New Seasonal Relationships

Z/Yen has recently won a number of new assignments in the Square Mile. These include strategic analysis of cost per trade trends, assessment of relocation options, benchmarking of fails rates and a market survey of how 30 fund managers rate their brokers.Results of this broker survey will be available in the New Year. In addition Z/Yen has recently carried out work for Caterpillar and is currently researching the market for very large marketing databases.

Z/immers In The Frame At The British Film Institute

While Mark Yeandle (aka Z/Yendle) researches the market for Z/Yen’s “expertise on demand” arm, new clients are already signing up.Z/Yen has won two assignments with the British Film Institute; with Bernard O’Dea acting as an interim Finance Director, while Bernard and Ian Harris concurrently undertake departmental reviews. Now & Z/Yen, having stumped up a bottle of bubby as a prize in the July issue for the name Z/immers, simply couldn’t resist the pun headline. We have therefore resuscitated the working title Z/immers, possibly for the last time, although Z/Yen’s “expertise on demand” arm will probably be named SpecialiZm.

Z/Yen Referees Electronic Identity Discussion

When the second RSA press discussion was organised Z/Yen was asked to chair the meeting in front of 40 international journalists. The topic was electronic identity and the panel consisted of leading lights in the Liberty Alliance (United Airlines, Nokia, Deloittes, PWC and RSA) and Microsoft. The chair reminded the Alliance members that standards were all very well, but more customers would be valuable; while simultaneously suggesting to Microsoft that customers are good, but open standards grow markets.The discussion ended with the Liberty Alliance agreeing they wanted more customers and Microsoft stating that they would consider joining the Alliance.

Z/Yen Contributes To Nobel Prize

Many friends of Z/Yen who have spent a fine afternoon or evening with us on Sailing Barge Lady Daphne know that we are so socially-challenged we find it necessary to break the ice with games such as our trivia quizzes, our Boating Bourses or OligopoLuedo (at least it's not Twister or Pictionary!).Our Boating Bourses illustrate Prospect Theory particularly well, which has found its way from our games into our work on risk/reward perceptions and decision-making. Well, much to our surprise (and probably all our friends, true and otherwise), one of the formulators of Prospect Theory, Daniel Kahneman, was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in economic sciences “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.”We're sure that the award resulted from the Z/Yen support for Prospect Theory and, even if it did not, we socially challenged individuals will mumble so.

New Barbarians At The Gate

Our last reflective repast featured Professor Ian Angell from the London School of Economics.As ever, the reflective repast was held on the Lady Daphne in St Katharine’s Dock. Ian led a rip-roaring discussion on “Beyond Good and E-ville” contending that the information age was leading to a Nietzschean elite (see his iconoclastic book, The New Barbarian Manifesto: How to Survive the Information Age). While many had conflicting points of view, all look forward to his next book The Black Art of Management.

Z/AbaDaBaDoo

In a shock announcement, Z/Yen Limited, the UK's leading risk/reward firm, today announced that it would NOT be changing its name. A terse-lipped spokesman for Z/Yen, who refused to give his name, commented, “While we are not known for following trends, we have been watching our competitors’ rebranding initiatives with great interest.We engaged the services of a leading firm of market intelligence specialists (Z/Yen Aspect) to come up with a new and wacky name. After many hours of research considering variations on Z/aturday, Z/unday and Z/abbath, as well as RoundSpike, they reached the conclusion that Z/Yen was silly enough already.”