They said that big fortunes are made by families and transmitted from generation to generation among families members. A book that applies this rule is Master of the Game, written by Sidney Sheldon.
The story of the book is about the Blackwell family and the Kruger Brent Company. Over the years the Kruger Brent becomes one of the biggest companies in the world, a multi-million dollar business conglomerate. If I have to find an analog today it will be Berkshire Hathaway.
The analogy with Berkshire Hathaway stops here. The Kruger Brent has another story, a story about greed, betrayal, suspense, and murder.
Master of the Game can easily be considered a drama book. The Kruger Brent company was founded by Jamie Mcgregor a Scottish who had the desire to become rich by trying his luck in South Africa to find diamonds. The key player in this story is Kate the daughter of Jamies who later becomes Mis Blackwell after married David Blackwell.
Kate Blackwell was behind the success of Kruger Brent, she builds a financial empire, she sacrifices everything around her even the life of his son Tony Blackwell who later become isolated into an asylum, for the sake of his company.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this book is full of suspense and action.
"Il Capo dei Capi" is the movie that presents the life of the Salvatore Riina. After I've seen this movie, I was curious to discover more about the life of Salvatore Riina.
One opportunity was to read the book "The Life of the Infamous Toto Riina by Attilio Bolzoni and Giuseppe D'avanzo.
Salvatore Riina aka "U Curtu " or "The Beast" was one of the prominent leaders of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Born in Corleone Sicily the son of Giovanni Riina. After his father's death, he becomes in charge of the family affairs being the family's old brother.
From a young age, he started his criminal activity together with his friends: Bernardo Provenzano, Calogero Bagarella under the supervision of Leggio Luciano. In a short period, the coreleonesi gang controlled al Corleone after they killed Dr. Michele Navara.
The peasants from Corleone wanted more, they weren't happy with the control of their local town, they wanted Palermo and all of Sicily. With patience, cleverness, ferocity, and murder they controlled the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.
Salvatore Riina will remain in the history of Cosa Nostra who started a bloody war against the state. Victims of their ferocious actions were other leaders of Mafia-like: Bontate, Inzerillo , Busceta, police officers, magistrates, prosecutors like Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, and many more.
In conclusion, I recommend this book to discover more about the life of Salvatore Riina.
It passed a while since I wrote my last article. We are in a full Covid-19 Pandemic, many countries are in lockdown, many businesses are forced to close their operations only essential businesses are open.
It is a tough, difficult, and challenging period for many businesses. In today's article, I will present my personal solutions for industries and businesses that is been affected most by Covid-19.
The level of the impact differs from industry to industry, from businesses to businesses. If some industries are badly affected some industries less or even become more prosperous.
I will analyze only the industries that are most affected by Covid19.
As you can see in the image above the S&P Global Market Intelligence has done research on the industries that are most affected by Covide 19. The most affected industries are airlines, leisure, oil and gas, auto parts& Equipment, and Restaurants.
In this article, we analyze and come out with solutions in my view only the industries that are affected most. The industries that I will choose for this topic are Retail, Food, and Beverage, Hospitality Industry, and Travel Industry. So let's get dive into it
1 Retail Industry
(Retail Shops, Shops, Non-essential shops)
The retail industry is one of the industries that is affected by Covid-19 restrictions. The truth is those essential businesses are affected less than non-essential. Non-essential businesses are forced to close due to restrictions. For those businesses, the only helping solutions came from the Government. The Government provides Covid19 pandemic payments. The level of the payment differs from the size of the businesses and in which country the businesses are based.
My solution
If you are the owner of the shop who does not get any pandemic payment, the online solution to keep alive your business is to Go Online.
Going Online means the first start building a digital asset. The most important digital asset for every business is the website. My suggestion is: if your business does not have a website, I suggest to create a platform where you can sell your products. If your businesses have a website and do not convert, my advice is to update and optimize existing content. Social Media platforms are also ideal for promoting your business online. Here are some recommendations I don't go too deep on how to do digital marketing.
2 Food and Beverage
We can include this category businesses like restaurants, pubs, night clubs, and coffee shops.
Restaurants
Like many other businesses, restaurants are one of the businesses that are most affected by Covid 19.
My Solutions:
Managing this kind of business on Covid-19 Pandemic differ from the level of restrictions from country to country. If for example, your business is operating in a country where the government has eased some restrictions, a restaurant business can operate under normal conditions, but keeping social distance.
