text:
In Europe, French auto supplier Faurecia SA is a giant, supplying seats, instrument panels, front-end modules and exhaust systems to automakers throughout the continent.
The company is the second-largest automotive industry supplier in the region. Worldwide, it still falls within the top 10.
But in North America, industry insiders still are guessing how to pronounce the name.
``Clearly, we are smallish by U.S. standards,'' said Faurecia Chief Executive Officer and President Pierre Levi during an interview at an Oct. 12 grand opening for the firm's seating plant in Auburn Hills. ``We are not going to [expand in North America] with a plan just to grow. We're trying to bring something special to our customers.''
But it is growing, making seats for General Motors Corp. and with a contract in hand for more than $1 billion in business with DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler group.
A plant like the 100,000-square-foot facility in the northern Detroit suburbs is just the start, and provides the company with more exposure to traditional North American automakers.
``We want steady growth, but this also shows that the bigger we are [here], the more we can optimize our development teams,'' he said.
The Chrysler business will do even more, worth an estimated $1.8 billion in sales by 2006, producing instrument panels, door panels, center consoles and other components.
That is a big jump from just five years ago when the Nanterre, France-based business won its first major interior contract in the United States, signing on with GM to make seats for its midsize cars.
``At that time, it did cause a bit of a concern because [Faurecia] had no infrastructure here,'' said Gene Stefanyshyn, vehicle line executive for GM's new G6 cars.
A year later, Faurecia purchased fellow French company Sommer-Allibert, picking up that firm's interior supply operations in the United States for BMW AG.
The first phase of its GM contract launched in 2003 with the opening of a Riverside, Mo., seating plant to supply the Malibu and Malibu Maxx.
The $14.3 million Auburn Hills facility, making seats for the G6 assembled about a mile away in Lake Orion, Mich., opened in August with 138 employees. A second shift will start in January.
``We expect to rise in North America because of the boost from GM,'' said Bob Scales, Faurecia's vice president for its GM business unit. ``They placed a lot of trust in us five years ago.''
Faurecia is coordinating with 31 subsuppliers in Auburn Hills. Two are Faurecia units - a Bradford, Ontario, seat-frame production business and the cut and sew operations of its Puebla, Mexico, plant. The firm also has forged relationships with the injection molders of seat handles, electronics specialists and urethane foam producers.
``We tend to replicate our [production] system we have anywhere else we go,'' Levi said.
Faurecia will rely on good operators that can provide standard parts, he said, leaving the firm with more time and money to invest in elements of the modules that set the car apart from its competitors.
With a strong foothold established in North America through the GM contract, Levi wants to see the business expand to an estimated $1.9 billion in sales in the region within three years, up from the current $1.3 billion. The number of production sites will double, he said.
``Nowhere has our growth been more spectacular than in North America,'' he said. ``I'm convinced this is only a first step.''
And as it expands, it will bring more of its expertise to the United States, which is likely to include further investments in plastics.
``The interior offers fantastic potential for differentiation,'' Levi said. Improving safety, enhancing the way electronics are packaged all can play a part, he said. In one venture, Faurecia and Swedish carmaker Volvo collaborated in designing the center stack on the S40 to turn it into a narrow unit similar to the remote control people use at home for their televisions.
``This is just a thin piece of plastic that changes your mind-set of what is possible,'' he said.
Faurecia has taken the proposal even further by marrying it in a concept cockpit with a transparent acrylic, making the electronic controls appear suspended over the structure.
As it makes a name for itself in North America, Levi noted Faurecia's French managers can live with multiple pronunciations of the firm's name - either the proper ``for-see-yuh'' or the commonly used alternative ``for-shyuh.'' But he jokes he is accustomed to adjusting to changing accents, since his own name tends to shift in pronunciation as well.


text:
CNN reports that Best Buy, having survived and even thrived despite tough competition from the likes of Amazon, now wants to "expand its footprint into health, fitness, personal electric transportation, outdoor products and other potentially big ticket areas outside of its core consumer electronics business.
"It's adding merchandise to stores in dedicated sections, such as Hydrow and NordicTrack home gym equipment, Super 73 and Segway e-bikes and scooters and Weber outdoor grills."
"We're expanding our addressable market by entering new categories in areas like health and electric bikes that are being disrupted by technology," said CEO Corie Barry. "Forty percent of Americans use digital technology or the internet in new or different ways compared with before the pandemic."
Best Buy has about 1,000 stores, but plans to close almost 10 percent of them - as many as 30 a year over the next three years - as it "addresses the shift by its customers to shop more online."
- KC's View:
Retail analyst Neil Saunders said last week that Best Buy "is a solid, well-run business with a clear vision. However, there is no denying that it is now in a more challenging place."
I have an idea, though. Best Buy could buy Peloton, and merge the latter's workout instructors with its Geek Squad. I think that there are some enormous opportunities here … just imagine what it would look like if you cross-linked the DNA from these two images (from the Best Buy and Peloton websites)…

domain: news


text:
When it comes to reporting on automobile recalls and manufacturing defects, only one side of the story is usually told – the problem with the vehicles. What is typically ignored is just how many people actually realize that their car is affected by a potentially dangerous issue and that they need to either contact the company or dealership and have their car repaired. After all, automobile recalls are only effective if they reach the consumers. But what would happen if a car company announced a massive recall and the response rate was 100%? Apparently, the answer to that should cause a great deal of concern.
Back in May, Honda Motor Co. announced the recall of approximately 2,615 Acura TL sedans that were sold in 2007 and 2008. The problem was a defective power steering hose that could lead to fluid leaking on to the catalytic converter, resulting in a fire under the hood. The owners of the vehicles affected in that recall were and still are covered by Honda’s guarantee to replace the hoses free of charge. However, last week the recall was substantially expanded to include 572,000 Honda Accord V6 models that were manufactured and sold between 2003 and 2007. That’s a considerably greater amount of power steering hoses.
Honda’s leaders know this and have thus announced that this recall – totaling more than 625,000 vehicles to date – will actually be delayed until 2013 because there simply aren’t enough power steering hoses for all of these Accords and Acura sedans. While no accidents or injuries have been reported as a result of this issue yet, drivers will still have to operate their vehicles with this threat in the back of their minds, because Honda just doesn’t have the parts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“It will take some time to produce the updated hoses to replace them in every vehicle,” said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman. “These vehicles have been out of production for quite some time.”
It’s difficult to predict how many people will react appropriately to the recall, as the L.A. Times also points out that GM’s December recalls – involving Cadillac SRX crossovers and Chevrolet Captivas – had a completion rate of just 52.5%. That at least begs the question of how high of a completion rate any automobile manufacturer can actually handle in the face of massive recalls.


text:
Legislators Propose Modernizing Food Labeling
Bill Would Require Front-of-Package Labeling, Define 'Natural' and 'Whole Grain' Claims, and More
Statement of CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson
In the Bizzaro world of Superman comics, up is down, day is night, and things are generally the inverse of what they are in reality. Regrettably, when harried dads and moms plow their shopping carts down supermarket aisles, they encounter a similar, strange world: One where "whole grain" waffles can be made mostly of white flour, where "all natural" granola bars can have factory-refined high maltose corn syrup, and where artery-clogging ice cream bars can cheerfully boast of their lack of trans fats.
Making matters worse, food manufacturers have tried to preempt action by the Food and Drug Administration on immediately understandable nutrition symbols on fronts of packages. Wouldn't it be great if parents could tell their kids, "buy anything you want as long as it has a green check mark, or has three stars, or has a rating of 80 points or higher"? Instead, parents now have to contend with a dizzying array of confusing, and sometimes misleading, proprietary front-of-label schemes that undermines the whole concept. The bill calls on the FDA to implement one useful, consistent, front-label nutrition symbol, as recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
An old country music song says "the big print giveth, and the small print taketh away." But in the case of this container of Coffee-mate, the good people at Nestlé have all but taketh away the fine print itself. With these tiny capital letters, in black print on a dark brown background, Nestlé has unhelpfully obscured its partially hydrogenated oil, its corn syrup solids, its mono- and diglycerides, and its dubious artificial sweetener. This legislation would put a stop to these unreadable ingredients lists—which itself would be a historic victory for consumers.
But the bill would do a lot more: it would require that the amounts of added sugars and caffeine to be disclosed, ensure that shoppers were alerted when foods were artificially colored or sweetened, require the percentage of whole grains to be listed when a label touts whole grains, stop deceptive "healthy" claims, and highlight calorie contents.
So for all of these reasons, consumers should be grateful that Senator Blumenthal, Representative DeLauro, and Representative Pallone intend to modernize food labels and end the chaos at the supermarket. We need a clean-up in aisle one. And aisle two, and aisle three. And so on. The Food Labeling Modernization Act would require food manufacturers to clean up their act and make labels useful to consumers who want to make sensible, informed choices about the foods they purchase.


text:
By Lauren Salapatek | Updated: 03/05/2012 7:13:00 PM
It’s been a busy and successful three days at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago. MODERN SALON Editors have been in full force going around the show floor learning about the newest products, hottest trends and capturing all of the excitement in our blogs, articles and videos. Read about the demos at MODERN SALON's booth, CND's Shellac Couture Runway Show and the Texture Pavilion.
By Lauren Salapatek | Updated: 03/05/2012 1:59:00 PM
Day two of America's Beauty Show was all about the Runway presentations. MODERN caught presentations by Mark Hayes and the Sassoon Creative Team, Beth Minardi and Goldwell's FasciNATURE collection. Miss Universe even made an appearance at the MODERN booth! Check out the photos and read the story.
By Stacey Soble | Updated: 03/05/2012 9:29:00 AM
The CC100 BeautyBASH creatively celebrates the 100th anniversary of Cosmetologists Chicago and the 50th anniversary of Pivot Point Anniversary.


