The Marketing Relevance Imperative

NIGEL: You're on ten on your guitar...where can you go from there? Where? MARTY: I don't know.... NIGEL: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is if we need that extra...push over the cliff...you know what we do? MARTY: Put it up to eleven. NIGEL: Eleven. Exactly. One louder. -Conversation between filmmaker Marty DiBergi and guitarist Nigel Tufnel, This Is Spinal Tap In study after study, consumers have stressed that, regardless of the channel, they’d rather not see ads.     - A 2004 study by Forrester found that when people watch pre-recorded television shows, they skip an average of 92 percent of the commercials    - Most Internet users block pop-up ads, screen for adware, and safeguard...

Read more »

Why Microsoft May Be a 'Classic Value Trap'

The early days of January are typically a time of unbridled optimism. This will be the year we lose 10 pounds and learn to speak French; Japan will turn itself around; Microsoft (MSFT) stock will pull itself out of a decade of doldrums. Most analysts are betting that the Redmond computer company’s time has come. The company’s fiscal-year revenue has nearly tripled to $74 billion in the last 10 years. At $27, the shares trade right at their 10-year average and yield more than it costs the company to issue debt. Redmond has Skunk-Worked an exciting new tablet and operating system it’s eager to showcase. It’s all backed by ridiculous amounts of free cash and a fortress-like balance sheet. The 12-month price target on the stock forecasts a 25 percent gain. Still, the...

Read more »

Parl passes banking bill, paves way for setting up more banks

New Delhi: Parliament Thursday paved the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector by approving the banking bill, a key reform legislation pending for long. Parliament also passed the amendments to the debt recovery laws or Sarfesi law after a reply by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the combined discussion on the two bills in Rajya Sabha. These two Bills -- Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, and Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012, -- he said, will strengthen the financial sector and help in establishing large-sized banks, besides promoting financial inclusion. "We need 2-3 world-sized banks. China has three among the world's top 20. We have none....

Read more »

IIITM Kerala Recruitment for the Language Editor post

Recruitment for the Language Editor post Eligibility: MA(Hindi, Malayalam) Location: Thiruvananthapuram Job Category: Govt Sector, Others Last Date: 30 November 12 Job Type: Full Time Hiring Process: Written-test and Interview. No. IIITMK/ 0029 /2012 November 12, 2012 Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K), invites applications for the post of Language Editor  Qualification : 1. Masters in Malayalam/Hindi 2. Knowledge of Unicode based Editors and online tagging Salary : Rs. 10,000/- How to apply   Applications complete in all respects, in the prescribed form, along with photocopies of certificates should reach the office of to The Manager (Finance and Administration) IIITM-K,...

Read more »

Yahoo buys mobile start-up

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Thursday it bought a small, mobile start-up company in New York, marking one of new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's first moves to revamp the struggling Web pioneer by acquiring outside products and technology. Yahoo purchased Stamped, which makes a product that lets consumers share favourite restaurants and music on their smart-phones. It did not disclose financial details. In a blog on the Stamped website, Stamped co-founders wrote that Yahoo would discontinue the Stamped product by the end of the year and that the team would be working on something "big, mobile and new." "As a team of mostly former Googlers, we've all worked with and are big fans of Marissa. So when an opportunity arose to become...

Read more »

Miners take "rail-veyors" and robots to automated future

(Reuters) - In an office trailer parked outside a mine shaft in northern Ontario, operator Carolyn St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground. Once filled, the automated train will snake through a series of narrow tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past St-Jean's window and dump its payload for sorting. Vale SA, the Brazilian company that owns the mine near this nickel-rich Canadian town, has spent nearly $50 million in two years to install and test the "rail-veyor." The company believes the transport system will revolutionize how it builds and extracts new mineral deposits. The equipment is made locally by Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc....

