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If you want better credit card terms, the best thing to do is call your card company and ask, a new CreditCards.com survey shows
If you want better terms on your credit card, all you really have to do is call your card company and ask, a new CreditCards.com survey shows.
Whether you want to avoid your annual fee, get a late fee waived, reduce your interest rate or raise your credit limit, there’s a good chance your call will pay off.
The survey of 952 American cardholders found that more than 8 out of 10 (84 percent) who have made any of these requests were successful. However, asking is rare. No more than 1 in 4 cardholders makes any one of the requests; added together, only about half of consumers have made any request at all.
Among those who do ask:
- 87 percent received a late payment fee waiver.
- 69 percent got a lower interest rate.
- 89 percent received a higher credit limit.
- 82 percent had their annual fee waived or reduced.
“I was surprised at the level of success, especially when it comes to asking for an annual fee waiver,” says Alex Johnson, senior marketing manager at FICO, creator of the widely used credit score that predicts whether you’ll borrow responsibly. “The takeaway is that you should always ask. The worst that can happen is that they’ll say no. But the data show there’s a pretty good chance they’ll say \u2018yes.’”
Half had annual fees waived, others had them reduced
Many premium cards charge customers an annual fee each year just for owning the card. More than half of respondents in the poll – 51 percent – were able to get an annual fee waived when they asked. Another 31 percent got the fee reduced.
That’s notable because many cardholders assume the annual fee is nonnegotiable.
The poll results reflect that assumption. Only about 1 in 10 cardholders (11 percent) has ever asked for a break on the annual fee. Cardholders were far more likely to ask their card company to raise their credit limit (28 percent), waive a late fee (25 percent) or lower their interest rate (19 percent).
“Consumers don’t ask about the annual fee because they think of it as the cost of the product, and in America, we generally don’t haggle over product prices,” says Bill McCracken, president of Phoenix Synergistics, a market research firm that studies the credit card industry. “A late fee, on the other hand \u2014 they think of as an extra fee that the card company isn’t anticipating, so they’re more likely to ask for a break on that.”
Daraius Dubash, co-founder of credit card rewards site Million Mile Secrets, says he has been able to get the annual fee waived on several cards, usually by calling and saying he’s thinking about canceling. But he says it is more difficult than it once was to get a \u2018yes.’
“Banks are getting more sophisticated, so they’ll look at how valuable you are and whether you are a big spender,” he says. “In some cases, they say \u2018no’ but offer bonus points or miles instead, as long as you spend a certain amount each month.”
Dubash says it’s toughest to get annual fees waived on premium cards with generous rewards and hotel cards that give you free stays, because their perks are the most valuable.
Stark generational differences
Younger baby boomers (ages 53 to 62) are the most aggressive in asking for annual fee waivers, according to the poll – and they’re extraordinarily successful. Almost all of them (97 percent) who asked had the fee either reduced (19 percent) or waived altogether (78 percent). Boomers also had the highest success rates when they asked for other breaks.
Because they typically have long credit histories and they are in their peak earning years, younger baby boomers who haven’t yet retired are some of the most profitable customers for financial institutions, Johnson says, so banks are motivated to keep them.
At the other end of the spectrum are the young millennials, ages 18 to 26. About 7 out of 10 (68 percent) said they had never requested any of the listed breaks from their credit card company.
When they do, their success rates are puny compared to older cardholders. Only 15 percent of young millennials have received an interest rate reduction, 32 percent an annual fee waiver and 49 percent a late fee waiver. That compares to overall success rates of more than 70 or 80 percent for other generations. Young millennials had more luck bumping up their credit limits, with 80 percent reporting success.
“The reality is, companies pull up the data and these young people don’t have much credit history, they have lower salaries and they don’t spend a lot on the card,” McCracken says.
By the time consumers turn 27, however, things turn around. Older millennials (age 27-36) ask for breaks – and get them – at high rates. In fact, the poll found that 93 percent of those ages 27 to 36 who asked for any of the listed perks from their card company were successful at least once. That’s the highest overall success rate of any demographic.
The silent generation, meanwhile, lives up to its name. The poll found that those age 72 and over rarely ask for better terms from their credit card issuers. Just 5 percent have asked for an interest rate reduction, and only 9 percent have requested a credit limit increase, compared to rates twice that for other generations. That may be partly because older Americans have fewer cards and carry less credit card debt than any other generation, according to Experian’s 2016 State of Credit Report.
Decisions made on a case-by-case basis
Credit card issuers say they make decisions about interest rate reductions, credit limit bumps and fee waivers on a case-by-case basis, evaluating a variety of different factors.
“We look at things like the card member’s spending and payment history with American Express, debt with other lenders, credit bureau scores and other credit report information,” says AmEx spokeswoman Ashley Tufts.
Johnson said American Express and other large issuers likely have sophisticated algorithms that weigh at your risk and profitability and then guide customer service reps.
