Merry christmas from Goofy and me - offline until 6th Jan

Dear familiy and friends,

I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year. I will be heading off for Asia now and will be offline until 6th Jan.



All the best - until next year :-)

Social Media in Europe and Germany

I found a great video on social media in Europe and Germany on one of my favourite blogs:
http://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2009/12/16/bilder-sagen-mehr-als-tausend-worte-aspekte-des-web-visuell-aufbereitet/



So keep on watching and more important using the web 2.0 while the web 3.0 is on it´s way. More to follow ...

Cool blog on funny scientific tricks

Have a look at this cool blog on funny scientific tricks at:
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/

Just to give you an example (this is the related youtube channel):



So keep on playing and learning - it is the same anyway :-)

On marriage from Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Oxford learning lab

Nici found this great link of the Oxford Leraning Lab with a lot of great papers and videos:

http://oxlearn.com/default.aspx

So keep on learning and keep on sharing the best links you find!

Slideshare playlist

Here is the link to my slidehsare playlist:

| Get your SlideShare Playlist

This is the playlist for beyond budgeting:

| Get your Presentation Pack

Check out slideshare. It is a great knowledge sharing tool.

DANKE von Paulo Coelho

Ich danke allen, die meine Träume belächelt haben.
Sie haben meine Fantasie beflügelt.

Ich danke allen, die mich in ihr Schema pressen wollten.
Sie haben mich den Wert der Freiheit gelehrt.

Ich danke allen, die mich belogen haben.
Sie haben mir die Kraft der Wahreit gezeigt.

Ich danke allen, die nicht an mich geglaubt haben.
Sie haben mir zugemutet, Berge zu versetzen.

Ich danke allen, die mich abgeschrieben haben.
Sie haben meinen Trotz geschürt.

Ich danke allen, die mich verlassen haben.
Sie haben mir Raum für Neues gegeben.

Ich danke allen, die mich verraten und missbraucht haben.
Sie haben mich erwachsen werden lassen.

Ich danke allen, die mich verletzt haben.
Sie haben mich gelehrt. im Schmerz zu wachsen.

Ich danke allen, die meinen Frieden gestört haben.
Sie haben mich stark gemacht, dafür einzutreten.

Ich danke allen, die mich verwirrt haben.
sie haben mir meinen Standpunkt klargemacht.

Vor allem danke ich aber all denen,
die mich lieben, so wie ich bin.
Sie geben mir die Kraft zum Leben!

Danke.

XING question application

I just learned a new functionality in XING. When you add the application XING Questions, you can post questions which can be answered by all XING Question users. I always used Twitter for this, but I definitely prefer the structured approach of XING.

To all my XING contacts: Please add the XING Question allplication to your profile, so that I can start asking stupid questions to you also :-)

Another application, you can add to your XING profile is slideshare. Have a look at my profile, to see how it works.
https://www.xing.com/profile/Thorsten_Jekel

Have a happy christmas time :-)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Tablets will replace e-book readers

For all of you who still think that the current e-book-readers are cool, have a look at this preview:



Apple is one of the players in the market who are currently working on these next generation media players.
So I am desperately waiting for these new toys for the boys and enjoy my Sony e-book-reader in the meantime.

For those iPhonies of you who cannot wait any longer: there is a kindle client for iPhone available at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=ms_sbrspot_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000301301&pf_rd_p=498990411&pf_rd_s=center-22&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0015T963C&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0TRFBVTHG79ME9E3W06N

So keep on pimping your brain :-)

Harvard Business School youtube channel

This is one of my favourite youtube channels:

http://www.youtube.com/HarvardBusiness

Far better than regular TV :-)

Martinjak & Platzhirsch in Vienna

This was my program last saturday night:

Dinner at the Martinjak (http://www.martinjak.com/a/) opposite to the Vienna opera.

They have excellent Austrian food and I was lucky to get a personal explanantion of the restaurant concept and a testing of the Zirben Cocktails, as I had dinner with Cindy Luissser, who is doing the marketing for them.