Read more »

A startup hub emerges in Chicago

span class="articleLocation"> span class="articleLocation">(Reuters) - Bernhard Kappe, the chief executive officer of Chicago's Pathfinder Software, steps up to a dry erase board and draws a crude graph, its slope curves upward. Then he plots a point in the middle to show where the city's web entrepreneurs stand in terms of growth and progress. "These things take 20 years to get to maturity, and they're not linear," says Kappe, who's also an executive director of the Chicago Lean Startup Circle, a group that fosters local website development. "But we're six to seven years in, and definitely in an acceleration stage." While Chicago may not compare to Palo Alto in terms of high-tech sexiness, it's experienced enough...

Read more »

Asian shares fall after disappointing U.S. earnings

A visitor looks at market indices displayed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo September 26, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao By Chikako Mogi TOKYO | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:36am EDT (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Monday as lackluster earnings from leading U.S. companies and a sharp drop in Japan's exports, a key driver of the world's third-biggest economy, dented risk appetites and prompted investors to take profits on recent gains. The euro, however, crept higher after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured...

Read more »

Analysis: Most companies won't be early adopters of Windows 8

SEATTLE | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:11am EDT (Reuters) - There was once a time when the launch of a new Windows operating system was a huge deal for the technology departments in many businesses. Not anymore. Microsoft Corp's release of Windows 8 on Friday is likely to be a non-event for most companies -- and some experts say many may never adopt it. The system may appear to offer something for everyone: touch-screen functionality for tablet enthusiasts, a slick new interface for the younger set, and multiple versions to make it compatible with traditional desktop PC software. Many businesses, though, say there is no compelling reason to adopt. Indeed, a large number have yet to...

Read more »

China cabinet seeks ambitious economic reform agenda: advisers

China's Premier Wen Jiabao waits for a question at his annual news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), or parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 14, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee/Files By Kevin Yao BEIJING | Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:34pm EDT (Reuters) - China's top leaders have asked policy think-tanks to draw up their most ambitious economic reform proposals in decades that could curb the power of state firms and give more freedom to the setting...

Read more »

Dollar higher on Chinese banking action

THE Australian dollar is almost half a US cent higher on liquidity action from China's central bank, and ahead of crucial economic news from Spain.    At 12 noon (AEST), the Australian dollar was trading at 103.96 US cents, up from 103.51 cents yesterday. The local currency fell as low as 103.29 US cents overnight, as the market grew increasingly concerned about the eurozone debt crisis, in the wake of higher bond yields in Spain and rioting in Greece. Meanwhile, Australian bond futures prices were higher at noon. The December 10-year bond futures contract was trading at 97.065 (implying a yield of 2.935 per cent), up from 97.035 (2.965 per cent) yesterday. The December...

Read more »

Vodafone has lowest customer satisfaction of all telcos, study reveals

VODAFONE customers just can't get no satisfaction. The telco took out the top prize for the telco with the lowest customer satisfaction rating in a mobile lifestyle study released this morning. Less than 50 per cent of Vodafone customers were satisfied with their provider, according to a study released by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association. The Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index is an independent study conducted annually by the AIMIA. Fifty-four per cent of Vodafone customers were not satisfied with the provider, which has been plagued by network issues over the last few years. That figure represents a 42 per cent drop in customer satisfaction over the past two years. Vodafone...

Read more »

Job vacancies rise 4.2% in August

The number of job vacancies in Australia has risen by 4.2 per cent, ABS statistics show. THE number of job vacancies in Australia has risen by 4.2 per cent, official statistics show. The total number of vacancies in August 2012 was 179,300, in seasonally-adjusted terms, compared with 172,100 in May, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) quarterly survey released on Thursday. There were 165,900 private sector job vacancies in August, up 5.9 per cent on May's 156,700. But the number of public sector vacancies in August, at 13,500, was down 12.9 per cent on August. Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/job-vacancies-rise-42-in-august/story-e6fr...