text:
It’s no secret the sun doesn’t shine every day in Syracuse, N.Y. In fact, Syracuse is known for receiving the most snowfall in the eastern United States, with an average of more than 150 inches per winter season. But that hasn’t stopped Nick Orso’s Body Shop in Syracuse from completing one of the largest installations of solar power panels in the Central New York area.
In February 2011, Nick Orso’s President Mike Orso met with New York Light Energy after viewing a similar installation in Albany at Caprara’s Auto Body. Orso says he was intent on installing solar panels for electric production at the 25,000-square-foot Nick Orso’s production facility.
After a few months of calculations, an engineering report determined the building had sufficient structural integrity to support the weight of the solar panels and that the electrical consumption Orso’s required would eventually benefit from the cost of installation. After approval, New York Light Energy began installation in May 2011. It took about five months to install the over 270 Mitsubishi solar electric cells on the shop’s roof, according to Orso.
The shop consumes 250,000 kWh of electricity during the average month. The solar panels are estimated to produce 150,000 kWh per month at a conservative production estimate of 55-percent efficiency. Solar power is produced at a cost of approximately 2.2 cents/kWh, while typical grid demand power costs approximately 9 cents/kWh. Any over-production, such as while the shop is closed, will be sold back to National Grid through a special two-way meter.
“We’re very excited about the solar installation and look forward to the many benefits of solar power," said Orso. "Over the past few years, with any new equipment purchase, we’re looking to the newest technology in minimizing our power consumption. Besides the direct benefits, it’s good to know we’re contributing to a more energy-efficient world.”
Other Green Initiatives
Since October 2009, Nick Orso’s has used NAPA-Martin Senour waterborne paint technology exclusively to lower the volatile organic compounds (VOC) their painting operation produces. The paint operation is well below the 2014 state and federal limits, according to Orso. The shop also installed energy-efficient heat makeup systems in the paint drying operation.
In June 2011, Nick Orso’s installed an energy-efficient Kaeser modulation screw-type compressor that requires 50 percent less electricity than standard reciprocal or screw compressors. The facility has also been re-lamped with energy efficient lamps and ballasts, according to Orso.
Next, Orso says an exterior lighting program is being proposed in an effort to make outside lights more energy-efficient.


text:
With the recent release of the iPhone 7, many users became curious how its speed compare to last year's iPhone 6s, which is undeniably fast. Now, a speed test reveals that the newest flagship outperforms its predecessor by a mile.
The iPhone 7 sports the latest quad-core A10 Fusion chip while the iPhone 6s has a dual-core A9 SoC. The old and new flagships were stacked up against each other in a video by PhoneBuff, testing how fast they react in day-to-day functions.
iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6s Speed Test
In the video below, the user tested how fast the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s responded in opening an app, closing an app, capturing a photo, booting up games and loading screens. By the time the previous flagship went to the end of the test, the latest offering by Apple is already done by 12 seconds.
Opening apps are faster and smoother in the iPhone 7. Closing apps and going back to the main screen are also noticeably much faster than the iPhone 6s by about one or two seconds. The time-lapse function, which is reportedly the most taxing on the processor, is also faster in the Cupertino's newest product.
iPhone 7 vs Google Pixel Speed Test
The iPhone 7's A10 Fusion chip also got better marks against Google Pixel's Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 in the benchmarking results by Geekbench. Even the iPhone 6s scored higher than the Android flagship. Although this does not necessarily translate to a better performance, the results say a lot about Apple's own chip.
Reviews of the iPhone 7 were mostly positive, but some find the latest flagship to be lacking in innovations. The only notable feature of the handset is the removal of the headphone jack, which is not exactly welcome in the mobile community. The dual-camera setup is a game changer, but it can only be seen in the bigger iPhone 7 Plus.


text:
Rancakmedia.com – Indonesia exports rice to 20 countries. Amidst the joy of farmers reaping big harvests in several regions, the Ministry of Agriculture has released data regarding the wide open choice of rice exports for Indonesian farmers.
With a pretty good price guarantee in the international market. Kuntoro Boga Andri, Director of Public Relations and Information Agency at the Ministry of Agriculture, explained that Indonesian rice has gained market share in other countries.
At least since 2017, Indonesia has exported 2,100 tons to 5 target countries, namely the Netherlands, the United States, Malaysia, Belgium and Bangladesh. "Based on data from the KKNI Agricultural Quarantine Agency collected at our export dock, our demand for rice abroad is quite high," he said in his official broadcast, taken www.rancakmedia.com, Sunday (28 March 2021).
In fact, in 2018 total exports reached 1,400 tons to 14 countries, including Japan, Vietnam and China.
Besides that, Kuntoro explained, the desire for premium group rice or special needs is still open considering market tastes. The demand for organic and horeka rice abroad for Asian local rice is quite good.
Kuntoro added, rice export volume reached 230.2 tons in 2019 and 341.1 tons in 2020. "Even though the volume decreased quite a bit, there were obstacles to the Covid 19 outbreak in 2020, in particular, the number of exporting countries increased to 20 countries in the world. This is an opportunity that needs to be used,” said Kuntoro.
Indonesia has exported rice to 20 countries. If this opportunity can be used and some countries of the world start, then it can open access to the docks. Kuntoro believes his choice will be wide open.
In terms of the strength of the agricultural area and production capacity, this is not a problem because Indonesia still has enough space and needs to be managed to meet the needs of certain seeds and their maintenance.
"We believe in opportunity rice exports to the international market will continue to be open and we will be able to meet the needs of local and international markets.
Minister of Agriculture Syahrul has specific guidelines on how to increase added value and remember to export our agricultural products. We just need to optimize its strength, “said Kuntoro.
The following are questions and answers that we will discuss about the article above, enjoy reading.
Can Indonesia Export Rice?
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said Indonesia would export 200,000 tons of rice to friendly countries. That's because rice production potential will reach 7 million tons by the end of the year.
Where Does Indonesia Export Rice?
Indonesian rice has successfully entered foreign markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the United States.
Thus the article that we can submit above, I hope this information can be useful for everyone, don't forget to read the latest information that we have provided on this website, see you soon.


text:
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s national carrier, Nepal Airlines (NA) has announced a lucrative scheme, ‘buy two, get one free’ on the Kathmandu-Hong Kong sector as demand for tickets plummeted after the massive earthquake in Nepal.
NA has offered the scheme to provide one free ticket to those who buy two tickets on Kathmandu-Bangkok sector, it said in a statement Tuesday.
This scheme was announced as tourists cancelled their bookings after the April 25 earthquake which killed more than 8,600 people in Nepal.
“The scheme, however, is limited to those who buy tickets before June 15 and use it by June 30,” said NA spokesman Ramhari Sharma.
NA operates three flights a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) on the Kathmandu-Bangkok sector with A 320-200 Airbus.
“We hope this scheme will help bring our business back to normal and the number of passengers will increase, as well,” said Sharma.
NA’s fare on the Kathmandu-Bangkok sector is relatively low and the scheme is expected to attract more Thai tourists, according to the statement.
Kathmandu-Bangkok was one of the commercially lucrative sectors for the NA as passengers earlier had to book ticket months in advance in this sector.


text:
HoF has already been forced to cancel all its online orders after a dispute with its third-party logistics company, XPO, which it owes £30m.
The decision to take the website down was taken after House of Fraser's warehouse operator, XPO Logistics, paused the processing of orders due to a dispute over payments, according to British newspaper The Guardian.
They're advising people who have these to post them to head office, although it hasn't been confirmed whether refunds will be issued.
White House counsel reported to be cooperating extensively with Mueller probe
Citing " a dozen current and former White House officials and others ", the NYT reports that Donald F. The president denies any collusion, and has repeatedly called the Mueller probe "a witch hunt ".
This week Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley said he aimed to keep 80% of House of Fraser stores open, but the company reportedly wrote to more than 1,000 of the department store group's suppliers, including XPO, to say it will not cover money owed before Friday's "pre-pack" acquisition from the administrators.
"We didn't take this decision lightly, but since we can not give our customers clear assurances of when their orders will be delivered, we believe cancellation is the best option".
Connecticut-headquartered XPO, which operates HoF's warehouses in Wellingborough and Milton Keynes, has halted work as it tries to persuade Sports Direct to honour its existing contract terms.
Google will track you even when you’ve told it not to
According to reports , the company is secretly tracking its users' location even after they turned their location history off. During the investigation , Princeton researcher's home address and daily route were able to be tracked by the AP.
"All customers affected will receive an email about the cancellation and refund in the next couple of days".
Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley said his ambition was to turn the department store into the "Harrods of the high street" after buying the firm from administrators earlier this month. "Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused", they said on their Twitter. "If not can I have my money back so I can shop somewhere else". Ordered a £90 purse last Thursday. Not [one] email concerning delivery or info and now order cancelled and you say email in a few days!
Others remained unsure whether or not they would be receiving their orders. The announcement comes just two days after the retailer tweeted that deliveries would be made "as soon as possible".
Serena Williams Blames Heavy Defeat On Release Of Sister’s Murderer
The 36-year-old legendary sportswoman was shocked when she was advised to switch to formula feeding in order to improve her game. Tennis star, Serena Williams is the cover star of this month's Time magazine and she opened up about her complicated comeback .


text:
Honda has released these two images of what it calls the Jazz Prototype, a vehicle that's no more than a thinly veiled European-spec version (i.e., the one we'll be getting) of the Fit that's already being sold in American and Far Eastern markets.Unveiled next month at the Paris Motor Show, the Prototype ...
2015 Honda Jazz
ARTICLES BY MANUFACTURER
Mercedes-Benz SA builds 500 000th (W205) C-Class...
BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé: first teaser image drops
Toyota confirms plan to sell Suzuki-built cars in Africa...


