power

Position Power vs. Personal Relationship Power

Albert Zenkoff

The recent years saw the quick raise of the so-called “Personal Relationship Power” into prominence to the point where some people preach that it is the only thing that matters. I heard some American and Japanese colleagues actually teach the young and hopeful managers that the personal relationships are the only thing that works and that any manager worth his salt will be able to do whatever he needs with just that – the power of personal relationships – without the need to rely on position power.

As is often the case, this is not entirely untrue, so it sounds believable. On the other hand, it is not entirely true either, so it sounds suspicious if you stop to think about it. What is the deal here? The statement contains part truth and part lie, so in essence, it is false in its entirety but it contains enough truth in it to sound true.

Personal relations cannot replace position power, that is a simple fact. Try imagining that your manager does not have any power whatsoever over you but has to convince you to do your job as a favor to him every single day. Yes, you would probably like …
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Open Letter to the Emperor of Japan

Albert Zenkoff

Dear Tenno Heika,

Japan is an amazing country. Having lived there for a few years I learned a little about people and their beliefs, the way they do things. Japanese are a smart and enterprising bunch of people. Japan has built a perfectly stable economy within an incredibly stable society that is healthy in all possible ways and could be used as a textbook example of how to do things right. It pains me to watch this great country being destroyed now. The last two years are playing out as a really bad disaster movie or a nightmare that is impossible to wake up from. I feel my heart tearing apart every time I read the news about more economic atrocities from Shinzo Abe and his minions.

Why do I say Japanese economy is perfect?

Japan has achieved through hard labor what many people in so many countries dream about: the economic stability coupled with development and progress. There are many ways to define the “good living” but we would be wise to look at how well people do that live in the country now. Let’s look at some figures and compare with the subjective perception of the situation in …
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The Future of NFC Payments

Albert Zenkoff

Someone asked me to provide feedback on an article regarding The Future of NFC Payments (yes, capitalized, like in “Big Future”). I do not cherish the idea of giving up my contact details for a brochure download, so I did not read the actual paper. I cannot imagine why people would not want their ideas to be widespread. I think it is silly to force people to register when you want them to read your articles, for they will simply read it elsewhere.

Anyhow, back to the subject of mobile payments with NFC – that’s what the paper claims to be about. I do not really know what they said inside but seeing “NFC was hailed as one of the biggest trends for mobile operators for 2011” in the blurb is enough to get an idea of what might be on the inside.

Now, let’s be clear that mobile payments are a fighting ground for two large forces: the banking industry and the mobile service industry. Both of them deal with a lot of customers and a lot of cash. And none of them would willingly give up the payment transactions stream to another. One, the banking industry, owns the …
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