text: NEW YORK ( TheStreet) - IBM ( IBM) flexed its M&A muscles again this week, announcing a $1.3 billion deal to buy talent management specialist Kenexa ( KNXA). IBM sees Kenexa as a way to bolster its social business offerings, technologies for connecting workers across their organizations. IBM also views the acquisition as feeding into its massive business analytics push. Kenexa is also the latest in a string of companies snapped up by tech heavyweights eager to boost their cloud credentials. Earlier this year, for example, SAP ( SAP) announced a $4.3 billion deal for Ariba ( ARBA), which followed its $3.4 billion purchase of SuccessFactors last year. Elsewhere, Oracle ( ORCL) grabbed cloud-based HR solutions provider Taleo in February, while IBM acquired DemandTec late in 2011. > > Bull or Bear? Vote in Our Poll IBM, as part of its five-year roadmap announced in 2010, has said it plans to spend $20 billion on acquisitions by 2015. Over the past three years, the company has made 25 purchases, and it has closed eight acquisitions this year. Shares of IBM closed the week down 1.48% at 194.85. Apple ( AAPL) also grabbed its share of headlines this week as Wall Street digested the company's victory in its patent battle against Samsung. The iPhone maker, however, may be prepared to bury the hatchet in a separate patent dispute with Google ( GOOG), according to a media report. Reuters reported on Thursday that Apple CEO Tim Cook and his Google counterpart Larry Page have been in talks discussing the intellectual property issues between the companies. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that talks were held last week. One source told Reuters that the executives agreed to continue talking. Rumors about an iPad Mini continued to swirl this week. AU Optronics ( AU) and LG Display are making the touchscreens for the device, according to Chinese Web site Donews, by way of BrightWire. Apple shares ended the week up 0.3% at $665.24. Google's stock closed up 0.95% at $685.09.


text:
Last week a title update for Fez was released onto Xbox Live followed by a warning from the developer, Polytron, to not install the update because of a “widespread” problem where the save file was being seen as corrupted by the game after the update. Microsoft has now pulled the patch from Live, so that any new Fez players won’t be affected.
Polytron announced the pulling of the patch on their website saying:
“Microsoft has pulled the patch out of LIVE for now, so at least the problem won’t affect new users. We’re trying to find out what happened and fix it as soon as possible. Like, in less than two months. YAY GAME DEVELOPMENT!”
If you have already updated to the patch and are having the game save issue Polytron recommends that you delete your system cache and that “should” resolve the problem. If that doesn’t happen to work, then you are out of luck for the time being because there is no other known workaround.

domain: news


text:
SafeMoon is a relative newcomer to the cryptocurrency market, known for its tremendous volatility, high transaction fees of 10% and social media hype. SafeMoon, like better-known crypto coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain’s Ether, is based on distributed ledger technology and was created in March 2021 on the Binance Smart Chain blockchain.
SafeMoon’s creators say it was designed with the intention of encouraging long-term investment. Half of the 10% charged during transactions is shared among long-term holders, and the other to a liquidity pool that is intended to stabilize the price of SafeMoon, in contrast to Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Coin and a number of other cryptocurrency that seemed on the surface to be either a joke or bogus. But just like Akita Inu, Dogelon and other much smaller crypto breeds, SafeMoon appeared to be trying to cash in on Dogecoin’s popularity by investing in meme culture.
Because the fee for buying into SafeMoon goes back to its earlier investors, SafeMoon has been regarded by some — including one SafeMoon investor — as a “Ponzi” scheme — an allegation that SafeMoon’s CEO emphatically denies.
The project’s founders say they designed SafeMoon for long-term investment, and the 10% transaction fee is set intentionally high to discourage people from selling the coin and encourage long-term HODLers.
SafeMoon is considered to be among the riskier investments in the crypto world. Like Shiba Inu, Safemoon has no particular…


text:
Lessons for Market Research from Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The torrent of shopping data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday is coming in. Although their names suggest a first person shooter game involving Robocop in some futuristic battle, these two days are the now-traditional kickoff to the U.S. Christmas shopping orgy, and a clarion call to the armies of the commentariat and blogosphere.
And, once again, in what appears to be as much a part of the new American Christmas tradition as the shopping experience itself, the big headlines are all about the massive growth of online shopping.
If you’ve somehow missed all the frenzied scribbling, you can turn to IBM which published the key data that almost everyone seems to have relied on in the IBM 2012 Holiday Benchmark Reports. There, in just a few pages of data, you’ll find both Friday and Monday’s online sales data broken down by retail category and compared to last year’s results.
The top line news story is, of course, the huge increase in online shopping: up 17.4% compared to last year’s Thanksgiving Day, up 20.7% compared to Black Friday 2011, and a whopping 30.3% up on Monday compared to a year ago.
Close behind is the news about mobile: IBM estimates that 24% of retail site traffic came from mobile devices on Black Friday this year, up from 14.3% last year – a monster increase of 67.8%. On Cyber Monday – traditionally understood as the day people went back to work and shopped their brains out on their employers’ broadband connections – mobile users were responsible for 18.4% of retail site traffic, which was up from 10.8% a year ago – an incredible 71.4% increase.
The oddity of the week was the unexpected difference between Android and iOS (Apple) users that emerged after correcting for Android’s dominance in the smartphone race. On Black Friday iOS devices accounted for 77% of mobile shopping traffic while Android accounted for only 23%. This is an oddity because currently Android phones and tablets outnumber iOS phones and tablets by about 60/40. Work it all out and “iPhone (and iPad) users are about three times more engaged in shopping with their devices than Android users.”
Horace Dediu does an excellent job of unpacking the “Android engagement paradox,” which he attributes mostly to “later adopters” buying Android phones in numbers sufficient to have overcome Apple’s early lead in smartphones. But, in the end, he finds this answer unsatisfactory. I wonder if the Android/iOS “paradox” contains a message for marketing research about mobile sampling – should we be thinking about weighting our mobile samples or imposing Android/iOS quotas?
But the main message for MR comes from some much more basic observations about mobile usage.
What caught my attention in IBM’s data wasn’t the comparison between this year’s Black Cyber Days to last year’s, but the column comparing Black Friday 2011 – last year’s Big Gun – with Friday, November 16, 2012 – seven days before this year’s opening round, a “normal” pre-holiday Friday, which I will henceforth refer to as, “Normal Friday 2012.”
You may remember that the headlines for Black Friday 2011 were more or less the same as they were this year: online as a whole and mobile shopping in particular were way up. But “Normal Friday 2012” blew away Black Friday 2011 on several measures. For instance, sales increased 10.8% on retail sites compared to last year’s Black Friday, and, on average, a sale in 2012 involved 3 items more than a sale in 2011. The headline-making shopping news of 2011 now trails the new normal.
Mobile is the major factor:
Mobile data is in blue; other data is in orange. Data involving sales is outlined in red.
Of the variables that increased on Normal Friday compared to Black Friday, most involve mobile and, overall that mobile site traffic increased 4.6%. Although mobile sales increased, sessions that involved viewing only a single page increased overall on mobile, as well as abandoned shopping carts. Moreover, with the exception of mobile sales, all the variables involving closing a sale fell, as well as sessions in which a visitor placed an item in a cart.
Normal Friday 2011 obviously involved more looking and comparing even though buying did manage an increase.
All of the other data collected over the past couple of years reinforces the obvious conclusion that mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – have become even more important components of shopping. Checking prices and features, sales, finding online coupons, and, for that matter, seeing advertising, are now normal parts of the shopping experience. As I said, we knew that.
But what seems to be fairly stunning is that in a single year the headline-making news of Black Friday is now the everyday expectation of Normal Friday.
The moral is that the retailers get it; they’re struggling with it but they get it. They all know that they have four screens to think about – TV, computer, tablet, and phone. They all know about showrooming: “when a customer visits a brick and mortar retail location to touch and feel a product and then goes online…to purchase the product.” And, the smartest of them have stopped complaining about it and are working on leveraging it with apps that provide extra services in-store – new items, sales notices, bar code scans – then let you “flip” to their website to take advantage of online deals. The same app lets you find their deals when showrooming in a competitor’s store, too. They’re adapting to the new normal.
Can this please be the year that marketing researchers – clients and suppliers – stop wondering whether to add a “cell phone segment” to a sample spec and accept the fact that we need to expand our data collection toolbox, to fit the the time, connectivity, and screen size constraints of mobile while also expanding our thinking? We should be focusing on leveraging the incredible capabilities that mobile presents for collecting new kinds of data in new kinds of situations. We need to walk away from the “online revolution” of the early 2000s and realize that we’re in a new, increasingly mobile-dominated age.
By the way, the average session on a mobile device on Black Friday 2011 took 4:03, and Normal Friday 2012 it had shrunk to 3:46. That session probably took place while the shopper was doing at least two other things at the same time, and everything that was going on was almost certainly of interest to MR. But, we probably missed it.


text:
Don't-Miss Video Player Stories
The TiVo Mega, capable of recording more than three year's worth of programs, is slated to ship early next year, so start saving now.
On our first birthday we celebrate by talking about wearables being too big, pondering the technology mullets of tomorrow, measuring the worth of video extras, and pouring one out for Aereo. With Chris Breen and Flo Ion.
Apple released an iTunes update that allow access to online iTunes Extras; a recent Apple TV software update also enables them on the big screen.
If you spend a lot of your free time on YouTube, you may appreciate this app--as long as it's able to play the video you want to watch.