After that we just went next door to the Platzhirsch (http://www.platz-hirsch.at/index2.html) , which is a really cool club disco.

On Saturday, they definitely play the music I love for dancing.

I was very lucky, as Cindy has a very good connection to the managing director of the Club. So we came in without queuing - with VIP treatment. Thank you very much again for this Erich.

But even without this very special treatment I received, both locations are great for having a wonderful evening in Vienna and you can also rent the club for events.

A really cool location with a great boss and team. Check it out!

Riveting talks by remarkable people free to the world

Here is another great example for spreading ideas:
http://www.ted.com/
On this webpage, you find great speaches.

Just to give you one example: Tony Robbins about what motivates people - a great 20 minutes video:



Thank you so much Petra for sharing this on your facebook wall. By the way - everybody who knows Petra Fürst should congratulate her to passing the magister and the coaching testing on one day today. Have a great party Petra. You deserve it :-)

What is pacing?

I am currently in the middle of my testing as coach and I found the best explanation on what pacing really is on the trinergy netventure:



So have fun on your next commute :-)

Are you ready for a new newspaper?

A great cinema spot about how we control the media or the other way round? Thank you Nici for this great link.



Think about it!

Customized chocolate

I just found a cool web page where you can order customized chocolate.
http://www.chocri.de/

So if anybody of you wants to make my day sweeter, they make 80% of their turnover with presents :-)

Be brave!

I found this great picture on Roman Braun´s blog today. So do one brave thing today :-)

A really different way of documenting a walk from China to Germany

Have a look at this cool video:



A very creative way of sharing experiences while travelling. Have fun with it and keep exploring the world :-)

By the way: This is the source of it:
http://www.bestofyoutube.com/
I have subscribed to the podcast of this site and enjoy them on my iPod.

Get abstract book summaries on my e-book reader

For all of you who just can´t get enough of brainfood, like me, have a look at

http://www.getabstract.com/

This is a great service, where you can subscribe to abstracts of classic and current management books and other literature. They also offer a premium rate, where you can download unlimited abstracts.

I use this service to scan the new management literature and to decide, which books I want to read. In addition it gives me a lot of input in a very short time.
An alternative is: http://www.summary.com/
These are the executive book summaries from Soundview.

A great way to read the summaries on the go is one of the new e-book-readers.
I use the Sony e-book-reader, which has a native pdf support.
It is a great way to safe weight while travelling, as it carries tons of books in its memory.
You can even read in the bright sunshine and the battery lasts for more than a day, as it only needs power, when you turn the page.

You can find more infos on it at: http://www.sony.de/hub/reader-ebook

The new apple netbook is there

Have a look at this cool new apple netbook. If you are a gadget freak like me, this is THE gadget:



Have a great weekend and keep :-)

New feature on my blog - E-Mail to friends

I just learned about a new functionality for my blog, which I activated immediately.
You now can e-mail interesting posts to your friends.
Just click on the E-Mail button below the post you want to forward and follow the instructions.

So keep o sharing ideas :-)

Metzingen outlet city

A nice link for all smart shoppers:
http://www.outletcity-metzingen.com/

The factory outlet of Boss in Metzingen is one of my main sources of suits since my early working days.
Over the past few years Metzingen has developed to a real factory outlet city.
Now you can find much more than just Boss there.

So when you are near Stuttgart, you have to stop by there.

Proquest-Great full text research tool for articles and thesises

My main tool for the literature research for my PhD is Proquest.
You can find it at:
http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK/

You can even find DBA and PhD thesises in full text from 2009. Another nice functionality is, that you can see the articles that cited the found article. This allows crawling through the literature not only backwards, but also forward. You can also subscribe to a RSS feed of your search. Then you always get an update in your RSS reader when a new article or thesis is online which has the criteria of your search. I use the google reader for this (as I can access it online from all of my or other PCs).

A really great way to find the most recent articles on your topic. This is so much easier than spending hours in the library like it used to be in the past. I love the internet for this.

For all of you who are enrolled at a university for their DBA or PhD studies, most of the universities have a university login to give full access to their students. I have one from my university (School of Management at the University of Bradford).