text:
Several of you have been waiting for news on the next Azure ever since Bentley unveiled the Grand Convertible concept in 2014. Although the company’s executive, Dr. Wolfgang Durheimer, sounded very optimistic about the uber-luxury, Mulsanne convertible making it to production, it seems that Bentley hasn’t been able to drum up enough interest in.
This isn’t exactly surprising since the Continental GT Convertible has been selling so well and Bentley’s competitor Rolls-Royce Royce has cancelled their Phantom Drophead Coupé. With such strong demand for SUVs today, it seems customers are less concerned with top-down cruising along the boulevard.
Read the rest at: http://pursuingwo.com/bentley-talks-mulsanne-convertible-is-the-new-azure-finally-coming/


text:
The social media sites giant will no more enable sellers to organize new or scheduled real-time shopping occasions.
Facebook announced it will certainly no more allow customers to host real-time buying events starting October 1, 2022, Meta introduced in an article.
Citing a moving choice for short-form video clips among customers as the driving variable, it will instead shift its emphasis to Reels, Meta’s short-form video clip item that is readily available on both Facebook and also Instagram.
Facebook released real-time shopping in August 2020 with the goal of making online buying simpler and also encouraging merchants of all kinds to grow their companies. It supplied an interactive method to sell things and get in touch with visitors.
The Facebook Live attribute will still be available, yet ecommerce vendors will certainly not have the ability to create item playlists or tag items. This indicates merchants will certainly need to choose other avenues for offering products on Facebook, which might include buying display screen ads and also producing collections.
The Move Emphasizes Meta’s Raised Focus on Short Videos
In a transfer to compete with TikTok, Meta has actually significantly bought its Reels item, which permits seamless video clip sharing across both of the firm’s major platforms.
The video attribute, which was at first met displeasure by Instagram users, has actually witnessed enhancing popularity. According to the Stability Institute, a social web think tank, short-form video clips represented 11 of the top 20 posts on Facebook in the 4th quarter of 2021.
This has, consequently, offered chances for sellers to use video clips to label products, include phone call to activity and also engage with their target market.
” If you wish to reach and also engage people through video, try out Reels and also Reels advertisements on Facebook as well as Instagram,” Meta recommended in the blog post. “You can additionally tag products in Reels on Instagram to allow much deeper exploration and also consideration.”
Meta has likewise boosted the capacity for Reels to create earnings for the business by enabling merchants and also developers to boost their web content by means of paid advertisements.


text:
(Bloomberg)—The owners of the Sunrise Mall in Northern California have a vision for updating the 45-year-old center. Tenants there are making it difficult to get it done.
Proposed changes have been held up by the property’s department stores, which include Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Sears. Shoppers in the area, meanwhile, are turning to other, more modern centers as the redevelopment stalls.
Department stores may be struggling to draw customers, but they haven’t relinquished their hold on America’s malls. The aging retail juggernauts are exploiting contracts with landlords that give them the power to dictate how a property can be developed, covering everything from parking to signage to what types of operators are allowed into a center.
Known as reciprocal easement agreements, or REAs, the contracts were put in place decades ago, when landlords relied on department stores to lure suburban shoppers. A majority of malls in the U.S. are encumbered by an REA, tying developers’ hands as they try to keep up with rapid shifts in retailing, according to Ryan Rivera, a partner at law firm Hartman Simons & Wood LLP.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, they made sense,” Rivera said. “Today they are a hindrance.”
Department stores, hit particularly hard by the rise of e-commerce and changing consumer tastes, have been in decline for 15 years, according to DJ Busch, a managing director at real estate research firm Green Street Advisors LLC. The dated restrictions imposed by the REAs are partly why many malls have struggled to evolve, he said. In many cases, what worked 50 years ago is now obsolete.
For example, “department stores are extremely possessive of their parking spaces,” Busch said. “It’s not hard to argue they don’t need as much as they used to.”
One of the thorniest issues for mall owners is that REAs give anchor stores the final say over how a property can be used. Developers are often blocked from installing businesses such as gyms, bowling alleys and medical services, according to Rivera. Those are exactly the types of tenants landlords are pursuing, to fill space left by shuttered stores and offer customers experiences they can’t find online.
“These documents prohibit any other use that’s inconsistent with a first-class shopping center,” Rivera said. “Think of a bowling alley in a typical enclosed regional mall in the ’80s -- they weren’t first-class operations.”
GGP Inc., the second-largest owner of U.S. malls, hasn’t had any of its redevelopment plans bogged down by REAs, according to Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Mathrani. As long as the landlord’s proposal brings in more shoppers, anchor tenants won’t fight against a new use, he said.
“Department stores want traffic, and anything that generates traffic, they are not going to object to,” Mathrani, whose company has been proactive in filling empty stores, said in an interview. “If you bring in a noxious use, then they could object.”
For Ami Ziff, director of national retail at Time Equities Inc., which buys outdated malls and renovates them, the REA is among the first things he looks at when evaluating an acquisition. Signage restrictions are often a sticking point. Anchor tenants typically don’t let other vendors place signs on the exterior of an enclosed mall, effectively funneling foot traffic through their stores. New tenants want to install their own signs, Ziff said.
“The anchors own the outside of your mall,” he said.
It’s theoretically in the best interests of all involved -- including the department stores -- to refresh a struggling center’s tenant mix with companies that are likely to draw larger crowds. Still, different tenants are bound to have different ideas about what is best for the property, Ziff said.
These contracts are in place for as long as a tenant occupies the space, so there is little a landlord can do to get out of them, according to Ziff. It’s not uncommon to resolve such disputes by writing a check to pay off an anchor that objects to a modification of an REA, he said.
Whether proposed amendments to an REA are beneficial for a center is becoming increasingly irrelevant to department stores that are facing a bleak and uncertain future, according to Dan Whalen, who scouts locations for eatery chain MOD Pizza. Some simply leverage the REA to demand payment from the mall owner, said Whalen, who was a director of development at mall landlord Starwood Retail Partners before joining MOD Pizza.
“They are going to hold out their hands because they can,” Whalen said.
At the Sunrise Mall, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) outside Sacramento, California, a joint venture of Alliance Bernstein LP and Spinoso Real Estate Group planned to update the 1.2 million-square-foot (111,500-square-meter) property with new tenants and uses when they bought it in 2015. Progress at the site has been slow, and the mall continues to lose business to more-modern shopping centers in the area, according to reports in local media including the Sacramento Bee.
The mall’s department stores have hampered development by holding up proposed changes, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Macy’s Inc. was seeking several million dollars from the landlords in order to move forward with the upgrade, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
A representative for Macy’s declined to comment, while Spinoso didn’t return calls. Jonathan Freedman, a spokesman for Alliance Bernstein, said the firm is “in a constructive dialog to maximize the value of the mall and unlock the inherent value of the site to the benefit of all constituents.”
A Sears Holdings Corp. spokesman, Larry Costello, said REAs “benefit all parties tied to a mall property and these agreements have been in place for decades.” A representative for J.C. Penney Co., the mall’s other anchor tenant, declined to comment.
Many mall companies include a multimillion-dollar payment to the anchor tenant in their calculation for the cost of redeveloping a property, according to Green Street’s Busch. Typically, the department stores use the cash to renovate their own space, he said.
“They are trying to flex the power that they were provided when these things were signed,” Busch said.
© 2017 Bloomberg L.P


text:
On August 25, 2020 we presented in a University of Minnesota Extension Service webinar on Retaining Rural Businesses Through Conversion to Employee Ownership.
A generation of American business owners is retiring, yet many lack a plan to transition their business to new ownership and leadership. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2016, more than 110,000 Minnesota and Wisconsin businesses with employees were owned by people 55 years or older. If these businesses are not retained, local economies are threatened by a loss of jobs, income and quality of life. Rural communities are especially at risk because retaining home-grown businesses is the most practical approach for rural economic development.
The webinar describes the five stages of transition for business conversions to employee ownership and designed for business owners, economic developers, business support professionals and workers interested in learning more about worker cooperatives.
Employee ownership, particularly in the form of worker cooperatives, offers a solution for some business transitions. Shifting to employee ownership can keep business doors open, save jobs and maintain the business as a valued part of the community — a triple-win solution for the owner, the employees and the community. Surprisingly, few companies take advantage of this option. There are fewer than 7,500 employee-owned companies in the U.S. (out of millions of employer firms). While most of these are Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), worker cooperatives are a more viable and practical option for businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
Webinar presenters: Courtney Berner, of the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, will provide practical information, case studies and resource ideas. She will be joined by her colleague Esther West, as well as Kevin Edberg of Cooperative Development Services, and Michael Darger of University of Minnesota Extension.


