholic Church. Obviously management education also gets its part of criticism. No surprise. But to be fair, the "theories" quoted here, and those often taught, are not theories. Or does anybody seriously believes in Porter's Five Forces? Or thinks that SWOT-Analysis is an analysis? Or Blue Ocean Strategy is a strategy? The "World is Flat"? Big Data? Not even to talk about the mantras of people like Jack Welch and newly also the Donald Trumps? Leadership! The Art of the Deal? Think Big and Kick Ass. Come on! That's just story telling. Nobody with a brain takes this serious. It is just picking a few handy things out and putting them into a framework, or developing an ideology around them. Like "competitive theory", which already mutated into an ideology long ago. Or "entrepreneurship" which is a cult. It is just meant to sell a few ideas to a boarder audience. Nothing serious. Just a reality show. Not reality. Think of it like of Santa Claus. Nice story, specially at this time of the year. That's it. The rest is just a different costume: one is red, the other one gray or navy blue.

But there is a lot of serious work done to understand the mechanisms of businesses and markets better. It is just not done by Santa Claus in a suit. People work on this and do come to meaningful conclusions. And then there is the "academic research" which is often used as a synonym for "useless". My observation is, that this is because often academics in this field, choose research questions which give them a quick paper in a journal with a high "impact factor". We know the game, right? We know what "impact" this impact factor has. 

But this does not mean to abolish the scientific method, common sense, evidence, math. What I always found interesting is that in the practice of natural sciences, we try to strip down complexity to bare fundamental principles. By contrast, "management theory" tries to cover up weak fundamentals by a big narrative body. 

I was often thinking, why these guys don't go deeper. From the few I have met, I have an impression: because they can't. Not smart enough. The second reason, maybe that they are not really interested. They are happy with some fame, and then they start to believe in themselves. Reform needed, or to put it in church terms: Reformation. But again, it is more who we listen to, than what to believe in.

Starting the Christmas baking season

We have an excellent little bakery in the village, named "David's Bakery for Maltese and Fancy Bread". So there is no wish unfulfilled. But today, I wanted to test the Panasonic NN-DF383B as an oven by baking a bread. Think of it as the MiG-35 or F/A-18E Super Hornet of the kitchen: multi-role, high tech, compact. Exactly what a German-Chinese household needs! Once the needed capabilities were found in the manual, it was just about getting ingredients and a recipe. 

Obviously Italian wheat flour, Type Double Zero.

For an easy bread baking recipe, I asked my sister and it goes as follows:

1. Dissolve 1 table spoon of dry yeast, a bit of salt and sugar in 1/4 litre of water. Add 500 grams of flour and make a dough. I added a hand full of walnuts, as I had spare ones from my muesli production.

2. Let the dough grow one hour in a warm place.

3. Bake it 45 minutes at 180 degree Celsius. Pardon me for quoting metric units, but perhaps like this it is safer that it does not turn into anything like "English bread".

Finished. Is good. Added 15 minutes to the baking time. If you knock on the bread and it sounds "knock knock knock" then it needs more baking, until it sounds "bumm bumm bumm". Hope that is clear. No? Try.

Simple bread baked in a Panasonic NN-DF383B.

Mixed mode ferry commute from Kalkara to the University of Malta (Msida)

On my quest to find nice ways of commuting, I just explored this one from Kalkara to the University in Msida. It includes on the way a coffee at the Cafe Cordina in the morning, or in the evenings a glass of wine in the Baccara Gardens, overlooking the Grand Harbour from the Saluting Battery. This makes every commute a small adventure, and the journey goes as follows:

• 10 min or 40 min past the hour, leave Kalkara and walk through the Birgu Ditch which is the West part of the Fortifications of Birgu. Should the gate be locked in the early morning, follow the road (equal walking time, just less spectacular).

• Full or half of the hour, take the ferry from the Cospicua Pier and cross the Grand Harbour to the Valletta Waterfront Pier (takes 15 minutes)

• Cross Valletta by foot, 30 minutes are enough to include the above mentioned coffee on the way. You may take the lift up for EUR 1,50 (the way down is free).

• 15 min and 45 min past the hour, take the ferry to Sliema. You will land at "The Strand". Cross the road and you will see a bicycle renting station operated by Nextbike Malta. Download and install the application and register your account beforehand.

