Daily Bamboo Innovator Insight: Fri 28 Nov 2014 – China has ‘wasted’ $6.8tn in investment; Record China Downgrades Test PBOC as More Defaults Seen

Life 

Making a success of succession: Companies are generally not good at changing their chiefs: Economist

Every damn day: how Milan Direct founder Dean Ramler keeps the passion for his business alive: BRW

Ways to pick the smart students; Cambridge’s website states that the school wants students who think like Newton, not those who know Newton well: JoongAng

Charlie Munger and Niederhoffering the Investors: Sova

How Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, And Other Entrepreneurs Started Their First Ventures As Kids: BusinessInsider

The Best Advice I Wish I’d Had Sooner by Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin, Chairman, President and CEO: LinkedIn

13 Bizarre Sleeping Habits Of Super Successful People; Leonardo da Vinci’s sleep schedule included 20-minute naps every four hours. This unconventional sleep cycle may have given the artist/inventor/scientist more awake time: BusinessInsider

The joy of discovery for plant hunters: FT

Do the Jesuits hold the answer for misfiring multinationals? The order’s structure has attracted business school plaudits: FT

Insights From The Most Successful Investors In History: Ritholtz

How the Civil War Created Thanksgiving: NYTimes

Staff motivation key to raising productivity, more so than innovation: CFOs: CNA

How Much Trickery Is Legal on Wall Street? A Jefferies trader convicted of defrauding investors out of $2 million says he was just doing what any salesman does.: BW

C.S. Lewis and the Crises of Belief; Despite tragedies, the scholar and ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ author came down on the side of faith. WSJ

When Debt Is Opportunity: An ex-con-turned-collector notes that it is common to work in a few stolen accounts with legitimate ones to sweeten the return: WSJ

Greater China

China has ‘wasted’ $6.8tn in investment, warn Beijing researchers: FT

Record China Downgrades Test PBOC as More Defaults Seen: Bloomberg

Going Online to Borrow Down Payments in China; Online borrowing for down payments may reach 20 billion yuan this year and could climb to 1.2 trillion yuan a year.: BW

In Hong Kong, Tycoons and Fishermen Determine Who Leads the City: Bloomberg

Higher education: A matter of honours; China is trying to reverse its brain drain: Economist

Inheritance law: A lack of will power; Inheritance law needs to catch up with economic and social change: Economist

Prudential Betting China Will Trim Down State-Owned Giants: Bloomberg

Ting Hsin may be forced to liquidate its assets as financial pressure mounts: ChinaPost

Jack Ma’s e-commerce empire looks west to Xinjiang: WantChinaTimes

Formosa Group chairman and co-founder Wang Yung-tsai dies, aged 93: WantChinaTimes

The Next Phase of China’s Financial Deepening: Project Syndicate

The Ambition Explosion: China’s future may be determined as much by its spiritual struggle as by its new capitalist ethos: NYTimes

Beijing shop bans…. Chinese customers; Clothing shop in Chinese capital has angered domestic customers by banning them from entering the store: Telegraph

Open Sesame: Alibaba and the 16 Tiger Cubs : Novus

India

Budget carriers in India: In short-haul for the long run; Prospering in India’s aviation market requires patience and discipline: Economist

An inside tale of how Narendra Modi won the Indian election in 2014: Economist

Car-Sharing Startups Hit the Road in India: BW

Pressure Grows for Rajan to Follow China Rate Cut as India Slows: Bloomberg

Japan & Korea

Electricity firms in Japan: Solar shambles; Japan has failed to learn from Germany’s renewable-energy mess: Economist

South Korean President goes overboard in use of ‘scary’ metaphors; a good leader is one who moves people’s hearts with gentle words and strong action, not one who scares them. AsiaOne

What Sony Can Learn From Samsung: Bloomberg

‘Creative Korea 2014’ showcases potential of creative economy: Maeil

Heir apparent at LG is made a V.P.: JoongAng

Nongshim, Korea’s largest maker of instant noodles, is seeking to export its flagship product Shin Ramyeon to over 100 countries next year by capitalizing on the growing popularity of “K-food” overseas. KoreaTimes

Leadership change in full swing at Samsung, Hanwha; The so-called big deal between Samsung and Hanwha Group is evidence of a leadership changeover from fathers to sons at the two chaebol. KoreaTimes

There is no telling how the latest transaction ― the largest since the Asian financial crisis ― will work out for both Samsung and Hanwha.: KoreaTimes

PayAll, an online payment service developed by BC Card, is drawing a growing number of users for its simplicity and convenience as it doesn’t require a public key or Active-X tool for e-transactions.: KoreaTimes

Mutual funds will be allowed to match Samsung’s market weight on (15% of KOSPI) but are not allowed to overweight, which is not great for Samsung’s stocks: Barron’s

