INTERNATIONAL. Carlos Ghosn is spending more than a billion US Dollars to get a better foothold in Brazil.
To the lay observer, it’s hard to pinpoint just what’s going on in the car industry today: in Europe, the debt crisis means that car sales for 2012 are going to be uncertain; however, car sales in Brazil, Russia, India and China -the BRICS- are heading into another record year.
On the other hand, the Japanese yen has been steadily increasing in value against the U.S. dollar, making it very expensive to continue manufacturing cars in Japan, forcing carmakers to relocate their assembly lines.
Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, is among them. Unveiled in October, Nissan plans to spend US$1.4 billion on a new factory in Brazil and expand its existing Renault plant there.
Speaking to INSEAD Knowledge on the sidelines of the Women’s Forum of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards in Deauville recently, Ghosn said “The ramp up of the plant should be very fast.” Indeed. It’s expect
The owner of British Airways today tightened its noose around Heathrow with a 172.5 million acquisition of bmi that rival bidder Virgin Atlantic’s founder Sir Richard Branson claimed would “screw the travelling public”.
The deal gives IAG, the holding company of BA and Iberia, 56 more landing slots at Heathrow, lifting its share of the schedule at the world’s busiest airport from 45% to 53%.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, admitted that there would be job losses when bmi – which has 2500 employees – is bought from Germany’s Lufthansa, although he said exact numbers were not yet known. But Walsh hit back at Branson’s attack on the impact on consumers, saying: “I don’t take any notice of what he says. I don’t think you’d expect him to come out with anything apart from opposition.”
Walsh claimed the move was “good news for London and the UK” since BA will switch most of bmi’s short-haul slots to long-haul destinations in emerging markets including China, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. Read Full Article…
A diverse workforce helps businesses flourish and leads to a stronger staff of employees, a new study finds.
Led by Ryerson University professor Kristyn Scott, the study revealed that the more diverse a company’s workforce is, the more loyal, happy and productive its employees tend to be.
In order for the results to be seen, Scott said the commitment to diversity must be more than just superficial.
As opposed to a business that simply does what research and popular practice tells them to, such as showing pictures of diverse workers on their website, Scott believes businesses need to reinforce their commitment to diversity in every aspect of their corporate culture and practices to fully reap the rewards of a diverse staff.
“When you have an inclusive corporate culture, recruiting top talent becomes easier, group processes will be enhanced, which means employees are more likely to stay, which, in turn, increases the company’s bottom line,” Scott said.
The study uses the Campbell Soup Company as an admirable example of a diverse organization. Som
YARDLEY, PA, December 15, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — LifeShield Security, the first national, all digital, professional grade and professionally monitored wireless home security system, offers these ideas on how to have some fun this holiday season using your LifeShield home security system:
1. What time did Santa come to your house? With LifeShield’s wireless HomeView cameras placed strategically in and around your home, you can capture video and picture images of Santa Claus! Time-stamped photos and video can show your kids exactly when he was there. 2. At what point does Santa eat his milk cookies? Before he puts out the presents? During? After? Put a wireless sensor on your fridge to find out! With real-time alerting to your iPad or smartphone, you’ll know the moment Santa goes for that snack. 3. No fireplace? No problem! – You can disarm your system right from your bedroom using your iPad, iPhone, smartphone or tablet to let Santa in the front door. Read Full Article…
With Newt Gingrich accusing Mitt Romney this week of “bankrupting companies” during his time at Bain Capital, Romney’s wildly lucrative business career continues to draw fire from opponents who seek to paint him as a heartless financier.
So did Romney wreck companies as Gingrich says he did?
WASHINGTON — The oil and gas industry needs to radically redesign the blowout preventers that are meant to be a last line of defense against runaway wells — or risk a repeat of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the National Academy of Engineering concluded Wednesday.
Before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, both the industry and federal regulators had “misplaced trust” in the ability of those emergency devices to seal off wells and to keep explosive oil and gas safely locked underground, the NAE and the National Research Council said in a 136-page report on the disaster.
“There was a level of confidence on the part of the crew that if anything didn’t work out right, they could count on the blowout preventer,” said Donald Winter, the former secretary of the Navy who headed the 15-member NAE committee that investigated the oil spill. At the time