text:
The Vancouver Sun reports that the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, will be pursuing restrictive Bitcoin legislation. This news comes a relatively short time after the European Banking Authority (EBA) warned financial institutions operating within the European Union to refrain from and discourage the use of Bitcoin until the EU has built up a satisfactory legislative infrastructure. The EBA identified over 70 risks involved in using Bitcoin—mainly the anonymity that Bitcoin provides, which could make it difficult for governments to track down the users of the crypto-currency. The EBA’s warning caused a small, fear-induced sell off, which resulted in a $10 decrease in the Bitcoin price.
An excerpt from the recent EBA report on the recommended infrastructure of Bitcoin regulation:
Based on this assessment, the EBA is of the view that a regulatory approach to address these risks would require a substantial body of regulation, some components of which would need to be developed in more detail. In particular, a regulatory approach would need to cover governance requirements for several market participants, the segregation of client accounts, capital requirements and, most importantly, the creation of ‘scheme governing authorities’ accountable for the integrity of a particular virtual currency scheme and its key components, including its protocol and transaction ledger.
Even further back, a few months ago, the European Central Bank issued its own warning against Bitcoin. They warned that Bitcoin price volatility and lack of consumer protection legislation made using the digital currency very risky.
Chantal Hughes, a spokesperson for Michel Barnier, the financial services commissioner, commented that:
It’s imperative to move quickly on this issue, the potential for money laundering and terrorist financing is too serious to ignore.
Bitcoin Regulation Consideration Has Become More Serious in Recent Months
Ever since the failure of Mt. Gox, formerly the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, several governments have become more aware of the existence of Bitcoin. As their awareness increases, so does their desire to pass restrictive Bitcoin regulation—or at least their desire to discourage its use. After the Gox crash, governments turned their eyes towards Bitcoin and immediately started trying to figure out what they would do with it.
Of course, everything they want to do will be under the guise of consumer safety. Things like anti-money laundering laws and terrorist financing laws seem to be a focal point of discussions on Bitcoin regulation. Governments list some of Bitcion’s greatest virtues as dangerous risks involved in using the digital currency. The Financial Action Task Force recently said that Bitcoin is an interesting technology, but the decentralized nature of the currency poses a threat to government authority:
There is no central oversight body, and no AML software currently available to monitor and identify suspicious transaction patterns. Law enforcement cannot target one central location or entity (administrator) for investigative or asset seizure purposes (although authorities can target individual exchangers for client information that the exchanger may collect). It thus offers a level of potential anonymity impossible with traditional credit and debit cards or older online payment systems, such as PayPal.
The Argentinian central bank has urged the citizens of Argentina to not use the currency, citing all the cliché, anti-Bitcoin arguments. They even went as far as to passively threaten Argentinian Bitcoin users, “reminding” them that conducting transactions in terms of bitcoins violates the country’s legal tender laws.
Additionally, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development released a report several weeks ago saying that the blockchain technology can streamline the existing banking system, but the currency itself cannot and should not be used in place of government legal tender because it would become difficult for the authorities to collect taxes:
Crypto-currencies can never become an alternative to legal tender, for the simple reason that people have to pay their taxes. This protects existing fiat currencies from being displaced, and the fear of loss of monetary control should not be used as an argument to prevent Bitcoins from circulating as parallel currencies.
New York’s Bitcoin BitLicense Sets the Bar
Lastly, and most recently, the first draft of suggestions for the pending BitLicense regulations in New York state has been made public. This Bitcoin regulation would seriously hinder the growth of the Bitcoin economy in New York—due to all of the KYC/AML requirements that would be imposed upon any Bitcoin business based in New York, or any Bitcoin enterprise at all that does business in the state of New York. All in the name of consumer protection and fraud prevention, of course.
See Coin Brief’s Sean Wince discuss the potential BitLicense legislation with Erik Voorhees:
All of these proposals for Bitcoin regulation and Bitcoin bans are clearly cropping up because governments, and banks, are becoming nervous about the growing Bitcoin adoption. Maybe the fear is growing because the governments are starting to understand the threat that Bitcoin poses to their monetary monopolies; however, those potentialities are far from being fully realized, if they will even come to fruition at all. In reality, the governments are likely scared simply because Bitcoin is new, they do not yet fully understand it, and its acceptance is growing every day. Although the direct challenge of government authority is still on the distant horizon, Bitcoin is already hinting at a possible paradigm shift in monetary technology. The governments are scared because any change threatens their power, and they are willing to do almost anything to maintain their dominance.
So, the European Commission’s venture into Bitcoin regulation is only the latest, and certainly not the last, development in a long line of government attempts to restrict the use of Bitcoin. We can only wait and see what comes next.


text:
Nintendo seeks to rev up 3DS with holiday games
1 of 1
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata speaks during a news conference at a convention center in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday.
Photos: Keiki Kalikimaka 2015
Photos: UH basketball vs. Nicholls State, Nov. 22
Photos: Island Images: November 2015, Part 2
More Photo Galleries »


text:
The Oppo Realme 1 will be available in three RAM/storage variants, namely 3GB/32GB priced at Rs 8,990, a 4GB/64GB variant retailing for Rs 10,9990 and a premium 6GB/128GB option which costs Rs 13,990. The first smartphone under the series is Realme 1 which goes on sale on May 25. The e-commerce platform already has a dedicated page live for the same.
Realme 1 runs on ColorOS 5.0 which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. To see what the buzz is all about here's a look at the top features of Oppo Realme 1 smartphone. While the 4GB RAM with 64GB STorage will cost Rs 10990, the 6GB RAM will cost Rs 13990 with 128GB storage. The handset appears to include a metallic framework and a glistening back panel using triangular-cut, diamond designs. Here's everything you need to know about the Realme 1.
The first sale of the device will be conducted on May 25, noon onwards. Internal storage is also expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD card. There's a 3,140mAh battery optimised by AI Battery Management feature packed in the fibreglass body.
The device will be powered by MediaTek's Helio P60 which the company claims is the first smartphone powered by 12nm processor. The Chinese firm's Realme manufacturer is meant to get e-commerce, also will mostly offer smartphones into the Indian childhood costly involving the Rs. 10,000 into Rs. 20,000 scope, although more superior tablets will also be proposed.
As for Realme 1 launch offers, the smartphone is being offered with a 5 percent cashback on SBI cards, Jio benefits worth Rs. 4,850, a free case, and a free screen protector.
Complete specifications of the Realme 1 also leaked online a day ahead of its launch. The smartphone also offers Face Unlock (said to unlock the smartphone in 0.1 seconds), but it doesn't have a fingerprint sensor. The AI system understands your usage patterns and shuts down background apps in order to minimize the power consumption, thereby resulting into better performance. The front hosts an 8-megapixel selfie sensor with portrait mode. The front camera has AI Beauty mode which is said to recognize 296 facial points based on gender to enhance selfies. In addition to Oppo, the retail devices are also filled with other offline-centric brands such as Vivo, Micromax, Lava or more recently, Nokia. The cameras have been kept basic with 13MP and 8MP units sitting at the rear and front surfaces, respectively.


text:
Mobile commerce is on fire.
Here are some facts and figures on mobile commerce. Get prepared to be blown away.
“While purchases made from mobile devices make up only a fraction of all online sales, that fraction is growing rapidly – making m-commerce a hot topic for 2012.
A continued trend in smartphone adoption as well as growing mobile web use has seen a doubling in mobile commerce this year, expected to reach $US6.7 billion, according to a new eMarketer forecast. The market research firm has also predicted that m-commerce sales with grow another 73 per cent in 2012, reaching a total of $US11.6 billion.
The figures evaluated trends in the sales of both physical goods, travel and events purchased on mobile devices, but excluded purchases made from tablets.
“Mobile commerce is growing at a fast clip – and it’s acting as an engine of overall e-commerce growth, by converting potential brick-and-mortar sales to digital sales as consumers use their smartphones while shopping in-store,” says Jeffrey Grau, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Total online sales for this holiday season are predicted by comScore to reach $US37.6 billion, whileForrester predicts that only $US191 million will consist of m-commerce sales. However, the aggressive rate of growth m-commerce exhibits had made it a hot topic for any online retailer.
“For years, the trend has been for consumers to research products online, then go buy in-store,” says Grau. “But as the industry improves its slate of mobile offerings, consumers are increasingly visiting stores to research products, then go buy something else on their mobile devices.”
The challenge for traditional retailers is to develop their mobile presence to work alongside their bricks-and-mortar stores, encouraging customers to visit the real and virtual locations, perhaps going online to find more information or locate out-of-stock sizes and items.
29% of smartphone users will engage in m-commerce this year, increasing to 35% next year. In 2012, 72.8 million mobile users will research or browse items on their phone, but won’t purchase from the device.”
For the full original article on mobile commerce
Are you already on board on the Mobile Commerce train? And if not, do you want to be?
Interested in knowing more about mobile marketing? Why don’t you check out this great resource.
If you liked this article, please share this information with any of your friends or colleagues who might be interested in mobile marketing.


text:
The Global Digital Money Transfer Service has announced its endorsement with Patoranking as its global ambassador for the brand and also for Africa-focused WorldRemit Entrepreneurs Program.
WorldRemit Entrepreneurs Program made it known on Tuesday as they plan to simultaneously kick-start the program in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe by November 2020 through January 2021.
WorldRemit has advised its customers all over the world to start sending a minimum amount of £50 in their respective equivalent local currency to recipients in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya or Zimbabwe.
In doing this, they stand the chance to be offered an oppurtunity to nominate a lucky entrepreneur in any of those countries.
Therefore, Patoranking stands to help build the brand within Africa and creates awareness for the brand.
He is also expected to educate people on the opurtunities enterpreneurs in Africa stand to gain if they become one.
He was delighted to have the deal endorsed and he got this to say that “I am excited to be representing a global brand that is dedicated to incubating dreams and talents. I want to inspire people by helping to create opportunities and being a role model that sparks the thinking – if Patoranking can, so will I”.
His role as a brand ambassador will help drive the brand to a great prominence by educating people on how the brand can provide oppurtunities for the new entrepreneurs who want to come on board.
Subscribe to Blog via Email
- Restaurant Management Trainee Program at Sundry Foods Limited – 9 Openings
- Job Vacancies at Joemarine Nautical Company Nigeria Limited – 20 Openings
- World Bank Group Job Recruitment for Graduates
- Dangote Group Recruitment 2021 For Graduates in Nigeria
- Career Opportunities at International Breweries Plc
- Massive Recruitment at the Society for Family Health
- Kaduna State Ministry of Health Recruitment 2021


text:
Home Featured CA News Featured DE News Featured UK News Featured AU News International News Dealer News Event News Featured News Product News Racing News Green Lite Extended Intensity Carbon Intensity Lithium Micro Lite Lithium
Braille Battery announced today that it will be the official battery supplier to the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series. After a year of… Read More »
Download the 2012 Braille Battery Catalog PDF.
Braille Lithium Battery Powers Star Ev Electric Vehicle To A Record Distance Of 119 MilesRead More »
Braille Battery, the leading pioneer of Lithium Starting batteries for the transportation market now offers a complete line of… Read More »


