Gemini 2011 E-zine up - Unfold your life...

This month's Ezine includes a service that gets your C.V in order. Match your horoscope to your C.V. to reflect who you really are and what you want. Special rate if you book before Leo time.

The main article is about three ways that your life and your company or country unfold over time.

• Your biological Clock
• the world coming at you and
• a personal unfolding

are all explained in the continuation of the series:

"What if astrology is a good model for looking at the world?"

C&A and the Brenninkmeijers

A few years ago when I was doing my dissertation for my MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology, I was lucky enough to get an interview with one of the managers at Athos, the managing company of C&A in Amsterdam. This week in the press, there was an article about them, confirming what I had discovered then.

They had just become more 'open' as a company, but they were the only one of my research companies for which I couldn't get a start date and the only one who wouldn't give me permission to use any of what I found through interviews, in any of my publications. 'Open' apparently has different meanings! The article also refers to this fact. They play everything very close to their chest. (Picture of logo is from C&A site).

I was researching how my 'Company Clock' model (one that shows organisational development phases), worked for C&A. Because I had followed the phases then, I was interested to see what they were up to now. The article referred to the fact that they are structured so that they don't have to publicise any of their figures. I discovered that this structure was set up in the crisis point of the 8th phase - related to Scorpio - the mid-life crisis phase for people and companies. They made sure in this phase, to do lots of Scorpio things, keep control, maintain privacy and totally reorganise.

According to the Volkskrant, C&A is 150 this year, a real achievement for a family company. That's not strictly true as according to their own website they were founded in 1841. However the opening of their first branch was 20 years later. Today, the Brenninkmeijers are one of the richest families in Holland. Now that they are 170 (I use the founding date), they are in the 4th phase again, so I was delighted with the last sentence in the Volkskrant Article of 23 May 2011. "En de volgende generatie is alweer bijna aan bod." It's almost the next generation's (of Brenninkmeijers) turn. My model seems to be working even for them!

What I've discovered in this Cancer phase in many companies, is that there are often changes in management. Major new players in the boardroom. For people, this phase,(which happens first between 18 and 24, with a crisis point between 21-22), is when we make our own nest. We leave home and create a new 'family'. Companies seem to do this too.  It would be interesting to know what happened in C&A the first and second times round in this phase. These were between 1859-1865 and 1931-1937. I tried to discover this during my research, but the only thing I could really ascertain was that in 1861 the 2nd store in its history was started and perhaps more interestingly looking at the economy now, in 1934 a differentiation in the range was made so that high-class people, now with less money, would feel at home. Also because of their non-Jewish policy, permission was given for a store to open  in Leipzig in 1937.

It seems some themes never change!

We can use the age of 150 years for the stores, as the 170 applies to the whole company. This means that the stores have their own life-cycle which is even more interesting as they are entering the 2nd phase again, the one concerning Taurus, where core products need to be redefined and finances need to be put in order. It's all about money! Interesting then, that in the last two rounds of this phase, C&A created the then new slogan  “C&A is toch voordeliger” in 1924 which was used for a long time, (difficult to translate but something like C&A is actually cheaper). Today the English version is "Fashion You Choose". Are we in for a new positioning and slogan in the coming 6 years? And in 1995 H&M started heavy competing with C&A. My advice for C&A is to get ready to go back to basics and expect competition.

Lead us Into the Future - 6th October 2011 - Lloyd Hotel Amsterdam

I was just checking my stats and see that I have a lot of followers in places other than here - Great!  But I'm afraid this post is about an evening in Amsterdam.  Now I agree it would be worth coming from Brazil or New Zealand just to stay at the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam and come to our dinner, but I know it's not likely.

Anyway on the 6th October, Blanca Vergara and I are inviting you to a dinner and meeting of minds. We will combine our perspectives on the future of leadership in an event we have called 
Lead us into the Future.



If you want to expand your insight in the future of business while enjoying dinner with us, please join us.

