Aug/090
Accenture to Cut About 300 Senior Managers
Accenture Ltd. plans to shed 7% of its senior-executive ranks, or about 336 positions, and plans to cut excess real estate capacity, seeing total restructuring charges of $247 million in its fiscal fourth quarter.
The technology outsourcing and management company said about $128 million of the charge was for severance and related costs of work force reductions at the senior-executive level. Prior to the cut, the company had 4,800 senior-executive employees. It had a total of 177,000 employees, according to a company spokesman.
Accenture already laid off half of its work force in the Philippines in March. So far, a hope that the global recession could spur demand for companies like Accenture, which provide consulting and technology services to corporations, has failed to materialize.
The rest of the charges were attributed to cutting excess office space. The company sees the restructuring charges lowering the fourth quarter and full-year results by 24 cents. The periods end Aug. 31.
“We’re taking proactive steps to ensure that we have the right cost structure to support our business going forward and that our organization is properly aligned to most effectively capture future growth opportunities,” said Chairman and Chief Executive William D. Green.
The company expects the space reductions to be completed at the end of the fiscal year. The work force cuts should be substantially completed during the fiscal first quarter of 2010.
Accenture also maintained its revenue target and its operating margin, absent the impact of the restructuring charge.
The article above was written by John Kell and published at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125080162578047511.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
Jul/090
Siemens Run 2009
After my last 10KM event, I was very enthusiastic in participating in another run, so I quickly registered for another 10KM event, which is the Siemens Run 2009. The Siemens Run main event is the 10KM run (there’s no Full Marathon or Half Marathon). Despite it being the main event, the number of participants is almost half of the 10KM event at the KL Marathon. The registration count for the Siemens Run is about 3000, and the the KL Marathon was 5500+. Later I was told that they have a maximum participant number, which is a good thing or else the route is going to be packed like sardines.
As shown below, the route started at Dataran Merdeka with a tour through Bukit Tunku before going down to Jalan Parlimen and back to where it started. The interesting part are the slopes at Bukit Tunku as it really eats up your energy. I’m guessing that’s where everybody started to drain out as right after the Bukit Tunku exit there’s a water stop and everybody was more than happy to grab a cup.
I finished the race just under 1 hour 11 minutes, a 7 minute improvement from my previous 10KM. With this new spirit, I look forward to the next 10KM event. Hopefully next event I would be able to break the 1 hour barrier.
Jul/091
KL Marathon
Greetings. I would like to share my experience in the recent KL Marathon where I ran the 10KM event. The KL Marathon is considered one of the major annual running events in KL and this year it is organised by Standard Chartered. It was my first official long distance run since highschool, which is a good 9 years ago. Over the past 2 years I’ve been doing some casual running at the nearby park, hence I decided to test myself by entering the 10KM run.
The 10KM event turned out good for me. I ran the whole 10KM and qualified (the qualification time is 1 hour 30 mins) . At the finish line, my time was 1 hour 18 mins. I believe this is quite the achievement as this is my first long distance event in years. Now I’m loooking forward to the next 10KM events around KL!
On the other hand I heard there were a lot of complaints with the other events (half marathon and 5KM event), where the officials on duty were not able to control the crowd and the people running the 5KM run made a wrong turn and ended up running 2.5KM. I can understand their dissapointment. Below is a picture of me and my brother. Both of us qualified.
Apr/080
Moves afoot to help Sufiah?
Just as the Sufiah charade is becoming hot in Malaysia, the government had to come up with a move that sounds absolutely ridiculous. In an article entitled “Moves afoot to help Sufiah” in New Straits Times, it is stated that the Prime Minister’s Department and the Malaysian Missionary Foundation (Yadim) will try to assist former child mathematics genius Sufiah Yusof, now aged 23 and fending for herself as a prostitute in Salford, Manchester.
Frankly, the girl is old enough to know what she’s doing. And based on her video interviews at NewsOfTheWorld, she sounds perfectly sane and happy to be doing whatever it is she’s doing. Yadim should save their efforts and focus on local problems in Malaysia instead.
Full article at New Straits Times here.
Apr/080
Being a hooker is summing I love
[From NewsOfTheWorld]
MATHS genius turned hooker Sufiah Yusof reveals how she drives men wild… by reciting EQUATIONS to her clients as they have sex.
And the Asian beauty defiantly claims that selling her body for up to £1,000 a time provides her with a far more glamorous life than she ever dreamt of when she went to Oxford University aged just 13.
“My clients love the fact that I can stimulate their minds AND their bodies,” she boasts in a shockingly frank interview with the News of the World.
“And I don’t believe my education has been wasted—in fact I usually take problem sheets with me to solve before appointments.”
Apr/083
Sufiah Yusuf – From mathematician to hooker
[From NewsOfTheWorld]
She was a child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13 – but now the only sums Sufiah Yusuf is interested in are the ones she earns as a HOOKER.
For sad Sufiah the daily equation she has to solve is simply sex equals £130 as she sells her body to punters over the internet.
The gifted girl with the winning smile had the world at her feet ten years ago and should be a rich woman by now—but last week she was busy subtracting her underwear for our undercover reporter in her dingy back street flat.
“Would you like to start your half hour now?” said Sufiah, 23, as she danced on the bed, displaying her body for examination.
Then she listed all the sleazy plus points she would throw in for our man if he took up her offer.
Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers’ website, describing herself as a “very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5′5″ tall—available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm.”
She says she is a “sexy, smart student” who prefers “older gentlemen”— but a former pal who has witnessed her downfall told us: “It is all desperately heartbreaking.
“With her amazing brain she should be able to make money any way she wants. But instead her life has spiralled completely out of control.”
Life has never quite added up for Sufiah. Her descent into prostitution in Salford, Manchester, is the latest in a long line of tragedies to have engulfed her since the sunny day when she posed with her university mortar board for the world’s press outside prestigious St Hilda’s College.
Our shock revelations today come in the week her domineering dad Farooq was jailed for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls as he home-tutored them in maths.
And he was always at the root of all her troubles— even as she passed the further maths A-Level she needed for entry to Oxford at the age of 12. In those days Sufia was a strict Muslim child who prayed five times a day and was subjected to her father’s famous Accelerated Learning Technique.