Wednesday 10 July 2013

Due Diligence

When entering into a business relationship, the parties will usually go through a process of due diligence to ensure that they can have assurance that the people or organisation they are dealing with are capable of delivering what they say they plan to do.

Employers undertake their own due diligence when asking job candidates for details of who can provide a reference for their previous experience and behaviour.

You might ask a roofer to identify what work he had done on other buildings so their bona fides can be established.

Politicians seeking election set out their experience in their manifesto/promotional material and expect to be asked about that experience by the media and by individual electors.

The exception to this rule appears to be the front man for a major golf course development on the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  Ask yourself if you would do business with a man with this track record.

Is it true?  Note the date - April 2011. Due Diligence would establish that Donald Trump is quite quick on the draw in deploying his learned friends if he thinks he's been slighted.  This article is still there 2 years later so one can only assume that Aberdeenshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, Robert Gordon University, successive First Ministers of Scotland, and many others involved in the great project Scotland didn't look very closely.  Indeed it looks very much like they did not exercise due diligence.

Monday 8 July 2013

TIGL Golfer Bookings Week Commencing 1 July 2013

The links were open from 0730 until 1530 every day - 33 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour - except for Mondays where it appears to start business from 12 noon - 15 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour.

Monday 1 July
  • 33 golfers booked out of 60 potential
  • 10 tee-time slots used from 15 available
Tuesday 2 July
  • 41 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 12 tee-time slots used from 31 available
Wednesday 3 July
  • 80 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 21 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Thursday 4 July
  • 58 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 17 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Friday 5 July
  • 79 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 22 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Saturday 6 July
  • 62 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 19 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Sunday 7 July
  • 53 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 18 tee-time slots used from 33 available

For the whole week, this works out at 47.7% of golfer capacity used.

 [All data transcribed from TIGL online booking tool the evening before. Casual on the day bookings not therefore captured; all golfers assumed to have turned up. Cannot guarantee that all paid for their rounds]

Sunday 30 June 2013

TIGL Golfer Bookings Week Commencing 24 June 2013

The links were open from 0730 until 1530 every day - 33 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour - except for Mondays where it appears to start business from 12 noon - 15 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour.

Monday 24 June
  • 29 golfers booked out of 60 potential
  • 8 tee-time slots used from 15 available
Tuesday 25 June
  • 57 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 18 tee-time slots used from 31 available
Wednesday 26 June
  • 96 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 26 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Thursday 27 June [Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce Golf Challenge]
  • 94 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 26 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Friday 28 June
  • 71 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 23 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Saturday 29 June
  • 34 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 11 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Sunday 30 June
  • 20 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 7 tee-time slots used from 33 available

For the whole week, this works out at 47.1% of golfer capacity used.

 [All data transcribed from TIGL online booking tool the evening before. Casual on the day bookings not therefore captured; all golfers assumed to have turned up. Cannot guarantee that all paid for their rounds]

Sunday 23 June 2013

TIGL Golfer Bookings Week Commencing 17 June 2013

The links were open from 0730 until 1530 every day - 33 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour - except for Mondays where it appears to start business from 12 noon - 15 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour.

Monday 17 June
  • 28 golfers booked out of 60 potential
  • 8 tee-time slots used from 15 available
Tuesday 18 June
  • 40 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 11 tee-time slots used from 31 available
Wednesday 19 June
  • 72 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 20 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Thursday 20 June
  • 99 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 26 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Friday 21 June
  • 86 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 26 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Saturday 22 June
  • 70 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 19 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Sunday 23 June
  • 25 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 7 tee-time slots used from 33 available

For the whole week, this works out at 49.3% of golfer capacity used.

 [All data transcribed from TIGL online booking tool the evening before. Casual on the day bookings not therefore captured; all golfers assumed to have turned up. Cannot guarantee that all paid for their rounds]

Sunday 16 June 2013

TIGL Golfer Bookings Week Commencing 10 June 2013

The links were open from 0730 until 1530 every day - 33 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour - except for Mondays where it appears to start business from 12 noon - 15 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour.