text:
Netflix has loudly rejected the "pilot" system of TV, instead ordering full seasons of shows before any of them air.
And since it began releasing original shows in 2013, Netflix has stuck by a remarkably high percentage of them for subsequent seasons. But even Netflix knows sometimes you have to cut your losses.
So far, Netflix has canceled four shows, not including "Bloodline," which will "conclude" after season three.
The worst of the bunch for Netflix was probably "Marco Polo," which The Hollywood Reporter estimated lost Netflix a whopping $200 million. And not all of them were panned by critics; remember, what Netflix cares about most is how a show can drive new subscribers and keep old ones.
Here are the four shows Netflix has killed, along with their critic and audience ratings from Metacritic:


text:
XENIA — There’s a new body shop in Xenia, but this one isn’t for fixing a dent or replacing a bumper.
Instead, customers can get a deep tissue massage or a stress relieving rubdown.
That’s the goal at RESTORE The Massage Body Shop — helping people who are worn out from the daily grind feel brand new again.
The business, which had a ribbon cutting and grand opening Wednesday, has an automobile garage decor, complete with a tire iron and other auto-related items.
“I really wanted a massage place that’s gender neutral,” said President and CEO Shari Kern. “I wanted it to appeal to men and women both.”
The massages are also auto-themed with a “Sunday Drive;” “Tire Change;” “Four Wheeler;” and “Road Trip” among the services offered. Upon arrival, guests fill out an “inspection report” and will work with the massage technician to create a “maintenance schedule.”
“I love cars, that’s really where it all came from,” Kern said.
Kern and business partner Tracy Knight have been in the planning stages for about a year and a half. Knight — a Xenia native — has been a licensed massage therapist for about a year. Kern received her license in November. Until now, they’ve been doing massages doing the massages out of homes.
Located at 280 N. Detroit St., Suite C, RESTORE is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Kern said an open house held earlier this month helped get a jump start for the business.
“It’s an under-served market,” she said of the area. “We’re here to build relationships with our community.”
Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.


text:
You’re not missing out in your use of social media in pharma comms, argues Duncan Arbour.
In fact, for the past 10 years, since Gordon Brown was in Downing Street and George W Bush in the White House, if you looked at the agendas for events like this, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the eternal question keeping us up at night is still: “How can we do social with the freedom of our unregulated peers?”
Pharma marketing seems to have its own sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) that’s even seen a trope emerge at other ‘pharma digital’ conferences of rolling out keynote speakers from other sectors – presented to us as if they’re inspirational relationship coaches for a lovelorn pharma sector desperately trying to match with its audiences.
But right now there’s never been a better time to re-evaluate who you look to for this coaching.
Because let’s face it, it’s not Bush in the White House any more is it?
Look at the bigger picture of consumer marketing trends and you’ll see that right now some of the world’s largest marketing organisations, including Unilever and Procter & Gamble, are demanding higher standards and greater accountability from platforms such as Facebook and Google.
They’re fed up with ad fraud, fake profiles and the apparent absence of ethics.
Consumers themselves are also disillusioned.
For the past few years, reading the annual Edelman Trust Barometer has been like slowing down to look at a car crash, only to realise that the cars are society and we’re all in the back without a seatbelt.
Trust in social platforms, and even in ‘people like us’, continues to decline; while trust in traditional media is at an historic high.
In fact, I’d say there’s every chance that in the next few years increased checks and balances, including self-regulation, will become common in other sectors – the brands we may look at enviously now may soon be looking enviously at us instead.
So, remember that however dizzyingly and distractingly fast the world might be moving right now, it will never move this slowly again.
There’s never been a better time to slow down and rethink exactly what you want from your social activities, and how to achieve this.
Importantly, as demonstrated by speakers from companies including Pfizer and Novartis at this month’s PharmaComms, 10 years of resilience and commitment has given our sector some stand-out examples to look to for inspiration.
These are examples that place a premium not just on technology, but on humanity – on society, culture and values.
So put aside any feelings of FOMO, put aside the questions of “can we do this?” and celebrate the attention to detail that makes your own sector’s engagements with its audiences so valuable, rather than looking longingly at those in other industries.
Yours is a sector that now shows clear leadership, and here’s to the next 10 years when it’s those leaders who show the rest of them how relationships should really be done.
Duncan Arbour is senior vice president of innovation at Syneos Health Communications Europe
This story first appeared on prweek.com.


text:
THE Marine Conservation Society has updated its online Good Fish Guide with some exciting new additions to its green-rated best choice list.
The charity says that, as the UK prepares to leave the EU and fisheries talks get underway to try to secure a bigger share of fish stocks, now may be the time to swap the traditional UK top five favourite fish for new choices.
Bernadette Clarke programme manager for the Good Fish Guide said: “UK consumers stick to their tried and tested top five for familiarity but not always sustainability.
“Cod, tuna, salmon, haddock and prawns, from the right sources are all okay, but there’s so much more to explore and the new additions to the best choice list are a good place to start.”
The full list can be seen at www.goodfishguide.co.uk


text:
Randy Graf joins PNN as new advertising sales manager
Prescott News Network (PNN) has hired Randy Graf as its new advertising sales manager.
This role is responsible for assisting the sales staff and providing advertising opportunities both for the company’s hardcopy newspapers and their websites.
Graf, 60, began working for newspapers when he was 21 years old and has worked in some form of publishing ever since.
“I kind of feel like the newspaper industry just grabs ahold of you and doesn’t let go,” he said.
Originally from Wisconsin, he started as an advertising sales representative in his home town, eventually becoming an advertising director and then a publisher for a couple of newspapers in the state.
He then moved to Manhattan in New York City, where he spent much of his working career with an advertising agency that had about 1,500 accounts, “so pretty big,” he said.
More recently, he worked for a corporate group publisher in Ohio, and then a group of newspapers in the Washington DC area.
After all of that hustle and bustle in big cities, moving to Prescott was a breath of fresh air.
“It’s a different pace,” he said. “In all those years working in Manhattan, I never ran into somebody on the streets that I knew. I wanted to get back to meeting clients and then seeing them at the grocery store later on that day. I kind of missed that experience.”
Along with that came the scenic area.
“You don’t normally get to work in a place that’s quite so beautiful,” Graf said. “You end up coming here for a convention or a getaway vacation, but you don’t get to work in these beautiful surroundings.”
Graf has three grown children, two living in Washington DC and one in San Francisco.
In his free time, he enjoys cooking, vacationing with his family and various forms of outdoor recreation.
“I really enjoy gardening,” he said. “You can look at something that doesn’t look so great and a couple hours later, you’ve accomplished something. You don’t always get that in life.”


text:
H&M: Sales on the Beach
Worthy causes are strongly influencing retail this summer (see our reports on Selfridges’ Project Ocean and Brand Transparency). This week, we found a pop-up store on a beach in Holland that provides yet another example of retail-linked activism. Swedish fashion retailer H&M has collaborated with water sanitation charity Wateraid to create a temporary shop housed inside a large wooden cargo crate on a beach in The Hague.
Selling a selection of blue (in keeping with the watery theme) seasonal goods, such as swimwear and summer clothes, the store is perfectly positioned to target beach-going consumers. A quarter of all proceeds from sales are being donated to Wateraid.
Look out for our report on the best pop-ups of 2010, coming later this month.


text:
My Vacation Lady doesn’t post anything on social media about politics and this one time, I’ll post something about keeping politics out of planning your vacation.
On Feb 10, while on the treadmill, I was watching the morning news and Peter Greenberg came on and said that the travel ban (blocking travelers from entering the US from 7 predominantly countries) was causing a massive drop in travel. There was a 6.5% decline in the # of flight bookings coming to the US within the week after the ban was put in place. He said that bookings are down 7% due to the travel ban. He was also saying that this drop in bookings is now making a global buyer’s market in airline seats, hotel rates and cruise ship fares that can reflect lower prices for the rest of the year. Not sure who he is getting that info from about a buyer’s market in travel because we are not seeing it here at all.
That may be from online searches but My Vacation Lady is busier than we’ve ever been with sales exceeding the last couple of years.
I posted a comment on a travel agent Facebook board to see if anyone else is seeing a slow down in requests and there were over 3 dozen posts from my colleagues disputing what was said in the news program. We are all incredibly busy and haven’t seen any downturn in requests for vacations and honeymoons.
There is a lot of misinformation out there about US citizens not being able to visit Jamaica, take cruises, travel to Europe and more. Please don’t let politics spoil your plan to take a vacation or honeymoon. It’s business as usual here for the team of My Vacation Lady and if anything, we’ll continue to advise you to book now if you are looking for summer travel. If you are looking for last minute travel, to get out of the cold and snow, you may find very slim pickings.
We believe in the personal approach to vacation and honeymoon planning so why trust your vacation experience to an online website that doesn’t take the time to get to know you and your dreams. Contact us to help plan your next vacation.
View the video here


text:
Check your melons! Salmonella contamination has already killed 2 people
The recent deadly outbreak of Salmonella in cantaloupes is so scary. Realizing that an everyday item in your fridge could poison you is pretty horrific, and since the most recent outbreak, two people have died in Kentucky and 141 have gotten sick in 20 states linked to salmonella infested cantaloupes grown in Indiana.
What makes this contamination more alarming is that it is the SECOND time cantaloupe has been reported as unsafe in a year. Last year cantaloupes contained Listeria from a farm in Colorado. Seriously, are distributors even make sure that their product is safe before it's shipped out?! Clearly, the FDA is NOT happy.
Read more ¿Qué más? Popular Bumbo baby seats recalled for danger to young babies!
Unlike other fruits that can be throughly washed to rid of any contamination, cantaloupe's pourous skin makes it easy for bacteria and other germs to cling to its surface. This makes it nearly impossible to be throughly cleansed and infestation can easily seep through. If you've recently bought cantaloupe without knowledge of the salmonella contamination, I advise you to throw it out or ask your local supermarket or grocery store about their distributor and your concerns with the fruit.
Want to stay updated on the latest news? Like us on Facebook!
Your best bet would be to not buy cantalope to avoid the possibility of contracting any illness. The last thing you want to do is spend the last few weeks of summer sick in bed.
Are you concerned about the salmonella outbreak in cantaloupes?