ASEAN

Singapore Wealthy Stung as Crude Rout Sinks Bonds; Singapore’s wealthiest residents may be regretting bank rolling the island’s oil industry: Bloomberg

Singapore central bank says it might do more to contain household debt; MAS lays out risks for Singapore private debt: Reuters

Private home prices still high, despite falls: MAS: TODAY

Vietnam yields cautionary tale over Chinese investment: FT

Can man-of-the-people Widodo micromanage 240 million Indonesians? Reuters

In Thailand, Firms Add Apprentice Programs; Manufacturers Address Skilled-Labor Shortage; ‘We Can’t Wait,’ BMW Executive Says: WSJ

Bumi to have global restructuring after court protection: JPost

Misuse of inside info on the rise as companies try to raise capital in on the Stock Exchange of Thaland and the Market for Alternative Investment: SEC: Nation

President Joko Widodo wants his ministers and other officials to adopt a humble lifestyle, asking them to stop throwing massive wedding parties and not show off their wealth: JGlobe

Indonesia’s palm revolution runs off track for smallholders: Reuters

A New Vision for Singapore; Treating social values and morality as commodities is a dangerous game. WSJ

Macro

Low-calibre munitions: Fears of a currency war in Asia are overblown: Economist

Reinsurance revolution changes landscape of risk management: FT

The good, the bad and the ugly of emerging market debt: FT

In parched bond markets, sparks are dangerous: FT

An Inclusive Emerging Economy, With Africa in the Lead; Village based savings groups now reach about 10 million people in more than 60 countries, many in remote rural areas without any other financial services. NYTimes

America’s Best Small Companies 2014: Forbes

ECB’s negative interest rates under fire in Germany: TheStar

New Entrepreneurs Find Pain in Spain; Startups Face Cratered Consumer Market, Scarce Capital, Dense Bureaucracy and Culture Averse to Risk: WSJ

TMT

Apple’s $100 Billion Waste: Tim Cook’s Single Biggest Mistake As CEO: Forbes

Myanmar Digital Startup NEX Gets 2nd Round Funds From Blibros; Ye Myat Min dropped out of Singapore Management University to work in Singapore’s Web world.: Forbes

Trustbusting in the internet age: Should digital monopolies be broken up? European moves against Google are about protecting companies, not consumers: Economist

How Apple Becomes A $1 Trillion Company: BusinessInsider

Wikipedia founder to float charity mobile phone company The People’s Operator for £100m: Telegraph

Amazon: We are not trying to destroy Royal Mail: Telegraph

Willy Wonka-style elevator uses magnets to move sideways; German company ThyssenKrupp says its revolutionary new design means you will never wait more than 30 seconds for a lift: Telegraph

What Airbnb Gets About Culture that Uber Doesn’t: HBR

The Startups of Nazareth: BW

These Apps Mean You’ll Never Wait in Line for Coffee Again; Mobile order-ahead apps cost stores about $25,000 to implement but increase traffic by as much as 30 percent.: BW

Europe escalated its war against U.S. technology superpowers to rein in the growing influence : WSJ

Internet-connected device sector deals accelerating: Reuters

Healthcare

The price of failure: A startling new cost estimate for new medicines is met with scepticism: Economist

China Nepstar: A Bitter Pill For Investors: China’s largest drugstore chain afflicted by high costs and online competition. Prognosis: negative.: Barron’s

Energy & Commodities

Oil price slide leaves energy bond investors facing zero returns: FT

“There Will Be Blood”: Petrodollar Death Means A Liquidity And Oil-Exporting Crisis On Deck: ZeroHedge

Alberta Producers With World’s Cheapest Oil Face Cascading Woes: Bloomberg

Ready or not: oil exporters facing low prices; A mixture of ants and grasshoppers with some having learned the virtues of hard work: FT

Opec members flounder in a flood of cheap oil; The cartel’s weakness is welcome now, but a warning for the future: FT

Tumbling crude oil prices are casting a shadow over almost $US70 billion ($82.3 billion) of natural gas projects planned in Australia, threatening what’s billed as the second leg of the nation’s energy boom. TheAge

Terence Corcoran: How markets finally beat OPEC’s oil-price chokehold: FP

OPEC’s Weapon of Mass Inaction; It will likely be years before we see triple-digit oil again: WSJ

Consumer & Others

Low-cost airlines: Making Laker’s dream come true; Low-cost airlines have revolutionised short-haul flying. Now, after several failed attempts, they are poised to do the same on longer routes: Economist

SABMiller’s Coca-Colanisation of Africa: FT

How the once high-flying fast-food chain. Pie Face cooked its own goose: TheAge

Munchery hopes stone-cold logistics will help it win the war over the evening meal; Tri Tran is taking the middle road between delivering it raw and rushing it over to you hot: Forbes

Spanx for Your Face: BW

Roy Choi Wants to Reinvent Fast Food; The food truck pioneer is betting on a tofu-laced burger: BW