text:
T-Mobile and Sprint continue to await regulatory approval for the merger between the third and fourth largest U.S. carriers, respectively. The FCC and the DOJ still need to sign off on the deal, and as we told you yesterday, some analysts have been reducing their odds that the deal will close. T-Mobile CEO John Legere today reiterated something that he has been saying since the deal was announced nearly a year ago. In a post written on the carrier's blog, Legere maintained that the merger will "jobs-positive" from the first day. That contradicts the Communication Workers of America (CWA); the labor union says the deal will cause more than 28,000 people to lose their jobs.
A LOT of people." The executive points out that T-Mobile has already committed to opening five new state-of-the-art customer experience centers in addition to expanding the centers it already has open. Each new center will result in the creation of 1,000 new jobs. T-Mobile will also expand its Team of Experts, a more personal style of customer service. This will require more customer care agents than Sprint already has. And the localized service available from Team of Experts means that if the deal is allowed to close, T-Mobile will move Sprint's overseas customer care team to the states.While overlapping stores will close resulting in job losses, and those holding duplicate job titles will get axed, Legere says that the New T-Mobile will have more than 130 million customers following the closing of the merger. As a result, Legere says that the company will need "
Legere also says that the New T-Mobile will open 600 stores to cover rural areas and small towns that are not served by T-Mobile or Sprint presently. These stores will create 5,000 new jobs. Overall, the executive says that by 2024, the combined firm will have 11,000 more employees than if both companies remained independent. And Legere adds that the 5G economy is estimated to generate $275 billion in investment and produce $500 billion in economic growth including the addition of 3 million new jobs. T-Mobile itself will spend $40 billion over the first three years following the merger. The money will be used toward expanding the company's network and its business.
T-Mobile has been through a similar test before and passed with flying colors. Back in 2013, when T-Mobile decided to buy MetroPCS, the naysayers were predicting 10,000 people would lose their jobs once the deal closed. Since then, T-Mobile has added tens of thousands of jobs at the pre-paid carrier, doubling the number of subscribers and stores.
And for those who worry that cutting the number of major U.S. carriers by 25% will reduce competition and lead to higher prices, there is something else to consider. With the combined T-Mobile-Sprint becoming a stronger competitor to Verizon and AT&T, the deal could keep the nation's two largest carriers from raising their prices.


text:
One Woman's Dream of a Green Christmas
Launch of Eco-friendly Gift Wrap on Kickstarter Gains Momentum
Gilbert, Arizona, August 9, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Entrepreneur and creator of ggwrap, Hethyre Baez, launched a Kickstarter campaign July 25, 2017, with the goal of making this year’s holiday season a little greener. The product she developed is reusable, reversible, eco-friendly fabric gift wrap. After 15 days since launch, the campaign has surpassed its goal times two of raising $1500.00 for manufacturing of the product. Baez says she was inspired by guilt to create a sustainable gift wrap alternative after throwing out 4 large garbage bags full of “Christmas aftermath” about 7 years ago.
After doing some research, Baez learned that the issue of wrapping paper as an environmental problem was larger than she had imagined. Statistics indicate that Americans throw away 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage or about 1 million extra tons per week.
I love holidays and celebrations as much as anyone. But I just couldn't stomach the waste of so much paper, time and money caused by wrapping presents.
Hethyre Baez, ggwrap creator
“I love holidays and celebrations as much as anyone. But I just couldn’t stomach the waste of so much paper, time and money caused by wrapping presents. It seemed counterintuitive to be giving to someone while at the same time taking something away from our planet and future generations,” said Baez. “I realize this product is not the end-all solution to global warming. But I am passionate that it is one small step in the right direction.”
What makes ggwrap different from other fabric wrapping options is the stabilizing insert. It eliminates the need for a box and gives the gift a structured, tailored look and feel. The company started their campaign offering a 33-piece gift set for campaign supporters. The set includes 2 large ggwraps, 1 small ggwrap and 1 extra large ggbag. It also includes 6 reusable elastic bows, 3 grosgrain ribbons, and 18 gift cards. All the wrapping options are reversible and reusable and can be used for birthdays, anniversaries, showers, Christmas, Hanukkah or any other celebrations or occasions. The 3 different sizes allow for wrapping gifts such as clothing, electronic gadgets including cell phones or tablets, video games, stuffed animals, books, picture frames, jewelry and more.
“We’re not trying to eliminate wrapping paper altogether. I mean, you can’t wrap skis or a bike in a ggwrap. But we are trying to reduce holiday waste in general and get people to really think about the way they give gifts,” said Baez.
Baez says she wants to start a “wrapping wrevolution” with her product. According to Stanford University, if Americans alone wrapped just 3 gifts over the holiday season with reusable and/or sustainable gift wrap, the paper saved could cover 45,000 football fields. And, if every family reused just 2 feet of ribbon, the 38,000 miles saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. “We’re all about giving presents. We just want people to do it with presence of mind,” said Baez.
With the project fully funded, the manufacturing stage is now underway. Depending on how much more money is raised for the project, the company plans on rolling out additional designs to give consumers, even more wrapping options. They also plan to launch their product on Amazon and Etsy by late September 2017, in time for the holiday season.


text:
Most of the credit instead goes to its unit growth; Mickey D's usually speedy and efficient operations rooted in QSC, or quality, service and cleanliness; and the business model built by Ray Kroc, the salesman who made the Golden Arches into a retailing powerhouse.
In looking back at all the moves-right and wrong-that McDonald's Corp. has made since its founding 50 years ago, the secret sauce for the hamburger hamlet over that time has remained its trinity of national, co-op and local store marketing. That so-called three-legged stool is the constant force that propelled the Golden Arches to become one of the world's most powerful brands and protected its image with consumers in hard times. It also has hobbled the company when one of those legs was weakened or absent.
"I don't think they've changed the edifice of marketing. They didn't create any new marketing concepts," asserts Phil Kotler, marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He says public relations was really more powerful than advertising for McDonald's, particularly in its early years.
"If you're talking from 1957 to about 1966, yes on PR; after that, no," says Paul Schrage, former senior exec VP-chief marketing officer for McDonald's. Mr. Schrage, who retired in 1997, calls the early PR efforts "invaluable" for "endearing" the brand built around kids to the local community. But he and other former executives say McDonald's touchpoint marketing strategies are what defined the brand.
BURGER VS. MCD'S BURGER
"We said anybody could sell a hamburger but not a McDonald's hamburger," Mr. Schrage says. "A lot of things would go with it: the cleanliness of the stores, the friendliness of the people, the speed of service and the quality of the product."
From the landscaping to the tidy washrooms, all those things went into a McDonald's burger, he says. "After that, we always marketed on a three-legged stool. The thing that made McDonald's grow was that we were very aggressive."
"For me, it's always been about the moment of truth at the front counter and the drive-thru, and the customer experience and the restaurant," says CEO Jim Skinner. "It's one customer at a time, one hamburger at a time. I've got headlines I like to throw around when people start pushing the rocket science buttons around here."
Early on, one of the most important decisions that Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc made after he got his first McDonald's franchise from brothers Dick and Mac McDonald was to tap into the power of its "fishbowl" building design that made the concept a draw for kids. Believing that McDonald's was as much in show business as it was the food business, in 1957 Mr. Kroc hired entertainment press agents Max Cooper and Al Golin for $500 a month to promote the chain. The two spent much of their time placing stories about McDonald's, trying to make the name synonymous with hamburgers. One of their first coups was getting front-page news of Mr. Kroc handing out free burgers to Salvation Army workers in Chicago during the holidays.
"In doing those things in the early days, [Mr. Kroc] wanted to show that despite the fact it was a low-priced food item, [operators] would have the respect of the community if you really got involved ... and you would donate money to the local cause," says Mr. Golin, now CEO of PR agency GolinHarris, which has kept the McDonald's account since those early days. "I created the term `trust bank,' which is building up deposits of good will in this bank of trust and to call on it if you ever need it in terms of a crisis. And that was something that McDonald's believed in very thoroughly. McDonald's really set the tone for an industry that [at the time] had a very dubious reputation."
By 1959, franchisee contracts required that 2.5% of sales be allocated to promoting their business, according to John Love in his book, "McDonald's: Behind the Arches."
Expansion-minded McDonald's became a national advertiser long before it had enough stores to benefit from such a move. Mr. Cooper was advertising manager (today he's a franchisee with 44 stores in the Birmingham, Ala., area) when an NBC salesman offered McDonald's a quarter-sponsorship of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Mr. Cooper took the idea to then-President Harry Sonneborn, who turned him down three times. "It always took three times," Mr. Cooper says with a laugh.
Mr. Sonneborn would agree only if the chain could have a marching band. "Macy's was furious," Mr. Cooper recalls. "They couldn't stop it. Our first buy in the Macy parade was 31/2 minutes and was $75,000 in 1965." McDonald's used the ad time for the national debut of Ronald McDonald as the chain's kid-friendly mascot. Sales soared, defying the chain's typical late fall sales slumber.
A year later for its parade band, McDonald's picked two high school All-Americans from every state and the District of Columbia to be on the squad. "The two winners were like local heroes like `American Idol,' " Mr. Cooper says. Then, it found the biggest drum at the University of Texas and had a new skin with the "McDonald's All-American Band" name placed on it.
AHEAD OF ITS TIME ON TV
National ads catapulted the brand into America's consciousness, and McDonald's was hooked on the tactic. "We were way ahead of our time on national TV," says Mr. Schrage. After seeing the success of pooling funds for co-op marketing, McDonald's in 1967 formed the Operator National Advertising Council, or OPNAD, with each franchisee contributing almost 1% of its topline sales. "If we hadn't formed it, growth would have been a lot slower," Mr. Schrage says.
Throughout the 1970s and '80s, McDonald's built the chain with mom and pop operators, doling out stores one at a time rather than with territories as competitors did. By competing with other local franchisees, operators put additional emphasis on local store marketing and promotion, like sponsoring a Little League team, participating in parades and running birthday party programs.
The corporate offices fed a steady stream of local marketing tools to operators and their local agencies. Corporate also began employing local store marketing reps to help guide franchisees.
By then, franchisees were contributing roughly 4% to support national and co-op marketing, plus whatever they spent for their own community relations. Franchisees have the option of how they contribute that 4%, and some use it entirely to promote their local stores, while others focus more on the co-op or national funds.
"In my experience, a few other systems might have tried to copy a few components, but nobody has ever matched McDonald's in terms of local store marketing on a chainwide basis," says Dick Adams, a former franchisee turned consultant.
Much of the local-community focus dwindled in the 1990s as priorities changed: building new stores, product development and national discounting. "Local store marketing doesn't produce instant results or measurable results, so if you're management, you're going to focus on OPNAD and the national message," Mr. Adams says. "You're not going to wait for franchisees to sponsor a Little League game." Managers also had less time to promote individual stores as the number of stores per franchisee grew from one or two a decade ago to about five today, Mr. Adams says.
During its period of rapid global expansion, the brand lost touch with its local markets. Many franchisees lost interest in community relations that didn't offer the immediate sales pop.
BUILDING THE `TRUST BANK'
"Local store marketing and reputation advertising were the two things that built the trust bank," says Roy Bergold, former VP-chief creative officer at McDonald's. "In the stores that did it, it's tremendously successful, but it's very difficult to get franchisees to do it because it's hard to do. They would rather rely on their co-op promotions and national promotions to carry it."
But this didn't presage a death knell for local clout. Today, as McDonald's faces growing scrutiny over childhood obesity, there's a renewed focus on grassroots marketing, such as youth team sponsorships, to overcome the image of a greedy multinational without a care for local folks' well-being. Most observers credit the late Jim Cantalupo with bringing back the focus on building sales in existing markets with a back-to-basics approach. When McDonald's roused Mr. Cantalupo out of retirement in 2003 to run the company, he slowed expansion and put the emphasis back into growing sales at each store rather than simply growing stores.
"I don't think anything had as big an impact on the strategic growth of the brand as when our strategic concept was to grow the visits more than to grow the stores," says Larry Light, exec VP-chief global marketing officer.
Mr. Cantalupo died of a heart attack on April 19, 2004, on the morning he was to address a franchisee convention in celebration of the revitalization, just 16 months after taking the helm.
Like a baby-boomer preparing for the golden class reunion, McDonald's under Mr. Cantalupo feverishly worked to transform itself with his "Plan to Win." One defining moment was in February 2003 when McDonald's met with all its marketing agencies and charged them with finding a way to communicate the new strategic direction of "Forever Young."
"Our brand character had to change in us from the child in all of us to the young adult every one of us aspires to be," Mr. Light says. The strategy focused on re-energizing the youthful spirit with employees first, then current customers and later lapsed customers. By that September, McDonald's unveiled its global "I'm lovin' it" campaign and its "Freedom Within a Framework" plan for localizing the concept.
"What it did was allow us now to have a much better seamless integration of our national message and our co-op messages, because we were all working from the same advertising and communication principles," says Bill Lamar, senior VP-chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA. "We are very well-coordinated and synergistic to a degree higher than any time in McDonald's history, and that's a credit to our agencies, both national and local."
The brand cut price promotion from 80% of the marketing mix to 20% in the past two years. "That's a massive change," Mr. Light says. "June 2003 was the first time in 10 years that we ran a Big Mac commercial without a price point, and sales of the signature burger went up 16%."
The effort also reversed a five-year trend of declining customer traffic, growing customer visits by 2 million per day (from 48 million to 50 million), Mr. Light says, adding, "The majority of those incremental 2 million visits comes from increased visits from our customers."
"I give Cantalupo all the credit for the turnaround," says Jack Trout, president of consultancy Trout & Partners. "It was a business strategy turnaround, and it gave them the momentum. I don't think marketing turned them around."
THINKING YOUNG, BUT OLDER
Mr. Trout does credit Mr. Light's work to shift the marketing target to young adults. "That's an interesting change of direction," he says.
At its half-century mark, McDonald's is still refining its three-legged marketing stool and its new marketing segmentation.
"We got our messaging out of balance in trying to focus on both moms and kids and also on young adult males," Mr. Light says. "We overfocused on moms; we didn't pay enough attention on young adult males."
Still, and especially today, what McDonald's has done better than anybody else over the years is establish consistency in its company approach to marketing, from local store marketing and co-ops to its "brand journalism" segmentation, says Chris Carroll, senior VP-director of marketing at Subway Franchisees Advertising Fund Trust, the co-op of the No. 4 fast-feeder.
"Everybody is in lockstep," he says. "Nobody is going to be great day in and day out for 50 years, but I think they've probably had more good years than everybody else, and when they get it right, they put a bigger hurt on everybody else.
"For a brand that big to go out and do that has been brilliant."


