Business in emerging markets: Emerge, splurge, purge; Western firms have piled into emerging markets in the past 20 years. Now comes the reckoning

Business in emerging markets: Emerge, splurge, purge; Western firms have piled into emerging markets in the past 20 years. Now comes the reckoning

Mar 8th 2014 | From the print edition

VODAFONE’S latest figures appear at first glance to vindicate the most powerful management idea of the past two decades: that firms should expand in fast-growing emerging economies. Sales at the mobile-phone company fell in the rich world while those in the developing world rose smartly. Corporate strategy is usually a contentious subject: there are fierce debates about how big, diversified and financially leveraged firms should be. But geography has seduced everyone. Vodafone is one of countless Western companies that have bet on the developing world. Read more of this post

‘Mofia’ on the wane under Korean president Park

2014-03-07 17:55

‘Mofia’ on the wane under Park

By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye has been criticized for poor personnel choices after a number of people she appointed to key posts were sacked or had to quit for a variety of reasons. Read more of this post

Worrisome suicide surge in Korea

2014-03-07 17:30

Worrisome suicide surge

Unfortunately, Korea is second to none when it comes to suicides. It appears that not a single day passes without news reports on unusual suicide deaths, and this is all the more so recently. Read more of this post

Jilted U.S. Investors and Debtors on the Run; The money trail from a defunct Chinese drug company has led an American bond investor down a winding road

03.07.2014 14:49

Jilted U.S. Investors and Debtors on the Run

The money trail from a defunct drug company has led an American bond investor down a winding road Read more of this post

Tata Motors in talks over China tie-up

March 6, 2014 4:57 pm

Tata Motors in talks over China tie-up

By Avantika Chilkoti and James Crabtree in Mumbai

Tata Motors is conducting talks in China over potential tie-ups in the world’s biggest car market, in a sign that the Indian carmaker is looking to turn round its flagging fortunes through international growth. Read more of this post

Social mobility: a family affair; ‘We are all creatures of our social environment. Wealth generally begets more wealth’

March 7, 2014 12:05 pm

Social mobility: a family affair

By Gillian Tett

‘We are all creatures of our social environment. Wealth generally begets more wealth’

When I was a child growing up in England three decades ago, I was confronted with the visual evidence of social mobility every day – but of the downward, not upward, type. Read more of this post

Beware the false reassurance of corporate probes; Directors do not like to embarrass themselves by exposing serious problems, writes Carson Block

March 6, 2014 6:20 pm

Beware the false reassurance of corporate probes

By Carson Block

Directors do not like to embarrass themselves by exposing serious problems, writes Carson Block

When it comes to defending themselves against accusations of wrongdoing, management teams and their complacent boards follow a well-worn routine. Their immediate reaction is to issue a blanket denial and announce that an independent committee of directors will investigate the accusations. The committee duly appoints an independent law firm to oversee the investigation, and the consulting arm of a Big Four accountancy to pore over the books. Read more of this post

Alibaba’s internet fund product Yu’ebao hits setback as three major banks refuse transactions

Yu’ebao hits setback as three major banks refuse transactions

Xinhua and Staff Reporter

2014-03-07

Yu’ebao, China’s most popular internet fund product, is in hot water as three state-owned banks have reportedly halted interbank deposit business with the fund manager Tianhong, a division of Alipay. Read more of this post

Indian shares hit record highs on hopes of new government

Indian shares hit record highs on hopes of new government

POSTED: 07 Mar 2014 23:08
India’s shares hit fresh a lifetime peak on Friday, boosted by easing strain on public finances and hopes a pro-business government would soon be elected to bring economic growth back on track. Read more of this post

From Tesla to Dunkin’ Donuts, One Firm’s Quest to Fine-Tune the World; Valor Equity Partners upgrades mass-market restaurant outlets with the same lean-manufacturing zeal that enabled it to help make Tesla viable

