One title race is over, another one to go

After a magnificent season and one of the most exciting races of all time at Estoril, the 2006 MotoGP World Championship will go right down to the wire. The final race of the year, the Gran Premio bwin.com de la Comunitat Valenciana, will welcome what will surely be a sell-out crowd gathered to see either Valentino Rossi or Nicky Hayden take the ultimate accolade in motorcycle racing.

Rossi leads the championship for the first time this season, and could not have chosen a better race to enter with an 8 point advantage. The Italian has made an outstanding comeback against all odds after a series of DNFs gave him his worst ever start to a premier class season. Since his last mechanical failure at Laguna Seca, the reigning World Champion has been on a run of five consecutive podium finishes, his last victory coming in Malaysia at the start of the triple flyaway. If Rossi can make it six wins this season at Valencia, or finishes above rival Nicky Hayden in the race, then he will take a sixth consecutive premier class title and become the only champion of the 990cc era. All this sounds too familiar does it not?

Well the F1 championship has ended and I guess the best way to sum things up is like this: Massa wins, Schumacher shines, Alonso Champ! So the season is over and let look forward to the last race of Moto GP in Valencia and after let mope around till it all starts again next year!

M

Luck?? Perhaps not!!

I guess in all fairness FA might have just won the WDC 2006. He may not be the best champion but he will be the champ nonetheless. Of course no one can fault his driving; he is a great driver, just wished he let his driving do the talking.

It was one of those times when you’d wish to have all the action on the race track but engine failure is a very real problem and that’s F1. This is something that MS fans and Tifosi know only too well, a-la-early MS-Ferrari days. Of course many would argue that it is not over yet, and yes it is not over yet. MS can still win it but that would be quite out of the ordinary as FA just needs one point in the next race to win. But then again Brazil is a race where just about anything can happen. Let’s hope it is an entertaining race to cap off a great season.

I guess the real fight will be down to whom finishes 3rd in the WDC, Massa or Fisi..It’s anyone’s game this one, with only one point separating the two. And of course there is the WCC to play for as well. Which I think can only be done with a Ferrari one-two.

It is unfortunate that the media has spun things around to make it sound that MS entire career is dependant on this one championship and that if he fails to clear it he is not that great after all. Well as media goes sensationalism is their way. Well I guess the 7 world championship and the name all over the F1 record books should remind the press.

With the end of the motor sport season near, F1 is almost sewn up. Moto GP as always has been a cracking season. Can Rossi do it again? He is closing in on Nicky Hayden to take yet another title but he is still on the back foot. So that would be one to keep a close eye on.

With WRC, this one is interesting. Loeb is leading the championship with almost 30 points and around 4 races to go from Gronholm. So seems like any other championship, but if you could not predict a spanner being thrown into the works, here’s one: Loeb has fractured his arm in four places in a mountain biking accident effectively putting him out of the season for the next few races. He will miss Turkey for sure and Rally Oz but, he says he will try to be back for the last two rallies.

Not to make things further dramatic…his replacement for the next two races is none other than Colin Mcrae. Well have to see how that one plays out.

Verbal Diarrhoea : Knowledge Work in an Oblivious World

Ever looked at a candidate's resume and see that he has 10 years experience and only one job to boot and think hmmm this guy has got the right balance of experience and loyalty to the company. And then upon interviewing him, you find that his technical knowledge is a little rusty but you think; he can be developed. So you hire the guy only to find that actually the reason why this person was in that job for 10 years was nothing to do with loyalty. It was due to the fact that he was comfortable where he was and never chose to develop himself any further because the company just wanted to him to maintain status quo. So what went wrong here?

Another scenario, another Joe comes for interview, great resume as well. 10 years experience but 5 jobs. Hmmm..you raise an eyebrow, and are concerned that this guy could be a job hopper. So you decide not to invest in him, because you postulate that he may leave in yes you guessed it - 2years. So what went wrong here?

At this point you are probably wondering what the heck has what I have just said got to do with the title. Well the like hood is that the guy with 5 jobs will most likely bring more to the table than the guy with the one job. Of course it really depends on the industry in question. Are you in a knowledge industry or are you in an industry where throughput and turnaround time is the key.

Like our brothers in manufacturing, throughput and turnaround time is the key to being successful. However, banking on this type of industry might be the wrong way to go. Let’s take a page from the great American manufacturing industry. In the land where manufacturing began.....but ooohh wait there is China. A study was done and it concluded that no matter what the US manufacturing industry did to improve throughput and turnaround, no matter how many initiatives where put in place to bring "value" to the diminishing value chain, the manufacturing industry in the US has and will permanently migrate itself to China and it will not return.

So what do we in Singapore have to look forward to? We are sort of in between the tightrope where one end in the good old and reliable manufacturing industry where repeatability, turnaround and throughput are king. And then there is the other side where the knowledge industry beckons. Well we are most or less almost 3/4 of the way to the knowledge side as we abandon the quest of manufacturing supremacy. Even the government knows this, as can be seen in the change in education policy. No more technical classes or manual trade education in the top or mediocre schools. Those subjects are reserved for the non auditory or visual learners who end up in ITE. And the trend is to be more academically focused rather than creative focused.

So where do we go then? What comes of us, who have had the traditional education? Do we go find a company where you can get lost in your own oblivion within the company and become part of the furniture in the office? So the question of the two earlier scenarios comes back, two guys both 1o years of experience but one has got 5 jobs and the other 1 job, what do you do?

Well ask them the question about where we are heading and their opinion about Knowledge industry as opposed as to Manufacturing base....and the answer will show you the way...

Disclaimer: Whatever has been said here should not be taken against the author as this is a rant, a rave and a non-violent means for venting of human emotion. If the thoughts and the flow of the above verbage are erratic this too shouldn’t be taken against the author as the word “diarrhoea” implies a lack of control.

"Champion" now turning on his own team

Yes I am right Alonso has lost it royally. This guy has taken being a spoilt sport to a new level! I will be glad when he is forgotten and lost to history. Perhaps his age could be blamed for his lack of maturity but, whatever the case maybe even if by some chance he wins the 2006 title he would not be a great champ!

You can turn on your rivals, your teammate, your fans even, but your team? He said that they are more focused on winning the constructors title, maybe some one should tell him if he wins the title most likely the team will win the constructors as well.

Sigh!

We are in for a treat for next two races! Whatever the case maybe it will go down to Brazil as the decider unless Alonso manages to do something so dumb he gets points deducted. If that happens oh man will we ever hear the end of the whinge.

M