text:
Twenty-Ten will go down in history as much more than ending the first decade of this new millennium. This year we saw the leaking of copious amounts of oil, WikiLeaks: leaking copious amounts of government data and a massive earthquake damage in Haiti. 2010 will also be remembered for all of the amazing and interesting technology news – from the introduction of the iPad, to the nuances of privacy, to the rise of Android (and fall of RIM), to the domination by Facebook of practically every form of media (Howard Stern beware). Join me as I take a look at the big stories of 2010.
.. in Canada
The caveat with all new an interesting technology these days, is that is usually gets released somewhere else first. This year was no different. We had to wait for, but eventually got the iPad and iBooks. We still didn’t get most of the movies on Youtube.com/Movies, however. This year saw the release of Netflix in Canada with very little selection and even less fanfare. Some stuff, however, was our own. We got the some of the best online Winter Olympics coverage (it was free too) and even a 3D broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada. What better than seeing Grapes in 3D? We still don’t get most of the American TV networks, nor Hulu, but the IPTV movement is growing rapidly on home soil with every major Canadian TV network offering some sort of online streaming of shows. We need to release the Blackberry Playbook in Canada and make the U.S. wait for a month.
IT spending starts to rebound
Economically, 2010 was a crappy year. Let’s face it, one of the biggest downturns we’ve ever seen hit everyone hard in the pocketbook. We all struggled to get and keep jobs. In the IT industry, the downturn was felt quite strongly too. Companies were spending less on hardware, software and services – pushing the technology they used as long as they could possibly push it. Sometime around spring of 2010, the market started to rebound. Users were starting to by new PCs, Windows 7 was a success and tablets were exciting users. 2010 will be known as the year that IT got a much needed shot in the leg.
RIM hits the mainstream
This is both a good thing and a bad thing for RIM, the makers of Blackberry. Today, look around, you’ll see the smartphone devices everywhere. Use of the popular “Blackberry Messenger” is all over (as well as that annoying “bing” sound). If you’re RIM, you couldn’t be happier about this, usage is soaring, your products are all over and profits are record breaking. All is not rosy in Blackberry-land, however. Mass adoption of these products is starting to create higher user exceptions, features are lagging versus other platforms and the Playbook tablet is both badly named and late to the game already won by someone else. RIM could be in a much worse position, but 2011will be the year RIM proves it deserves to be where it is.
Android changes the game
Speaking of the smartphone and tablet. One year ago, the smartphone market was essentially dominated by RIM and Apple. Then, Google’s free smartphone Operating System, Android, started to add features like crazy. Today, feature for feature, Android phones are the best value on the market. Since the operating system, the development software and the SDK are all essentially free – the barrier to entry in this market is almost non-existent. Today, some estimates are that 300,000 Android smartphones are being activated every day. Google’s Android is winning the smartphone race and that likely won’t change in 2011.
2010 also saw quite a bit of warfare play out online. We saw China at ware with Google’s Search, we saw the Stuxnet virus attempting to subvert Iranian nuclear operations. Wikileaks leaked massive amounts of information about the U.S. and other Governments. Recent cable leaks look at the process (or lack) of diplomacy between countries. This year we also saw the rise of fake anti-virus scanners and various social network intrusions (such as Sharejacking).
This concept of openness and lack of privacy was quite invasive throughout the year, even prompting a Globe & Mail feature article. We are having our houses photographed by Google Street view, our information slowly exposed by Facebook, our Tweets sent with geographical information – not to mention how easy it is to accidentally send a “private” tweet. Our phones are becoming smarter – and most of these enhancements are counter to privacy (GPS, Social Media integration, remote access, multiple cameras, enhanced video recording, silent picture taking). Products are even, inadvertently, become more open – and you might even say creepy. Just look at the new Barbie Video Girl as an example. While there is a backlash brewing (eg: Diaspora), we are all living in a more public world, and there is no reason to think that this will change anytime soon.
Facebook, the king of all media
If you are online, no doubt, even if you are not – you have seen or heard something about Facebook. More than 500 million members strong, Facebook is a phenomenon. 2010 took the ubiquity even further with a focus on it’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg. We saw a movie about him called The Social Network. We saw Zuckerberg named Person of the Year by TIME magazine. In fact, there is is little on the wider Internet these days that hasn’t been touched by Facebook in some way – from Facebook Connect to Facebook Likes to Facebook mail, you’ll see Facebook in most things online today. This isn’t going to change in 2011 either. Expect Oscars for the movie and a possible billion users hitting the little site created in a dorm room.
The biggest story of 2010?
Facebook sure does seem like it was omnipresent in 2010, however, the biggest technology story this year is that of the iPad. I wrote about the iPad more than any other topic on this blog. For good reason, the iPad represented a major disruption in computing and did what Microsoft couldn’t do ten years earlier: Create a mid-range market for tablets. You can be sure, without the iPad, today we would not see the Samsung Galaxy Tab, or Dell Streak or Blackberry Playbook – not to mention the countless device failures or rumors that continue today. You could even say the iPad spurred on the development and advancement of eBook readers, which have been around for sometime, but never faced this kind of competition. The market for tablets has also pushed mobile phone companies to make devices with larger screens and more powerful systems (like a dual-core Android smartphone)
What does 2011 have in store? My Predictions
If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you will probably remember my predictions for the next decade. Most of those are true today – but may not be in the next few years. Either way, I’m on the record. In the more immediate future, however, I’d like to make some predictions for 2011.
1. The iPad 2 will be released in April and prices of the original iPad (on places like Craigslist) will drop to half or more of what they were, the Apple Spin-Cycle continues. The Mac will make major inroads in market share. I will have a Mac before the year is out.
2. This year, the U.S. will catch up with Julian Assange, and it won’t be pretty. Expect all things Wikileaks to get stronger with more new types of services popping up like OpenLeaks. 2011 will be the year that one or two major state secrets are revealed that topple governments.
3. Microsoft will continue to stagnate and (1) admit failure with Windows 7 Phone and (2) later in the year start releasing bits and pieces of their radically different Windows 8. Expect at least the first beta of Windows 8 before the year ends. There will be a version of Windows built just for tablets (called Windows Slate?). There will be no tablet to show off at CES 2011.
4. The “Cloud” buzzword will continue to push into the mainstream. By the end of the year, expect most people to have an idea of what you mean when you say “My data is in the Cloud”.
5. By January 2012, there will be a new social media service that rivals Facebook and Twitter. Let’s just hope it’s not a one-word status update service.
6. Steroids will be implicated in more “rage” murders, and banned in more places, including being used as a euphemism for “exaggerated”.
7. Facebook will release a number of new features (or changes), and most will be benign. One huge shift during the year for Facebook will be the introduction of a Music Streaming service (to rival Spotify) called Facebook Play.
Do you have thoughts about this past year? What did you learn?


text:
Since've we followed iPhone 6S launch and availability closely, after some 24 hours the iPhone 6S was sold out and it took two to three weeks of waiting to get either a iPhone 6S or 6S Plus.
Apple seems to be selling the 32GB well but there are plenty of 128GB and 256GB available - expect the diamond black one that is only available in 128GB and 256GB. Both of them will ship in three to five weeks as with this new color, everyone will know you have the new iPhone. It is still impressive that Apple can take away some features and come up with a new color and call it a feature. It seems that too many Apple customers are watching way too much keeping up with the Kardashians.
The iPhone 7 Plus seems to be doing a bit better as for most colors you need to wait two to three weeks and the jet black version will only be available in November.
Most Fudzilla readers do realize that customers can help companies to find the way to go. Apple’s iPhone that sells for $649 + tax in the US suddenly started selling for €759 in the EU with VAT. The US price doesn’t include the tax since it varies from 1.75 percent in some states such as Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon while in some places in rich Cupertino or Santa Clara, California you end up paying 8.75%.
In the worst case, if you get your 32GB iPhone 7 black in Cupertino you will end up paying $705.78 or €628.90. The difference between the €759 that European Union countries pay and €628.90 is a whopping €130.1 difference. This should be called a EU stupidity tax.
The UK gets slightly a better deal as the actual difference today is £68 but bear in mind that the pound has dropped significantly since the Brexit vote.
The good thing is that the European Union, despite being slow, bureaucratic and inefficient in many ways ended up fining Microsoft and Intel for monopolistic behavior. It will probably collect the tiny 13.5 billion that Apple robbed from 500 million people in the European Union.


