Recently in corporate life Category

Swine flu may have been halted in its tracks by the rise of a common cold virus, according to an article in this week's New Scientist.

Research in the US, France and Sweden has shown that rhinovirus, which causes colds, was on the rise just as the number of swine flu cases began to plateau in October.

Experts suspect rhinovirus may have blocked the spread of swine flu via a process called viral interference, which is thought to occur when one virus blocks another.

The Blog is still relying on the idea that swine flu only affects people of a different, younger age range, and has blithely booked a business trip to an east European city which is currently listed as "high risk."

Since London is also considered high risk, and the Blog is confident of being in the wrong age range, it seems a manageable risk, but we shall see.

 A weekly LinkedIn Network Update has just landed in the Blog inbox, showing how industrious all my contacts have been in joining groups, connecting with each other, updating their profiles, linking to news articles, reading books, updating their status, and planning their trips via TripIt.

The TripIt application has testimonials or "Raves" from users who can hardly contain themselves in their admiration:

• "A terrific site that has changed my travel life..." - WNBC New York TV
• "It's kind of magical..." - Joel on Software

It's just a bunch of boxes which you fill in with details of your business or holiday travel plans, so that all your contacts are emailed with updates stating that: AN Other is returning from a trip to Dubai via TripIt, or Joe Bloggs is planning a trip to New York, NY in November via TripIt.

The ostensible purpose is to alert your many contacts in Dubai or New York - so many that you couldn't possibly contact them all yourself - so that they can bombard you with requests for mutually beneficial business meetings. The real point is of course to show off to all your friends, contacts, previous and prospective employers about your globe-trotting activities. Fair enough, but "magical" or life-changing? I don't think so.

For more in a similar vein:

Persecution via LinkedIn

Best Chemicals Mag on LinkedIn poll

I feel a faint pucker of disappointment, as Ian Smith was known to be particularly excited about ICIS, within the great empire of businesses which is publishing giant Reed Elsevier, perhaps because of his distant links to oil and chemicals at Shell. We had been looking forward to being the recipients of his largesse and to welcoming him to spend a Day on the Shop Floor with us.

More on drinks on frigates ...

 (photo: Royal Navy frigate HMS St Albans in the Solent.)

The whole EPCA Berlin experience is captured for posterity in this video clip, shot in the lobby of the Berlin Intercontinental and the ICIS suite, and starring familiar faces from the world of petrochemicals as they rush about their business over three days in October 2009. Thanks to Stephen Burns of ICIS Houston for encapsulating the drama and passion of the event in this 2.19 minute video, with a jolly German oompah band backing track.

The Blog has often mused on why golf is the sport du moment of the petrochemical industry. Why not football? Why not tennis? Why not flower-arranging?

Football had its brief moment in the spotlight after some eager 5-a-side games at EPL and the infamous annual APLA national team championship where players' nationalities can be pretty fluid and injuries are always multiple.

After this brief flowering, golf has reasserted its stranglehold on the industry. As a non-golfer, I've enjoyed the alternative trips round stately homes, spa outings, the funny speeches and especially the takeaway golfshirts with company logos which stay untouched, some still in their plastic wrappers, on a high shelf in the wardrobe.

Now a friend has emailed the Blog a promo video for Calloway's "Big Bertha" golf club which is unsuitable not only for a corporate blog but also so unsuitable that it was quarantined by the ICIS anti-virus filter. At first I thought it must be a spoof, but have subsequently found it on YouTube. While browsing through Calloway's range of amusing golfing ads, I came across this one on "hitting a 3-metal from salad" ...

Michael Vassiliadis, the newly elected chairman of Germany's 7,000-strong chemicals and energy union IG BCE, is shown on Deutsche Welle playing "Stairway to Heaven."

While researching an ICIS news article on the union boss's call for reliable energy policies, news reporter Franco Capaldo came across this video on YouTube.

While we are still recovering from EPCA Berlin, Ed Cox and the ICIS Heren team are in sunny Buenos Aires to cover the World Gas Conference. A starry-eyed Ed puts down his glass of Malbec to spill the beans on the latest Gazprom extravaganza ... 

Here I am at the World Gas Conference in sunny Buenos Aires. I have seen a million sights - I could write about any of these - or the amazing stalls at the conference itself. But no. Keen readers may remember my brush with Russian giant Gazprom earlier in the year, during the spat with Ukraine, which left a certain mark on me. Amid all the tango dancing, steak and fine wine, once again it's the smell of vodka and Russian gas that will linger longest in my mind.

You see, each company has a 'stall' at the conference. It's the biggest exhibition I've ever seen. There must be 1,000 stalls. Some of them are bigger than a house. Some have women dancing outside them, Formula One cars, free booze. And then there's the Gazprom 'stall'. It's the size of a temple with an ice skating rink in front of it. Word is that the Russian girls who skate on it are some of the best in the world. It's the biggest stand in the most prominent position, it really is quite amazing.

I picked up a few new business cards at EPCA from old friends moving jobs.

Barry Hurley, formerly of BP and INEOS, has now set up a consultancy Barry Hurley Associates.

Joe Duffy, previously with Huntsman and SABIC, has joined DeWitt as Vice President, Ethylene, Propylene and Derivatives, EAME, based in the UK, but I see no sign of him on the company website.

Nick King, most recently ex-Artenius, was giving out cards with the company name Cloonacool Consultancy, which he said he had not yet registered, hence no website as yet.

It's good to see that Lanxess is so delighted at winning the ICIS Company of the Year Award. Most of the Lanxess home page is set aside to celebrate the award, and the press release was translated into several languages. Apparently the employees are thrilled and their customers are impressed too.

"So much effort goes into the Top 100 - which has been a roaring success this year - and the Company of the Year Award and it's hugely encouraging to see the winning company taking the award so seriously. Great brand building for both of us. Lanxess is a worthy winner," says Nigel Davis, editor of Chemical Insight in his praise of Lara Mcnamee and the ICB team who put the list together.

Executives from chemical and fertilizer company Potash Corporation have been profiled in the New York Times in an article (with helpful video footage) which describes the way they multitask behind the wheel. Shocking though it seems to Europeans, using your cellphone and laptop, often both together, while driving is entirely legal in the US.

One Potash Corp regional salesman, gives this stomach-churning quote: "I'd be on my cellphone, writing notes in my planner, driving with my knee, and with a sandwich in my lap."

"He felt he could not ignore his phone, he said, because he never knew which call or e-mail message would be one he could not miss ... Tens of thousands of Americans have turned their cars, vans and trucks into mobile offices, wired with phones and computers to stay in close touch with bosses and customers."

"On Wednesday, the Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, called the broader phenomenon of distracted driving a "deadly epidemic" at a meeting on the issue in Washington."

It's definitely something to bear in mind next time you pick up the hire car from Houston airport and launch onto the freeway into the city.