EMBA的小眼睛

Literacy (and unguided reading)

Two hundred years ago, the government of Sweden changed everything: They required all their citizens to be literate. It transformed every element of the culture and economy of Sweden, an effect that's felt to this day.

Television, of course, is a great replacement for the hard work of learning to read and write, but, if you think about it, so are autocratic governments and dogmas that eliminate choice. Unguided reading is a real threat, because unguided reading leads to uncomfortable questions.

Teach someone to read and you guarantee that they will be able to learn forever. Teach an entire culture to read and connections and innovations go through the roof.

What are you seeking at work?

Some people want safety and respect. They want to know what the work rules are, they want a guarantee that the effort required is both predictable and rewarded. They seek an environment where they won't feel pushed around, surprised or taken advantage of.

Other people want challenge and autonomy. They want the opportunity to grow and to delight or inspire the people around them. They seek both organizational and personal challenges, and they like to solve interesting problems.

Without a doubt, there's an overlap here, but if you find that your approach to the people around you isn't resonating, it might because you're giving your people precisely what they don't want.

能開花結果的異地戀，例子不多，新店「我愛伊斯坦堡」的店主Grace與土耳其籍夫婿Guner是少數的成功例子。Grace與丈夫在土耳其極速墮入愛河再閃電結婚，婚後Guner移居到香港，並在荃灣開設專賣土耳其軟糖的小店。最近二人在旺角開設同名樓上Cafe，除土耳其軟糖外，還新增設特色土耳其菜及咖啡，Guner更把家鄉的咖啡占卜帶來香港，憑杯中的咖啡渣為客人占卜運勢，準唔準？試過就知啦！

今次擴充業務開設樓上Cafe，食物變得多元化，其中烤餅是Grace的心水推介︰「烤餅需發酵約一小時，之後切開成袋狀，再在中間放入烤肉、香料等材料，這是土耳其很地道的家庭菜。」而土耳其軟糖（Turkish Delights）更是當地的地道甜食，現時店內供應逾二十種由土耳其直接空運抵港的軟糖，據Guner說這些煙韌卻不黐牙的糖果，美味又富營養︰「軟糖的甜味全來自天然果糖及果蓉，另外我們愛加入榛子、核桃等果仁來製作，故每粒都含有維他命B、E等營養。」

Guner曾在土耳其的六星級酒店任飲品沖調師，今次他亦把當地的酒店級飲品帶到香港，其中以凍咖啡最特別，除咖啡外，還加入了一種有汽飲品，入口先嘗到一陣熟悉的甜味，再來便是幽幽咖啡香，而且口感過癮。另外Guner又帶來家鄉獨有的咖啡占卜︰「土耳其咖啡不經過濾，飲完之後，咖啡渣會殘留在杯底，我們就以此來算命占卜。」如果想占卜，先要把咖啡喝至只剩咖啡渣，再把咖啡杯倒轉放在碟上待數分鐘，在心中諗住想占卜的事，再翻開咖啡杯，Guner就可根據杯內的圖案來解讀，信不信由你！但小記試過，這異國算命法確實幾準，幾好玩！收費方面，每次一百元，包土耳其咖啡一杯，唔算貴。

一般的受災狀況下，地震、雪崩…等一些大型災害來臨時，手機常常會失去通訊，使得此時的受難者猶如一個資訊的孤島，無法傳遞或者接受訊息，只能靜默地等待搜救人員的救援。
值得高興的是，此狀況將要有了改善，德國FIT （Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology) 的員工Leonardo Ramirez 提出了一個想法，那就是藉由Wi-Fi 的熱點名稱來傳遞求救訊息。他會想到這個方法是因為他的鄰居時常用WIFI告知他"不要在陽台抽菸"、"不要製造噪音"。

因為這個緣故他決定做一個App，可以迅速將求救訊息做成一個 Wi-Fi 熱點發送出去。與其它求救方式相比，這個方法的優勢是不需要網路，而且相比其他的連接方式要來的穩定。
因此 Leonardo Ramirez跟同事 Amro Al-Akkad 開發出了 victim app 和 seeker app。此app還分為兩種，一個是victim app ，可以幫助受困人員發出一條最多 27 個字的短訊息，而 另一個是seeker app， 能在100 米之內接收到。在一次受災模擬演練中，他們成功用 seeker app 找到了兩名「受困人員」。