Ocado (a home delivery service) is trying to float its business, which has never made a profit and lost £25 million last year, for £800 million to 1.2 billion.
Any idiot who buys into that is mad. And this idiot would like to know why the shares of the founders are all held in off-shore trusts, so they won’t pay tax if they get away with this gigantic rort or ramp (two grand old Aussie words for dodgy schemes).
Actually, this idiot would like to know why to this day people who have pots of money get away with this shit while the rest of us keep coughing up till we bleed.
The other great rip-off is the proposed scheme to make people pay even more for university education. Well, not the idea of making them pay: the fact that they are being forced to pay for something that is, in the fashionable jargon, not fit for purpose.
The fact is, as the price goes up, the quality goes down.
As long ago as 1979 I hired a man with a first class Law Degree from Oxford who couldn’t write good English. Nowadays most so-called graduates are downright illiterate. Not their fault, of course – but they are already being ripped off and shouldn’t waste their money on these institutions of low learning.
I walked out of university, to my father’s fury, and got my further education by reading
FOOTNOTE 1: After all that talk about illiteracy, I apologise for my sloppy editing last week. It was all a bit frantic.
FOOTNOTE 2: To those who subscribed to the writing webinar: if you want to download , you can. You should have got an email. After your ghastly experience yesterday if you want to follow all three webinars you can save £18 (I think). You’ll hear about that, too. All the things I mentioned like 20 ways to begin, the check list and advice on design come in those webinars
HIGHLY RELEVANT FOOTNOTE 3: David Ogilvy in an ironic speech once noted that he, the founder, would never have been hired by Ogilvy & Mather because he had no degree.
I couldn't agree more with the close to useless 'learning' received at institutions. And, like Ogilvy, I don't have a degree and was turned down at many companies, as well. So, I started my own businesses and now they hire me, pay high fees and have never once asked what my degree is in… results matter.
Keep ranting!
I look at this from the other way around: does anyone know of an editor, journalist, agency person or ANYONE in media that has a degree in media studies?
I don't.
As a rule the only time qualifications really matter is when you get your first job or when there is some technical requirement. Mind you nowadays being able to write English is increasingly an advanced tecnical skill. I recall one successful businesman who made a point of never hiring MBAs.
Ah! Media Studies, or as I call, it reading the paper and watching the news. What a farce!
Or how many successful direct marketers have degrees in marketing?