eBusiness World

Infinite growth on a finite planet? Easy-peasy!

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:28 +0000

You’ll have heard this before, no doubt: infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet. It’s something of a mantra for environmentalists and is used as absolute proof that we’re just going to have to do without that pesky economic growth thing. The problem here is that the conclusion isn’t justified by the premise: it’s [...]

What do a British Conservative PM and a French Socialist President have in common? Quite a bit…

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:28 +0000

David Cameron will have his first face-to-face meeting with newly elected French President Francois Hollande today, at a G8 summit in the US. There has been some fuss about Cameron and Hollande not getting along. Cameron snubbed Hollande during a visit to London. And, most importantly, one is a French Socialist, the other a British [...]

Good Reasons to Refresh Your Online Presence

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:36:27 +0000

At a recent briefing IBM raised the idea that in any number of ways the Internet, Web—online computing—badly needs refreshing. Just look at what you are doing with online. Does it seem stale?

Consider this: the online experience now encompasses mobile, cloud, big data, social networking, and gamification. You probably didn’t deal with any of that when you initially got online. Then consider the devices connecting today, 15 billion mobile devices alone expected by 2015, estimates Cisco, plus the usual array of laptops, netbooks, desktops, thin devices. And who is connecting: Hispanics spent 5.15 billion through mobile devices this past holiday shopping season, according to Zpryme, a research firm. Did you get much of that?

Here are two more reasons the CFO might consider: online retailers may have lost $44.6B in 2010 due to online customer experience problems (Harris Interactive) or another—disengaged workers cost U.S. businesses as much as $350 billion a year (Gallup Research). It makes sense at least to revitalize the online experience for customers, workers, and partners. (more…)

Market rally on Greek exit?

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:08:39 +0000

Bank of America has a nice twist on a Greek exit, or “Grexit” as everybody now calls it. The euro would shoot up to $1.40 against the dollar (after first falling to $1.20 in the immediate panic). It is $1.27 now. Risk assets would enjoy a “powerful short squeeze”. Bond yields in Spain, Italy, and [...]

Cameron should admit the truth about the UK economy

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:08:39 +0000

Those hoping for something genuinely new from David Cameron’s speech on the state of the UK economy will have been sadly disappointed. Naturally, he was keen to put his best foot forward. We’ve already cut the deficit by more than a quarter, he crowed, and the number of people in work grew by 100,000 in [...]

Eurozone is ‘tearing itself apart’, says Mervyn King. True, but the UK’s problems are as intractable as ever

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:08:38 +0000

Sir Mervyn King has always been wonderfully pithy in his analysis of complex economic situations. But he surpassed himself at today’s Bank of England Inflation Report press conference. The eurozone is “tearing itself apart”, he said. In three little words, he summed up Europe’s crisis as well as anyone. As for blame, he took a [...]