 Why this evening?


Today, many people are asking what is happening to the world. Where did it all go wrong? And what sort of leadership can fix it?


In this meeting, we offer you unorthodox ideas for tackling the future and for developing leadership skills in your organisation, by looking from a different viewpoint. The intention is two-fold


•To suggest ways of working towards a heart-centred economy
•To provide a taste of the benefits of using astrology within your company.

For whom?


The evening is designed for leaders who dare to think outside the box. If you are truly innovative and interested in models that generate radical business transformation, then this is an evening for you.

Old wisdom in a new business suit


Astrology is centuries old but since the 17th century it has been less valued. However that is changing and Astrology is back in the universities. The division between ancient spiritual wisdom and science today is decreasing and companies can now benefit from these developments too.


I will share my study of astrological cycles to define trends for the coming crucially important period. I will also suggest authentic leadership styles based on the horoscopes of both you and your company.

Blanca is passionate about changing the way companies look at finance. She has a knack of helping you identify your passion and encouraging you to go for it. She is working towards a heart centred economy by offering you transformational solutions to today's problems.

Programme


16:00 coffee and registration
16:30 Opening by the chairman - Our chairman will be announced soon.

16:40 Faye Cossar - Riding trends with authentic leadership


The world is at a crossroads and we need to act. But first we need to understand what the undercurrents are. By knowing these themes, we can put our leadership skills to good use. These larger contexts shape what is possible and draw forth what is needed. How can we best coordinate personal leadership with the collective, and the human with the cosmic?

 17:15 Blanca Vergara - Leadership is dead

Crisis, crisis, crisis is everywhere.

Layoffs, suicides, governments falling… what can we do to stop this snowball? New paradigms are needed, as is a break with the business dogma of infinite growth and profit at any expense. Most companies are struggling with the mismatch of the old paradigms and the undeniable reality. We need different questions, to lead us to different solutions. Blanca offers a new framework to deal with today's uncertainty and to achieve meaningful business success.


 18:00 Cocktails and questions
Questions for the speakers, led by the chairman and discussion with the audience.


From 18:45 Dinner with the speakers and chairman

Practical Details
Date: Thursday 6th October 2011 from 4:30pm
Place: Lloyd’s Hotel, Amsterdam
Language: English

Price: all excl. BTW  One person 200,- Euro 
Two people ( 1 invoice) 350,- Euro 
Three people ( 1 invoice) 450,- Euro

including dinner and drinks - reservation required

Reservation and Information:
Faye Cossar
T: 31 (0)20-620 62 44

Please feel free to pass this information on - in fact we would really appreciate it.

Latest zine up on Growth - not a good idea?

So Saggi time and time for a Christmas special - also some links to Julian Assange and when Mercury might be involved in some festive miscommunications...

and All Change now..

Scorpio E-zine - Advice for Governments on Pension Age

Scorpio - that time of remembrance, death waste products and renewal. But Scorpio also rules large financial matters like pensions.

Advice on the what the pension age should be
Advice for you on what to do after 42
and
What should you be doing until November 20th?

Juxta in a book!

A while ago I met a lot of great entreupreneurial women in Amsterdam during the launch of a new book CRAVE - the Urban Girls manifesto.

This is the first version in Amsterdam following CRAVE's success in other cities.

It's for you too guys.  A great present showing where to get all sorts of products and services. Or get one for yourself - you'll see them in many of Amsterdam's interesting shops or you can get one from me.

Juxtaposition is proud to be in the "Intelligentsia"- yes! - section in this first edition.

Virgo Ezine now online

Have you ever thought about whether you customer service matches what your customer wants?  A couple of examples in the US where creative chaos might have been preferable to efficient Virgo order.

Full Virgo E-zine

Welcome to juxta's blog

Well finally a blog for my company. I plan to give links to interesting things, comment on things astrological that can help businesses and give my views on business issues. I hope you will too.

If you want to ask me anything please do!