The train of life

A very touching view of life as a train journey found on Roman Braun´s Blog (see my favourite Blogs):



Thank all of you who were or are part of my train journey ...

Almost lover - A Fine Frenzy - wonderful piano song

A wonderful song which we sang life on the piano yesterday at a really cool piano session with our daughter Nina:



I just can´t stop humming this song :-)

How presidents make decisions

An interesting lession on the art of decision taking :-)



Thank you so much Nici for this great link!

Online marketing with Slideshare

Have a look at this interesting blogpost on how to use slideshare for promoting your B2B business:
http://buzzfactory.net/buzzfactory-blog/why-slideshare-is-an-uber-cool-way-to-reach-out-to-your-customers/?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_content=jekel%40web.de&utm_campaign=Newsletter+2009+Nov+1

Think different!

This is one of my favourite paintings from my wife Nicole:

The text on the picture is:

Die Welt gehört dem, der neu denkt / The world belongs to the one who thinks differently!

Very inspiring for our meeting room.

How to transfer your data from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7

For all of you who are moving from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, there is a nice video tutorial on how to transfer your data:



You find more useful videos from the same author at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ahennig#p/u

The google story

Have a look at this cool presentation of the google story:



I am sure, there will be more to come ...

10 things you should not do on your first working day

Something funny for the weekend :-)

Live your dreams - great display in New York

Have a look at this cool display, which I saw at the airport in New York - No comment needed :-)

Many thanks Nina for editing the photo in photoshop to make the text better to read. My daughter is much fitter in this than I am.

Business Punk - New cool magazine

On my trip to Turkey I read a new business magazine from Gruner+Jahr (by the way a customer of mine), called "Business Punk"

I liked the claim of the magazine, which is:
„We like to work hard. We like to play hard.
We love money and all the happiness it brings us.
We like to close the bar at 4 am on a Monday night
and be at the office a few hours later.“

And it was a nice mix of business and toys for the boys.
So if you are interested, have a look at:
http://www.business-punk.com/
Make sure that you check out the video on the webpage.
This is my new reference, when I am snowboarding for the next time.

So keep on breaking stupid rules :-)

Koalitionsvertrag Bundesregierung 2009

For all of you who want to be informed more deeply on the plans of the new German government than by the headlines of the press, have a look at the full text document of the coalition agreement at:
http://pfau.e-technik1.uni-rostock.de/091024-koalitionsvertrag-cducsu-fdps.html

I am very interested in what will be realised finally.

Wissen ist der erste Rohstoff, der sich bei Gebrauch vermehrt - Brand Eins

This is another one of my favourite magazines and the current issue is about knowledge and thinking differently. A very inspiring issue.

You can find more on their web page at:
http://www.brandeins.de/

Social media guide

Have a look at this great webpage and blog on social media:
http://thesocialmediaguide.com.au/

A great source of knowledge and inspiration on web 2.0.

Reversing your life - great video

Have a look at this great video:



Thank you very much Roman for this link.

If you want to read more from Roman Braun, you find his blog at:
http://www.trinergy.at/roman_braun_blog/

Great vacation on a ship in Turkey

I am back from my vacation in Turkey. Nina and me had a great week of sunshine, relaxing, historic-site seeing, reading, swimming and 10 more interesting people on board. Nicole was really jealous, as she had to give lectures last week and could not join us.

This was one of our visited sites and our boat:

This was our sun deck:

This was our dance floor :-) :

And this was our sleeping place - 1 week sleeping under the stars - I love this:

As Nina and me were the only ones who were so smart to bring our sleeping bags with us, we had the deck for us while the other passengers slept in their cabins. So at least some travel knowledge still left from my backpacking days :-) and a good preparation for Nina for the upcoming backpacking trips we are going to undertake.

So if you also want to relax on a blue cruise, have a look at:
http://www.kaptannobi.com/

Thank you so much again Andrea Fehring for the great infos on the blue cruise :-)

Great Porsche 911 commercial

Have a look at this great Porsche commercial:



Thank you very much Petra Berg for the reminder. I love this spot.
Have you ever been so fascinated by a product?