From Tesla to Dunkin’ Donuts, One Firm’s Quest to Fine-Tune the World

By Ashlee Vance February 28, 2014

At a Little Caesars in Salt Lake City, the pizza making process is executed with precision. The employees receive a worksheet each morning that breaks their day down into 30 minute chunks. From 11:30 a.m. to noon, they’re instructed to have 10 pepperoni, four cheese, two Hawaiian, and three Meat Treat pizzas ready, along with an order of Buffalo wings and 22 sticks of Crazy Bread. During the busiest time, 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., they need 67 pepperoni, 39 cheese, six Hawaiian, and eight Meat Treat pizzas along with three orders of wings and 77 sticks of crazy bread. A college-age kid stands with a headset on and barks out orders–“Two Pep!” “Four Meat!”–to frenetic workers. The goal is to have the product ready and waiting. “People still call and place orders, but it doesn’t really matter,” says Mark, the store’s coach. “We’re already making the pizza, anyway.” Read more of this post

In China, FedEx and UPS Wait for Regulators to Renew Permits

In China, FedEx and UPS Wait for Regulators to Renew Permits

By Bruce Einhorn  March 06, 2014

This is a good time to be in the package delivery business in China. Last year, Chinese bought 1.85 trillion yuan ($300 billion) worth of goods online. There were 9.2 billion deliveries in 2013, a 60 percent increase, worth 143 billion yuan, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Only the express delivery market in the U.S. is bigger. Read more of this post

World’s Biggest Arms Importer, India Wants to Buy Local

World’s Biggest Arms Importer, India Wants to Buy Local

By GARDINER HARRISMARCH 6, 2014

In a joint venture with Sikorsky, Tata builds cabins and parts for the S-92 helicopter at the Hyderabad plant. CreditGraham Crouch for The New York Times Read more of this post

China Credit Markets Tumble Most In 3 Months As Default Spooks Lenders, Deals Pulled

China Credit Markets Tumble Most In 3 Months As Default Spooks Lenders, Deals Pulled

Tyler Durden on 03/06/2014 22:53 -0500

UPDATE: It’s happened – China has suffered its first domestic corporate bond default as Chaori fails to meet interest payments on schedule and rather more surprisingly failed to receive a last-minute mysterious or otherwise bailout… Read more of this post

China’s ‘land kings’ under threat as tightening takes a toll

China’s ‘land kings’ under threat as tightening takes a toll

Thu, Mar 6 2014

By Clare Jim and Yimou Lee

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The days of Chinese developers snatching up premium properties with record-breaking offers are coming to an end as cooling measures bite and sale prices are squeezed, ending the reign of a handful of “land kings” in the world’s second-largest economy. Read more of this post

China says no casinos for resort island Hainan

China says no casinos for resort island Hainan

Thu, Mar 6 2014

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s balmy holiday island of Hainan, long touted as a place where the country could liberalise gambling, will not permit casinos, senior officials announced this week. Read more of this post

Walt Disney, Shanghai Media Group to develop Disney-branded movies

Walt Disney, Shanghai Media Group to develop Disney-branded movies

Thu, Mar 6 2014

By Chris Peters and Kanika Sikka

(Reuters) – Walt Disney Studios has signed an agreement with Shanghai Media Group Pictures to develop Disney-branded movies, the latest move by a U.S. studio to grow its presence in China’s entertainment business. Read more of this post

A week after Mt. Gox collapse, Japan struggles to understand bitcoin

A week after Mt. Gox collapse, Japan struggles to understand bitcoin

3:49am EST

By William Mallard

TOKYO (Reuters) – A week after the collapse of Mt. Gox, Japan is still struggling to craft a response to the bitcoin phenomenon, saying the crypto-currency is not legal tender, though it might be taxable and subject to money-laundering controls. Read more of this post

Garry Kasparov: Cut Off the Russian Oligarchs and They’ll Dump Putin

Garry Kasparov: Cut Off the Russian Oligarchs and They’ll Dump Putin

Target their assets abroad, their mansions and IPOs in London, their yachts. Use banks, not tanks.

GARRY KASPAROV

March 6, 2014 7:26 p.m. ET

For the second time in six years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian troops across an internationally recognized border to occupy territory. This fact must be stated plainly before any discussion of motives or consequences. Russian troops have taken Crimea and they are not leaving, despite the Ukrainian government’s protests. Five hundred kilometers southeast across the Black Sea, Russian soldiers still occupy parts of Georgia—South Ossetia and Abkhazia—where they have been since Mr. Putin’s 2008 invasion and de facto annexation. Read more of this post

Beijing’s Credibility Deficit; Political control reduces the prospects for serious economic reform

Beijing’s Credibility Deficit

Political control reduces the prospects for serious economic reform.

