Entrepreneurs: Delegate now, before it’s too late

Entrepreneurs: Delegate now, before it’s too late

BY SOPHIA SOLANKI 
ON FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A business’s growth is hinged on an entrepreneur’s ability to delegate effectively. You may have the brightest ideas, the best offering in the market — but without getting the work done, these will mean nothing. It’s no secret how the day-to-day management and running of a business soon becomes the only thing you do, and the business growth takes a backseat. The result — stagnation, de-motivation and in the worst scenario, an end to your dreams. Read more of this post

Still waiting for that China copper unwind

Still waiting for that China copper unwind…

David Keohane | Feb 21 09:23 | 2 comments Share

Right, so if we’re not blaming the squid we may as well spend a bit more time on China. Whack-a-mole finance can have a long reach after all and may very well be skewing LME copper price levels which, instead of reflecting the LME stock position, are maybe reflecting all of that copper sitting somewhere in China, often tied up in tricky financing deals in the shadowy sectors of the economy. Read more of this post

Can God Make It in Hollywood?

Can God Make It in Hollywood?

By MICHAEL CIEPLYFEB. 22, 2014

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LOS ANGELES — SOME years ago, when I was producing films at Columbia Pictures, I learned up close how hard it was to make Hollywood get religion. It was in the mid-1990s, and a good writer, earlier nominated for an Oscar, had an earnest modern-day Christ story about a damaged man in Los Angeles who might or might not be the Messiah. “The Greatest Story Ever Told” meets “Falling Down,” more or less. Read more of this post

Your Ancestors, Your Fate: Surnames reveal that social mobility is much slower than we think

FEBRUARY 21, 2014, 6:19 AM

Your Ancestors, Your Fate

By GREGORY CLARK

Inequality of income and wealth has risen in America since the 1970s, yet a large-scale research study recently found that social mobility hadn’t changed much during that time. How can that be?

The study, by researchers at Harvard and Berkeley, tells only part of the story. It may be true that mobility hasn’t slowed — but, more to the point, mobility has always been slow. Read more of this post

How to Get a Job at Google; Google attracts so much talent it can afford to look beyond traditional metrics, like G.P.A.

How to Get a Job at Google

FEB. 22, 2014

Thomas L. Friedman

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — LAST June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google — i.e., the guy in charge of hiring for one of the world’s most successful companies — noted that Google had determined that “G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. … We found that they don’t predict anything.” He also noted that the “proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time” — now as high as 14 percent on some teams. At a time when many people are asking, “How’s my kid gonna get a job?” I thought it would be useful to visit Google and hear how Bock would answer. Read more of this post

SCA Builds a Revival on Tissue and Diapers

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014

SCA Builds a Revival on Tissue and Diapers

By KATHY GORDON | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Shares of Sweden’s Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget could rise more than 20% in the next 12 months.

When you think transformation, you don’t usually consider tissue and diapers. But Sweden’s Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget does, and has recently shifted its focus to hygiene—mostly tissue, diapers, and incontinence care—from low-growth paper products. An earnings miss last month created a buying opportunity, with shares possibly rising more than 20% in the next 12 months as trading normalizes in China and Russia, margins improve on tissue and personal-care products, and it uses some leverage for acquisitions or a share buyback. Read more of this post

We are surprisingly terrible at divining what’s going on in someone else’s mind.

Book Review: ‘Mindwise’ by Nicholas Epley

We are surprisingly terrible at divining what’s going on in someone else’s mind.

DANIEL J. LEVITIN

Feb. 21, 2014 3:38 p.m. ET

Socrates said “know thyself.” Sun Tzu said “know your enemy.” Nietzsche asked: “How can man know himself? He is a dark and hidden thing.” If Nietzsche is right, how can we do what Socrates and Sun Tzu advise? How can we possibly know, and trust, one another? Read more of this post

SEC Plans ‘Tick’ Size Pilot Program; Advocates Say Aim Is to Make it Easier to Trade Shares of Smaller Companies