Great Sixt installation at Cologne airport

Have a look at this great Sixt installation at Cologne airport:

This is really smart and funny. One of the many reasons why I am a real Sixt Fan.

Cicero: Great on- and offline political magazine

One of my favourite political magazines, I am reading, is Cicero. They have really brilliant political analysises and a great sense of humour. Their mix of authors is very good and gives an opportunity to see the current political issues from different angles. As I think, that this is one of the most important things in actively following politics, I highly recommend Cicero.

You can find it on most of the airports and online at:
http://www.cicero.de/

Cool videos for racing bike fans ...

I found a great webpage with videos on the cycling scene.

Check it out at:
http://www.bike-tv.cc/video-beitrage/

... but be careful, it might get expensive :-)

New YELLO Album

YELLO has released a new album after a very long break. It is not their best album, but some tracks are relly good and the trailer on their web page is really cool. I especially like the text message. These guys must have had some NLP training.

Check it out at:
http://www.yello.com/

My all time favourite from YELLO is still Bostich ... a lot of good memories of school parties ...



I still have to get on the dancefloor immediately, when I hear this track.
So keep on dancing :-)

New photos on flickr

Dear familiy and friends. It is a new month and therefore my flickr-upload limit was back to 100MB.
So I uploaded some skiing pictures from the last skiing season.

You can find them on the right side of my blog or at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorstenjekel/sets/

I am already looking forward to the upcoming season - trips already planned :-)

Great Powerpoint Video Training in German

I found a great German Powerpoint Video Training on the Internet.

Check it out at:
http://www.ppt-tv.de/2007/04/15/powerpoint-tv-folge-1-30-42min/

You can also subscribe to it as a video podcast in itunes. This is actually the way I am usually watching it.

English for runaways ...Westerwelle speaks English werry well

Have a look at this great speach of our upcoming foreign minister ...



so keep on improving your language skills - you might need it earlier than you think :-)

Thank you so much Nici for this great link.

Opening office 2007 documents in office 2003

For all of you are still working with Microsoft Office 2003 and who need to open Office 2007 files, there is a solution. Microsoft offers an add-on for Office 2003, which you can find at:

http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=de

By the way ... office 2010 is coming soon and it will come with some very nice new features, especially for Excel. For all of you who want to have a look at Office 2010, have a look at:

http://www.excel-inside.de/joomla/Excel-2010/excel-office-2010-neuerungen.html

Sweet love song

I love this sweet little teddy ...



... dedicated to my wonderful wife Nicole ...

And here is an even nicer version, which cannot be embedded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Dob0pfmLk

Convert pps into ppt files to edit them

Do you also receive some of these great pps screen presentations, which you want to integrate into your powerpoint presentations? In the past I always searched for a way to access these charts of these self running slideshows.

Now I found a very simple way to do this:
Just change the extension of the file from *.pps to *.ppt, by renaming it.
This is all you have to do to convert the file into a regular powerpoint file, which you can edit.

Have fun and keep on sharing ideas!

How to blog without killing yourself - great video from Timothy Ferriss

Timothy Ferris, the author of the "4h work week" has a great video on blogging on his blog.

You can find it at:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/29/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-blog-without-killing-yourself/

In the above presentation, including detailed screenshots, he covers…
- Why he blogs
- How he blogs and selects best practices
- Frequency and tools — best times and days to post
- Blogging myths and how to harness data for better results
- Testing design and surprising findings that can be copied
- How he addresses comments and community building
- How he writes and researchs for good social media response
- 20 minutes of audience Q&A on Twitter, branding, outsourcing, and much more

All in all a very good video for all of you who are already blogging or thinking of starting it.

Free Ritter Sport Chocolate Testing

And here is something sweet for all my chocolate loving friends:

Ritter Sport is looking for people to test their new chocolate flavours. Just go to:

http://www.rittersport.de/#/de_DE/testerwerden/

and register as a chocolate tester. They will send you free chocolate regularly and will ask you for a feedback.