text:
BOZEMAN — Black Friday is a post-Thanksgiving tradition for many. Die hard shoppers wake up early to snag the best deals and doorbusters.
“The Christmas bell has rung, and people are now ready to buy,” said Don Baide, owner of the Gem Gallery in downtown Bozeman.
But with the rise of online shopping, is Black Friday still as big of a deal as it used to be?
“Shopping is totally different than it was. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years now” said Baide.
Online shopping and promotions like Cyber Monday may be taking in some shoppers looking to avoid the chaos of Black Friday, but shop owners like Baide say there are still plenty of people that prefer the experience of going to the store and making their purchase.
“They still want to feel it. They’re not that comfortable with buying a fine piece of jewelry over the internet without seeing it, trying it on, and knowing that they’re going to get some service behind it,” said Baide.
Big box stores in town like Target say online shopping has affected them during the Black Friday rush — but positively.
“Really heavy foot traffic is still coming through the stores, that is still the bulk of our business,” said Tim Olson, store director at Target in Bozeman. “We do have a lot of folks that are choosing to shop us at home on their own time, and then utilize our drive-up and order/pickup options and ship to their home.”
While local store owners and managers will all agree online shopping has certainly changed the way people shop in town, you just can’t get the Black Friday energy and excitement anywhere else.
“You feel it when you’re in the store today and we felt it every day this week leading up to Black Friday,” said Olson.
“Watching those carts fill up and just the excitement as they're selecting those items for for those loved ones.”


text:
Elsa, Anna and Olaf the Snowman from the film Frozen will be dropping into Corby’s Christmas Market this weekend for warm hugs and festive cheer.
The loveable characters will be making an appearance in James Ashworth VC Square, outside the Corby Cube, on Saturday, December 6, and Sunday, December 7.
Olaf will be appearing between 10am and 10.30am, 11.30am and midday and 2.30pm and 3pm on Saturday, as well as from 11am to 11.30am and 12.30pm and 1pm on Sunday. He will be joined by Anna and Elsa from 1pm to 1.30pm on Saturday.
The event is being held as part of Small Business Saturday celebrations, a national campaign to support, inspire and promote small businesses.
It includes a range of Christmas stalls open from 9am until 5pm on Saturday and 10am until 4pm on Sunday.
They will sell everything from warm mulled wine and delicious pork rolls to special gifts and real Christmas trees – and parking over the two days at the Corby Cube car park is absolutely free.
To further support small businesses and entrepreneurs the market will run alongside a Small Business Fair inside the Cube.


text:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it's fined Cash Express $200,000 and is making it pay $32,000 to customers, over allegations the company made misleading representations to consumers and improperly seized money from cash-checking transactions. A consent order said the company threatened in collection letters that it would take legal action against consumers, even though the debts were past the date for suing on legal claims. The CFPB said the firm said it might report negative credit information to consumer reporting agencies for late or missed payments, when the company did not actually report this information. The firm also "abusively" withheld funds during check-cashing transactions to satisfy outstanding amounts on prior loans, without disclosing this practice to the consumer during the initiation of the transaction. Cash Express owns and operates approximately 328 retail lending outlets in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi.
CFPB fines Cash Express $200,000 over misleading representations
Rep. Devin Nunes will retire from Congress next month to take over as chief executive at Donald Trump's new social media company.
- Even though Putin knows he probably cannot win in Ukraine, a weakened strongman will often take the greatest risks
- Pete Buttigieg fires back after Elon Musk blasts federal spending on EVs, saying ‘there are things that don’t happen on their own’
- U.S. trade deficit sinks 18% in October as exports surge to record high
- Fauci says early reports about omicron variant are encouraging
Steven Goldstein is based in London and responsible for MarketWatch's coverage of financial markets in Europe, with a particular focus on global macro and commodities. Previously, he was Washington bureau chief, directing MarketWatch's economic, political and regulatory coverage. Follow Steve on Twitter: @MKTWgoldstein.


text:
ROCHESTER — Wood splitters, wheelbarrows, and lawn mowers line the parking lot of the new Tractor Supply off Route 11, which is set to open its doors to public this Saturday.
For months, the community has witnessed the building of the retail store, located next to Walmart at 12 Two Rod Road. Since April, crews have been working to clear the area and build the store, the company’s 16th in the state.
“They were great to work with throughout the whole process,” said Jim Campbell, chief planner for the city.
“Tractor Supply Company looks forward to being a member of the Rochester community. It is a great fit due to the part-time and hobby farmers, and horse owners in the area,” said Michael Graham, of the company’s media relations department.
“We’re excited they’re opening the store here. They’re a really great company and will be a great addition to Rochester,” said Campbell.
The store sells tractor and trailer parts and accessories, lawn and garden supplies, sprinkler and irrigation parts, power tools, fencing, welding and pump supplies, riding mowers and more.
Graham said there’s really something for everyone. “And many of our new customers will be surprised to find we also offer pet supplies and clothing items for the entire family,” he said.
“They offer a wide range of products. They’re going to be very successful here,” said Campbell.
However, contradictory to their name, they sell everything except tractors.
According to the company’s website, their customers are “the inventors of the ‘do it yourself’ trend.” They “handle practically every chore themselves, from repairing wells to building fences, welding gates together, constructing feed bins, taking care of livestock and pets, repairing tractors and trucks and building trailers for hauling.”
Graham said the new store will have 19,097 square feet and the company is expecting to employ 12 to 17 full- and part-time team members.
In a press release earlier this summer, Rob Hoskins, a media contact for the company, wrote, “The store will include sales floor and support service space. A fenced exterior space will be used for storage and displaying items such as fencing, sprayers and livestock equipment.”
The company opens its doors this weekend. A grand opening event has been tentatively scheduled for Oct. 26.


text:
Get the digital magazine on your device!
FREE TRIAL – Limited time only
Orders are now being taken for a vehicle dubbed the "world's first electric hyper car" »
An electric supercar boasting 1,088 horsepower, a maximum range of 366 miles per charge and capable of blasting speeds of up to 190mph has been unveiled by a 23-year old Croatian entrepreneur »
Facebook has launched free voice calling as part of its iOS Messenger app in the UK »
How do you show the mathematical complexity in unloved microscopic structures? By making them much bigger »
Wired.co.uk reviews the Samsung Gear 2 Neo »


text:
A fan-made sequel to the original Spyro trilogy by Insomniac Games is shaping up to be not only a great trip down memory lane, but a brand-new nostalgia-fueled story set in the original world of Spyro.
Dubbed Spyro: Myths Awaken, in this fan-made game, players will see Spyro and Sparx looking for new adventures. The peace Spyro and Sparx live in at the time of the game’s start won’t last long according to team member Cyreides, as a mysterious figure known as Gaia takes the purple dragon away to Mythica, a mythical realm where he’ll be tasked with taking down Medusa a she searches for immortality.
Myths Awaken will take place sometime after Year of the Dragon and will feature many realms, just like the original games. When all is said and done, the game will have four homeworlds, four boss realms, four mini-boss realms and 24 standard realms.
Currently, there is not a release date or even a release window — the project only began in February of last year — so it could be years before fans see how this fan-made title pans out.
The team seems set on keeping fans involved as they release weekly updates, videos and more. The latest video was uploaded to YouTube just 15 hours ago. It can be viewed here. If you want to stay updated on all of the latest Spyro: Myths Awaken information, you can subscribe to their YouTube channel here and follow their Wiki on Fandom here (not much is there though currently).
It will be interesting to see how this fan-made game pans out, especially with the heavily-anticipated Spyro Reignited Trilogy releasing soon and serving as a good reminder of how the original trilogy plays. It’ll be up to Cyreides and the rest of the Myths Awaken team to live up to these expectations.


text:
(HealthDay News) — The national drug store chain CVS Caremark said Wednesday that it’s phasing out the sale of tobacco products at its more than 7,600 stores across the United States.
The company said cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco will no longer be available at any of the stores by Oct. 1.
CVS said it’s making the move because selling tobacco products isn’t in keeping with a pharmacy’s mission of helping to protect people’s health. It said it’s the first national pharmacy chain to halt the sale of tobacco products.
“Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health,” Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Caremark, said in a news release. “Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose.”


text:
Search For "smartphone market"
Updated : 2 months ago IST
Seoul [South Korea], November 17 (ANI/Global Economic): Samsung Electronics maintained its Number one position in the Latin American smartphone market in the third quarter. However, its market share fell to around 30 per cent due to the increased sales of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, ZT
Updated : 2 months, 1 week ago IST
Seoul [South Korea], November 8 (ANI/Global Economic): Samsung Electronics has narrowed the gap with Apple in the US smartphone market in the third quarter of this year.
Updated : 3 months ago IST
Seoul [South Korea], October 19 (ANI/Global Economic): Samsung Electronics succeeded in maintaining first place in the global smartphone market in the third quarter. With the release of the iPhone 13, Apple has ranked second place.
Updated : 4 months, 2 weeks ago IST
New Delhi [India], September 7 (ANI/NewsVoir): India's leading destination for pre-owned phones, OLX India's latest study confirms the sway Apple iPhone continues to have in terms of smartphone brand preference in the pre-owned market in India.
Updated : 7 months ago IST
Seoul [South Korea], June 23 (ANI/Global Economic): Although Samsung Electronics ranked No.4 in 5G smartphone markets behind Apple and Chinese companies in the first quarter of this year, but it is analyzed that Samsung will step up to No.2 next year.
Updated : 7 months, 2 weeks ago IST
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], June 10 (ANI/PNN): As we have seen, the renewed smartphone market in India grew a healthy 9 per cent last year. The second-hand market is being mostly captured by renewed phones.
Updated : 8 months, 3 weeks ago IST
Beijing [China], April 30 (ANI): Chinese tech giant Huawei lost its smartphone market share to key rivals including Apple and Samsung as a result of sanctions imposed by the United States, according to a top company executive.
Updated : 1 year, 9 months ago IST
New Delhi [India] April 18 (ANI/NewsVoir): Further cementing its leadership position in the world's second largest mobile market, India, Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG), claimed majority of prestigious tech awards between 2019 and 2020. consumer.huawei.com/in/campaign/awards.
Updated : 1 year, 11 months ago IST
New Delhi [India], January 27 (ANI): India has surpassed the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world, according to the latest Counterpoint Research report.
Updated : 2 years, 2 months ago IST
California [USA], October 31 (ANI): People are finally buying smartphones, adding to the positive growth of the worldwide smartphone market, according to the latest data by research firm Strategy Analytics.
Updated : 2 years, 11 months ago IST
New Delhi [India], Jan 30 (ANI-BusinessWireIndia): OnePlus has emerged as the best selling premium smartphone brand in 2018, according to Counterpoint Market Monitor Service.
Updated : 3 years, 2 months ago IST
New Delhi [India], Nov 16 (ANI-BusinessWireIndia): OnePlus has emerged as the market leader in premium smartphone brand, with a market share of 37 percent in India, according to a leading market research firm*.