SEC Plans ‘Tick’ Size Pilot Program

Advocates Say Aim Is to Make it Easier to Trade Shares of Smaller Companies

TELIS DEMOS And SCOTT PATTERSON

Updated Feb. 21, 2014 6:54 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White said the agency plans to implement a test program to trade stocks in wider increments, like nickels, to determine whether such a change would make it easier for investors to trade some shares. Read more of this post

India’s New Telecom M&A Rules Could Deter Deals

India’s New Telecom M&A Rules Could Deter Deals

R. JAI KRISHNA

Feb. 21, 2014 6:48 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI–India’s new rules that require that the buyer of an Indian mobile phone company pay a fee to the government, in addition to what it pays for the target company, could deter deals in the world’s second largest telecommunications market, after China. Read more of this post

Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable

Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable

by VW StaffFebruary 21, 2014, 5:00 pm

David Ricardo made a fortune buying bonds from the British government four days in advance of the Battle of Waterloo. He was not a military analyst, and even if he were, he had no basis to compute the odds of Napoleon’s defeat or victory, or hard-to-identify ambiguous outcomes. Thus, he was investing in the unknown and the unknowable. Still, he knew that competition was thin, that the seller was eager, and that his windfall pounds should Napoleon lose would be worth much more than the pounds he’d lose should Napoleon win. Ricardo knew a good bet when he saw it. Read more of this post

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters

“We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut famously wrote, “so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” But givenhow much our minds mislead us, what if we don’t realize when we’re pretending – who are we then? That’s precisely what David McRaney explores in You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself (public library) – a “book about self-delusion, but also a celebration of it,” a fascinating and pleasantly uncomfortable-making look at why “self-delusion is as much a part of the human condition as fingers and toes,” and the follow-up to McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart, one of the best psychology books of 2011. McRaney, with his signature fusion of intelligent irreverence and irreverent intelligence, writes in the introduction: Read more of this post

How China plans to go global

How China plans to go global

Sanjena Sathian, OZY.com4:09 p.m. EST February 20, 2014

A top Baidu executive talks about why his country may win in tech.

If anyone knows why China seems to be on the verge of eating America’s lunch, Hesong Tang does.

Born into a family of bamboo cutters in rural Xiang Yang, China, Hesong Tang had never taken a shower or used a toilet before he was accepted into Tsinghua University, considered the Chinese MIT. And while that must have been a lot for a freshman-year roommate to deal with, Tang, who now oversees all corporate development at Baidu, China’s version of Google, says “everything” has changed in China in the last two decades. Read more of this post

Chinese brand equity makes for stock hits

Chinese brand equity makes for stock hits

Feb 21, 2014 1:35pm by James Kynge

Chinese brands may not yet be world beaters, but it looks as though they are making waves among stock pickers.

Research from WPP, the advertising and public relations company, shows that a group of “Top 10″ Chinese brands – ranked by what they call “brand contribution” – sharply outperformed market indices (see chart). Read more of this post

11 Inspiring Quotes From WhatsApp’s Billionaire Co-Founders

11 Inspiring Quotes From WhatsApp’s Billionaire Co-Founders

JILLIAN D’ONFRO TECH  FEB. 22, 2014, 1:49 AM

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Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp in 2009 and became filthy rich fewer than five years later when they sold the company to Facebook for $19 billionRead more of this post

The Founder Of A Multi-Billion-Dollar Startup Felt ‘Depressed’ When He Learned Of WhatsApp’s $19 Billion Acquisition

The Founder Of A Multi-Billion-Dollar Startup Felt ‘Depressed’ When He Learned Of WhatsApp’s $19 Billion Acquisition

ALYSON SHONTELL TECH  FEB. 22, 2014, 2:03 AM

Silicon Valley was throughly impressed and shaken when news broke about Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

Even entrepreneurs who have been given high, multi-billion-dollar valuations, felt pangs of jealousy and disbelief. Read more of this post

Naver challenged by Facebook

2014-02-21 16:01

Naver challenged by Facebook

By Kim Yoo-chul
Facebook is likely to stand in the way of Naver’s attempt to become a major force in the global mobile messenger market because the U.S. firm’s buyout of WhatsApp is expected to limit the global expansion of its messaging app Line.
The concern arose after U.S. SNS giant Facebook Thursday announced its decision to purchase the rapidly growing messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion. Read more of this post