• Cycle from the Sliema Nextbike Station about 5 minutes to the Station of the University Sports Complex. The bike rental under 30 minutes is free (as of December 2016). Lock and return your bike and cross the underpass up the hill and you are on the Campus of the University of Malta. A campus map can be downloaded here.

The commute takes you 85 minutes. You can easily turn around the schedule for the way back, by using the ferry schedule leavelets, which you may download here. Here you can also see the limits of the ferry schedule in the morning and at night. Not the shortest way, but a nice one.

After 15 minutes walk, exiting the Birgu Ditch

Less than 5 minutes more walk: The ferry between Cospicua (the Three Cities) and Valletta Waterfront leaves every full and half hour and takes 15 minutes to Valletta. 

The way to work, passing more interesting vehicles than cars.

Nextbike station in Sliema, opposite the ferry pier.

The campus of The University of Malta on a winter day.

Hiding in the bushes

Malta has hot summers. Having a bit of shade is good then. Now is winter and we are around 20 Degrees Celsius during daytime. Beside a small herb and vegetable garden, it is good to start growing something bushy which gives some cover in the hot season. There is a sunny and a shady place to think about. I like Bougainvillea, since my time in the South China Sea and it goes together with an orange tree in the sun. Both I planted in terracotta amphores. That needs a bit more water than the modern containers. But I will manage with an irrigation computer, also for the time I am travelling. Also I started two wine plans, and let's see later this year how that goes. 

For the shady side of the house Hedera Algeriensis is a species of the evergreen ivy which is named by its habitat: the North African coast and the Algerian mountains. It is an invasive species, which drops air roots. That's why I will keep away from the walls. Once the roots connect a wall, you have to burn them off. It seems to be extremely robust though. 

Hedera algeriensis

Sittin' on The Dock Of The (Rinella) Bay again - finally

I am back. My bays of choice to "sit on" are Kalkara Harbour and Rinella Bay, both just down the hill from home. It is Sunday, and so I am "sittin' on", in the best sense of Otis Redding (click here to listen), "... watching the tide role away ... wastin' time". No change. Still the old beauty of Valletta in the backdrop. I have been traveling for months around the planet and I even had to catch a mouse at home, when I came back. Killed it with a tuna can. One shot. Then made a Pizza Tonno (tuna pizza). Was okay. I don't like canned food, and I think it was a very old preserve. Good it served dual purpose. Felt like Odysseus returning to Ithaca. Just no bow and arrow, but tuna. And "Penelope" still in Frankfurt taking exams.

Rinella Bay on the 4th of December, 2016

Yokohama 1868 - 1912

Excellent exhibition at the the Museum für angewandte Kunst: early photos, prints and sketches from the time Japan was opened to foreign influences, and reformed subsequently. Curated by Stephan von der Schulenburg. It is still on until January 29th. A pity I missed all the lectures and workshops, which came along with the exhibition.

Christmas Calendar Countdown

Today marks the 4th Sunday before Christmas, which we call First Advent. As we celebrate in Germany December 24th as 'Holy Night' (slightly different from the Anglo-American tradition of Boxing day in the 25th), today the first of 24 little doors of the Christmas calendar is opened. Behind all of them is a little picture, and in some cases even chocolate. Also, the first of 4 candles is lit.

Surprise, surprise: A drummer behind door 1 of 24.

Tilburg Student Feedback deposited by an Expedition of MBA students of The University of Hong Kong at N22°11'16'', E114°7'38''

Dear Students of the International Business Master Programme of Tilburg University - as promised, I deposited the access to further feedbacks and some little goodies for your discovery and pick on your Hong Kong field trip in 2017. I was kindly accompanied by a fearless group of MBA students from The University of Hong Kong, who send their greetings. You find the feedback under the base rock of the overhanging boulder structure at N22°11'16'', E114°7'38''. Climb Mount Stenhouse, on Lamma Island, an island in the South China Sea. It is a two hours climb to the summit. From there, cut yourself through the bushes and jungle for about an hour heading SSW. Take a GPS which is independent from your phone (for safety navigation and communication have to be separate and redundant systems - you will be able to connect to overlapping networks of the People's Republic of China, even you are not on their territory). Before you climb under the rock, step on it hard a few times to scare away snakes (noise does not help, they can't hear you). The island has been a Japanese venomous snake antidote laboratory in World War II, and they mostly escaped. That's why you find Cobras and even Banded Kraits here. Take a machete. We are not looking for Pokemons here. What else? Yes, looking forward to hear whether you got up there. And as always: have a nice day.