text:
| Sep 8, 2014
| 7:11 PM
Seaworlds Parks and Entertainment is offering a special discount to active duty, retired and honorably discharged military members through its "Waves of Honor" program.
Through Oct. 26, eligible military members can purchase single-day tickets to any...
| Sep 10, 2013
| 5:16 PM
Busch Gardens Williamsburg in southern Virginia is one of the world's most handsome amusement parks, but to make your experience equally attractive, you need to make smart decisions.
Buy a $20 Quick Queue (a pass that allows you to bypass long...
| Aug 14, 2013
| 6:14 AM
Busch Gardens Williamsburg and other Seaworld Parks and Entertainment parks are offering a 50 percent discount on single-day admission tickets to active duty, retired and veteran military members.
The discount is available online at Morale, Welfare...
| Aug 16, 2013
| 9:07 AM
You know fall is creeping closer when Busch Gardens Williamsburg starts hyping its ever-popular Howl-O-Scream attraction. This year's Halloween fright fest will begin Sept. 13 and continue through Oct. 27.
What's new this year? Countries are being...
| Jan 10, 2014
Irish dancing and rock music are the key components in a new musical revue onstage this weekend at the Ferguson Center.
"Rockin' Road to Dublin" is the creation of drummer Chris Smith and Irish dancer Scott Doherty, young artists who met while...
| Jan 20, 2014
| 1:09 PM
Busch Gardens will continue its two-park Preschool Pass during the 2014 season.
Children ages 3 to 5 can get unlimited free admission to both Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA through Sept. 1.
To take advantage of the deal, you must...
| Dec 12, 2013
| 1:00 PM
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is offering a 25 percent discount on Christmas Town tickets when you buy four.
The ticket offer -- buy three, get one free -- essentially drops the price of the tickets from $30 to $22.50 when you buy four.
The offer can...
| Mar 23, 2014
| 8:17 PM
In early February, the park announced that visitors could buy a Busch Gardens Fun Card and receive unlimited summer admission to Water Country USA for free.
The Fun Card — which costs $72, the price of a single-day admission ticket — must be...
| Mar 10, 2014
| 12:10 PM
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is offering a half-off discount on single-day admission tickets through Groupon.
The deal allows visitors to purchase a single-day admission ticket for $36 for adults or $31 for a child ages 3-9. Regular admission costs $72...
| Mar 12, 2014
| 7:48 AM
Start taking numbers, Busch Gardens annual pass holders.
The park is offering pass holders one free single-day admission ticket for a friend for use from March 16 to April 27.
The offer is available online at bgwpass.com, only.
Here are the...
| Jan 26, 2014
| 5:40 PM
It was clear from the start that Sunday would be a good night for Pharrell Williams. The Virginia Beach native had won a the Producer of the Year Grammy even before he stepped out on stage near the start of the awards show broadcast.
He teamed up with...


text:
You are here
Inditex sales growth quickens on shop, online expansion
INDITEX SA, the world's largest clothing retailer, reported brisker sales in the current quarter as the owner of Zara added more shops and online businesses in Asia.
Revenue rose 16 per cent in the start of this quarter through Sept 10, excluding currency shifts, Arteixo,
- CALL +65 6388 3838
- EMAIL email@example.com


text:
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced the opening of an office in Romania. During his visit to the country, he met with high-ranking officials and emphasized Binance’s intentions to expand direct operations to Eastern Europe.
Binance to launch Romanian-language support this fall, exchange CEO unveiled in Bucharest
Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange by trading volume, is setting up a local office in Romania, CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed during a field tour during his stay in Bucharest. The trading platform will also offer a Romanian version of its support service starting in October.
The move is part of Binance’s plans for a wider expansion in Eastern Europe. The exchange already covers a large part of the crypto asset market, with 120 million customers around the world using it to buy and sell various digital currencies.
Speaking to Romanian business news outlet Profit.ro, its founder elaborated, “We want to go global by playing locally in many markets.” “I think Eastern Europe is extremely important,” stressed the Chinese-born Canadian crypto entrepreneur.
Last year, Binance launched operations in Romania’s southern neighbor Bulgaria. The crypto exchange is expanding its presence in other, major Eastern European markets and countries in the former Soviet space such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Zhao added that inflation and rising energy prices, as evident in Europe, have focused cryptocurrencies in the region, meaning there is potential for growth. He believes that the crypto market is in its infancy and expects cryptocurrency payments, for example, to become more and more important.
In Bucharest, the Binance chief executive met with Romania’s head of executive power, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, and Digitization Minister Sebastian Barduja. The developing crypto industry has attracted the attention of regulators. Zhao says, however, that regulation alone will not eliminate the risks.
Market volume declined sharply this year amid a deteriorating economic situation due to the military conflict in Ukraine. The report states that CZ does not know when this decline will end, but he is more concerned with increasing the number of crypto users than with the price.
Do you think Binance will open offices in other countries in Eastern Europe? Share your expectations in the comment section below.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation or recommendation or endorsement of an offer to buy or sell any products, services, or companies. bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the Company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use or reliance on any materials, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Credit : news.bitcoin.com


text:
BlackBerry’s (nee RIM) claim that it is struggling to fulfil massive demand for the first-ever BlackBerry 10 smartphone has been called into question by informal testimonies from UK retailers, in an early sign that the warm reception afforded the handset may not be enough to save the beleaguered phone-maker.
Billed as a make-or-break device by tech watchers and business bods alike, the BlackBerry Z10 hit retail last week in the UK and is set to go on sale worldwide over the next month.
Within days of its UK street date, Thorstein Heins, BlackBerry CEO, claimed that sales of the smartphone were “beyond expectations" and that the white model had already sold out. Demand for the black edition of the handset is also strong, with the result that BlackBerry was struggling to service demand, Heins told an interviewer.
So all’s well in the BlackBerry bush and its shareholders can rest easy? Hmm. Don't be so sure. If retailers questioned by news sites are anything to go by, the prognosis for the one-time mavens of mobile messaging is much less rosy.
According to Phones 4U, which was contacted by the Telegraph, there are still “plenty” of BlackBerry Z10 kits in their inventory. Meanwhile, Mobile News got in touch with the same retailer and was told that the white model was also still easy to come by.
Heins’ cheerleading on behalf of his company’s new challenger, while not surprising, could emerge as something of an own goal for BlackBerry, making the company seem desperate to put a positive spin on Z10 coverage.
But with the Q10, which sports a keyboard to appeal to BlackBerry phones' core market of heavy messagers, due to land later this year, we think you'd be a fool to write off the company's comeback chances just yet.


