- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Cement Magazine
I was recently alerted to an interesting, if possibly controversial, online tool: Country Comparison by Hofstede Insights. It shows national cultural differences in graphical form. By doing so, it can help to uncover the drivers behind, and hence increase the understanding of, behaviours exhibited by different societies. The approach builds on the work of the Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede (1928 - 2020), who spent much of his career investigating the dynamics of cross-cultural organisations such as the UN. The Country Comparison tool ranks societies using six metrics: Individualism, Masculinity, Power Distance,
Uncertainty Avoidance, Indulgence and Long Term Orientation, each ranked out of 100.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
For the first few years of this magazine, we did not have a ‘Last Word.’ We had guest columnists who wrote about their observations of the industry, really starting with Johan Riedenlow, an early contact at HW Carlsen. For several years cement industry analyst Ken Rumph wrote a number of notable columns in the magazine entitled ‘View from the City, while Jean-Marie Chandelle, CEO of CEMBUREAU , wrote a very readable and informative monthly ‘View from Brussels’ for several years until his retirement.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
The Covid Pandemic has been awful for millions of people around the world, but as it starts to slowly recede into the rear-view mirror, we are trying to deal with a new and sometimes unrecognisable world.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Many of us enjoy a burger from time to time. You may even enjoy a ‘beefburger,’ and when thinking of a sausage, no doubt meat will be involved. So a recent legal tussle over what the vegetarian versions of these products should or could be called is of some culinary interest to us all. It also affects the cement industry, as we shall come to see.
- Written by Peter Edwards, Editor, Global Cement Magazine
Google Maps has a new feature, Timelapse, which stitches together satellite images to allow users to scroll back in time to 1984. As someone who is as old as the first images on Timelapse, this is sobering. Many locations around the world have changed beyond recognition: The melting of Greenland, the ‘advance’ into the Amazon, the growth of megacities like Dubai and Beijing, the disappearance of the Aral Sea... The images are equally shocking and unsurprising.
