The German newspapers had lots of good things to say today about the person nominated to take over from Lars Hinrichs, founder and CEO of business network Xing.com, on 15 January next year.

But, I’m not so sure. [Read on]

I refer to my article dated 23/9/2008 when I “suggested” Trevor Manuel won’t be minister of finance after next year’s election. Next I refer to this article announcing Maria Ramos’ resignation at Transnet to join ABSA as new boss from March next year. Ramos is Manuel’s “Lebensgefährtin”, as they call it in Germany. 

I won’t be surprised if Trevor Manuel also ended up at ABSA shortly after March next year. It’ll be a helluva coup for ABSA. But, it’ll leave a taste of “nepotism” in the mouth. Let’s call it nepotism of the political kind: Marcus, Ramos, Manuel (the three who temporarily “killed” Cosatu off in 1996 with their GEAR document), together again in the private sector.

I first published a list of Africa’s 10 richest people on my old blog on 11/7/2008. The recent publication of a list of Germany’s 300 richest (in MANAGER Magazin) made me think of this top 10 list for Africa again. So, I decided to republish it on my new blog – with a few comparisons between Africa’s richest and Germany’s richest.

First, the article as it was published on my old blog… [Read on]

I asked the question whether Richemont coordinates the marketing and advertising activities of its 18 Maisons centrally, or closes its eyes and lets “Gods water oor Gods akker loop”.

Yesterday the latest issue of the German business magazine Capital landed in my post box – and answered the question for me. [Read on]

Richemont’s House of Cartier came up with the ultimate luxury: A perfume specially developed for you – and no-one else.  

[Read on]

Ricardo.ch, the Swiss auction platform owned by MIH Internet Europe, is advertising for an online marketing type to join its team in Zug, Switzerland. Advertisements also appeared on German job sites. 

Here is the ad as it appears on the Ricardo site. 

Only problem: The company says it’s looking for someone not older than 35. That’s a BIG no-no in German law. (Even bigger than when a SA firm would “forget” it was an “equal opportunity employer”…)

Jokes apart, should someone complain, Ricardo will be lucky to get away with a warning.

According to the German business daily Handelsblatt agriculture experts from South Africa have been employed by South Korean industrial group Daewoo Logistics to help the company implement its (slightly controversial, but very ambitious) food venture on Madagascar. [Read on]

I’ve been following the ups and downs of the world economy closely in business magazines and financial dailies for 22 years now and never have I encountered such an abrupt, steep and strong slowdown in economic activity as right now. What is happening out there, is nothing short of brutal.

Reading the business media these days conjures up a picture of the collective economic players around the world shuttering up the collective windows of the world economy to prepare for the coming economic ice age.

As for Germany: At this time the official economic forecasts are still for the economy to grow by between zero and 1% in 2009.

From what one reads in the business media, -2% would be closer to the mark for 2009. I’m sure the next round of forecasts will be in negative territory. Maybe not -2% yet, but that will come later. (Economists don’t work like me – on newspaper reports!)