Updated March 6, 2014 6:50 p.m. ET

This week’s National People’s Congress in Beijing is being studied for clues as to the Communist Party’s reform intentions, although it’s hard to see why. Surely China has reached the point where what leaders say they intend to do is less significant than what ends up happening. Read more of this post

China needs to curb risks posed by booming online finance: former ICBC president

China needs to curb risks posed by booming online finance: former ICBC president

2:21pm EST

BEIJING (Reuters) – China needs to regulate booming online financial services firms to curb the risks they pose to the wider financial sector, the former president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Yang Kaisheng, said on Thursday. Read more of this post

Dewey & LeBoeuf Execs Accused of Accounting Fraud; In a multiyear scheme, the law firm’s CFO and other executives falsified accounting entries to conceal a cash-flow shortfall

March 6, 2014

CFO.com | US

Dewey & LeBoeuf Execs Accused of Accounting Fraud

In a multiyear scheme, the law firm’s CFO and other executives falsified accounting entries to conceal a cash-flow shortfall, Manhattan prosecutors allege.

Vincent Ryan

Dewey & LeBoeuf executives, including its former chief financial officer, are accused of running a multiyear scheme designed to hide the law firm’s financial struggles from creditors in the years prior to its filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Read more of this post

Tapping the power of hidden influencers; A tool social scientists use to identify sex workers and drug users can help senior executives find the people most likely to catalyze-or sabotage-organizational-change efforts

Tapping the power of hidden influencers

A tool social scientists use to identify sex workers and drug users can help senior executives find the people most likely to catalyze—or sabotage—organizational-change efforts.

March 2014 | byLili Duan, Emily Sheeren, and Leigh M. Weiss

Employee resistance is the most common reason executives cite for the failure of big organizational-change efforts.¹ Winning over skeptical employees and convincing them of the need to change just isn’t possible through mass e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, or impassioned CEO mandates. Rather, companies need to develop strong change leaders employees know and respect—in other words, people with informal influence. But there’s one problem: finding them. How can company leaders identify those people beforehand to better harness their energy, creativity, and goodwill—and thereby increase the odds of success? Read more of this post

Trust-busting in Mexico: Taking on the tele-garchs; Just as America bust its trusts a century ago, so Mexico needs to take on its near-monopolies in TV and telecoms

Trust-busting in Mexico: Taking on the tele-garchs; Just as America bust its trusts a century ago, so Mexico needs to take on its near-monopolies in TV and telecoms

Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

IN HIS second year in office President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico is admirably keen to develop a reputation as a cartel-killer. In December his reforms stripped Pemex, the state oil firm, of its 75-year monopoly. Last month he sent a bill to Congress raising the maximum jail sentence for anticompetitive behaviour to ten years. (He has even made some headway against the relentless drug cartels, as the capture on February 22nd of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Mexico’s most-wanted kingpin, attests—see article.) Read more of this post

After Mt Gox: Bitconned

After Mt Gox: Bitconned

Mar 5th 2014, 17:45 by P.H. | SEATTLE

JUST over a week ago, Schumpeter wrote about the collapse of Mt Gox, the once-dominant Bitcoin exchange that disappeared in late February along with almost half a billion dollars of customers’ cryptocurrency (and $65 million of its own)—all presumed stolen. Schumpeter’s reward for his article was open warfare in the comments section. A large minority of commenters pilloried Schumpeter for daring to criticise their belief in the almighty Bitcoin. The remainder questioned the sanity of anyone believing in what one commenter described as “the currency equivalent of unicorns.” Read more of this post

What’s gone wrong with democracy; Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it?

What’s gone wrong with democracy

Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it?

It is easy to understand why. Democracies are on average richer than non-democracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracy lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children’s futures. That so many people in so many different parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea is testimony to its enduring appeal. Read more of this post

The battle of Detroit: Pensioners and bondholders fight over a city’s diminished coffers

The battle of Detroit: Pensioners and bondholders fight over a city’s diminished coffers

Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

IT WAS inevitable that the rights of creditors and pensioners would come into conflict, especially in places that suffer from high debts, sluggish growth and an ageing population. Admittedly Detroit, where a bankruptcy plan proposes deep cuts to the wealth of both bondholders and retirees, is an extreme example. But it does point to where future battle lines will be drawn. Read more of this post