If your restaurant business is facing severe restrictions and can not operate under normal conditions, the only solution is to change the business model and transform it into a Food Delivery Business.
The transition from a restaurant to a food delivery business can be done. In the lockdown period, many restaurants have transformed into a food delivery business with success.
Pubs
The situation with pubs is a bit different from restaurants. If in some countries pubs remain closed during the Covid19 restrictions in some countries when the government ease restrictions let the pubs open for businesses. The only source for pubs to survive, like in restaurants cases are government payments. However, is a big difference in selling alcohol under-delivery business is prohibited in many countries. We took out this solution from the equation.
My Solutions:
Selling Stuff Online
When I say "selling stuff online" I don't mean alcohol as you probably think. Pubs are places designed for selling alcohol. Pubs have different characteristics and traditions from country to country. One example that I have in mind are Irish pubs. Irish pubs are promoters of Irish traditions, they promote the culture, music, and lifestyle of Ireland.
A business like this can take advantage of that by trying to promote traditions, culture, and lifestyle instead of selling alcohol. Temple Bar is a well know place in Dublin where you can find famous pubs.
If you are a pub owner you can try something to keep your businesses by selling different souvenirs online.
VR and Augmented Reality
In full Covid-19 Pandemic with many restrictions imposed by governments, creating a virtual world is the only solution that seems it will work, excepting social distancing that I have some doubts about the efficiency. VR technologies are in the early stage of development. I consider those technologies will have a huge impact on the near future.
From a pub business perspective creating a virtual world where you can feel and live the sensation of an Irish pub. Imagine what feeling you will have to be in a virtual world that replicates exactly The Temple Bar with traditional Irish music.
To be feasible first you need to be able to develop a Virtual Reality application, that can be accessed from a headset.
3 Hospitality Industry
In the hospitality industry, we can include businesses like: (Hotels, Resorts, Hostels and so on)
Is one of the industries that is been hit by the Covid19 Pandemic. Despite the introduction of restrictions, these businesses are still open for businesses. However, even if the businesses are open their profit margin is severely impacted. What can be done in this case? The answer not to many options. Even the options are few, I believe we should exploit them.
My Solutions:
Food Delivery Businesses
A hotel from example can easily transform the business model in food delivery businesses. In general, hotels provide food for their existing customers. I don't see any reasons why a hotel can not be converted to a delivery food business.
Selling Souvenirs Online
You can find hotels everywhere in the world. If you are based in a country that has traditions why you don't try to promote and sell it. Creating an online platform where you can sell different souvenirs that are representative of your country is a good solution. You might say: Well The income that you can get from selling these souvenirs will be enough to cover operating costs?
The answer is no, but I remember you that this kind of business is still open. So you can get an important percentage of your turnover from bookings.
VR & Augmented Reality
This kind of application can help to improve the user experience. I will give an example, Imagine you are a US citizen and want to book a hotel in Ireland Dublin. The person that is interested in making the booking can feel the experience of the hotel in a virtual world. If he likes the experience the probability to make the booking will be higher.
4 Travel Industry
The travel industry is big and includes many types of businesses. I will take only a few types of businesses. The businesses that I will choose will be Travel Agencies and Cruise Shipping Line.
Cruise Shipping Line
One of the industries that were hit badly by Covid19. It was sad to see companies that are liquidated and no longer exist and ships that are dismantled. I have friends that are working in the industry and I know how sad they are about this situation. For a cruise shipping line business there are not too many solutions that can be implemented to keep the business alive.
My Solution
VR & Augmented Reality
Living the experience of Cruise Line Shipping in a virtual world is not something S.F. Immersive VR Education is a software company based in Ireland dedicated to transforming how training and educational content is delivered and consumed. In the video above you have one of the applications developed by the company to recreate a virtual world for Titanic.
Having said that. Why some important cruise shipping line businesses like Royal Caribbean for example will not develop this kind of application to recreate the life of cruise shipping in a virtual world. Developing VR technologies can also help cruise shipping businesses to improve User Experience before somebody can make a booking.
Travel Agencies
Are also one of the businesses hit hard by Covid19 restrictions. For this kind of business like cruise shipping businesses, there are not too many solutions that can be done to keep this kind of business alive.
VR & Augmented Reality
To feel the experience to be in the Maldives or Seychelles from your headset is something that can make travel agencies around the world think seriously. Creating a virtual world for the Maldives islands for example is something that will improve the experience for potential users.
