Business lounge
The Football Paradox by Andre Burnett
I
It is undoubtedly the world’s most popular sport with teams from the larger leagues being instantly recognizable simply by the colour and design of their jerseys. Football, soccer, or the beautiful game as it is known, is the source of much inspiration, heartbreak, jubilation and segregation and at the end of it all it is the polarizing object for an obscene amount of money spent yearly. Deloitte, football’s self-styled accountants of choice, publish a yearly ranking of world’s football clubs called the “Deloitte Football Money League”. This year’s list shows the top five clubs, which include teams from Spain, Germany and England, taking in over 1.4 billion pounds in the 12 month period ending in March of this year. These figures as reported by Deloitte, who doubles as a kind of PR firm for world football, are the largest ever recorded and seem to paint a rosy picture for the sport. Yet, behind these numbers, there is the stark reality that despite these earnings, many football clubs are lame giants with annual loans as their rickety crutches. England’s top earning club Manchester United took in 278 million pounds yet the owners of the club had to refinance the club’s burgeoning debt in January with a bond issue valuing USD $747 million. In fact English Clubs account for 56% of all of the debt that is present in European football. When the people that are making the most money are the ones most heavily indebted then obviously there is a flaw in the business philosophy of football.
Analysts say that the solution to football’s problems lie in Germany where Bundesliga teams operate in relative financial comfort, a bit like the neighbours of the flashy Joneses who opt for a single station Volvo station wagon instead of multiple sports cars. Football’s woes won’t disappear anytime soon but there are subtle lessons that can be applied to the individual.
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Using Real Madrid of Spain, who undertook a summer spending spree of US $360 million, as an example you may find a fitting poster child for the rampant consumerism that has overtaken football as a business.
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Using Real Madrid of Spain, who undertook a summer spending spree of US $360 million, as an example you may find a fitting poster child for the rampant consumerism that has overtaken football as a business. In credit heavy societies such as the United States, you will find shoppers trying to stay a step ahead of the credit card companies so it is that these clubs are a hop step and a jump ahead of their bankers. Being a sport that is tied so intricately to the hearts of generations of people, football has always found itself to be rescued by a seemingly endless supply of money, borrowed or otherwise. In fact the financing of football’s luxuries represents many of the personal financial woes suffered by individuals only in a larger scale. yourmoney ezine
Mind Your business
Building a
Super Network by Francis Wade
T
he negotiations between the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica over the future of Air Jamaica have once again emphasized the need for Jamaican business-people to build a network that spans the Caribbean region. Without one, it’s obvious that Jamaican professionals put themselves at a significant disadvantage; Bajans and Trinis know much more about us than we do about them. Many of us find ourselves unable to name five business-people in CARICOM that we know well enough to do business with. Instead, we suffer when outsiders do business in Jamaica and compete with our local companies, as we have no clue how to launch a counter-incursion (in the way that Claro has attacked Digicel’s market-share here in Jamaica.)
communicate and collaborate, and any professional in any field can use its power to replicate what we have done by simply following these steps: 1. Pick an area of interest and form a cross-regional group who shares it
Francis Wade
2. Use a free service like GoogleGroups to start communicating via an email discussion group
One of the ways that I have found to build a growing network across the region is to build a group of like-minded professionals who share the same interests - over the internet.
3. Encourage members to invite others to join
Five years ago, I started a group of Human Resource professionals that was made up of 10 people across a handful of Caribbean countries.
While this might not look like the traditional networking activities that take place on the cocktail party circuit or at corporate functions, I have found that it works well, even for a community that is not traditionally known for its technical ability.
4. Ask members to share content
CaribHRForum.com was born in that moment. Using fairly inexpensive technology, I have expanded the group to the point where it has over 425 members and its own website. Recently, we also launched a private professional networking group that functions a lot like a mini-Facebook for Caribbean HR professionals.
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The fact is, the need to connect and communicate is so important that many of our region’s professionals are willing to learn new tools in order to be part of a strong, cross-Caribbean network.
The fact is, the need to connect and communicate is so important that many of our region’s professionals are willing to learn new tools in order to be part of a strong, cross-Caribbean network. If you become known as the person who actually starts the online network, you’ll be able to count all the members as friends. advertisment
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As a free member of the discussion group, there are daily opportunities to discuss the issues of the day, while sharing surveys, pictures, reports from conferences, videos, white papers, webinars and podcasts. CaribHRNews and CaribHRJobs are also some of the more recent additions. In retrospect, I can’t say that all of this was master-planned, but as technology has advanced I have been able to teach myself how to use new programmes to enhance the experience of the membership. In this sense, I was lucky, as the internet has enabled CaribHRForum to become the largest cross-regional group in the HR field. The internet has made it easy for us on CaribHRForum to yourmoney ezine
insights
Jamaica and the 401(k) Possibility by Andre Burnett
I
n college, I participated in a work and travel programme sponsored by the YMCA in Jamaica. The group of us, ten to be precise, were hired by a relocation company in Northern California called Suddath and to this day my first exposure to the so-called first world still stirs many an inquisitive thought within my mind. One of the things that were most fascinating during my tenure as a manual labourer was the discussions among workers about their 401(k). My co-worker Tyree, a mixed American with the disposition of a timeless surfer, tried his best to explain what a 401(k) was, over break time meals of burritos and over-sized energy drinks. To his credit, I understood the basics and the first thought that came to my head was why something of the sort had not been implemented in Jamaica and if it had, why did more people not know about it? The 401(k) programme which turns 30 this year is by definition an employer sponsored retirement savings plan that allows eligible employees to salary deferrals to an account while deferring present income taxes until withdrawal is made. The employer can opt to match the employee’s contribution or work out a profit sharing arrangement in the vein of the more traditional employee benefit system. At present over 50 million US workers participate in a 401(k) plan with over $2.3 trillion dollars being invested. This money is invested in various mutual funds, stocks, bonds, money market investments or a mixture of all of the above. The choice of the investment is left up to the employee, a point of concern among some critics who argue that most individuals do not have the soundest judgement to make these kinds of decisions.
that many of the commercial banks and investment houses are trying to rectify with a number of investment options geared towards retirements. But as such, an arrangement such as the 401(k) could bridge the gap to better financial security than any independent scheme ever could. The power of choice and the involvement that the regular blue collar employee gains with such a programme would be invaluable in the road towards better financial enlightenment for all the inhabitants of our nation. In the US, the 401(k) has its fair share of problems, especially since the recent financial turmoil but after thirty years of operation, the guinea pig has run the maze, maybe it is time we use the results to our benefit.
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Even so, 401(k) plans are the reason that mutual funds and other sleepy investment quarters roared to life in the capital market boom in the United States. In Jamaica, most people don’t even think about retirement until it is upon them, a fact
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At present over 50 million US workers participate in a 401(k) plan with over $2.3 trillion dollars being invested. This money is invested in various mutual funds, stocks, bonds, money market investments or a mixture of all of the above.
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