Taking People with You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen; TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments – Bamboo Innovator Daily: 20 Aug (Thurs)

Life

• How to influence the right corporate culture in your business (and why it matters): FP
• This guy figured out a way to get free Starbucks every day – and it’s driving his barista crazy: BI
• Deskspace: scribes, Dickens and the latest chapter in the story of desks; Forget hot-desking – ‘not-desking’ is the new way to show status: FT
• Black Arts: The $800 Million Family Selling Art Degrees and False Hopes : Forbes
• How CEOs Can Adopt a 21st-century Approach to Communication: K@W

Books

• Taking People with You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen: Amazon
• TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments: Amazon

Investing Process

• The Scripps National Spelling Bee and the Pursuit of Alpha; Stiff competition is affecting competitive spelling and asset management in curiously similar ways. MS
• Desperately SEEKing long-term thinkers: Andrew Bassat hits out at investor obsession with ‘next week’s profit’: BRW
• Mark Steward – a look at the record of a white collar crime fighter in Hong Kong’s SFC: SCMP
• China’s Hithink Sinks on Delisting Warning Linked to CSRC Probe: Bloomberg
• Insider Trading Hacks Prompt Rethinking of Release System: Bloomberg

Greater China

• Why China’s Yuan ‘Reform’ Merits Skepticism; Despite central bank’s claims, its yuan devaluation looks like an effort to boost growth at rest of world’s expense: WSJ
• Facing Public Fury, China Reveals Owners Of Tianjin Warehouse; owners deliberately concealed their ownership stakes behind a murky corporate structure; Chinese Report Details Role of Political Connections in Tianjin Blasts: zh
• Alibaba Cash-Burning Buybacks Make Internet Bonds China’s Worst: Bloomberg
• Tech start-ups flock to Hong Kong: FT
• China: Weakened foundations; Facing an economic slowdown, and with policy options running low, Beijing’s leaders broke an old taboo and devalued the renminbi: FT
• China’s Debt Termites: PS
•  Blind Faith in China’s Stock Market; The allure of quick profits tempted many Chinese people to gamble their savings in stocks. NYT
•  Yup, we’re calling China the ultimate wannabe unicorn: FT
•  IMF Signals Yuan Won’t Become Reserve Currency for at Least a Year; Fund’s executive board confirms earlier proposal for delay in five-year reshuffling of currency basket: WSJ
• A Hundred Apps Bloom in China as Millions Bank on Their Phones: Bloomberg
• Cliffs CEO Takes Aim at Crazy China Steel Exports Amid Glut; “What China is exporting alone is bigger than the second-biggest producer of steel in the world: it is crazy,” : Bloomberg
• Why another China devaluation could be coming: AsiaOne
• China’s stock market is like a casino, and that’s what attracts some investors: Reuters
• Chocolate demand melts in China as stocks and bribes decline: Reuters

India

• How outsourcing company eClerx found its foothold: PD Mundhra recounts how he started eClerx, a knowledge process outsourcing company, when the industry was still nascent: Forbes
• MM Forgings reaping the rewards of controlled expansion; Vidyashankar Krishnan of Chennai-based MM Forgings on how he battled crises in his business and dealt with troublemakers: Forbes
• India’s Banks Need the Tools to Get Tough: Bloomberg
• Indian e-tailer’s funds will disappear in a flash: Reuters

Japan & Korea

• These cameras in a Japanese train station can tell if you’re too drunk to ride: BI, WSJ
• Japan’s beer drinkers to be tested by tax man: FT
• Lotte shareholders bring progress but no end to leadership feud: Nikkei
• What Lotte owes to people: KT
• Lotte faces backlash in South Korea over ties to Japan: JT