text:
Dell CEO Michael Dell has warned current trade tensions between China and the USA aren’t helping productivity at the tech giant and the company is already taking measures..
Speaking at the VMworld 2019 conference in San Francisco, Dell said “we have had to make some adjustments to our business to deal with the tariffs.”
The tariffs in question are the result of a tit-for-tat trade war being conducted by the two nations, which has been buffeting global markets as the two superpowers trade import tax blows.
“Our first priority is to ensure continuity of supply to our customers and we have been able to do that,” Dell said. “We will urge government officials to work together… on a resolution to the current tensions.”
“We certainly don’t find those tensions to be productive for our business,” he concluded.
....Sadly, past Administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of Fair and Balanced Trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer. As President, I can no longer allow this to happen! In the spirit of achieving Fair Trade, we must Balance this very....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger offered similar sentiments, saying he expects the world to divide into two trading blocs, one dominated by the USA and another by China.
VMware has a substantial presence in China, both as a vendor and for product development. Gelsinger said VMware is planning for a future in which the company needs to work in different ways in each bloc. The CEO seemed to accept the task of doing so as just one of those things that happens in business and did not pass comment on the geopolitics driving the formation of the two blocs.
Simon Sharwood traveled to VMworld as a guest of VMware.


text:
Webinar featuring Professor Barry Keating
Published: June 4, 2007 / Author: Mendoza College
John Galt Solutions and the Institute of Business Forecasting have joined forces to present a free webinar entitled “How to Grow a Forecasting Process” on June 12 at 11:00 EDT. The event is part of an ongoing educational series sponsored by John Galt Solutions, the leading provider of affordable planning solutions for the consumer-driven supply chain.
The webinar will feature University of Notre Dame professor Barry Keating, author of the best-selling forecasting textbook used in colleges and universities. Dr. Keating will outline the process, participants, tools and data required to create a highly accurate forecast.
Founded on the principle of right-sized solutions, John Galt helps companies find the best starting point and then teaches them how to grow as needed to increase forecast accuracy, optimize inventory levels and maximize supply chain performance.
Webinar participants will: — Learn what the statistics and accuracy measurements convey… and what they don’t. — Gain a better understanding of the “forecastability” of their products. — Be able to identify who should collaborate in the forecasting process. — Determine what type of input is needed for effective forecasting.
Webinar speaker Professor Barry Keating is the Jesse H. Jones Professor of Business Economics at the University of Notre Dame. A well-known authority on supply chain forecasting, Professor Keating has published more than 80 articles for professional journals and business publications. He is a Heritage Foundation Fellow and a Heartland Institute Research Fellow.
Pre-registration for the webinar is required. Visit http://www.johngalt.com for details.


text:
Sneaker fans – are you ready for Air Jordan Retros in 2014? The first confirmed release from Jordan Brand’s throwback catalog is the Air Jordan 10 “Bobcats”, seen here in the Wolf Grey/Dark Powder Blue-New Slate-Atomic Orange colorway. Since Jordan became owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, this is the first Air Jordan Retro to feature a composition matching the NBA team’s uniform. Of course, the Bobcats won’t be around much longer as the team will revert back to the “Hornets” next season. Your thoughts on this Air Jordan 10 “Bobcats” release? Check out the extra photos below and stay tuned for a drop next Saturday, January 11th.
Air Jordan 10 Retro “Bobcats”
Color: Wolf Grey/Dark Powder Blue-New Slate-Atomic Orange
Style Code: 310805-026
Release Date: 01/11/14


text:
OnePlus to launch new series of 5G phones
- While OnePlus announced that it will be one of the first companies to launch a 5G-enabled smartphone in 2019, it’s now confirmed that this phone won’t be the OnePlus 7.
- The 5G phone from OnePlus will belong to an all-new series which will be positioned above the company’s flagship killer phone. This is being done to keep the OnePlus 7 competitively priced.
- Therefore, the new 5G phone will mean that two OnePlus phones will co-exist in the market, something that hasn’t happened since the OnePlus X.
- Most major companies will jump into the 5G bandwagon in 2019. Xiaomi has already confirmed that the Mi Mix 3 will get a new 5G variant in early 2019, while the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 will be 5G-ready from day one.
- Recently, the Chinese company has also announced a new Thunder Purple colour of the OnePlus 6T.


text:
1. You’ve actually met in person. Grant says in his piece if you’ve only connected with someone on the phone or over email, it’s not the same thing as interacting in person. There’s “no substitute for the trust that can be developed from meeting face-to-face.” Read more
Posts Tagged ‘online’
Get hands-on social media training for beginners in our online boot camp, Social Media 101! Starting September 4, social media and marketing experts will help you determine the social media sites that matter most to you, based on your personal and professional goals. Hurry, this boot camp starts next week! Register now!
For those working at Mediaite, here’s some good news. Founder of Abrams Media, publisher of Mediaite, Dan Abrams says his company will soon be profitable. And here’s some news for those wanting to work for Mr. Abrams, he’s launching three new sites.
Abrams spoke at an Advertising Week forum this morning, and he declared that his company “will be profitable in January or February,” according to Business Insider. He went on to defend digital media as a whole, particularly the sites that aggregate other news, like Mediaite.
And, of course, the most important news for those looking for jobs, Abrams plans to launch three sites, but he did not appear to go into great detail about the new ventures.


text:
HAVANA, Dec. 6th Cuba has reached the one million mark for Canadian visitors –and it reached that milestone on Dec. 4, the exact same day it hit the million mark last year.
The buoyant performance from the Canadian market follows in the footsteps of a very strong 2018, says Lessner Gomez, Director of the Cuba Tourist Board.
“Coming off of the highly anticipated Havana 500 celebrations, there is a heightened excitement and energy in the air,” said Lessner Gomez, Director of the Cuba Tourist Board. “We are both excited and humbled to have had the opportunity to accommodate so many guests in 2019 and look forward to sharing the unique spirit of Cuba with more of our Canadian friends in 2020.”
Gomez and other Cuban tourism officials have confirmed that Cuba is ready and its resorts are open for Canadian vacationers for winter 2019-2020. Amid reports that fuel shortages were impacting resort operations, Cuba’s Tourism Minister, Manuel Marrero, traveled to Canada this past October to set the record straight.
Later in the month, at the Autentica Cuba travel agent dinner and trade show in Toronto, Gomez reminded agents that by the end of 2019 Cuba will have some 4,000 new resort rooms, with more on the way for 2020. New and renovated hotels and resorts include the SO/ Paseo del Prado La Habana; the Melia Internacional (formerly the historic Internacional), Gran Hotel Bristol by Kempinski, Cayo Guillermo Resort Kempinski, Paradisus Los Cayos and Grand Muthu.


text:
A big advantage of an electric car is that you can top off the battery every night with a garage charger. Of course, that means you have to remember to plug it in every evening. Tesla Motors shows off a prototype robotic system to automatically connect a charger to a Tesla whenever it is parked in the garage:
Below is a NASA video and article about protein growth in microgravity. (Note that a Schering Plough protein crystal experiment carried out on Shuttle Columbia’s last flight led directly to a treatment for Hepatitis-C: Space KSC: I’m a Doctor, Not an Astronaut – Space KSC) :
In one of many direct Earth applications ofInternational Space Station research, the newestBenefits for Humanity video in theBenefits serieshighlights how high-quality crystals grown in microgravity lead to new therapeutics for disease. Learn how the investigation of protein crystals in space is helping to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), an incurable genetic disorder affecting the muscles with onset usually in early childhood and primarily in young males.
Research into a disease like DMD involves the study of the structure of associated proteins by crystallization, which helps researchers better understand protein function. This comprises making millions of copies of that protein and arranging them in three-dimensional rows. Crystals grown on Earth are impacted by gravity, which may affect the way the molecules align on the surface of the crystal. Researchers have discovered that growing crystals aboard the space station allows for slower growth and higher quality crystals.
In microgravity, crystals grow more slowly, but the molecules have time to more perfectly align on the surface of the crystal which returns much better research data. Credits: NASA
Since 2003, scientists with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have conducted protein crystal growth investigations on the space station, including proteins associated with DMD. Having a better understanding of the protein’s shape enabled researchers to design a drug that fits specifically into a location on the protein associated with DMD. The research team estimates that the drug may be able to slow the progression of DMD by half.
“Studying this protein led to a huge discovery,” said Dr. Yoshihiro Urade, Ph.D., professor at the University of Tsukuba in Tsukuba, Japan. “What we’re talking about is potentially doubling the lifespan of many DMD patients, and it’s all because of research opportunities afforded to us by the International Space Station.”
With many other protein crystal growth studies occurring or planned aboard the space station, many thousands of other proteins’ structures could be determined. This is yet another way the orbiting laboratory is enabling research Off the Earth, For the Earth
The MIT spinoff company 24M has unveiled a new approach to lithium battery manufacturing that it says can reduce the cost by a factor of two. The standard li-ion construction process involves coating the active materials onto long strips of an inert tape material that adds bulk and weight to the battery but does not contributed directly to energy storage. The 24M process gets rid of the tape using a new approach developed by Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, who has been involved in previous battery ventures including A123. The energy and power density of the battery is thus increased. The new manufacturing system also eliminates a great many processing steps, so it reduces the manufacturing cost as well.
Tesla Motors‘ Gigafactory under construction in northern Nevada is also intended to lower costs but through sheer economies of scale more than by new manufacturing or battery technology advances. The Tesla batteries are intended both for the company’s cars and for energy storage systems for the home (Powerwall) and utilities and industry.
Li-ion batteries have progressed in a steady but rather slow incremental pace despite periodic claims of big breakthroughs. Nevertheless, I expect Elon and others at Tesla must still have some concern that a new development like that of 24M or Sakti or whomever might make their giant battery factory obsolete before it can pay off the investment in it.
Here are a couple of recent videos in which Elon Musk talks about Tesla and the Gigafactory:


