Biz Buzz

Flying around the world and hitting three or four countries in just two weeks, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt must be very busy.
He works even when he’s on board his plane, with a computer. Yes, he misses the old times, when he could finish a book while travelling. He’s not surprised that around the world, people read less as they seek “more shallow friends” through digital texts.
“Something is lost – deep reading,” said Schmidt, whose company facilitates greater digital connectivity.
Does he have time for movies? He said he was not fond of watching films.
The latest movie he watched was “The Internship”. It’s easy to tell why he watched it: The Hollywood flick is about two salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age. They find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they must compete with a group of young, tech-savvy geniuses for a shot at employment.
If there’s any visual feast that can thrill him, it is “Game of Thrones” – the fantasy drama television series created for HBO. The production was fantastic – something not all can do, he said.
“There’s no movie to inspire innovation,” he said.
Well – how about “E.T.”? In that film, kids made a communicator for the alien to phone home. It was 1982, when most people had no idea about a mobile phone. Eric, could this inspire you to help invent a system that works in space?

Devices can't help boss cut working time

At Google’s “Big Tent Thailand” event, Anant Asavabhokin, CEO of Land and Houses, once again talked about discipline – the same topic he spoke on at a recent Thaicom Foundation event.
But the most interesting part of his speech concerned a fact of life for today’s people. Though he preached to the audience that electronic devices helped him keep his schedules tidy, he ended up recalling a discussion with his mother.
She was concerned that he mostly arrived home late. He said he was busy.
“Your father had only one abacus [to assist his work], but he could come home at 5pm. You, with so many devices, come home very late,” she was quoted as saying.
Well, being a boss means having more work than others, and nothing can help that – not even those fancy devices he owns.

Killing the bill with motorcycle taxis 

Why would any executive with a chauffeured car ride in a taxi?
In a big city notorious for traffic congestion like Bangkok, most executives, indeed their drivers, work really hard to avoid traffic when they go anywhere. If that’s not possible, more travelling time is allocated to ensure they reach their destination on time.
Pornsil Patchrintanakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC), found his comfort cut to some extent as his chauffeur got sick. Last Monday, another downgrade came when he had to leave his car at his building on Silom Road, when protesters against the amnesty bill filled the road. He had to hail a motorcycle taxi to Dusit Thani Hotel, where important meetings were to take place.
Pornsil did not mind that, though. He was happy with the scene he saw from his office, acknowledging that Thais can be mobilised to show opposition to things they see as wrong.
It seems the feeling runs deep at the TCC and spreads through the university it owns. On Thursday, academics from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce – Saowanee Thairungroj, Thanavath Phonvichai and Wachara Kuntaweethep – also agreed to use motorcycle-taxi services to get to Rajborpit Road, knowing that this was the best way to get through the Rajdamnoen Avenue occupied by anti-amnesty-bill protesters.
They all admitted that safety was an issue. But how could they miss the boat, when so many others were out there fighting to kill the bill?