In conclusion, these are my solutions to how businesses can survive the Covid-19 Pandemic. I'm not saying that are feasible or will work 100 % but sometimes is far better to try to do something rather than nothing.
I consider skills one of the best assets that a person can have. Today having gifted with many skills is a real blessing. Skills are important and will remain important in the near future. We live in a period where science and technologies are moving very fast. What we been taught in the past is not valid in the present and will not be in the future.
In today's article, I will list my top 6
skills that need to have to be successful in the future.
1 Communication
Seen by many as not so important, communication is perhaps the most important skill that a person can have. I have to admit communication is not my strong part, actually, I'm very bad on this. Improving my communication skills is one of my tops priorities. Having good communication skills can improve your value with 50 % according to Warren Buffet.
2 Marketing& Sales
The concept is very simple: "you can't sell, you can't make money". In life and business, sales are what count most. The example that I have in mind now is Steve Jobs, he was an extremely good marketing guy. The presentation when he had introduced for the first time the iPhone was amazing.
Developing selling skills by digital marketing today is something that a person don need to miss if wants to become successful in the near future.
3 Coding
I discovered coding very interesting and I fall in love with this. Seen difficult by many, coding is a skill that you need to have success in the near future. The opportunities for software developers are endless.
Having coding skills like HTML, Javascript, Java, CSS can help you to solve some problems related to developing websites, apps, and other applications.
Coding can help you to develop complex systems using: machine learning, AI, and blockchain technologies.
4 Biotechnology
We are in a full pandemic crisis generated by the spread of COVID-19. The important biotech companies in the world are in a full race to develop a vaccine. The opportunities to be involved in the biotech field today are endless and with future perspectives.
Cellular agriculture is perhaps one of the most trendy parts of biotechnology today. There are companies startups that are working to create meat in another way that we used for. They are developing meat by culturing muscle tissues.
Agriculture is not the only domain where biotechnology is evolving. The food industry, medicine, plastic surgery are only a few fields.
5 Creativity and Content creation
If there are jobs that will not be extinct by AI, definitely will be jobs that imply creativity. People with creative skills can be successful in the near future. Social Media platforms are places where we can find those people starting with: bloggers, vloggers, and influencers.
6 Copywriting
After communication, I consider copywriting another important skill that a person should master if he wants to become successful in the near future. The two examples that I have in mind are Richard Branson and Bill Gates. What those people have in common? Both are successful business leaders and have a strong online presence on social media and they are posting periodically to their blogs.
In the last years I've been involved in some activities with the real estate companies. Dealing with real-estate agencies business have some disadvantages. Let's imagine the next scenario a person who wants to buy a house or apartment goes to the real-estate agency. The all process is bureaucratic and time-consuming. One modality to solve this problem is with the creation of a blockchain. Actual transactions are done following the path that you see in the next picture. As you can see all process is complex.
Today worldwide transactions reached a high record.
Dealing with a large number of transactions actual systems posses a lot of vulnerabilities and inefficiency. Back to our main topic of how a blockchain network can disrupt a real-estate agency business model? First, with the help of a blockchain network, third parties that are involved in transactions will disappear in our case real-estate agencies. And second, the process of buying and selling properties will be done more quickly.
Blockchain Network
For those who are not familiar with the term "blockchain". We can define blockchain as a process that facilitates and records transactions in a business network.
Advantages of a blockchain network vs real-estate agency business model
more efficient and reliable
cost-effective ( Commission for real-estate agencies will disappear )
information about transactions are more secure ( In traditional transaction systems every breach can pose a real threat to all system, instead in a blockchain network even is a breakout all system will not be compromised)
All transactions will be recorded in a shared digital ledger
A smart contract will appear, it will be an agreement between two people under a computer code
"Live the American dream" is a sentence that is widely used by many people in the world. There is no more suitable person that is fitted for this title than Andrew Carnegie. Known by many as steel business magnate the richest man in the world in that period. Andrew Carnegie together with John D Rockefeller were considered agents in the triumph of America industrial capitalism.
Carnegie remain in history records as person who was involved in many philanthropic activities, creating the biggest philanthropic organization in the world. Actual Giving Pledge Non Profit Organization founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet imported some ideas of Andrew Carnegie.