Me, depositing the feedback for Tilburg University on the 13th of November, 2016 (Photo credit: a student from this year's HKUMBA Class - don't know who - tell me).

The group of MBA Students of The University of Hong Kong, who joined me up there on November 13th. They all made it back safely, even tough a bit scratched. That's just what happens when you leave the comfort zone: it's uncomfortable. They had a great spirit.

Nearly back, still (mostly) smiling. Well done. See you in the Financial Times in 5 years. If not, I wasted my time. 

My Eleventh year of Hong Kong

I am again leaving Hong Kong at the end of my latest stay. Now it is the 11th year, since the territory was my home and later my destination. The tree I planted five years ago in the jungle of Lamma Island has been succeeding in its struggle for light, and is now ranking above the bushes. The Bauhinia tree in front of my guesthouse window, at the steep edge of the campus of the University of Hong Kong, blossomed late this year. It was an exceptionally warm autumn. I will continue returning to Asia in the years to come. Even though Hong Kong is in a self induced decay, it is still a base in the centre of an exciting world region. And when it further merges in the Pearl River Delta region, it will also have a broader role to play again. Never the less, the size of such, is not why I am here anyway. 

Bauhinia tree outside my window.

Dezső Bozóky's Pictures of the Past

Following the advise not to do physical exercise after receiving my influenza vaccination (colloquially also known as flu shot or even "jab" for those who prefer to speak reduced vocabulary), I decided to instead visit the University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong. This is one of the few cultural stepping stones, you may set foot on when walking the territory, and not wanting to dip into shopping malls and crowds. I was attracted this time by the photo exhibition featuring the pictures of the Hungarian the surgeon Dr. Dezső Bozóky, taken during his travels in East Asia 1907-1909, and illustrating his impressions by quotes from his diary. As we all know, it was a very different Hong Kong back then. 

Man Mo Temple,124–126 Hollywood Road (1908)

I liked the exhibition a lot (which will be on until January 8th), and also I spent quite some time with studying the catalogue which is a documentation of views and thoughts by the visiting photographer from a different time. It is available for 150 HK$ (about 18 Euros) in the museum's tea house, which is also recommended, and one of the places I like to hang out when I am here. The rest of the museum is either redecorating or lost a few of its exhibits from the accessible areas. But it is still a nice place with a long gone Hong Kong spirit.

Queen's Building, Central waterfront, and Kowloon Ferry Pier (1908)

60 Queen's Road, looking towards the Pedder Street Clock Tower (1908)

Dezső Bozóky's photos show street scenes, portraits and landscapes of and in Hong Kong 1907-1909. They are presented as glass slides of about 30 cm x 30 cm and are partially hand coloured.

Cover pages of the catalogue and exhibition leaflet

Storm landed

Today, I ran up to the Victoria Peak, not just for normal exercise, but to observe the landing of the tropical cyclone "Haima". First comes absolute silence, then rain, then torrential floods, and then the furious wind kicks in. It seems most people observed the warning not to go outside, and the loneliness added to the spectacular atmosphere. As I was brought up in a forest, I followed my instinct which path to take and which other to avoid. You get a feeling, which tree will hold and which one might not. But it's of course not more than a feeling. The best is to stay away from them - if you can. Just a falling branch can cause serious damage.

Hong Kong in suspense, waiting for Taifun "Haima". Just before noon time on the 21st of October, 2016.

Lost a bet against myself

After we had a "Black Signal Rainstorm" in Hong Kong yesterday, which was in context of the tropical cyclone "Sarika" landing in Hainan, I thought that this must be now really (!) the end of the Taifun season. We even had to postpone last night's lectures, according to Hong Kong regulations. But no, just a day after, "Haima" is heading strait towards Hong Kong, with a sustained wind speed at storm centre of 150 km/h. I really thought, we have seen the last one for 2016. I lost a bet against myself. "Haima" might be a direct hit. I am planning a full day lecture on Saturday. Let's see how that goes.

"Haima" track forecast, as of the Hong Kong Observatory on October 20th, 7:00 p.m.

Back to campus

Hong Kong neither feels home anymore, nor in any way exotic. Don't know what it really is for me at this point in time. To be fair, this time I have not seen much, because I was extremely occupied last week and spent my time in Cyberport. Now I am back to campus. Let's see what I will discover in the month to come.

