What’s in a name?

I just wonder what Henry Ford must be thinking. I wonder what all the business titans would think as they look at business in 2014 and see the names of today’s most successful corporations.

Back in the the day we had company names like GENERAL MOTORS, GENERAL DYNAMICS and GENERAL ELECTRIC……….and with its new IPO due to come out in weeks one of the most valuable companies on the planet will be called ‘Alibaba’.

They will join companies in the first and second tech boom called GOOGLE, YELP, and of course, YAHOO!

What’s in a name you ask?

Oh……….about $1.25 trillion.

 

Poking the Bear with a Schtik

Wow…..what a great weekend of sports. Not talking about the opening of the NFL season, or the Banjo Bowl between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but the opening of our Atom House season at South Delta Minor Hockey.

We had 90 kids on the ice this weekend doing all sorts of evaluations of their skills and abilities so that we can all meet in a restaurant bar in two weeks and find a spot for every kid. That was some 5 hours of fun ranking the kids on various dimensions on a scale of 1 to 5 at one table -while the hockey moms drank wine at the other table behind us. (now I know why the hockey moms like Tilbury arena with its lounge upstairs). Last night I dreampt 1,5,4,2,3,5….. I wasn’t so much counting sheep as I was just ‘sleepishly’ counting.

While that was really exciting I am even more excited after looking at the TV Sports schedule in today’s Globe and Mail.

Its a US Open Tennis final with a match-up between Kei Nishikori of Japan and Marin Cilic of Crotia – two guys seeded so far down the list that they weren’t even taken out of the package when they were bought at the local gardening center. But now that the woman’s rugby season has ended I may take a look at it.

But, but….that is not the match up that I am the most excited about. Its a UEFA Cup qualifying match between Liechtenstein and…..  Russia.

I can just imagine the GM for Liechtenstein, fresh off his phone call to NATO, meeting with his Russian counterpart

“This is just for fun right?”