Mother’s love helped actress overcome war, poverty and bullying to find fame in Japan

Mother’s love helped actress overcome war, poverty and bullying to find fame in Japan

BY MAGDALENA OSUMI

FEB 22, 2014

image001-14Survivor: Rescued from the rubble of a war zone as a young girl in Iran, 28-year-old Sahel Rosa has succeeded in carving out a career in Japan as a model, TV personality and actress.  | YOSHIAKI MIURA

Orphaned at the age of 4, Sahel Rosa celebrates her birthday every Oct. 21 and Oct. 23, although she will never know for sure on what date she came into this world. The sole survivor of an Iraqi air raid that leveled her small town in western Iran in 1989, there are no blood relatives left to ask. Read more of this post

Facebook buys Whatsapp for $19 billion: Value and Pricing Perspectives

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Facebook buys Whatsapp for $19 billion: Value and Pricing Perspectives

This week, I was at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, talking about the difference between price and value. I built the presentation around two points that I have made in my posts before. The first is that there are two different processes at work in markets. There is the pricing process, where the price of an asset (stock, bond or real estate) is set by demand and supply, with all the factors (rational, irrational or just behavioral) that go with this process. The other is the value process where we attempt to attach a value to an asset based upon its fundamentals: cash flows, growth and risk. For shorthand, I will call those who play the pricing game “traders” and those who play the value game “investors”, with no moral judgments attached to either. The second is that while there is absolutely nothing wrong or shameful about being either an investor  (No, you are not a stodgy, boring, stuck-in-the-mud old fogey!!) or a trader (No, you are not a shallow, short term speculator!!), it can be dangerous to think that you can control or even explain how the other side works. When you are wearing your investor cape, you can be mystified by what traders do and react to, and if you are in your trader mode, you are just as likely to be bamboozled by the thought processes of investors. So, at the risk of ending up with a split personality, let me try looking at Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp for $19 billion, with $15 billion coming from Facebook stock and $4 billion from cash, using both perspectives. Read more of this post

Concerns brew over S. Korea’s consumption slowdown

Concerns brew over S. Korea’s consumption slowdown

Chun Beom-joo

2014.02.21 17:07:56

South Korea’s households drastically cut back on spending on a yearly basis last year in comparison to inflation. This is a serious problem, as household consumption is the backbone of the national economic growth, translating into corporate profits and the government tax revenue. More worrisome is that some experts claim the decline in household expenditure might spell the start of structural changes in the long run.  Read more of this post

Disney didn’t ignore its animators: here’s why you need to develop the non-manager ‘leaders’ in your business

Disney didn’t ignore its animators: here’s why you need to develop the non-manager ‘leaders’ in your business

Published 20 February 2014 17:18, Updated 21 February 2014 10:24

Jack Zenger

Talented individuals are more inclined to stay with organisations when they feel they are progressing. 

When they hear the word “leader”, most people immediately think of someone with business cards that say “manager”, “director” or another such lofty title. That is, someone who holds a position of stature within a company’s hierarchy, and to whom several other employees report. Read more of this post

China’s giant pile of copper is inflating its credit bubble

China’s giant pile of copper is inflating its credit bubble

By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros February 21, 2014

China’s import data surprised many today when it revealed that its traders bought 397,459 tonnes (438,124 tons) of refined copper in January, just shy of the record 406,937 tonnes imported in December 2011, and up 63.5% on January 2012. Read more of this post

Here’s why Intel’s CEO thinks companies like his own go wrong

Here’s why Intel’s CEO thinks companies like his own go wrong

By Max Nisen @MaxNisen February 21, 2014

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who took over the chip maker’s top job last May, this week went on Reddit for an “ask me anything” question and answer session. In addition to revealing that his favorite sandwich is slightly frozen peanut butter and jelly, Krzanich talked about where Intel went wrong, what he sees for the future, and what it means to be a great leader. Here are some of the most interesting parts:

Spectacular technology isn’t worth much if it’s not great to use Read more of this post

China is spending a fortune on science—and is getting robbed blind by corrupt scientists