text:
MONTREAL, Jan. 10, 2020 /CNW/ - This week, Concordia University's John Molson School of Business held its 39th annual international MBA case competition. The event is recognized as the largest case competition of its kind, and this year attracted some of the brightest MBA students from 18 countries. The theme of the competition is The Future of Business, and the cases have focused on how culture, globalization, environmental issues, technology, the economy, and customer experience will impact the business world in the coming years.
During the competition, the students were presented with seven unpublished business cases selected from the winning entries of the annual case writing competition. The judges consisted of over 300 business executives from various backgrounds who applied their experience to evaluating the presentations on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of implementation.
The highlight of the week every year is a live case presentation by a major company, who presents the students with a real-life business challenge.
This year, FlightHub was proud to be featured as the competition's live case, in addition to being a premium diamond sponsor and having several of its executives act as judges for some of the other cases.
On January 8th, FlightHub's COO Christopher Cave and CFO Marc Ghobriel took the stage to present the company's background and industry information in a dynamic and interactive fashion, as well as to put forth some challenging business issues for the students to solve. Following the presentation, the participants were permitted to ask questions during a 45-minute Q&A session. They were then tasked with addressing the business challenges in a way that applied the lessons and critical thinking skills learned throughout their respective international MBA programs.
"Participating in the case competition has been such an enriching experience for the FlightHub team," says the company's COO, Christopher Cave. "Presenting our company on stage as a live business case along with our CFO Marc Ghobriel in front of this group of international MBA students and esteemed Montreal judges was just fantastic. We are so glad the case was well-received, and we are very impressed with the caliber of presentations created by the students in such a short period of time."
"As an alumnus of Concordia's JMSB, it was an honor to represent FlightHub as a sponsor of this event, as well as a judge," states Melanie Tabet, FlightHub's Director of Communications and Brand Management. "We are a proud Montreal-based company, and we are so excited to have been part of an event that brings so many international participants to our beautiful city. Being featured as the live case generated a great deal of additional interest in FlightHub, and we appreciate the work the students put into generating ideas for the future of our business."
FlightHub makes travel accessible, allowing more than 5 million people per year to visit new places and explore different cultures by offering the cheapest flight on worldwide destinations. This is achieved by investing heavily in both technology and people, ultimately streamlining and optimizing the customer experience. Visit flighthub.com to book online or call an agent at 1-800-900-1431 for 24/7 service. For inspiration on travel destinations, tips on budget travel, and the latest travel news, follow FlightHub on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
For further information: [email protected]


text:
Study Finds Consumers Using Online Shopping Directories are Highly Satisfied, More Likely to Shop Online Again and Inclined to Recommend Online Shopping to Friends
Ann Arbor, Michigan – January 28, 2003 – New research released today by ForeSee Results reveals that shoppers who use shopping search engines to compare prices, products and stores are highly satisfied online shoppers.
The survey, conducted live on DealTime.com, found that online shoppers who use shopping search engines to compare prices are more satisfied with their buying experience, representing a 22 percent improvement in satisfaction over those who don’t. Users of shopping search for the purpose of comparing prices were also found to be 24 percent more likely to shop online in the next two months and 26 percent more likely to recommend online shopping to others.
“Our research demonstrates that the use of shopping search engines like DealTime can have a significant positive impact on a consumer’s experience of online shopping,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results. “Consumers clearly grasp the advantages of shopping search, but merchants reap great benefits as well. Shopping search engines provide them with a large quantity of qualified buyers who turn into highly satisfied online shoppers that are likely to return again and again.”
The study found that online shoppers use shopping search because it empowers them to do the following:
• Compare prices quickly: 73 percent
• Compare products: 54 percent
• Find stores selling the product they are looking for: 45 percent
• Lower the risk of making a bad purchase: 28 percent
• Find most popular products: 27 percent
• Narrow product choices: 25 percent
• Compare the reputations of online stores: 25 percent
In addition, more than 50 percent of shoppers surveyed said that shopping search engines help them save time and save money (54 percent and 52 percent, respectively).
“Shopping search engines will continue to provide a significant value to the consumers participating in online shopping,” continued Freed. “Consumers reward organizations that provide a high level of satisfaction with their future purchasing activity and will leverage the immense referral power of the web. Shopping search engines like DealTime will play a critical role in the continuing evolution and improvement of the online shopping industry.”
Methodology: ForeSee Results used its Satisfaction Management Technology, The American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology, and DealTime’s broad reach to measure the success of shopping search engines. Over 1,100 consumers were surveyed as part of this research. For more information, go to www.foreseeresults.com.
About ForeSee Results
ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction management and specializes in converting satisfaction data into user-driven web development strategies. Using the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index developed at the University of Michigan, ForeSee Results has developed a model that blends innovative technology, statistics, and economics to scientifically quantify the elements that drive online customer satisfaction and their link to future behaviors like likelihood to purchase, return to the site, or recommend the site to a friend.
ForeSeeResults was co-founded by Compuware Corporation, a multi-billion dollar software and IT services company, and CFI Group, an internationally-recognized market research consulting firm founded by Dr. Claes Fornell.
# # #


text:
Your sleeping bag could be toxic
Toxic chemicals with potential health and environmental impacts are widely used in the manufacture of outdoor clothing and gear, according to a Greenpeace study released Monday.
The environmental activist group found traces of poly- and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in 36 of 40 products they tested, according to the report.
Chemicals such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are used to make moisture-wicking and water-repellent equipment including jackets, pants, sleeping bags, boots, and tents. The compounds help keep campers and hikers dry and dirt-free, but they are hazardous to the environment and human health, Greenpeace says. The chemicals also widely used in other common household items including nonstick cooking pans and fire-retardant foam.
"PFCs are chemical compounds that don't exist in nature," Mirjam Kopp, detox outdoor global project leader for Greenpeace, said in a statement. "Once released in the environment, many of them degrade very slowly and enter the food chain, making pollution almost irreversible."
In a previous report, Greenpeace said they found PFC traces in some of the most remote lakes on the planet and in dolphins and polar bears and well as in human blood.
Greenpeace tested products from outdoor brands that include North Face, Jack Wolfskin, Patagonia, Mammut, Norrona, and Salewa.
"Brands like the North Face and Mammut are not walking their talk of love and respect for nature when it comes to the chemicals they use in the production chain," Kopp said. "Together with the outdoor community, we challenge them to show us what true leadership and respect for nature means: stop using hazardous chemicals and detox their gear now."
Patagonia and North Face have both pledged to replace products treated with long-chain PFCs (like PFOAs) with fluorocarbon-based treatments that break down quicker in the environment.
"This is a topic we have been working on urgently for several years, nothing to do with Greenpeace's campaign efforts frankly," Patagonia's director of communications said in an email.
The Ventura, Calif.-based company announced in a blog post that is has switched its outerwear treatments from long-chain (C8) fluorocarbon-based finishes to shorter-chain treatments (C6) that contain less potential toxicity over time to humans, wildlife and water. Patagonia's 2016 spring clothing line is C8-free, the company said.
"Patagonia's temporary solution, which is also being adopted by a number of manufacturers, is not good enough, but it's the best option we have found so far," the company wrote. "Meanwhile, we continue to actively research and develop DWR (Durable Water Repellent) chemistries that will afford high performance with less environmental impact."
The four products Greenpeace says tested PFC-free included two jackets -- one by Vaude and one from Jack Wolfskin -- a backpack by Haglöfs, and a pair of gloves from North Face.
"These results show that it is possible to produce jackets, backpacks and gloves with all the requirements without the use of PFCs investigated in this study," the Greenpeace report said.
Sleeping bags aren't the only everyday product that might be filled with dangerous toxins:
Related stories on TakePart:
Environmental Toxins Are Making Us Sick, and We're to Blame?
Put Down That Pineapple: Farm Runoff Is Killing Hawaiian Sea Turtles
People From This Group Breathe the Most Toxic Air in the United States


text:
A Fife farm which diversified into agritourism last year is seeing the green shoots of recovery as Covid-19 restrictions continue to lift.
Bonerbo farm, which has been in the Stevenson family for more than a century, first welcomed visitors to two new luxury lodges in April 2019 and enjoyed a promising start – until the pandemic saw the project lose four months of income this year.
Jessica Stevenson said: “After months of being closed, we are now receiving a steady stream of inquiries and the lodges are fully booked until November.
“We have also introduced a number of coronavirus-related measures including providing hand gel for guests, purchasing extra bedding and we also invested in anti-viral fogging equipment which sprays soft furnishings in the lodges.
“Cleaning the lodges between guests takes approximately 50% longer than previously.”
Ms Stevenson said the lodges were specifically chosen for their floor to ceiling windows to allow panoramic views across the Firth of Forth, and fitted out with furnishings that can be kept fresh.
She said: “We find that people come here for a total break and to get away from it all, so visitors tend to use the lodges as a base to tour the area.”
Ms Stevenson added that while the pandemic might be encouraging people to have staycations, agritourism was already becoming increasingly popular – a trend she believes will continue.
Ms Stevenson said: “It has mostly been couples and small families that have booked so far, but we are in early discussion with some golf providers.”
Bonerbo grows cereals across 700 acres of owned and leased land. Wheat is sold to Diageo and oats to Quaker.
The business also offers grain storage facilities and has two wind turbines which supply the grid with enough electricity to power 1,000 homes per year.


