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Like last year. Strategy+Business published their annual roundup of best business books for 2009. The list can be found here.
This year they are categorised across the following eight segments: The Meltdown, Leadership, Strategy, Globalization, Management, Marketing, Technology, Biography.
The 40 names making the list, compiled by A.T. Kearney for BusinessWeek, are thriving in the recession and preparing for beyond. The ranking can be found here.
What are some traits of the World’s Best Companies? A commitment to innovation, diversified portfolios, aggressive expansion, strong leadership, and a clear vision for the future. “In an environment of continuous disruptive change, companies that have rigorous strategic planning initiatives that allow them to see over the horizon…are far more likely to win than those that make it up as they go along,” says Paul Laudicina, chairman of A.T. Kearney.
To create the list, A.T. Kearney examined the 2,500 largest publicly listed companies in the world. Kearney’s team singled out those with a minimum of $10 billion in sales in 2008, at least 25% of which came from outside the company’s home region. It then ranked the companies on their sales growth and value creation—the rise of market capitalization after subtracting any increase in capital—over the past five years.
In Mercer Consulting’s annual Quality of Living Survey, Europe once again dominates the list of 215 countries around the world. The top three cities are, by rank, Vienna, Zurich (last years winner), and Geneva. Like last year Amsterdam ranks as number thirteen on the list.
The U.S. fares poorly, barely making it into the top 30 with Honolulu and San Francisco in the bottom two places. The top city in Asia is Singapore, at no. 26. No cities from Africa or South America are in the top 30. The bottom? Baghdad once again comes in at 215. A complete overview can be found here.
Discussions about the public’s access to broadband often focus on which areas or countries have the most high-speed Internet connections.
However, with new demanding internet services on the rise what really matters is the speed of the internet connection. Akamai (AKAM) has published a report that ranks the speed of internet connections around the world. In the first quarter of 2009, about one-fifth of the internet connections around the world were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps.
The report includes broadband adoption data gathered from across Akamai’s network of more than 50,000 servers in 70 countries, and categorises internet connections by download speeds.
Three Asian countries are in the top five and seven European countries are in the top ten. A slide show of the top twenty can be found here.
Fast Company has made a list of the top ten creative people in architecture. Two Dutch architects made it in the top ten including two architects from the Asian continent respectively South-Korea and China. You can find the top 10 list here.
When it comes to airports, many travellers have a simple goal: Spend as little time there as possible. With the global recession causing airlines to cut back on services—and with travellers having less cash to spend at duty-free stores and other shops—the airport experience threatens to get even worse.
One part of the world where a trip to the airport isn’t so enervating, though, is Asia. In the annual survey of airport service quality by Geneva-based Airports Council International (ACI), Asian airports won four of the five top spots. Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South-Korea took the top for the fourth consecutive year. An overview of the complete ranking can be found here.
Fast Company has published its yearly round-up of the world’s most innovative companies: The fast Company 50. Most notable is the number of new companies (in total 36) taking positions in the list. With team Obama surprisingly taking the top spot. While established companies like Google, Apple, Cisco, Intel, Amazon, GE, HP, Nokia are still taking a spot in the top 15.
Even in these tough times, surprising and extraordinary efforts are under way in businesses across the globe. From politics to technology, energy, and transportation; from marketing to retail, health care, and design, each company on the following pages illustrates the power and potential of innovative ideas and creative execution. These are the kinds of enterprises that will redefine our future and point the way to a better tomorrow. source
This the season to make lists. In case of of a list: “the ten worst predictions for 2008“, offered by the website of Foreign Policy.
Among the other predictions on the list: “Bear Stearns is fine”; “Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton is a single Democratic primary”; “The possibility of $150-$200 per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six-24 months.” You get the idea.
So, in the festive spirit, why not make some predictions about predictions: which predictions about 2009 will end up as candidates for the “ten worst predictions for 2009″.. 
Strategy+Business’s (s+b’s) annual review of business books can be found here. The books reviewed are written by prominent thinkers in their fields and selected to help leaders navigate the changing economic, social, technological, and political landscapes that affect the way people do business. s+b’s Top books are lined up in the following categories: Strategy, Life Stories, Marketing, Rhetoric, Innovation, Globalisation, Human Capital, Capitalism and Community, Management, Miscellany.
From Daley Thompson to Emile Zatopek, the Times Online presents the greatest Olympians of all time backed up with statistical prove. You can find the complete report here.
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