My main claim to fame was being an official security guard during the Party Political conference of the Labour Party in 2006. It was not enough for the Labour lot to need the police force to protect them, they also needed private force of security guard specialists to give extra help. Most of the current policies on security have been in place since 1984 and the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel. Obviously this caused massive damage inside the hotel, and almost wiped out the prime minister of the day and most of her cabinet. The political scene may change, terrorists networks rise up and then dissolve, but some policies are set in stone until the next major event.

Security guards work alongside the police force, who find it hard not to look down upon their ‘inferiors’ from the private sector. There is a certain irony in the fact that many member of private security companies have at some point been in the police force themselves.

The day I had at the Party conference was one that will take some beating, and stay in my mind for ever. I had the impression that I would be standing outside the Brighton Centre asking people not to drop litter, or moving suspicious looking cars along. Often you will see some people try to drive up to the conference entrance just so they can ask for the whereabouts of the car park! It takes quite a bit of driving to successfully negotiate the concrete barriers specially erected for the conference, but there are the few that succeed.

Almost immediately prior to the conference, a large noisy crowd began to make it presence known. I was informed that they were a professional bunch, determined to make their feeling known about the debate on foxhunting that was soon to begin. The thoughts that were going through my mind as I was being sworn at and spat upon, was that I would like to get a large quantity of security screens and surround the lot of them!

But a recent news story in the print indusrty press revealed that Orange also spends £7 million every year in the UK on ‘print management‘. Not a penny of this is actually spent on ink or equipment or printing costs – it all goes into the strategic planning of that printing. In these times of recession this amount of money may seem excessive, even for such a big company. Yet that thought wouldn’t last long if you understood what print management is capable of. The simple fact of the matter is this. It has been proven in the business world that if you are willing to invest in print management you can actually end up SAVING a large amount of money rather than trying to manage printing yourself.

A big chunk of the money saved is due to lowering the amount of wasted print material. Millions of dollars are lost every year by mistakes such as incorrect color calibration, problems with paper stock and simple typos which were ignored before sending to print. If you consider unwieldy and complex print marketing strategies this is quite often the case and these costs are written off as ‘inevitable’. It is because commercial printers needed to find an efficient solution to these that the discipline of print management was born.

The other side to the savings that can be made comes down to the logistics of managing sprawling print campaigns using different media and a range of different deadlines. By scientifically planning and project managing print jobs versus resources and available printers, print management companies are able to maximise efficiency. A classic example is when poorly managed campaigns lead to a maxing out of printers and equimpent during busy periods – if you plan ahead and spread out the jobs you can reduce significant overheads. This in turn can dramatically bring down the costs of printing. So you can either achieve the same amount of output for less money, or reinvest the savings in more print marketing and ultimately more ROI.

I know what you’re thinking – that’s all very well for Orange, but what about our company?. In the past decade the gains in digital printing technology have meant smaller scale print management solutions are possible for small to medium enterprises, meaning that the rest of us can enjoy the same kinds of cost savings the ‘big guys’ have been enjoying for years. Is your business taking advantage?

Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world’s richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday. The wealthy few did not escape big shocks this year, with net worth on the list of 793 billionaires – down from 1,125 billionaires in 2008 – plummeting to US$2.4 trillion (S$3.66 trillion) from US$4.4 trillion, Forbes said.

The annual rich list put Bill Gates back on top with a net worth of US$40 billion, although he saw his bank balance lose US$18 billion over the last 12 months. In second came investor Warren Buffett with US$37 billions, despite losing US$25 billion this year in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway shares.

Also losing US$25 billion, Mexican telecoms king Carlos Slim still managed to come in third with US$35 billion. The US surge sent billionaires from India, Russia and Turkey into retreat. US rich fill 10 of the 20 top spots and New York replaced Moscow as home to most billionaires, with 55 to 27. London comes in second with 28.

Russia, where wealth is closely tied to commodity prices, lost two thirds of its billionaires, down to 32. Two Indians appear in the top 20, but not one from Russia, which had four in the previous year’s list.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was notable as the only top 20 member to see a net gain. That was not because of his salary, which is a symbolic dollar a year, but thanks to re-evaluation of Bloomberg financial news agency after the mayor bought a 20 per cent stake from Merrill Lynch last year for US$4.5 billion.

WHAT GOES UP FAST, COMES DOWN FAST

Other developing countries that saw fast growth in previous years were hit hard as well, including Turkey, where the number of billionaires fell to 13 from 35, partly due to the collapse in the value of the lira currency, and India.

Indian businessman Anil Ambani, the biggest gainer on last year’s list, was the biggest loser this time, with $32 billion wiped out over the last 12 months. Ranked sixth last year, he fell to 34 with an estimated wealth of $10.1 billion.

“India took a huge whack,” Kroll said, noting that last year Indians held four of the top 10 spots and now only two, and the number of Indian billionaires more than halved to 24.

Of those who remained or returned to the list, 656 saw their net worth fall, 52 held even and only 44 managed to expand their wealth.

The only person in the top 20 who did not lose money was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose net worth was revised up to $16 billion from $11.5 billion because of a revaluation of his media company, Bloomberg LP, Forbes said. He is now the richest man in New York, jumping from 65 in the world to 17.

“They lost $5 billion each, but Wal-Mart stock hasn’t completely fallen off the cliff like everything else,” he said.

Another discount retailer riding out the storm was Japan’s Tadashi Yanai. His firm Fast Retailing, known for its Uniqlo stores, helped push him from 296th last year to 76th and raised his net wealth to $6 billion from $3.6 billion.

Others who managed to get richer were investors George Soros and Ronald Perelman, as well as short-seller John Paulson, who has profited from the fall in financial stocks, and entertainer Oprah Winfrey who jumped to 234 from 462.

Among those conspicuous by their absence from the list was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, one of last year’s stars when he became the youngest self-made billionaire to make the list.

Also dropping out were big name casualties of the financial crisis on Wall Street — former American International Group Inc chief executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg and former Citigroup Inc chief executive Sanford Weill.

Related News :

Forbes Rich List

Forbes billionaires 2009