Back to campus in Pokfulam

Bel Air residential development adjacent to Cyberport. Not really thinking outside the box.

View from the new part of the main University campus

Life at the Westwood exit of the MTR (subway) station Hong Kong University.

Sad news in Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong. Watched two movies on the flight. One was "Steve Jobs". I think I could follow the plot quite well, because I know most of the Apple products and versions of the company's early days. Also, I read the Steve Job biography before, even I don't fancy very much what I know about his personality. I have my own experiences working with assholes, who blow their technical incompetence into the genius miracle saga orbit by an aggressive ego. But I have no first hand experience with Steve Jobs, so I can't say anything about him. The other movie was the latest James Bond, called Spectre. Car was okay (Aston Martin DB10), bond girl also (Lea Seydoux). Then I fell asleep a few hours.

What struck me upon arrival, was the message that our good friend Peter Olaf Looms suffered a fatal heart attack in Argentina. He was travelling to visit family with his wife Clementina. Last thing I saw from him was a question on how to reduce evaporation from a water reservoir. Then the communication halted on October 2nd. He died October 3rd. I am very sad about this. In April this year, we all still were greeting summer with a glass of wine, over the Grand Harbour of Valletta. We strolled around Malta and Gozo together and took a shaky boat into the Blue Grotto. 

We met Peter the first time at the breakfast room of the University guesthouse. He was a new arrival to the other Professors who were meeting there every morning. I remember, that I asked Feibai who he was, and she said: "I don't know. But he is a very intelligent man". Peter became Feibai's mentor and choached her for her research proposal for the Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, where she is now doing her PhD. No matter where in the world the other one was, these two were on WeChat every day - exchanging papers, and thoughts and questions. Slowly I learned, how much energy Peter had, and how committed he was to guide his mentees. And I also slowly grasped how many of them there were, and over how many years, and where on the planet. Everywhere. Some of them turned into respected intellectuals and scientists. Others into political dissidents. From Bolivia to China, Peter shaped ideas and lives. He was in the end even my mentor, because I admire how he did that. Now he is gone. Not just, he did not come back to our little circle in the breakfast room, where we all have been expecting him. He is away. I am really sad. Everybody is. 

Morning walk after a rainy night in Pokfulam. Taifun warning signal #1 hoisted today.

I am staying away from the buzz of Hong Kong these days. The touch down in the guesthouse was a good start. Then moved to hotel closer to Cyberport for a week, for practical reasons. Hotels rarely have an atmosphere I really like. It is a nice hotel. But I think, if you travelled a lot, you might know what I mean.

It's Friday. The English leftovers and new arrivals are getting drunk in the hotel bar by this time of the week. The prostitutes from Shenzhen are preparing for a hard working night. And the sun has set over the Lamma Island Strait.

Evening view from Telegraph Bay to Lantau Island.

Städel Museum Frankfurt

The Städel Museum is one in a row of museums on the Southern bank of the river Main in Frankfurt. But it is for sure the most outstanding one, and among the top arts museums in Germany. We took the chance for a visit on a still relatively sunny day, having also our "annual sandwich lunch at the river" this time at the Main. This comes in the row of Northern Canal in Beijing, Trent, again Northern Canal in Beijing, and the river Lahn. The museum really has an impressive collection. And also the attached book shop is of a quality which most of today's museum bookshops don't reach. Only little disappointment was, that Vermeer's Geographer has been lent to a partner museum in Russia until next year. Another good reason to come back.

"The Geographer" (1669) by Johannes Vermeer (copyright: public domain)

Fiona Tan's "Geography of Time" (Geographie der Zeit)

"Geography of Time" was a solo exhibition which made me want to visit the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art (Museum Moderne Kunst). Fiona Tan was born in Pekanbaru (Indonesia) and lives and works in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. I liked her installations and videos around the topics time, memory and identity. Still somehow my morphology of time is different, and found it hard to connect. Also I strolled through the rest of the museum, which is a quite concise one. Liked some of the photography work shown, but most other things I do not fancy too much.

Fiona Tan's solo exhibition "Geography of Time" (Geographie der Zeit) can be seen in the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art (MMK) until 18th of January 2017.