I might have to increase my triathlon training milage in order to compensate for the additional chocolate, as I have already registered for the program :-)

Still here - Natasha Bedingfield - wonderful romantic song

another one of my all time favourites ...



keep on dreaming ...

Oasis of the seas - incredible cruise ship

Hava a look at this ship. It is really enourmous what our customer Royal Caribbean is putting to the sea:



And what is the best of the ship? Of course the 47 Vitality juice dispensers on board :-)
I think this cruise ship customer has to be taken care of me personally :-)

New book from Thomas Schäfer on working life

I am just returning from a seminar weekend with Thomas Schäfer. Another weekend with very intense insights on systemic structures. Thomas also published a new book on systemic approaches to job related issues. I read the book on my flight back home and it is really great. As in his other books, Thomas has a very clear and empathic writing style.

You can find the book at:

http://www.amazon.de/Wie-Beruf-Berufung-wird-Familien-Stellens/dp/3426874180/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253477720&sr=8-4

You can find Thomas Schäfer on the internet at:

http://www.familienaufstellungenthoschaefer.de/frame.htm

Thank you very much again Dirk for this great recommendation!

Free from Chris Anderson

The long tail was a very controversial book from Chris Anderson. He now event went a step further with his latest book "FREE".

It is developing his long tail thoughts to the next level and let´s you rething the traditional revenue generating streams. Probably not everything can be taken up by you instantly, but this book defenitely opens your mind on how future business models will look like.

As the book is called FREE, you can download it as an audio book for free, too.

You find the free audiobook at:
http://www.loadblog.de/internet/chris-andersons-free-the-future-of-a-radical-price-als-kostenloses-horbuch/

If you want to order the book at amazon, you can find it at:
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/140131001X?ie=UTF8&tag=nerdblogabouv-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=140131001X

or in German at:
http://www.amazon.de/Free-Kostenlos-Gesch%C3%A4ftsmodelle-Herausforderungen-Internets/dp/3593390884/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253283706&sr=8-3

You should also have a look on Chris´ Blog at:
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/

This book really gave me some points to thing about. So keep on rethinking today how you are doing business tomorow!

Interesting book about Angela Merkel

I just read an interesting book about how Angela Merkel from Margaret Heckel. Some nice insights into the political system in Germany.

You can find it at:
http://www.amazon.de/So-regiert-die-Kanzlerin-Reportage/dp/3492053319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253281757&sr=8-1
Not a really deep analysis, but some nice views behind the scenes on how the financial crisis was handled by the German government and some nice anecdotes about male behaviours in politics :-) especially on Sarkozy.

Lissi und der Wilde Kaiser - Part II

and another favourite piece of this great movie ...



I think this is one of the best starts of a movie I have ever seen :-)

Blue sailing tour Turkey

This will be Nina´s and my program for the upcoming vacation in 4 weeks:



Some more interesting links:
http://blauereise.com/blaue-reise-tuerkei/
http://blauereise.com/gulets/
http://blauereise.com/blaue-reise-tuerkei/route-antalya/

I will let you know how it was. Thank you very much Andrea Fehring for the infos.

My new pet

Have a look at this wonderful video:



Thank you Roman for sharing this video.
Check out his great blog on laughing, loving and learning at:
http://www.trinergy.at/roman_braun_blog/

Bully Herbig - making of Lissi und der wilde Kaiser & Wickie

This week they showed Lissi und der wilde Kaiser on TV. I have seen it before, but it is just great, like the other films from Bully Herbig. For all of you who are also a fan of Bully, have fun with:

Making of Lissi und der wilde Kaiser:



Space Taxi from Traumschiff surprise:



And this is what Nina and me will be watching tonight: Wickie - his new film:

Great blog on the German out of home market

This is one of the blogs on the German out of home market, I am following regularly:
http://ausserhausmarkt.wordpress.com/

Check it out and let me know the out-of-home blogs you are following.

New Whitney Houston album to listen 100% online and free

And now something to get started for the weekend ....

http://www.whitneyhouston.com/de/de-splash

... at least I am now having some nice music while still working.
I think I still have to work on the 4h work week :-)

Have a great weekend!