text:
TROY >> It’s that time of year again, when River Street comes fully alive for the festival that brings an annual business boom.
The 11th annual River Street Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 14 on River Street between Fulton and Congress streets. More than 50 artisan craft vendors, downtown shopping, children’s activities, food, a street painting competition and three stages of live music make a lively scene on the street, providing a perfect formula for family fun.
The festival is an opportunity for locals to enjoy free entertainment in the heart of downtown without paying travel expenses.
The tradition was started in 2004 with the intention of showing off what the area has to offer. The River Street Festival was created by the small stores in the antique district, said Jim Barrett, owner of River Street Beat Shop. At a time when the neighborhood was struggling, “We wanted to put a new face on the antique district.”
Led by Dana Rudolph, the founder of LarkFest in Albany, the group wanted to focus on music and the arts. “We wanted to showcase all of the region’s best talent, and we did that,” Barrett said, “and it was wildly successful.”
The event direction has now been handed over to Troy’s Downtown Business Improvement District. In her first festival as BID director, Erin Pihlaja said she is personally excited to put on a great show for event-goers. New this year under her direction are live art demos including screen printing, fine art painting, glass blowing and more. “It’s important for people to reconnect to the actual art of making things,” Pihlaja said. “We’d like to put the emphasis back on art for this festival, especially since that was why it was created.”
River Street Festival is undoubtedly a boost in the city’s economy, drawing hundreds of visitors to the streets of the Troy. Pihlaja calls it “a great revenue builder for downtown Troy.”
River Street business owners agree that it’s one of the most profitable sales days of the year, second only to the Victorian Stroll.
“I think anything that gets people to Troy to just kind of experience the different shops in the street is great,” said Theresa Albanese, owner of River Rocks jewelry and bead shop. “Anything that brings people downtown is good for the businesses.”
“I like that it brings attention to downtown Troy,” said Susan Dunckel of Sweet Sue’s, which will be participating in its second River Street Festival offering brunch and goodies, including dollar scoops of local, all natural Adirondack Ice Cream.
Dunckel appreciates the fresh, upbeat vibe of the festival, and the convenience of having customers come right to her shop. “I love the fact that people who might not otherwise come this way will come this way and see what we have,” she said.
“It’s just a fun day that gets people coming to Troy,” said Margaret Partyka, owner of Some Girls boutique on River Street. “There is a really cool energy, being at the water, that makes it worthwhile for people to come and enjoy Troy. Sometimes they need a little extra boost like a big festival to get them here, but it’s nice once they are here. They kind of see what’s going on and all the creative things that are brewing down here.” S ome new River Street Shops, like MarEle Boutique, Hippies, Witches & Gypsies and Henry Loves Betty pet boutique will be experiencing their first River Street Festival, and they are thrilled to be a part of the growing scene.
Lauren Halligan may be reached at 270-1287.


text:
Hey, kiddos! The Easter Bunny says: armed military combat is fun! Yes, just when you thought crass commercialism couldn’t get any crasser, Kmart and Wal-Mart have taken the arguably psychotic plunge into selling the “Easter Jubilee Military Combat Set.” Sitting on the shelves in your Missoula Kmart and Wal-Mart next to the pink bunny baskets and the ribbon-laden basket full of Barbie dolls with impossibly slim figures, the combat set features not only Skittles and M&M’s, but also soldiers armed with extra rounds of ammunition, an artillery gun, knife, Army chopper, ominously closed black suitcase (could there be little mock chemical agents inside?) and what appears to be an oil tanker truck (presumably so the child has something to “liberate”). The soldiers look like your basic hearty Americans, and they and their arsenal are set before a random battlefield map that sets Brooklyn, Oxford and the Bay of Fundy in the same general neighborhood (hopefully the kids won’t attempt to learn their geography from the battle map).
Both Missoula’s Kmart and Wal-Mart stores had the Easter Jubilee Military Combat Set in stock when the Indy took a peek about a week before Easter, but sales staff in both stores were reluctant to discuss the item, instead suggesting that a call be placed to their respective corporate offices.
However, friendly Kmart manager Jane did say that there had been complaints in both Missoula and Billings.
“I will say, on the other hand, that we’ve had a lot of people come in and praise us for having that [basket] with the war going on,” she said.
Jane later clarified that a lot translates to two.
Meanwhile, far from the Garden City, the Easter combat set has sparked protests in a Manhattan Kmart. Several religious groups have declared that the baskets stand in direct contradiction to the spirit of renewal that Easter has traditionally stood for.
In an interview with the Village Voice, Bishop George Packard, who oversees spiritual care for Episcopalian members of the armed services, said, “It’s a crass embrace of the far end of a range of options for parents to provide their kids. Easter baskets have been deteriorating for a long time, but they’ve really gone over the edge. I am…so confounded by this bad taste.”
Kmart corporate representatives Bernadette Alison and Abigail Jacobs said that they’ve been selling the military-themed Easter baskets “for years,” and that this is the first year they’ve received complaints. Jacobs said that Kmart has given its store managers the option to pull the baskets from the shelves, but that so far, only two stores have chosen to do so.
Wal-Mart reps were more elusive, fending off questions with a drab faxed statement: “We have carried Easter baskets featuring military toys for more than 10 years and have found military toys are very popular with our customers…We respect the views of all of our customers and will continue to listen to any concerns they may have on this offering.” After all, isn’t that what Jesus would do?


text:
More restaurants join Eat ADK
During Eat ADK, a week-long celebration of culinary exploration, participating restaurants, pubs and bistros will offer multiple-course menus at fixed prices, offering deals intended to attract local residents during a slow time of the year for tourism.
Eat ADK is also full of food- and beverage-related events such as “dinner and a movie” at the Palace Theatre and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in Lake Placid; live music at area bars, studios and restaurants; wine appreciation and culinary classes; and wine and whiskey tastings. Some hotels will offer special packages to those looking to extend their stay in the Adirondacks. Details and a complete schedule of events is continuously being updated and will be found at eatadk.com.
With 45 participating dining establishments, residents and visitors can look forward to sampling the best dishes at discounted prices in the Adirondack communities of Lake Placid, Long Lake, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake and Wilmington.
Restaurants will be offering prix fixe (fixed-price) menus for $15, $20 and $30.
This year’s event highlights both established restaurants as well as recently opened businesses.
The opening event will take place at Saratoga Olive Oil in Lake Placid on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks. There will be a short presentation by organizers and community leaders.
Long Lake’s participation in Eat ADK is new this year. Organizers have scheduled a bus on Saturday, May 4 that will operate throughout the evening to pick up and drop off residents to and from the participating restaurants.
“We are very excited that this popular event keeps growing and more visitors and locals are experiencing the wonderful cuisine in our Adirondack region,” said Eat ADK organizer Kelsey Torrance. “The restaurants highlight the many culinary options available here.”
“The Adirondacks offer diverse, world-class dining and accommodations that attract visitors all year long,” said James McKenna, CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism. “The specials offered during Eat ADK will encourage locals to try new establishments, and also attract out-of-region visitors who will stay at our hotels, shop in our stores, and discover what makes the Adirondacks such a unique destination.”
Backpack food drive
Along with celebrating Adirondack cuisine, the event also strives to help local families who need food assistance. Those participating in Eat ADK are encouraged to bring prepared non-perishable, child-friendly food or snacks to the restaurant. The items will be distributed to area public schools that have backpack programs. These programs help alleviate child hunger by discreetly providing hungry children with backpacks full of nutritious and easy-to-prepare food on Friday afternoons so they have food to eat throughout the weekend or during school breaks. Food items can also be dropped off at various locations listed on eatadk.com.
EAT ADK origin
The idea for an Adirondack restaurant week was hatched at Paul Smith’s College, a four-year college in the Adirondacks with robust culinary and hospitality programs. In 2015, 10 students from the college’s “Field Studies in Hospitality” class led by Professor Kelly Cerialo, worked with Professor Joe Conto, the director of the college’s Hotel, Resort and Tourism Management Program, and the Eat ADK Volunteer Committee. Paul Smith’s is now a sponsor of Eat ADK Restaurant Week. Students and faculty from the college continue to work closely with the restaurant week committee to organize this event.