Getting ready for the Robots

Today I went to the branch of the German Postal Savings Bank, called “Postbank” in German. My first bank account was with them. It was opened by my grandparents for me, when I was a child. It came with a little book, in which all my savings were tidily recorded and each booking was sealed with a stamp and signature. I have stayed with the Postbank for nearly 50 years. I paid my driving license from these childhood savings, then I deposited what was left of my slim Army payments there, and this helped me during my first year at University. Once, I was even allowed a little overdraft for a few weeks to purchase my textbooks for the new semester. They somehow did not charge me any interest, and I think it was one of the people in the post office who turned a blind eye on it. Thanks for that. I don’t forget these things.

Now, I will not leave the Postbank, but I went to the branch to say farewell to its people: shook hands, hugged the little fat one who will retire soon, and wished the younger ones all the best for their future. They were never really competent and sometimes they even made me angry. But hey, nobody is perfect. It’s okay. Best wishes.

Now, the robots are coming. Let’s see how perfect they will be. From November my experience at Postbank will look differently. I received a letter, which I nearly regarded as advertisement and wanted to throw it away unseen. But then it turned out that if I don’t change to a pure “online account”, I will be charged a quite handsome fee. No matter how much money I have deposited with them. No matter how good my good credit rating is. And it also does not matter how long I have been banking with them. Soon the robots will take care of my little household transactions, and I will never ever have to go to a Postbank branch again. That’s fine. I am a “tech guy” and I speak their language.

Postamt, Frankfurt Bockenheim. 

Already time to leave Tilburg again

My Tilburg visit is already over and I have to say, this time, it was too short due to other travel arrangements and my delayed arrival. Students and colleagues were great and it was a real pleasure and privilege to be here. I am looking forward to come back to campus in 2017 and also to explore the Netherlands again a bit more then. Now it is nearly time to head for Malta with a short stop over in Frankfurt. Still no sign of autumn here, which is very exceptional this year. 

Exploring the land of canals from the waterside.

Tilburg arrival

Unfortunately, I arrived a week delayed in Tilburg due to my Malaria. And I find the recovery of fitness is going rather slowly. Of course, this is not a complaint, as this kind of Malaria is still a life threatening disease and it seems no surprise that a full recovery is not done in days but weeks. I am visiting Tilburg University and Lecture in the Master of International Management, as I also did last year. It is a very enjoyable environment with bright students, nice colleagues and good infrastructure. It is an amazing late summer this year, while in the same period of 2015 I was taking pictures of a commencing autumn here. Most of Northern Europe is experiencing record temperatures these days. And of course many people see this with pleasure and concern at the same time. 

I am also looking a bit deeper into the economic development of Tilburg, including the recovery from the time after the decline of the textile and leather industry. One of the newest achievement is that Tesla has opened an assembly plant, in the commercial zone. The city revived after depression with services, logistics, food and beverage production. It is experimenting with "unconditional minimum income" for every citizen, no ties attached. And it turned itself, not into an architectural beauty, but a modern and clean habitat, which in many ways appears like it could serve as a model for others and future cities. This fits into a research topic I am going to deepen in 2017 with some projects.

Tesla at Tilburg. After a great test drive of the Model S (photo snapped by Jeroen Kuilman).

How to maximize health care provision in small island states

Recently Sandra Buttigieg, Frank Bezzina and I have been starting to analyse the Economics of the Maltese health care system, and asking the question how it can maximize health care provision for its citizens. The task was to find out, how to combine the value chains of the public health care system (namely the health centres and the Mater Dei Hospital in Msida, modelled after the UK's NHS) and those of private clinics, in a way that the overall output and quality of care is at its best and accessible to everybody. As of the different shareholder and stakeholder interests, classical private-public partnerships might not be the best solution. But we found more and more that there are other ways of potential collaboration between the systems. So, we are looking into the promotion of medical tourism to boost up case numbers, increase specialization and make investments into laboratory support and infrastructure feasible. There is also other evidence that the kind of contracts doctors are operating on (private practice allowed or not) have an impact on the failure rates of medical procedures. Lastly, every patient who decides for private sector treatment, saves the public sector provision of capacity. The question is whether this potential public saving could translate into a financial incentive for citizens to pick up private health insurances. 

I am happy that the results of the initial work we did together, have been published in the Health Economics Section of the Frontiers in Public Health. Thanks to Sandra's restless editorial work for the Frontiers, it is free to download here. We will continue on this path, and hope not just to make a contribution to Malta, but also to learn from this model for other small states. If you like to join the discussion, you are very welcome.