When it comes to late fees, however, many issuers are willing to grant a certain number of waivers per customer \u2014 no questions asked. Discover, for example, offers all card members forgiveness on their first late payment, a spokeswoman said. And several current and former customer service reps told CreditCards.com that they are instructed to forgive one late fee every six months or every year, depending on the issuer.
Other survey findings
Here are some other interesting results from the poll:
- Republicans are less likely to ask for a break. Fifty-five percent of Republicans said they hadn’t asked their credit card company for any of the listed breaks, compared to about 45 percent of Democrats and Independents. When they did make the request, Republicans were denied slightly more often than respondents with other political affiliations.
- The more you earn, the more likely you are to get a break. Those who earn over $75,000 a year have an easier time securing late fee waivers, annual fee waivers and credit limit increases than those who earn less. However, income level does not appear to affect your likelihood of getting an interest rate reduction.
- Couples ask for – and get – more help on late fees. Those who are married or living with a partner are almost twice as likely to ask for a late fee waiver compared to single people. And about one in four (26 percent) reports success, compared to just 15 percent of those who are not married or living with someone.
- Consumers don’t seem to be catching on. Despite headlines touting the success rates of cardholders who ask for late fee waivers and interest rate reductions, the percentage of people making those requests is no higher than it was in similar CreditCards.com surveys in 2016 and 2014. “Active credit card customers don’t realize how valuable they are to a credit card company,” McCracken says. “It’s more expensive for them to acquire new customers than it is to keep their current ones. So you should make these requests, because companies are going to do what it takes to keep you.”
CreditCards.com commissioned Princeton Survey Research Associates International to obtain telephone interviews with 952 credit card holders living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline and cellphone in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from Feb. 16-19, 2017 and March 2-5, 2017. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
See related: 9 confusing credit card terms explained, 5 times it makes sense to call your card’s customer service, New credit card has so-so terms? You have choices


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Kone Corp: Business description, financial summary, 3yr and interim financials, key statistics/ratios and historical ratio analysis.
Provider: Reuters Investment Profile
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KONE Oyj Raises FY 2012 Net Sales and EBIT Guidance
KONE Oyj announced that it has upgraded its outlook slightly for the fiscal year 2012 due to stronger than expected orders received and sales growth in Asia-Pacific, as well as more favorable material cost development than expected. KONE Oyj's fiscal year 2012 net sales are estimated to grow by between 10% and 15% at comparable exchange rates as compared with the fiscal year 2011. The fiscal year 2012 operating income (EBIT) is expected to be in the range of between EUR 750 million and EUR 800 million, assuming that translation exchange rates do not materially deviate from the situation of the beginning of the fiscal year 2012. KONE Oyj previously estimated its fiscal year 2012 net sales to grow by between 8% and 13% at comparable exchange rates as compared with the fiscal year 2011. The previous fiscal year 2012 operating income (EBIT) outlook was between EUR 730 million and EUR 790 million, assuming that translation exchange rates do not materially deviate from the situation of the beginning of the fiscal year 2012. According to I/B/E/S Estimates, analysts are expecting the Company to report fiscal year 2012 net sales of EUR 5,785.77 million and fiscal year 2012 EBIT of EUR 784.25 million. Previously, the Company reported fiscal year 2011 net sales of EUR 5,225.20 million and fiscal year 2011 EBIT of EUR 725.10 million.
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Coke can returned to maker after 50 years at Antarctica base
13:36 JST, April 17, 2021
A retro Coca-Cola can and sticks of Cool Mint chewing gum, uncovered in Antarctica after more than half a century on the continent, were presented to their manufacturers in a ceremony held at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tachikawa, Tokyo on Thursday.
The artifacts were discovered in September last year by members of the 61st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition wintering party, frozen in time in a cardboard box half-buried in snow about 5 kilometers east of Showa Station.
Judging from the assortment of canned foods also found inside the box, the unopened items are presumed to have been emergency rations, carried by a former expedition when conducting experiments in the unforgiving terrain.
Although covered in decades of rust, the Coca-Cola can was recognizable by its iconic white lettering on a red background. The design dates to 1965, when the first Coke cans were sold in Japan. Instead of a modern pull-tab, the drink came with a small device resembling a can opener, making it a rare specimen from yesteryear that had been a gap in the collection kept at the Coca-Cola (Japan) Co.
The Cool Mint packets similarly featured the original product design as when the gum was first introduced by Lotte Co. in 1960, the institute said.
The gifting ceremony was attended by expedition leader Yuichi Aoyama, Akino Sasaki from Coca-Cola’s marketing department, and Shota Mori from Lotte’s brand strategy department.
“It makes me proud to think that Coca-Cola even provided refreshment to the Antarctic team, more than half a century ago,” Sasaki said. She added that the company would consider sending the can to its U.S. headquarters for display in the beverage-maker’s museum.