ASEAN

• Malaysia Riskier Than Mexico Has UBS Warning of Worse to Come: Bloomberg
• How the Philippines Missed Out on Commodities Prosperity; Glencore’s exit from the country is the latest setback for the Philippine mining sector: WSJ
• Najib Razak has too much power for Malaysia’s good; Once a model of development, the country’s reputation is sinking and so is that of the PM: FT
• Thai Top Brass Missing in Action on Growth; Bangkok bombing pressures the military junta to invest more to bolster an economy hurt by fewer tourists.: Barron’s
• Hard Year for Investment Banks in Southeast Asia; Revenue from IPOs, mergers and other deals was the lowest since 2009 as of mid-August: WSJ
• Thai PM says former finance minister Somkid to lead new economic team: AsiaOne
• Vietnam Devalues Dong for Third Time in 2015 on Yuan Fallout: Bloomberg
• Ringgit Rout: Singaporeans Keep Calm, Shop for Malaysia Bargains: Bloomberg
• Bangkok attack shakes Thai economy’s last support: Reuters

Macro

• Dividend stocks given new lease of life; Dividend paying stocks – a popular trade of the low-interest rate era of the past several years – may have found new life in China’s economic troubles. FT
•  China export woes mirrored across Asia: FT
• Buybacks fall out of fashion with investors; Boring dividend-payers are beating the market again as bond yields fall: FT
• Surge of investment scams sparks alarm in City: FT
• We borrow too much from the future at our peril; Central banks seem concerned about liquidity, but it is not the issue: FT
• The world should fear an emerging market rout; Developing countries need a stimulus to offset capital outflows: FT
• Who’s Afraid of BlackRock? The industry says financial giants like BlackRock pose no threat to the marketplace. But our research tells a very different story.: Insead
• Audits of Broker-Dealers Remain Troubling to Government Watchdog: WSJ
• Shipping Giants Reduce Sailings on World’s Busiest Route; A glut of ships and lower demand means fewer vessels on the Asia-Europe route: WSJ
• Time to End Quarterly Reports, Law Firm Says; Wachtell Lipton argues the ritual distracts companies from long-term results: WSJ
• In Bribery Law, a New Tool to Scrutinize Wall Street; NYT
• Devalue or defend? Vietnam, other emerging markets caught in currency bind: Nikkei
• World’s Biggest Wealth Fund Tackles New Era as Cash Flows Dry Up: Bloomberg
• Kazakhstan Currency Plunges by Record 23% in Shift to Free Float: Bloomberg
• Sri Lanka Wants to Be the Next Singapore as War Legacy Fades: Bloomberg
• ‘Go anywhere’ bond funds pose risks that investors can’t see: Reuters

Energy & Commodities

• Commodity indexing embraces new methods: FT
• Norway feels the Arctic chill; Low oil price and stalled exploration projects add to worries: FT
• Oil producers brace for more cost-cutting ‘pain’ as prices nearly fall below US$40: FP
• Likelihood of U.S. Oil Sliding to $30 a Barrel Is Increasing; Oversupply and specter of Iranian oil’s return could see prices at lows of financial crisis: WSJ
• The “Best Way To Play The Chinese Credit-Commodity Crunch” Is About To Pay Off Big; Glencore has a huge $55 billion of debt, is drastically sensitive to copper (and other commodity) prices, and its CDS remains just off record high: zh
• Get used to cheap oil, derivatives markets say: Reuters

TMT

• This company is using insanely complicated math to save its customers tons of cash; To get all of your data nice and tidy for analysis, it has to go through a process called “ETL,” which stands for “extract, transform, load.” It can be a costly, time-consuming, and error-prone process: BI
• Airbnb On Building A Global Company: techcrunch
• Hot subject: Owners eye Weather Channel app sale: FT
• Google Reveals How It Scales Its Network; the move by Google and others led to a new wave of innovation in so-called software-defined networking, creating alternatives to conventional networking hardware such as switches: WSJ
• How Spotify reinvented the playlist: WaPo
• Auto Industry’s Ranks of Electric-Car Battery Suppliers Narrow; Three big Asian makers emerge as favorite suppliers amid turn from in-house and startups: LG Chem, Samsung SDI and Panasonic: WSJ

Consumer & Others

• This restaurant chain, LYFE Kitchen, started by 2 Mcdonald’s veterans is leading a fast food revolution: BI
• The Ten Most Innovative Companies In Asia 2015: Forbes
• Millennial Fashion Grows Up: Forever 21 isn’t just for teens; more forgiving fits and sophisticated looks: WSJ
• How Buffalo Wild Wings turns slower meals into faster growth: Fortune
• Australia seeks to become the delicatessen of Asia: Reuters