text:
How do you get women to buy makeup? Through experimentation, of course — and to that end, Revlon is launching a major new digital program to encourage customers’ most social sampling.
Via a series of monthly challenges, the beauty brand’s Revlon Expression Experiment offers participants a new task each month, accompanied by a makeup tutorial from artistic director Gucci Westman. The whole program will take place, starting Monday, on Facebook. Participants are obviously encouraged to post and share their experience with friends.
Over the course of the next year, the project will be expanding globally, to South Africa, Australia, China and India. Though the challenges will be tailored to each country, international participants will be able to look through all the foreign slideshows for inspiration.
Kicking off next week, Revlon will be pulling out all the stops for the Expression Experiment — the brand’s ambassadors are all expected to contribute to relevant advertising, beginning with Halle Berry.


text:
Latest magazine trends
Much like print, there seems to be a localization of magazines going on with five out of the 13 magazine launches in the third quarter being regionally-based. Q3 saw the debut of Our Wisconsin, Washingtonian Mom, Dayton Parent Magazine, Dayton Magazine and Wichita Magazine. But an uptick in regional-interest magazines isn’t the only theme of the quarter. Here are a few of the latest magazine trends and happenings:
- The New Yorker began experimenting with sponsored content in August and ran an ad called the Five Steps to Building a Better Cloud written by IBM engineer Frank De Gilio. DigiDay gave a full analysis of the magazine’s use of native advertising last month. Only last week, the New York Times reported that Harper’s Bazaar is also going native with a site redesign. The new look includes an editorial feature called #TheList, which highlights top trends. Advertisers who sponsor the feature get their products placed in the #TheList, with a link back to the product website and a digital banner ad. Then on Saturday, the advertiser is able to sponsor an edition of the feature that includes only their products.
- Sports Illustrated recently erected a new kind of paywall, a hybrid system that allows visitors to view articles from the print edition before the magazine is released. But to view the content, the reader has to first watch a 30-second advertisement. The provider is Selectable Media and has only applied the experiment to various stories available to paying subscribers, AdWeek reported. Viewers actually get to choose what ad they want to watch before it unlocks the article for a 24-hour period. Esquire also got into the paywall business in July when it put its The Prophet feature behind a paywall for $1.99.
- In August, Conde Nast entered into a partnership with Amazon, which now handles the magazine publisher’s subscriptions for magazines such as Vogue, Wired and Vanity Fair.
- Finally, it’s only a rumor still, but there have been whispers that New York Magazine is considering going biweekly in 2014. According to NYPost.com, digital accounts for half the magazine’s revenue.
While trends in native advertising, paywalls and locally-focused news mirror elements of the newspaper industry, the magazine industry often has its own take on experimentation. As we roll through Q4 and head into the New Year, it’s most likely that native advertising will dominate as a trend as magazines struggle to bring back ad revenue.
–Katrina M. Mendolera
Communications Best Practices
Get the latest updates on PR, communications and marketing best practices.
Cision Product News
Keep up with everything Cision. Check here for the most current product news.
Thought leadership and communications strategy for the C-suite written by the C-suite.
A blog for and about the media featuring trends, tips, tools, media moves and more.


text:
As has been previously reported here, the “University Gold” Air Jordan 12 is a new colorway that is set to release later this year.
With its black leather upper and university gold mudguards, accenting, midsole and outsole, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the PEs Gary Payton wore during his lone season with the Los Angeles Lakes in the 2003-04 season.
The “University Gold” is scheduled to release July 18 at nike.com and select retail venues and will carry a sticker price of $190 USD.
Air Jordan 12 Black/Black-University Gold 130690-070 $190 July 18, 2020
New and detailed images of the “University Gold” Air Jordan 12 via earlygvng


text:
Google Takes Stake in Bharti Airtel in Billion-Dollar 5G Deal
Google has established itself a role at the heart of the development of digital communications in India with a commitment of a billion dollars in a partnership with the second operator of the country, Bharti Airtel.
Google will spend $700 million to buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel, while the remaining $300 million will be invested in “multi-year business deals” to be identified and closed over the next five years.
These commercial agreements will include “investments in scaling Airtel’s offerings that span a range of consumer devices through innovative affordability programs as well as other offerings aimed at accelerating access and ‘digital inclusion in the Indian digital ecosystem’.
The $1 billion investment is part of the larger $10 billion Google fund for digitizing India announced by the company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, in July 2020.
Google’s first commercial deal with Airtel will focus on developing “affordability programs” that can help put more Android-enabled devices in the hands of more people. “Together, the companies will continue to explore further opportunities to break down barriers to smartphone ownership across a range of price points, in partnership with various device manufacturers.
And in preparation for the introduction of 5G in India – the country’s 5G spectrum auction could take place at the end of the first half of this year if various parties can agree on what is actually up for grabs and at what price – the two companies are to develop “India-specific network domain use cases for 5G and other standards.
And in what is an interesting revelation, Airtel noted in the deal announcement that it “already uses Google’s 5G-ready Evolved Packet Core and Software Defined Network platforms, and plans to explore the ‘scaling up deployment of Google’s network virtualization solutions’.
Anything co-developed, of course, will therefore be “developed in India”, which the country’s authorities are encouraging: Bharti Airtel and the country’s mobile market leader, Reliance Jio, both intend to develop their next-generation telecommunications platforms. using technology developed in the domestic market.
It’s also worth noting that Google also works closely with Jio: the two have developed a smartphone operating system called Pragati specifically for the Indian market that already runs on the “entry-level” JioPhone Next 4G smartphone, with a 5G model already in development. (See Reliance Jio Prepares for Its Next Round of Disruptions.)
And they are also jointly developing 5G applications and products for the Indian market.
And that relationship, like the one with Bharti Airtel, is underpinned by capital investment: in July 2020, Google announced it was buying a 7.73% share of Jio Platforms, which counts Reliance Jio among its assets, for approximately $4.5 billion.
Agreements work for both parties in each case. For Google, the more people who are online and using digital services and applications, especially if they run on Google’s Android operating system or a derivative, the better it is for its business, and it There are still plenty of people in India who would benefit from better, faster data connections.
For Airtel and Jio, they benefit from Google’s massive R&D initiatives, including, of course, those aimed specifically at the telecom market. Anthos for Telecom, the version of the cloud-based managed application platform designed specifically to enable telecom operators to run applications at the network edge, seems to be a key for the operator community and is gaining momentum. has proven popular. (See Google’s Anthos wins telecom carrier buy-in.)
For Airtel, which has around 350 million mobile customers (Jio has more than 420 million), the investment comes just weeks after it scrapped a corporate restructuring plan that would have seen its telecoms services business transform into a separate subsidiary.
And it almost goes without saying that Google isn’t alone in moving into the Indian market: rival hyperscalers AWS and Microsoft Azure are also negotiating deals and partnerships that will give them a piece of the action in what’s the second largest in the world. country by population.
– Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV


text: There are certain games that many believe don’t need a sequel, or for developers, it’d be incredibly hard to top the first game. Many gamers enjoyed Super Meat Boy, the game by Team Meat that impressed with hundreds of levels and incredibly difficult gameplay. It was great, and the developers knew it and promptly told the world that Super Meat Boy 2 wouldn’t be happening. That was five years ago, and things change in that amount of time. Speaking to Game Informer, Team Meat’s Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes noted that they do have some inspiration to make Super Meat Boy 2, which came from making their upcoming mobile runner game, Super Meat Boy Forever.


text:
Oct 12, 2021
SupportLogic Raises $50m to Bring Customer Support and Contextual AI Together
SupportLogic, an AI startup based in California, has raised $50 million in Series B funding to expand its support experience management platform.
The oversubscribed round, which was co-led by WestBridge Capital Partners and General Catalyst, brings the total funding raised by the startup to $62 million. Existing investors Sierra Ventures and Emergent Ventures also doubled down by participating in the round. Sumir Chadha, Co-Founder and Managing Director at WestBridge Capital Partners, referred to the firm’s participation in the round by stating:
“We were drawn by the high caliber of SupportLogic customers, who were all strong advocates for the value they get. We invest for the long term and believe that SupportLogic is in a unique position to lead a new era focused on support and service experience, and we see significant growth opportunities ahead.”
Founded in 2016 by Krishna Raj Raja, SupportLogic is looking to change how corporations approach customer service by harvesting the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance human-to-human communication. Named as one of CRN Magazine’s 10 Hottest AI Startups of 2021 and a “Hot Startup to Watch” in the 2021 Big50 Startup Report, the startup has experienced rapid growth over the years as a result of increasing adoption by leading companies like Cloudera, Databricks, Fivetran, Khoros, Nutanix, Qlik, and Rubrik.
SupportLogic’s customers are reporting impactful results in the performance of its operations, including a 40% reduction in customer escalations and a 60% reduction in case time review. Now, SupportLogic is looking to sustain its growth by focusing on platform innovation to provide its customers with added value. Krishna Raj Raja, Founder and CEO of SupportLogic, said in this regard:
“Improving the customer support experience is key to protecting and growing revenue, and SupportLogic is the first solution purpose-built for support and service teams that prevents customer escalations and reduces case backlog to improve overall service levels. Our high customer demand for our solutions and this oversubscribed funding round indicate strong market validation. We will use these funds to drive growth and develop new product offerings that expand our value to the market.”
AI is now being widely applied to diverse industries and use cases, with about 56% of service decision-makers already showing an interest in it. However, the solution developed by SupportLogic aims to stand out by using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to obtain data on customer sentiment while also using contextual intelligence to improve the interpretation process, allowing organizations to take a proactive stance towards customer service.
Don’t miss out
Want the latest B2B Support, AI and ML blogs delivered straight to your inbox?


text:
59 minutes ago
Saturday, June 26, 2010
ThinkGeek.com, an online store that sells "stuff for smart masses," put a new item on its site on April 1: Canned Unicorn Meat. They called it "the new white meat." They have now gotten a cease and desist letter from lawyers for the National Pork Board, claiming they are in violation of the Board's "The Other White Meat" trademark. I wonder how much it cost them to have their lawyers write the 12-page missive. April Fools, Pork Board!