And for all of you who love romantic love songs, like me: This is my all time favourite from Whitney:



.... and I thing you all know that this was from the movie "the bodyguard" .... one of my all time favourite romantic movies ...

Virtual assistant at www.getfriday.com

After I read the 4h-workweek from Timothy Ferriss, I started to use the virtual assistant services from getfriday. When you deliver good briefings (which is really essential), they are delivering great support.

They already did a lot of internet research jobs for me. Currently they are transferring our web-page into a content management system. You can nearly delegate everything which can be done via internet, e-mail or phone.

Just recently they introduced also a German speaking service.

You can find more details at:
http://www.getfriday.com/

Austria 3 live - I am from Austria

One of my favourite songs from this wonderful trio - unfortunately now only 2 of the guys still alive:



By the way ... I am from Austria also says something about my family. The family of my mother is from Austria and I love to visit my large and wonderful Austrian Familiy in Handenberg in the Innviertel.
Last christmas I came back with 2 kg more of weight :-)
A warm hello to all my Austrian family and friends, reading this.

Bushido Song for Horst Schlämmer

Have a look at the cool HSP election song from Bushido:



Unfortunately this was the best part of the "Isch Kandidiere" Movie.
A short version of 30 minutes would have been great, but nearly 2h are definitely too much.

Great video on the social media revolution

If you still think, that social media is only a toy for the boys, have a look at this video;



It gives a very good impression about how the communication habits have already changed - today!
Thank you very much Alex for sharing this great link on twitter. Another great example for sharing knowledge via social media.

By the way, when you browser cuts off the right part of the video (like mine), just double click on the video and it will open the full view in youtube. In youtube, you even have a button below the videos, to watch them in full screen mode.

Bundestagswahl - Wahlprogramme

Have a look at:
http://www.bundestagswahl-bw.de/wahlprogramme1.html?&tx_vgetagcloud_pi2[pages]=1825%20&tx_vgetagcloud_pi2[keyword]=Wahlprogramme

Here you find a great short overview of the political party programs for the Bundestagswahl in Germany.
So take the right choice and vote even if the vote for the European parliament was much more important - which unfortunately very few people realize. 80% of all political decisions are taken on a European base and only 20% nationally. The national parliaments mainly implement the European laws into national ones.

Loriot - The broken-down TV / Der kaputte Fernseher

One of my all time favourites from Loriot (in German):



And what do we learn again?
Stop wasting your time with unreflected TV consumption!
The average German watches 3h TV per day (source Alex Wunschel) - isn´t this crazy?
Think about the great things you can do in 3h.

Wonderful good night story from Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen

You just have to watch this wonderful story about penguins & more (in German):



So keep on working on your strengths and keep your mind open!

Nice introduction video to twitter

If you still have no idea what twitter is, have a look at this video:



There are some more introduction videos from this user on youtube, which are quite nice, like the one on RSS.

What am I using twitter for?
-getting nice little bits and pieces of information from interesting people,
-putting down interesting little things that come accross my way between my blog posts (like when I am watching TV, reading a book or listening to a podacst),
-using direct messages to chat with some of my personal contacts,
-letting my twitter followers know, when I have posted a new post on my blog (automatically by the service of http://www.zone.de/), and
-asking questions to my twitter followers (and I am getting great and instant responses - I think this is even the best benefit of twitter)

So start twittering today. My twitter user is jekel and you can also see my latest twitter tweets on the right side of my blog. You can also use the link below the tweets to follow me on twitter directly from my blog.

Great movie: The proposal / Selbst ist die Braut

You have to watch this great movie:



Nici, Nina and me were laughing nearly the whole time. It is an extremely funny and also romantic movie. I love female managers :-)

Great Sixt campaign with Ulla Schmidt

I love the smarties from Sixt :-)

Additional link & blog on Beyond Budgeting from Niels Pfläging

Niels Pfläging gave me another great link on Beyond Budgeting (see his comment on my prior post):
http://www.bbtn.org/

Niels Pfläging has also a great blog, which you can find at:
http://www.beyondbudgeting-transformation.org/blog/3

Thank you very much again for your great input Niels. A great example of sharing knowledge!
My wife (she is professor for strategic controlling and marketing http://www.fh-westkueste.de/en/home/department-of-economics/about-us/personen/professoren/nicole-jekel-phd.html) and me are very much looking forward to your new book.

