Economists working for U.S. businesses are more optimistic about growth this year and see little effect from the start of healthcare reform or the reduction in a key Federal Reserve stimulus program, according to survey results released Monday.
Chinese companies are on a North American buying spree, investing $14bn in the U.S. last year, a record high, says a new report by New York's Rhodium Group.
Corporate extortion is likely to keep booming in 2014, and we don't mean extortion of corporations, as is practiced by Somali pirates or entrepreneurial Russians. We mean extortion by corporations.
Over the last few years, the conventional wisdom has coalesced around a view that success in emerging markets is primarily a function of outstanding execution - speed, opportunism, tenacity, and guile - instead of a well-thought-out strategy supported by a set of winning and difficult-to-replicate organizational capabilities. In other words, street smarts are supposed to beat MBA smarts every time.
Technology has empowered customers in such a way that they are now in charge of the business relationship - a fact that's left many businesses playing catch-up. Companies and supply chains that fail to realize this risk losing customers if they don't respond to their needs.
Since the end of World War II and the birth of the modern global economy, business leaders have come to accept an iron law: International trade always expands faster than economic growth. Between the late 1940s and 2013, that assumption held true. Trade grew roughly twice as fast as the world economy annually, as fresh markets opened up, governments signed free-trade pacts, new industries and consumers emerged, and technological advances made international trade cheaper and faster. Now this iron law may be crumbling.
Business leaders around the world feel least prepared to execute on strategies for driving growth - among them, large-scale transformation, open innovation, digital channels, and talent management - according to a global
survey released today by The Boston Consulting Group.
Global hiring conditions are expected to remain stable or improve slightly at the start of the new year, as many employers appear to remain resilient in the face of ongoing economic uncertainty and other disruptions. This is according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which canvassed more than 65,000 employers from 42 countries and territories.
While President Obama and Congress keep talking about the plight and economic cost of Americans' declining incomes, a growing number of states and municipalities frustrated by federal inaction are moving to do something about it. Legislators and voters in five states "” California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island "” and in four local governments this year approved measures raising the minimum wage above the current national rate of $7.25 an hour, in one case as high as $15 an hour.
Nothing focuses a supply chain manager's mind like discovering a way to improve the supply chain network. Given this, a new Ernst & Young survey should interest supply chain managers. It reveals that, when chief financial officers (CFO) and supply chain leaders form a closer business partnership within a company, they report better results in a number of areas, including the company's financial position.