Read more »

European Stocks Rally on Fed Enthusiasm

Reuters The Federal Reserve's new plan to stimulate the U.S. economy and progress on tackling the euro zone crisis spurred a strong rally in risk assets on Friday, pushing global stocks to a 13-month high and sending Spanish and Italian bond yields lower. European equities surged to a 14-month high with London's FTSE, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX all well up, helping to lift the MSCI index of global stocks to 338.63, its highest level since August last year. On the bond market, yields on 10-year Italian government bonds fell below five percent for the first time since late March as the Fed's announcement on Thursday compounded the recent...

Read more »

Fueled by Higher Gas Prices, Consumer Inflation Rises

REUTERS Consumer prices rose in August by the most in three years as the cost of gasoline jumped, but there was little sign of a pick-up in underlying inflation pressures, which should allow the Federal Reserve to stay on its ultra-easy policy path. The Consumer Price Index increased 0.6 percent last month after being flat in July, the Labor Department said on Friday. That was the first increase in five months and was slightly above economist's expectations for a 0.5 percent rise. Gasoline prices, which recorded their largest increase since June 2009, accounted for about 80 percent of the rise in consumer inflation last month. However, underlying...

Read more »

Report: US Health System Wastes $750B A Year

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year _ roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar _ through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign. President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality. "Health care in America presents a fundamental paradox," said the report from an 18-member panel of prominent experts, including doctors, business people, and public officials. "The past 50 years have seen an ...

Read more »

43 States Take Part In $10M Allianz Settlement

Iowa Insurance Division - September 6, 2012-The Iowa Insurance Division announced that a multi-state settlement agreement has been reached between Allianz Life Insurance Company (Allianz) and 43 States. Iowa acted as the managing lead state in the settlement and was assisted by three other lead states: Minnesota, Missouri and Florida. An additional thirty-nine states have now signed on to the agreement. The agreement establishes corrective actions, a remediation plan and levies a ten million dollar penalty to be distributed among the participating states. The settlement was a result of a review of company practices related to the sale of fixed annuities by Allianz between the years of 2001 and 2008. Regulators reviewed how Allianz and its insurance producers sold its products, how...

Read more »

President Tells Tale of Two NAIFAs

LAS VEGAS, September 9, 2012 -The president of NAIFA in his address to the annual conference decried an unhealthy level of distrust and division within the association and called for unity in the face of one of the most challenging times for life insurance and financial advisors. Robert A. Miller, the 2011-2012 leader of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, said the animosity is damaging the very base of the federated organization of more than 600 state and local groups comprising 45,000 members. “We see states vying with locals; locals that are having trouble filling their board positions and suspicious of any unsolicited advice,” Miller said this morning at the Las Vegas annual meeting, according to an advance copy of his speech. “The closing down...

Read more »

ECB Holds Rates, Draghi Conference in Focus

Reuters European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi faces the most decisive moment of his presidency on Thursday when he aims to back up his vow to save the euro with a bond-buying plan - the main focus of a policy meeting where it kept interest rates on hold. Investors want to hear how the ECB will start the new bond-buying programme to help bring down the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy, after disagreements between bank policymakers over the plan were played out in public last week. With the bond-buying plan the focus of Thursday's meeting, the ECB Governing Council kept interest rates on hold, leaving its main rate unchanged at 0.75 percent....

Read more »

UK rises in WEF competitiveness rankings survey

A relatively flexible labour market has helped the UK economy, the WEF says The UK has risen to eighth from 10th place in an annual study of global competitiveness. The World Economic Forum's (WEF) survey said the UK had benefited from a more efficient labour market compared with more "rigid" European economies. The US economy fell from fifth to seventh place, although WEF said it remained the top innovator. Switzerland topped the table, followed by Singapore and then Finland in the survey of 144 economies. The ratings are compiled using public data as well as executive opinion. The survey placed China as the most competitive major emerging economy. 'Innovative businesses' The WEF...

Read more »