Monday 10 June
  • 20 golfers booked out of 60 potential
  • 7 tee-time slots used from 15 available
Tuesday 11 June
  • 91 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 25 tee-time slots used from 31 available
Wednesday 12 June
  • 20 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 7 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Thursday 13 June
  • 41 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 12 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Friday 14 June [Schlumberger corporate day]
  • 107 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 28 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Saturday 15 June
  • 77 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 21 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Sunday 16 June
  • 84 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 23 tee-time slots used from 33 available

For the whole week, this works out at 51.6% of golfer capacity used.  This was the second week in a row this season that usage capacity had appeared to go above 50%

 [All data transcribed from TIGL online booking tool the evening before. Casual on the day bookings not therefore captured; all golfers assumed to have turned up. Cannot guarantee that all paid for their rounds]

Monday 10 June 2013

TIGL Golfer Bookings Week Commencing 3 June 2013

The links were open from 0730 until 1530 every day - 33 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour - except for Mondays where it appears to start business from 12 noon - 15 available slots of 4 golfers every quarter of an hour.

Thursday and Friday of this week coincided with the visit of Donald J Trump to hold a press conference about his plans for building a second course at Menie

Monday 3 June
  • 33 golfers booked out of 60 potential
  • 11 tee-time slots used from 15 available
Tuesday 4 June
  • 28 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 9 tee-time slots used from 31 available
Wednesday 5 June
  • 79 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 22 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Thursday 6 June
  • 125 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 32 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Postscript: Thursday 6 June TIGL hosted the Aberdeen/Dundee event of the Audi Quattro Cup

Friday 7 June
  • 105 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 27 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Saturday 8 June
  • 77 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 22 tee-time slots used from 33 available
Sunday 9 June
  • 48 golfers booked out of 132 potential;
  • 14 tee-time slots used from 33 available

For the whole week, this works out at 58.1% of golfer capacity used.  This was by far the busiest week of the season to date, and the first time usage capacity had appeared to go above 50%

 [All data transcribed from TIGL online booking tool the evening before. Casual on the day bookings not therefore captured; all golfers assumed to have turned up. Cannot guarantee that all paid for their rounds]

Turning it up to 11

The spoof rock music documentary This is Spinal Tap had many memorable goofy moments, not least when guitarist Nigel Tufnel explained that his amplifier was louder because it went up to, not just ten, but eleven. 

The Menie Dunes witnessed a similar moment last week when Donald J Trump outlined his plans for building a second golf course.



At the end of the press conference, Joseph Cinque, President of the American Academy of HospitalitySciences, gave Donald Trump their Six Star Diamond Award for Best Golf Course Worldwide 2013.



Six Stars? I thought they only went up to Five?  On this, Wikipedia notes “As no traditional organization or formal body awards or recognizes any rating over five-star deluxe, such claims are meaningless”. 

Six Stars is the same as turning it up to 11.

As of much relevance is the fact that one of the principal Trustees of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences is its Ambassador Extraordinaire - Donald J Trump.  Honorary Trustees include Donald's two sons, and the Trustees include Trump's Chief Operating Officer.  A complete coincidence, no doubt.

The Scotsman and the Herald newspapers covered Trump's receipt of this “turned up to 11” award without any reference to this coincidence. Congratulations through to the Daily Record for seeing through this scam and explaining that Trump is pictured next to Cinque on the Trustees page of the “Academy's” internet site. 

Perhaps the Daily Record can run some training events on using internet search engines for staff at the Scotsman and The Herald.  This demonstrates a lack of questioning of Trump Press Releases and Lines by the Scottish Press and more widely.  And it also suggests that the Trump organisation, by engaging in what is basically a scam, is contemptuous of the people they are dealing with in Aberdeenshire (as well as recognising the inability of the media to ask questions beyond what is presented to them).

A kind commenter on the Scotsman story has found a five-year old item giving some more alleged background on the relationship between Cinque and Trump, which you may read here if you wish.