Just when everything seemed to be going back to (near) normal, the Greek Prime Minister and his cabinet have decided to put his country’s agreement to resolve its sovereign debt crisis to a referendum. This is in the interests of national unity at home — and may even be in the premier’s own political self …
Author archives: Permabusiness
Sony warns of $1bn loss, citing Thai floods
Sony has warned that it will make a $1.2bn loss this year, having previously forecast a $0.8bn profit for the year to March. Reasons for the change include “slowing demand for consumer electronics”, the strong yen, and the floods in Thailand that have disrupted parts supplies. It says something about the accelerating impact of climate …
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Japan weakens yen, as outlook remains complex, volatile
Japan spent about £38bn today, selling yen to weaken its currency (which has gained 41% against the dollar and 47% against the euro since early 2008). The government is worried that a continuing strong yen would hurt exporters, encourage manufacturers to shift production overseas, hurting jobs, and thus have a triple negative impact on domestic …
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Peak oil? What peak oil?
An interesting article here talking about north America (including Canada)’s resurgence in home-grown energy, mostly from ‘tight oil’ — extracted with gas from shale rock formations, using the fracking process.
Samsung beats Apple in mobile handsets
Over the last three months Samsung has passed Apple as the largest manufacturer of smartphones, shipping an estimated 27.8m handsets compared with Apple’s 17.1m (in a total market of around 117m sets). What makes this even more remarkable is that sales have increased four-fold over the past year. How has Samsung been able to do achieve …
Climate change can have severe impacts on business
Owing to Thailand’s recent floods, the country’s central bank has slashed its growth forecast for 2011 from 4.1% to 2.6%. That may not sound like much. But remember that it is now October, so most of the growth in the year has already happened (barring seasonal fluctuations for Christmas). That means output in the last …
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WPP sees growth in 2012, challenges in 2013
WPP has cut its sales growth forecasts for 2011, though margins have improved (implying that costs have been cut significantly). Chief executive, Sir Martin Sorrell, is expecting growth of around 3%-4% in 2012 (down on 4%-6% in 2011), though 2013 may present a greater challenge “when a newly elected president will finally have to deal …
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Three related items
This is less a newsfeed item and more a blog post, connecting up some ideas to do with changing our thinking about. First, China has been approached to help with the eurozone crisis. A member of China’s central bank monetary policy committee, a Professor Li, said: “It is in China’s … interest to help Europe because they …
Double loop learning
If there is one thing that is critical to business it is change. Every product or service sold helps a customer to create change. Whether it’s a hedge trimmer that helps them to change from a messy garder to a tidy one; a sandwich that changes them from feeling hungry to feeling full; a haircut …
Equities rise on eurozone deal
News that private investors will accept a 50% reduction in the face value of their loans to Greece, and that that country will be able to reduce its debt to 120% of GDP by 2020, were met by a rise in stock markets to around the levels of early August. Banking shares performed especially well. …