Beyond budgeting free download of the German book

One of my favourite books on budgeting is beyond budgeting, by Niels Pfläging.

I now found the full original version as a free download at:

http://www.controllingportal.de/Fachinfo/Budgetierung/Niels-Pflaeging-Beyond-Budgeting-Better-Budgeting.-Ohne-feste-Budgets-zielorientiert-fuehren-und-erfolgreich-steuern.html

If you want to go more deeply into the concept of beyond budgeting, you should also have a look ot the following sites:

http://www.beyondbudgeting.org/

http://www.bbrt.org/

http://www.iioe.eu/fileadmin/files/conferences_seminars/3b_Morlidge.pdf

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Budgeting

So keep on rethinking the way of doing business every day!

You can subscribe my blog via e-mail now

If you want to subscribe my blog per e-mail, just enter your e-mail address in the box on the right top of my blog. You will then always get an automatic e-mail, when I have posted something new on my blog.

New features on my blog

I have added some new features to my blog:
-comments: please let me know your ideas and comments
-twitter: my latest tweets on twitter, my user on twitter is jekel
-blogroll: my favourite blogs I am reading regularly (by the way with the google reader)
-labels: categories to easily find things on my blog
-Albert Einstein quotes on the bottom of the page: one of my favourite out-of-the-box thinkers

And if you want to learn how you can also add these features to your blog on blogger.com, have a look at this video:



So keep on sharing ideas following my personal mission to develop myself and others.

The 4 hour workweek from Timothy Ferris

If you have not read the 4h workweek from Timothy Ferris: DO IT NOW!
It is one of the best books on personal productivity and far beyond that I read within the last 2 years. You can find it at:

in English:
http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307353133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250758349&sr=8-1

in German:
http://www.amazon.de/Die-4-Stunden-Woche-Mehr-Zeit-Leben/dp/3430200512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250758294&sr=8-1

It is about how you move from being efficient in life (what I think I was in the past) to getting effective in life, meaning doing the right things. It is about how to organize your life so that you really live it. Life is not about geting a millionaire, it is about living like a millionaire and Timothy shows, how he changed his life to achieve this.

Timothy Ferris has a lot of great stuff on the internet. You can find him at:
http://fourhourworkweek.com/

He also has a great blog, which you can find directly at:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
The title of the blog is experiments in lifestyle design, which is perhaps the best description of what his concept is about.

To give you a first impression about the concept, have a look at this youtube video:

Great explanation of the German Riester-Rente

For all my German friends, who still have no glue how the Riester-Rente works, have a look at this:



So what is the summary?
Still confused, but on a higher level :-)

Many thanks Christine for this great link!

Triathlon-team in Hamburg

If you are living in or around Hamburg, you just have to join the Triabolos



We have a lot of fun, really excellent trainers and it makes definitely more fun to train together for the project ironman. In addition all the triabolos who are not in the race are usually cheering for the active team. You always have cheering yellow triabolos during the race - holding up banners with "push yourself" and "180 is no heartbeat". This really pushes you forward!

More at http://www.triabolos.de/ and we are already more than 300 triathletes.

Interaction with your audience

If you want to see how real interaction with your audience works when you are presenting, have a look at this cool video from the World Science Festival 2009:



Many thanks Thomas for this great link - keep on sharing great inspirations - across nations and cultures!

Cloud computing

Have a look at this great video on cloud computing:



This was really a sales guy who pulled this together - Very focussed on customer benefits - Great!

Smart marketing of 7-eleven

An iPhone application developed for 7-Eleven Sweden combines a store locator with coupons for a free coffee and biscotti. After downloading the app, users plug in their phone number and receive a unique coupon code on their iPhone. To claim their coffee, they just show the code to a 7-Eleven clerk; no purchase necessary. The coupon is only valid once, and free coffee in April will be followed by free ice cream in May.