text:
|HOME||MEDIAVILLAGE.com||WOMEN ADVANCING||HOOKED UP||MEMBERSHIP INFO||MEMBER COMPANIES||MEDIA BUSINESS REPORT||ECONOMIC FORECASTS||RESEARCH|
Published: September 23, 2008 at 11:44 AM GMT
Last Updated: September 23, 2008 at 11:44 AM GMT
Advertising represents less than 30 percent of the average marketer's total communications budget. The other 70% + is invested in consumer sales promotion, trade promotion and price incentives, event marketing, public relations, cause related marketing, direct marketing, consumer research and other performance-based marketing programs. Unlike advertising, most of these investments have a direct connection to return-on-investment metrics. Media companies and agencies are focusing significant resources on defining the R-O-I valuations of media spending, but traditional advertising models remain entrenched as the core foundation of the business. Several companies are looking toward greener pastures and evolving their businesses away from traditional advertising/media models while embracing alternate forms of marketing communications.
Antony Young, president of the Optimedia U.S. division of Publicis, points out "marketers have many places to put their budgets and there is not enough debate about how those budgets should be allocated." He told Jack Myers Media Business Report, "with what's happening with the economy, we see a lot of 'advertising in a recession' studies that say you need to keep spending. That will not cut the mustard with corporate marketing and brand executives." An ANA study last month reported 53 percent of marketers expected to cut back budgets in the next six months, on top of those who have already done so. "Agencies like Optimedia and media sellers need to be able to better understand what elements of communications are driving brand responsiveness in the short term – with a higher level of focus on outcomes rather than outputs." In the past 18 months, Optimedia has tripled the size of its Strategy Resources Group and more than 70 percent of the company's staff are strategy/planning/research executives
AT IDG, publisher of Macworld, Computerworld and PC World, only 40 percent of total revenues are generated by the traditional magazine business, compared to 80 percent just five years ago. Bob Carrigan, IDG president, advises "the tail is now wagging the dog. We used to use databases to drive subscriptions. Now we use magazines to drive databases. We actually make significantly more money per user from event and online related activity against a name than from a magazine subscription." This year, IDG will host more than 750 events globally including 250 in the U.S., including Macworld where Apple chairman Steve Jobs makes his famed annual appearance. IDG generates attendee revenues and sells high value sponsorships, "using databases to put the butts in seats," explains Carrigan. This model has translated into increased profits for IDG as the share of business from digital, database marketing and events has increased.
American Express Publishing's president Ed Kelly reports that 40 percent of profits are generated by non-magazine businesses, including books, events and membership/affinity clubs. This compares to an estimated magazine industry average of 10 percent of revenues generated from non-magazine business. However, unlike IDG, Kelly tells Jack Myers Media Business Report that the company's online investments are not yet profitable due to expensive infrastructure costs and intensive cost-per-thousand competition. Amex Publishing has, however, used online to support more than 600,000 members of affinity clubs, with members paying up to $80 annual fees. Only half of all club members are subscribers to Amex's publications, which include Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine and Departures.
Optimedia's Young has established a significant competitive advantage through the company's database of 60,000 consumer interviews conducted over the past three years. Young explains the research enables media and communications planners to evaluate consumers' marketing communications touch points in 44 business categories. "This offers a much higher level of confidence about where budgets should be allocated," he says. "Our strategy is about being clearly focused on driving results and not just about executing plans."
Young exclusively shared with Jack Myers Media Business Report that seven of the top 10 most influential touch-points in terms of purchase and brand performance for marketers are promotional or in-store activities such as in-store sampling, coupons on packaging, in-store promotions, free standing coupon inserts and free gifts. "We see shopper marketing increasing in importance and the need to recognize these as media alongside television and print advertising," Young advises. Among paid advertising media, television was the strongest in terms of influence on purchase followed by specialist magazine ads, Internet search, consumer magazine ads, newspapers, TV sponsorship and then radio ads. Internet display ads performed poorly in terms of sales influence. Consumer opinion sites & blogs rated slightly more effective than newspaper advertising
Seven of the top 20 touch-points were independent sources of information, endorsement or recommendation e.g. family/friends recommendation, doctor recommendations, comparison websites, print articles - demonstrating the declining reliance on brands and paid advertising. "As an industry, we are needing to be more clever in recognizing this movement and reflecting this in our strategies."
Young suggests the economy will challenge agencies and marketers in two areas. First, he says, "is a much greater urgency to prove return-on-investment. That will require CMOs to reestablish their own credentials within their own organizations. They will be held more to account to define marketing's outcome." The second area Young outlines is a "focus on the question of efficiencies. Optimedia has focused on putting strategy at the heart of the agency. Of course we execute media buys and plans as the core of our business but more and more there is a call to be more strategic about how we approach communications. Often silos prevent that discussion. When we talk about efficiencies it's about cutting across silos and having more of a strategic discussion. Clients aren't asking Optimedia to buy a media plan more efficiently," he advises. "They are asking about the total marketing mix."
Carrigan uses IDG's massive databases on behalf of its clients for lead generation and aggressive online promotion. "Names are like gold," he exclaims. "We collect names, earn their permission, and introduce them to white papers, web casts, and other content that we blend with our editorial information. It's a gigantic business." He acknowledges "print will be a viable business for many years, but it is not what it used to be. We can continue in our legacy business but we need to innovate and grow new businesses that leverage our past experience." Carrigan compares IDG's evolving business models to Apple's development of the iPod and iPhone and Microsoft's expansion into the gaming space. "We can build different businesses that leverage the best of our company and take us in new directions."
Carrigan and Kelly will join Meredith Publishing president Jack Griffin on the opening panel of next month's American Magazine Conference http://www.magazine.org/EVENTS/conferences/american_magazine_conference/index.aspx, which I will be moderating.
About Jack Myers: For more than two decades, Jack Myers has been the media industry's leading analyst, researcher and advisor on relationships among marketers, agencies and media sellers, providing business development services and custom insights on relationship best practices to more than 200 marketers, agencies, media companies and industry service providers. Jack can be reached at email@example.com
What Might Replace the Set-Top Box?
As Cisco punts legacy SA boxes to Technicolor, I thought I'd look around my home at the existing set-top boxes and the like. We've got a whole-home DirecTV set up so that's two boxes and two remotes (though a DirecTV app can replace the remotes). At the set in the living room are two more boxes with remotes: Apple TV and Amazon's Fire make it four so far. In my office is a Comcast box; that's five. And a router makes six. We've also got three TVs, a couple of laptops, a couple of iPads and a couple of iPhones … not to mention an iPod somewhere. And, oh yeah, an Amazon Echo ("Alexa, did I miss anything?" "You missed Chromecast.")
TCA Stand-Outs Large (Hallmark, Nat Geo) and Small (WGN, Up, El Rey)
One of the most interesting things about covering the cable days of the twice-yearly Television Critics Association tours is observing which networks or network groups most successfully grab the attention of the hundreds of reporters and critics attending their press conferences and which ones don't make much of an impression at all. The results can be very surprising.
The CFO/CMO Union
Will the CFO and CMO ever form a more perfect union? I recently saw a study produced by Ernst & Young and reported in the Wall Street Journal that claims collaboration between CFOs and CMOs is increasing. The survey also acknowledges that there is still a long way to go to establish a real partnership between their responsibilities, particularly as it pertains to "common practices and cultural differences." In my opinion a perfect union is unlikely but a better working relationship is not only necessary but critical to the success of a business. Let's explore.
Multi-Sensory Experiences for Brands
This week on Mindshare's Culture Vulture Live, Mark Potts explores multi-sensory opportunities for brands.
TV is from Mars and Video is from Venus
In a spring 2015 trend report Business Insider stated that video ad revenue will double in just two years and reach nearly $5 billion in 2016, up from $2.8 billion in 2013. Consumers' engagement online, over multiple devices, increases daily. As the landscape for what exactly constitutes "TV" or "video" changes rapidly, advertisers are racing to keep up.
The Macro Forces Behind Slow GDP Growth
Ever since the end of the Great Recession a few years ago, there has been much written about the lack of both economic growth and inflation. Much of this coverage mentions that the post-recession recovery is much slower than the recovery of past recessions of the late 20th century.
Early AT&T/DirecTV Merger Questions
Now that the consummation of AT&T's merger with DirecTV is done, how will this $40 billion-plus deal impact consumers from both parties and the TV world at large? Chances are you haven't heard much over that question up to now, in part because of how this deal was completed last week -- Federal Communications Commission approval mid-Friday afternoon, and AT&T putting out a press release, and only a release, of the consummation less than two hours later. That's way late for much analysis on the part of the business news channels or journalism in general.
Trevor Noah Hits TCA; Nat Geo Honors Cecil
In performance on stage Tuesday night and again in a press conference Wednesday morning, members of the Television Critics Association got to know the man they will likely honor in the years ahead with multiple TCA Awards in the category of Outstanding News Program – controversial comedian Trevor Noah (pictured at top), who will take over Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" on September 28. Noah, a smart and engaging guy who joined "The Daily Show" last year as a contributor, quickly and efficiently charmed the group, setting the stage for years of admiration and handily putting behind him lingering memories about a series of sexist and anti-Semitic jokes he tweeted a couple of years ago.
Is TV Currency Dead? Predictions from AOL Open Series
There is a lot of talk these days about the changing TV landscape, from the advancement of programmatic to the demise of dayparts, the Upfront and even our current currency. All of this made for a lively discussion at the recent AOL Open Series on Programmatic TV. The event featured a panel of media executives from across the spectrum including Dermot McCormack, President AOL Video and Studios; Jaime Power, Senior Partner at MODI Media; Dana Hayes Jr, Group Vice President of Global Partner Development for Acxiom, and Dan Aversano, Senior Vice President, Client & Consumer Insights at Turner Broadcasting. The panel was moderated by Dan Ackerman, Senior Vice President, Programmatic TV at Adap.tv.
Is the ESPN Bubble About to Burst?
It’s episode 24 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey.
At Summer TCA 2015, Netflix is Everything
Is Netflix everything? It certainly seemed that way yesterday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel during the historic opening day of the 2015 Summer Television Critics Tour. In a quantum leap of participation, and perhaps as a reflection of its current position in the home entertainment marketplace, Netflix impressively filled an entire day with panels for current and upcoming programs, along with a session with Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos (pictured at top). And just like that, the scrappy streamer joined the ranks of CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and FX – the only programmers who consistently present full days of panels during TCA tours, at least those in the summer.
Stuart Elliott: A 'Gawkward' Media Moment
It probably won't be long before the gatekeepers at the world's dictionaries are asked to approve a new word: "Gawkward," meaning an embarrassing or discomforting situation drenched in schadenfreude, as when a website known for anything-goes posts that upset and provoke others gets a turn in the barrel.
The Generation Gap(s) in Digital Media
One of the less appealing characteristics of the more strident members of the digital community is their habit of suggesting that the world of media planning, buying and selling was ill-informed, ill served by its measurements and entirely unaccountable until they came along.
Media Execs' Priorities for New Media Marketplace
The rapid proliferation of new digital, mobile and social (DMS) channels has completely changed the way that companies are connecting with their consumers. DMS channels are increasingly becoming a top priority for advertisers when developing strategies and campaigns to target and engage their consumers. The opportunities and challenges that this shifting landscape presents have been well documented.
Rob Norman @ VidCon: What Makes Selfies Stick?
VidCon is no longer cool. I know this because I was there and history tells me that the moment I show up, that's it for the whole “cool” thing.


