Executive Summary: January 27, 2009
By Scott Rochfort | smh.com.au | 27 January
The country's biggest brick and tile maker, Brickworks, has paid an emotional tribute to the late King of Pop outside its corporate headquarters.
The company has erected a 10 metre by 10 metre glazed brick mural of Michael Jackson at its Horsley Park complex alongside the M7 motorway. It is possibly the world's biggest brick memorial to the pop star. The group has signalled its interest in starting a major brick wall memorial building drive.
The Brickworks managing director, Lindsay Partridge, who conceded to CBD he was more familiar with Jackson's 1980s Thriller phase, said the company was already planning to build a similar brick wall at Subiaco Oval in Perth in tribute to the West Coast Eagles legend, John ''Woosha'' Worsfold.
''I think there will be a lot of things around the community that people would like a permanent memorial to,'' Partridge reasoned. The move into the memorial sector could offset the impact of the housing slump.
The company's Austral Bricks subsidiary is already asking for suggestions on its website on who should be honoured in brick at its headquarters. ''Austral Bricks will be changing this piece of Brick Art regularly to showcase what can be achieved with bricks,'' it explains on its website.
The 5117-brick Michael Jackson tribute wall depicts the pop star during his Bad phase and was built from the Brickworks's range of ''Burlesque'' bricks.
It has also emerged Brickworks backed down from its original names for the colours of the racy range of bricks, which included ''lust'', ''smitten'' and ''envy''. The colours now include the less scintillating ''deepening green'' and ''smashing blue''. Partridge admitted the company had received a complaint about the bricks. It is unclear if it came from the Christian Democratic Party leader, Fred Nile, who in early 2008 expressed concern about sex-themed bricks. ''I know sex sells but I don't think it should be used to sell bricks,'' he reasoned at the time.
HIT THE SLOPES
The Leighton boss, Wal King, who is a keen skier, will again front up to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, which starts today.
King will be on the panel for Skills Creation: The Future of Employment, which will include the Ernst & Young chief executive, James Turley.
The ACTU president, Sharan Burrow, will also rock up to the event, in her guise as the President of the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation.
Shazza will be on the panel of a few sessions, including 2010: Dodging the Double Dip?, which will include the World Trade Organisation boss, Pascal Lamy, as a panellist.
The Melbourne-born chief executive of Etihad Airways, James Hogan, will also be helping oversee some of the 224 sessions at the week-long event. Hogan appears to be fashioning himself as a problem solver, having already attended the Global Irish Economic Forum in September.
Strangely, the managing partner of the New York investment firm Skybridge, Anthony Scaramucci, has been entered by the event's organisers as representing the Sydney-based Challenger Financial Services.
One of the more interesting sessions - Financial Risk Management 2.0? - will include the Icelandic President, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. The President recently refused to sign a bill designed to repay €3.8 billion ($6 billion) to the British and Dutch governments, who went to the rescue of 400,000 deposit holders who lost their savings when the Icesave bank collapsed.
EASY MONEY
The Mark Bouris website has been taken over by a get-rich-quick scheme. The domain name was set up by an alleged Bouris fan who missed out in his audition for The Apprentice Australia reality TV show hosted by the Wizard Home Loans founder last year. The postings highlighting the genius of Bouris have given way to a guy called Rick Thomas, who is hawking a system he developed on how to make a bundle of cash in 30 days. Thomas sells his 30DayWealth system for $US47 ($52), which he says will make you a fortune over the internet by writing reports about anything.
''I discovered a way to make big money off of information that I already knew,'' he explains. ''I picked a topic that I already knew a little bit about. I did a small amount of research, and I typed up a quick research paper on that topic.''
Thomas explained he was only selling the system to a limited number of people. ''This truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The ones who take advantage of this are the ones that will succeed.''
First published by Smh.com.au on January 27 2010
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