China is spending a fortune on science—and is getting robbed blind by corrupt scientists

By Gwynn Guilford @sinoceros February 21, 2014

China is piling huge sums of money into research and development (R&D), and it’s freaking some people out. “We face being buried under an avalanche of Chinese science,” lamented The Guardian, referring to the Chinese state’s role in the funding. “It’s Official: China Is Becoming a New Innovation Powerhouse,” chimed in Foreign Policy. Read more of this post

Why Google’s latest acquisition could be good for the whole online ad industry

Why Google’s latest acquisition could be good for the whole online ad industry

By Leo Mirani @lmirani February 21, 2014

Half the ads on the internet are never seen by anybody, according to ComScore, a web traffic measurement company. And of those ads that are seen, it’s not clear how many are seen by human beings. Last year, the London-based start-upSpider.io, which tracks ad fraud, revealed a network of 120,000 infected computers (paywall) that together “viewed” ads billions of times, meaning that advertisers were paying millions of dollars for fake views. Today, Google announcedthat it had acquired Spider.io for an undisclosed amount. Read more of this post

Gucci is selling too much to the wrong people

Gucci is selling too much to the wrong people

By Jason Karaian @jkaraian February 21, 2014

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The numbers: Not so shiny. Profits at Kering, the parent company of Gucci, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and other luxury labels collapsed in 2013, to €50 million ($68 million) from more than €1 billion ($1.3 billion) the year before. Read more of this post

What the Netherlands’ complete dominance in speed skating says about success; Success can come from being in the right place at the right time. But it usually takes years spent building a culture, facilitating talent, making investment

What the Netherlands’ complete dominance in speed skating says about success

By Max Nisen @MaxNisen February 21, 2014

Part of the beauty of the Olympics is that despite its size, one country can dominate an entire sport. At Sochi, the biggest winner in that regard has been the Netherlands, a country with less than a fifth as many Olympic athletes as the US, that has won 21 medals (soon to be 22) so far in long track speed skating.

It’s a record for a single country in an Olympics, and a reminder that the greatest success comes from monopolizing on your advantage and putting serious resources behind it. Luck can win a solitary medal, but not 21 of them. Read more of this post

Billionaires invest $29m in plant-based chicken eggs

Billionaires invest $29m in plant-based chicken eggs

Friday, Feb 21, 2014

Hemananthani Sivanandam

Winnie Yeoh

and A. Raman

The Star/Asia News Network

Asia’s richest man Li Ka-Shing and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang have invested US$23million (S$29 million) in a California-based company that produces artificial chicken eggs, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The company, Hampton Creek Foods, is producing the artificial eggs using ingredients from 12 types of plants. Read more of this post

Bhutan, world’s last TV holdout, now at tech vanguard: PM

Bhutan, world’s last TV holdout, now at tech vanguard: PM

Saturday, February 22, 2014 – 14:35

AFP

THIMPHU, Bhutan – It was the world’s last hold-out against television and is regarded by travellers as a Himalayan Shangri-La.

But Bhutan’s decision to make itself the poster boy for electric transport is further proof of its willingness to embrace technology as part of its unique Gross National Happiness development model, says its prime minister. Read more of this post

D-Day for foreigners eyeing Johor property; Foreign buyers of residential property in Malaysia’s Johor state have until April 30 if they want to dodge new property measures there such as higher levies

D-Day for foreigners eyeing Johor property

Saturday, Feb 22, 2014

Anita Gabriel

The Straits Times

Foreign buyers of residential property in Malaysia’s Johor state have until April 30 if they want to dodge new property measures there such as higher levies.

The cut-off date – April 30 – is contained in a Feb 10 circular from Johor’s Land and Mineral Office obtained by The Straits Times. Read more of this post

The spider-like nature of property market

The spider-like nature of property market

Saturday, Feb 22, 2014

Dennis Chan

The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – At a recent lunch, the conversation turned to crabs.

No, the popular dining crustacean wasn’t on the menu. But that didn’t stop my host, who is a developer, from comparing the state of the residential property market to a trussedup crab that has had all its eight legs bound up. Read more of this post