By standing up to authoritarianism in China, The People’s Republic of Google will set an example for individuals and businesses around the world. If resistance goes viral, the implications for China could be revolutionary.
On Jan. 12, Google announced it will stop censoring search results on its Chinese site, Google.cn, in response to what the company calls “highly sophisticated” hacking of its Web site from China and the infiltration of Gmail accounts of human-rights activists in China and other countries.
The top search engine in China is Baidu, a homegrown product. Let Google leave. It’s Google’s loss. Right? Well, the People’s Republic of Google may have more leverage in this battle than one might think, though. It’s really confronting China as a nongovernmental organization. And this is a time when nongovernmental entities, from moveon.org to the tea parties and al-Qaeda, exert real political power. Read more here.
Follow live coverage of the DLD in Munich, Germany, a gathering of 800 entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, scientists, artists and creative minds from around the world.
With global diversity in attendees and an interdisciplinary perspective of digital, media, design, art, science, brands, consumers and society, the conference is known as the European forum for the “creative class”. Follow live coverage here.
From the rise of China to the rise of the U.S. federal debt, 2008 was a year of momentous money stories that will echo well into the future.
It was a year of historic change in business, economics, and finance. General Motors and Chrysler made whirlwind trips through the bankruptcy process, and the U.S. Senate narrowly voted in favor of health care reform in a dramatic vote on Christmas Eve morning, bringing President Obama just this close to achieving a top campaign priority.
In other times, any one of these sagas might have been an obvious and easy selection as the business story of the year. Yet 2009 was so full of drama that health care reform will have to settle for a position on the short list, and Chrysler might not have made the list at all if it hadn’t been paired with GM.
So here’s Portfolio.com’s take of the most important business, economics, and finance stories of the year, selected with an eye toward which ones had the biggest hand in shaping the world for now and for the foreseeable future.
Russia’s default in 1997 and the stock market devalued rapidly. Browder (founder of Hermitage investment fund) lost, by his estimate, 90% of his money during this time that he had invested in Russia. More onerous, was the wholesale “stealing” by the Russian oligarchs.
Rather than put up with this, Browder met with company employees to hear first-hand about the scams that were going on within the companies. Watch the story yourself at the bottom of this post (7min). For a complete coverage of Browder’s speech at Standford GSB click here.
Browder started with $25 million in 1996, achieving almost tenfold gains in 18 months and then raised $1billion from new investors. At one stage the pot totalled $4 billion and Hermitage became Russia’s biggest foreign portfolio investor.
However, Mr Browder offended someone with great power – he insists that he still does not know who – and in November 2005 was refused re-entry into Russia. Since then Browder is one of the biggest enemies of the Russian state. [Source 1] [Source 2].
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.
Economic and financial globalisation and the expansion of world trade have brought substantial benefits to countries around the world. But the current financial crisis has put globalisation on hold, with capital flows reversing and global trade shrinking.
Some analysts see the drivers of the recent globalisation wave getting undermined, with protectionism on the rise.
Even supporters of globalisation agree that the benefits of globalisation are not without risks—such as those arising from volatile capital movements. The IMF works to help economies manage or reduce these risks, through economic analysis and policy advice and through technical assistance in areas such as macroeconomic policy, financial sector sustainability, and the exchange-rate system.
This report (PDF) pulls together the IMF’s work on globalisation and includes links to key articles, documents, and background information.
The board of Procter & Gamble is meeting on Tuesday amid intense speculation that it will approve the naming of Robert McDonald, the company’s chief operating officer, as its new chief executive, replacing AG Lafley.
Mr Lafley took over as chief executive of P&G nine years ago this month and has indicated that he was unlikely to want to spend more than a decade at the top of the world’s largest consumer goods company.
His most significant contribution to the company has been spearheading and overseeing its $57bn merger with Gillette in 2005 and the subsequent smooth integration of the two giant companies. In addition to reorganising the company into global business units, he promoted a culture of greater openess at a company that previously relied almost exclusively on in-house innovation.
He also oversaw the creation of enhanced product design and development units, again bringing in outside talent at senior management levels. P&G’s overall business has been relatively resilient during the current global recession.
The question is whether McDonald, if he takes over as P&G’s chief for the next decade, can replicate Lafley’s success. [Source]
The impact of the recession calls for a decisive approach to operational change. Companies must identify operational improvements to reduce variable costs, generate cash, and generally strengthen the balance sheet – and understand the strategic initiatives necessary to make change happen.
The globalisation of entrepreneurship is raising the competitive stakes for everyone, particularly in the rich world. Entrepreneurs can now come from almost anywhere, including once-closed economies such as India and China. And many of them can reach global markets from the day they open their doors, thanks to the falling cost of communications.
The world’s greatest producer of entrepreneurs continues to be America. The lights may have gone out on Wall Street, but Silicon Valley continues to burn bright. Entrepreneurship also flourishes in clusters. A third of American venture capital flows into two places, Silicon Valley and Boston, and two-thirds into just six places, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Austin as well as the Valley and Boston.
The information age is making it ever easier for ordinary people to start businesses and harder for incumbents to defend their territory. Back in 1960 the composition of the Fortune 500 was so stable that it took 20 years for a third of the constituent companies to change. Now it takes only four years. Source
By standing up to authoritarianism in China, The People’s Republic of Google will set an example for individuals and businesses around the world. If resistance goes viral, the implications for China could be revolutionary.
Russia’s default in 1997 and the stock market devalued rapidly. Browder (founder of Hermitage investment fund) lost, by his estimate, 90% of his money during this time that he had invested in Russia. More onerous, was the wholesale “stealing” by the Russian oligarchs. 
Like last 
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 
Economic and financial globalisation and the expansion of world trade have brought substantial benefits to countries around the world. But the current financial crisis has put globalisation on hold, with capital flows reversing and global trade shrinking. 
The board of Procter & Gamble is meeting on Tuesday amid intense speculation that it will approve the naming of Robert McDonald, the company’s chief operating officer, as its new chief executive, replacing AG Lafley.
The impact of the recession calls for a decisive approach to operational change. Companies must identify operational improvements to reduce variable costs, generate cash, and generally strengthen the balance sheet – and understand the strategic initiatives necessary to make change happen.
The globalisation of entrepreneurship is raising the competitive stakes for everyone, particularly in the rich world. Entrepreneurs can now come from almost anywhere, including once-closed economies such as India and China. And many of them can reach global markets from the day they open their doors, thanks to the falling cost of communications.
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