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Volume
Four, Number Seventeen
"Zest
for Enlightenment"
The
Irregular Newsletter of Z/Yen Limited
September 2002
Evidence
of Worth
 Z/Yen’s
Not-for-Profit sector research programme, Evidence of Worth, has gone into
overdrive this summer. Chief
Executives and senior officers who participated are actively reviewing our draft
paper, while learned journals fight like wildcats to publish it.
Meanwhile, a follow-up seminar on productive accountability will take
some of the key Evidence of Worth themes forward in October.
HSBC, once again, are kindly sponsoring the event.
Add to this the plethora of platform invitations featuring the likes of
Mainelli, Harris and/or O’Callaghan talking on this favourite subject and you
realise that we have hit upon a hot topic for the sector.
Rethink
has chosen Z/Yen to help it to produce an Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) Strategy this autumn. Rethink
was, until recently, named The National Schizophrenia Fellowship.
The charity has changed its name to reflect the wider aspects of its
mental illness brief, with Rakesh spelling Schizophrenia a dozen different ways
without success, perhaps we should target dyslexia next.
Son
of Z/Yen
 Our
newest joiner is Mark Yeandle. Mark
joins as an associate director to head up our “expertise on demand”,
provisionally known as SpecialiZm. Mark
celebrated his 40th birthday recently.
Given the amount of free booze, as well as the promise of a bouncy
castle, this correspondent couldn’t resist putting in a secret appearance.
Apparently Mark’s parents have been desperate to get him off their
hands for some time. This came to a
head as mother June was heard to announce in loud tones, “perhaps we can now
call him Mark Z/Yendle”, only to be roundly supported in disownership by
father Geoff. Some mothers do
’ave ’em!
Disastrous
New Publication
 Well,
hopefully Z/Yen never needs a title like this, “Business Recovery Planning in
a Week”. Congratulations to our
Z/Yen Partner, Jacquie Chapman, who has had one of the most readable books on
business recovery published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Jacquie provides sensible pointers on risk assessment, disaster planning
and actually handling a disaster. Strangely,
Hodder & Stoughton are one of Mainelli’s old clients but seem to never
have asked him to write a book! But
as we said above, it’s one of the most readable books…
If you want to order a copy, check out the recommended reading list at http://www.zyen.com/recommended_reading.htm.
The
Customer is Always... Write…Another Study…
Back
in the City, Jeremy Smith has just completed a survey into Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) for a group of banks. With
banks getting bigger and bigger and organisational structures more complex, the
survey found that banks are setting up specific CRM groups within their
operations to provide a single point of contact for key clients.
A second survey reviewing the clients (fund managers, etc.) and their
requirements is planned for the Autumn.
The
Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Risk/Reward Management
 Well,
Rodgers and Hammerstein can sleep soundly
on their royalties if this is the best Z/Yen can do.
We sent Michael Mainelli to the Alpbach Conference in the Tyrolean alps
to hob-nob with his fellow wizards (of Oz reference, geddit?).
The Alpbach is a half-century old get-together in Austria originally
supported by notables such as Schrödinger and Koestler.
Academics, artists, politicians and business-people exchange ideas for
fresh air, or something like that. Michael
spoke on some of our advanced techniques for “Valuing Intellectual Assets”,
including risk/reward options and critical sets.
He claimed the high point was having a physics Nobel Prize winner in his
working group. Knowing how many
normally attend a working group when there’s a Wirtschaft nearby, we can just
hum, “High on a hill was a lonely…”
Fishy
Awards for Penguin Suits
 Two
Z/Yen clients were up for top awards at this year’s UK Charity Awards 2002
sponsored by Charity Logistics and Charity Times. The British Heart Foundation
was short-listed for Charity of the Year, but failed to secure top position
against stiff competition. However,
 Z/Yen
is delighted to announce that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) won the Best
Practice Award. Clive Anderson
presented the Barclays-sponsored award to the MSC, at a gala, black tie dinner
at Grosvenor House on 5 September. With
a team of just twenty, the MSC is one of the smallest and youngest charities to
win. The MSC won the Best Practice
Award for the quality of its governance review and the MSC's economic model of
the Alaskan Salmon fishing industry. As
Z/Yen was heavily involved in both of these projects, we enjoy bathing in the
reflected glory, although why the MSC have us swimming in penguin costumes is
beyond us.
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