text:
eMarketer’s latest report predicts the U.S. mobile advertising market to grow 77% this year to $7.29 billion. Two years ago, the mobile advertising market stood at $1.48 billion. Growth is projected to continue in the years to come, with the market estimated to be worth $27.13 billion by 2017. The segment will account for 45% of digital ad spending and 14% of total ad spending in 2017. Google should continue to dominate the market, with mobile advertising revenues growing from $3.98 billion this year to $9.29 billion by 2017. Facebook is predicted to remain the second largest ad network, with mobile revenues growing from $390.9 million in the past year to $1.86 billion by 2017. That is strong growth given that Facebook earned almost no mobile ad revenues in 2011.
In fact, when one looks at the latest results announced by Facebook (Nasdaq:FB), it is evident that mobile business is clearly one of the big drivers for the company. Q1 revenues grew 38% over the year to $1.46 billion, ahead of market expectations of $1.44 billion. EPS of $0.12 was in line with the market’s expectations.
Mobile ad revenues accounted for 30% of the network’s revenues, compared with 23% a quarter ago. Overall advertising revenues grew 43% to $1.25 billion. Among other metrics, the company ended the quarter with the number of monthly active users growing 23% over the year to 1.1 billion worldwide. Monthly mobile active users grew 54% over the year to 751 million. Daily active users grew 26% over the year to 665 million and were ahead of the Street’s expectations of 640 million. Average revenue per user grew 12% over the year to $1.35, and ad impressions grew 39% over the year. The average price per ad also grew 3% over the year.
Facebook’s Value-Added Offerings
To keep users engaged and loyal to their network, Facebook continued to launch new services. Recently, they enabled the addition of tags to Instagram. Users can now tag photos with names of friends and the friends can stream these tagged photos. As tagging has helped Facebook increase traffic for the site, they believe that ad revenues will also grow. As of now, Instagram does not have any ads, but Facebook would be looking to include that as well. Since its acquisition, Facebook has been adding features to Instagram so that it looks and feels more like Facebook. Earlier, they also added a Web presence for Instagram users so that they could access their accounts through a web browser and not necessarily a mobile device.
In view of the need for a more secure environment, Facebook is releasing Trusted Contacts. The service will act as another layer of security where users can select a few friends who will be able to verify their identities. The user will have to give five friends a personalized security code and in case their account is hacked, they will be able to log back in by providing any three out of these five secure codes.
As part of their mobile efforts, Facebook recently launched Facebook Home, a user interface for Android-based devices that makes Facebook the center of all apps on the phone. Currently available on select HTC and Samsung phones, the app takes over the home screen of the phone and shows details like the news feed, photo slideshow and status updates of their friends. The app reported 500,000 downloads within two weeks of its release in the U.S.
Facebook continued to acquire startups as part of their talent and product expansion. Earlier this month, they announced the acquisition of mobile app developer, Parse. The deal, estimated to be worth $85 million, will get Facebook into the back end of mobile app development. Parse’s services help mobile developers with data storage on the cloud, identity management and handling push notifications and run custom code in the cloud.
They also acquired mobile software startup, Osmeta, for an undisclosed sum. Osmeta does not have a product in the market, and the acquisition is expected to help Facebook acquire talent. Osmeta had 19 engineers, all of whom were alumni of tech companies such as Google, IBM Research, Yahoo Research, and VMware. The company was working on mobile technology and was developing solutions that helped an app run on multiple devices.
As part of their talent acquisition, they also acquired design agency, Hot Studio. Hot Studio’s design team consists of 114 employees and will help Facebook in the development of new tools and brands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but analysts estimate that this may be among one of the largest talent acquisitions made by Facebook.
Facebook’s stock is trading at $28.31 with a market capitalization of $67.17 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $45.00 in May 2012.


text:
Scott Enno, the founder of Flooring Xtra which is Australia’s fastest-growing flooring brand, recently visited Cambodia for the first time along with other business delegates to explore opportunities in the market, B2B Cambodia sat down with him to find out more about his visit.
Who Are Flooring Xtra?
Flooring Xtra claims it is Australia’s fastest-growing flooring and blind retail brand and is located in more than 100 stores across Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Hobart.
“Our international buying power through a 150-store network gives us access to better deals at a competitive price.”
As the founder, Scott Enno formed the business more than 20 years ago. His family has a rich history in flooring & furniture – his grandfather ran a furniture and flooring business, while his father sold carpets, so he Scott saw an opportunity for him to enter the industry as a 21-year-old.
Flooring Xtra has grown over the two decades but maintains a strong customer focus. “Flooring Xtra is a retail flooring brand, and we offer a variety of flooring products in store. A big part of what we do is meet customer expectations and servicing people which is important in retail” said Scott. “There is a high entry point for this type of business in Australia in terms of meeting regulations and we are constantly learning so you have to wear many hats”.
Adapting to International Markets
Although this was Scott’s first visit to Cambodia, Flooring Xtra has had to adapt its business to a growing change in consumer demands in Australia, which is where the hard flooring has become more prominent compared to carpets – its a preference among Asian customers in particular.
From a business point of view, Flooring Xtra has grown into a foreign business and offers more varied products from carpets and timber. The migration into Australia impacted business as more people wee seeking hard flooring in their homes. Scott said of the challenge and adapting “you don’t know what you don’t know” (smiling).
Impressions of Cambodia
“I think from what we’ve seen so far, it has been interesting and eye-opening in terms of opportunities. I think that there is a clear appetite to grow the economy and the government wants to bring more business in. I think that’s always positive when the government has a desire to do this” he said.
In addition, he feels that the US dollar-based economy is important for businesses especially local manufacturing and the financial sector and said “it’s a big asset.”
On retail in the Kingdom, he added that in comparison, “Retail in Australia is as good as anywhere in the world. With Cambodia being an emerging country and growing wealth, there will be demand for higher-end retail and it will come here.”
While he is exploring entering the market, he feels that the time is not right now for retail for them but perhaps in supplying products.
On a parting message on his overall impressions of Cambodia, Scott Enno added: “The friendliness of the people (in Cambodia) was a pleasant surprise and the country is much further advanced than I thought.”