As businessman Carnegie was ruthless capitalist who was guided after the principle "The more you earn the more you have to give it away"
Thanks to David Nasaw who wrote this book, I have discovered important aspects related for his activity and life. Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 Dunfermline Scotland . Like many other european people he saw the potential of new world country and the decline of United Kingdom and other european countries that were drived by colonial expansion. He started his career in the new world as telegraph operator at Pennsylvania Railroad. At age 30 he resigned to start his own first business with Tom Scott and J Edgar Thomson and culminating with the sale of " Carnegie Steel" to J P Morgan in the early march of 1901 and the formation of US Steel Corporation. US Steel become the first company with over 1 billion $ capitalization. At that time Andrew Carnegie net worth was 226 millions $, merely 120 billion $ today.
One of his biggest regrets in his life was that he has not given away as he wanted. According with his treasurer Robert Franks at the time of his death he had given away more than 350 millions $ !!.
Like I said at the beginning of this article he was not only a ruthless capitalist but also a person who militate for slavery abolish. Was one the vehement critique at colonial expansion, one of the reasons of the start of first world war. He openly has critiqued United State military interventions in Venezuela and Philippines. Despite his business has flourished from the building on naval battleships , he was strong critique to military buildup spending. During his entirely life he tried to promote peace and stability among countries. All his efforts were in vain , he could not prevent the start of the WWI.
What I did not like to Andrew Carnegie?
Andrew Carnegie achievements in life are amazing, great business leader, great philanthropist a person who has contributed to the building a society that no other. Achieving this, he become an important person with great power to influence people. Former US presidents like: Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were influenced by Carnegie marked the beginning of a period where Rockefeller and Carnegie influence started to become part of United States policy.
In the end I firmly recommend David Nasaw book to discover the life of one of the most important person in our modern society.
The natural resources that we found on Earth are not endless who probably many of us think. I consider the biggest challenge for the next period is " How we can preserve our natural resources. Mankind are looking to find viable and alternative solution to solve these problems. Global warming is a big concern among specialists. Thanks to industrial expansion which in many cases is done by deforestation and transform it in agriculture and industrial land. For me was very sad to see how the Amazon rainforest is exploited by humans in desire to obtain more profit and to feed an increasingly world population. For many who do not know the Amazon rainforest is responsible with the production of 20 % of our planet oxygen. It is hard to imagine how our planet with look with no Amazon forest. One of the reasons why people are deforesting
the forest is to create agriculture land to feed humans and animal. With the expectancy that world population will grow to 9 billion by 2050 , makes more challenging any attempt to find alternative solutions to not damage the nature and to feed the world.
One of the product that are wasting a lot of natural resources to produce it is meat. Meat is a source of food that always will be in demand no matter of economic situation and social class. One innovative solution found to solve this problem without to harm nature is to produce meat by culturing muscle cells so called lab grown meat. In today article I will present reasons why we should adopt lab grown meat. From the beginning I do not want to denigrate traditional meat producers, is not the purpose of this article. I consider that how meat is produced today wont be sustainable in the future.
1 Greenhouse gas emission
According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization animal agriculture is responsible for 14,5 of the world total greenhouse emission. Animal agriculture is responsible of methan production which has a 25 % greater potential to global warming than CO2. Animals like: cow, sheep and goat are responsible for methan production.
2 No Animal Slaughter
Animal ethics we do not need to slaughter animals to produce meat.
3 Environmental issue
As I said of the beginning of this article Amazon rainforest produce 20 % of oxygen on Earth. Amazon deforest is one dangerous and stupid action ever took. 70 % of Amazon deforest is used as pastures and 30 % is used to raise animal crops. !!! Livestock farming are taking 70 % of arable land around the globe.
4 Viruses transmission
In our history many viruses and diseases have been transmitted from animal. Diseases like: influenza, avian, swine and bovine spongiform are transmitted through livestock.
5 Antibiotics issue
Industrial production of meat ca not be done without the use of antibiotics. To force animal grew quickly meat producers are using different hormones and antibiotics. Many of them poses a really treat to human body. To produce meat by culturing muscle cells will not need hormones and antibiotics.
6 No need for factory farms
We conclude than animal farming is efficient for land and environment. Industrial animal farming is done by farms where animals are kept in many cases in inappropriate conditions . Maintaining animal the wellbeing of animal is almost impossible , time consuming and nobody cares so much.
7 Nutrition of growing world population
Feeding with meat of entirely whole world population will be assured without to harm the nature.