The application, developed by Stockholm-based digital agency Lonely Duck, was downloaded 2,500 times in the week it launched—a considerable number given the size of the Swedish iPhone community, and enough to place it in the top 10 of free app downloads.

7-Eleven hasn't launched the app in other markets yet, but it's a smart example for other iPhone-loving retailers to follow: don't just help (a relatively affluent group of) consumers find your store, but give them a good reason to visit and spend money while they take you up on your generous offer.

Website: www.7-eleven.se

Isn´t that cool?! I found this on one of my favourite blogs on entrepeneurial ideas:
http://www.springwise.com/

The cider house rules / Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag - John Irving

One of my all time favourite books and films is The cider house rules / Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag from John Irving.

http://www.amazon.de/Gottes-Werk-Teufels-Beitrag-Irving/dp/3257218370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249935188&sr=8-1

This is definitely a must-read book and must watch movie ....

Der Vorleser - book & movie

One of the most touching books I read this year was the reader / Der Vorleser from Bernhard Schlink. You find it at http://www.amazon.de/Vorleser-Diogenes-Taschenbuch-22953/dp/3257229534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249934006&sr=8-1

The movie is one of the rare literature adaptions I was not disappointed of after reading a great book.

So both is very touching.

The womanizer - cool film

Yesterday I watched a really cool movie: The womanizer.



It is super funny, but with a very deep message.
It is about a super cool but superficial womanizer who discovers the real love in life.
Definitely worthwile to watch.

TweetDeck for organizing your twitter feeds

A you might have realized, I also started to twitter. I find this extremely valuable. Just to give you an example: Last friday, I posted a question on twitter, concerning a tool for building closed social communities on the web. And guess when I had a super answer? Saturday morning by Alex Wunschel - THE man on social media in Germany.

The great thing about twitter (by the way my twitter-name is jekel) is that it is extremely fast and you get into a multiple-way communication to people, you usually have no direct access to (including twittering Obama - as you might remember). The bad thing is, that it is extremely difficult to keep it organized. This is where TweetDeck helps. It is a great free of charge tool to organize your twitter account(s) and you can even integrate your facebook account and the video service 12seconds (more on this in a later post) ...

Check it out at: http://tweetdeck.com/beta/

Online resources to learn languages

Here are the three best blogs on the internet to learn languages (many thanks the info Andreas):
http://www.listen-to-english.com/
http://www.thelinguist.blogs.com/
http://www.der-englisch-blog.de/

They all have a bit different approaches, but they are really interesting, going also into the cultures.

Another great thing is the daily english e-mail which you can register for at:
http://owad.de/index.php4
You get a daily language quiz with phrases, which you usually do not learn at school.
This is really great to really get into English.

My quiz from today was e.g.
* * * widow's peak * * *
Please choose the correct definition and click the link.
a) pointed hair at the top of the forehead
b) the end of a long and exhausting journey
c) the money left to a woman after her husband dies
Happy guessing! Paul Smith

To learn stuff, I am using memo coach as PC software. It is a great tool to learn nearly everything. It is working with the same principle as phase6 (http://www.phase-6.de/opencms/Homepage/) which is the tool that our daughter is using. I am hacking everything into it what I want to learn and I have integrated it into the autostart of my PC, so before I start my working day, I start with a bit of braining. You find the software at http://www.memo-coach.com/
Dr. Luise Maria Sommer, the author of the SW, has also a great podcast on how to train your brain. you can find it on itunes.

There are also a lot of great free of charge podcast to learn languages on itunes.
I use e.g. "Laura speeks dutch" to brush up my dutch, when I am in my car or o a run.
check it out at: http://www.lauraspeaksdutch.info/

So there are no more excuses for not learning daily ... and the great thing is that with all these new tools it makes really a lot of fun.

Basic Thinking Blog

Have a look at this great blog, covering a lot of topics for digital junkies like me:
http://www.basicthinking.de/blog/

This is also the blog where I have the pool jump from.