Mori shared that when developing Cool Mint, Lotte had looked to the Antarctic for inspiration, and said that he hopes to analyze the gum for possible clues that could lead to future product development.
“It’s a wonderful story and we’re thrilled by this homecoming over 50 years in the making,” he said.
After the ceremony, Aoyama looked back on the items’ long journey home with satisfaction: “I was very surprised and my team members were also very excited [to discover the items]. I was relieved to be able to safely return them to both companies.”
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Warcraft 3 came in 2020 as a breath of fresh air. But soon, fans realized that the game did not really deliver all the promises made by the creators. Moreover, they might have taken even more. Now, some behind the scene secrets help us understand more about that and the decision of the creators.
At BlizzCon, back in 2018, we first heard of Reforged. Blizzard told us it was going to be a classic real-time strategy game. But the final product was full of bugs, the online play was not that great, and features were nowhere to be found. There were also improved cutscenes and re-recorded voice-overs. And what about the elements from the original Warcraft 3? Completely gone, no clans, no leaderboards.
Players were not happy, and the reviews were not great. And the team has understood that they were not pleased. Blizzard has then implemented a refund policy, but fans are still asking themselves why they have sold the product this way.
And the answer is quite simple: financial pressure and mismanagement. Activision has been pushing Blizzard to cut loose on the money, and make their priorities straight: bigger titles, then the others. This is due to cultural changes in the company.
The project started a few years ago, with changes made to the original script, and re-recording all dialogue – that took place between 2017 and 2018. But the team was clearly unorganized.
The internal post-mortem of Reforged says: “Leadership seemed totally out of touch with the velocity and scope of the project until extremely late in development. Senior voices in the department warned leadership about the impending disaster of Warcraft on several occasions over the last year or so but were ignored.”
So after cutting the money, the features were a no-go. We’re bound to find out more soon.


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Recession Creates More One-Person Businesses, Less EmployersMar 8th, 2011 | By Roy Rasmussen | Category: Business and Finance
The recession has sparked a 15-year-high surge in small business start-ups, according to a study released by the Kauffman Foundation Monday. Most of these are one-person businesses rather than companies that employ others, the study found.
According to the “Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity,” which measures new business creation in the United States, 0.34 percent of American adults created a business per month in 2010, totaling 565,000 new businesses. This rate continued a trend from 2009 and represents the entrepreneurship level over the past 15 years.
Meanwhile, however, the quarterly employer firm rate, measuring the number of businesses that have new employees, dropped from 0.13 percent in 2007 to 0.10 percent in 2010.
Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, described these results as indicating that many start-up business owners prefer “to remain self-employed or to avoid assuming the economic responsibility of hiring employees.”
Entrepreneurship rates were highest among Latinos and Asians, among 35- to 44-year-olds, and in Nevada, Georgia, California, Louisiana, and Colorado. Entrepreneurial activity among immigrants increased substantially, from 0.51 percent in 2009 to 0.62 percent in 2010.
The Kaufmann Index bases its conclusions on drawing data from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), conducted by the US Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index also considers separate estimates for specific demographic groups, states, and select metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).


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SkyPower, the Canada-based developer of solar PV projects, has this week announced two ambitious plans to bolster solar energy in Kenya and Bangladesh.
In July the Toronto-headquartered company signed a deal at a trade summit in Nairobi to invest $2.2 billion in developing 1 GW of solar PV capacity in Kenya.
This week, according to SkyPower CEO Kerry Adler, that pledge has been doubled to $4.4 billion following a meeting at the weekend with the U.S.-based Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), New York, which was attended by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
SkyPowers Adler said that the company would also invest further sums in the development and creation of a Kenya-based solar R&D center, and will also donate some 3,600 solar street lamps to the country.
The companys original involvement in Kenya amounted to a $2.2 billion investment pledge that was witnessed by President Obama when the U.S. premier visited Kenya over the summer. This agreement, struck during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015, was a tangible sign of Obamas call for greater ties between North America and Africa, with Kenyatta adding at the weekend that post-Obamas visit, business partnerships between the regions have strengthened.
"The environment for doing business is changing and there are huge opportunities for U.S. c ompanies to get a foothold in Kenya," said Kenyatta. "It is a case of put in your foot first."
Adler also announced at the meeting with the BCIU an agreement by SkyPower to invest $4.3 billion in Bangladesh on the creation of a 2 GW solar PV plant in the country, reports have suggested. SkyPower will set up an office in Tungipara, in the region of Gopalganj, creating thousands of job opportunities during the four-year development and construction phase of the plant.
The Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in attendance in New York to sign the agreement with SkyPower, which also includes the donation of 1.5 million solar home lanterns to Bangladesh.
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Questions are being asked following an announcement earlier this month that people can ‘start thinking’ about foreign travel. They revolve around the extra costs involved with COVID-19, the possibility of another wave or strain prolonging the pandemic and the four conditions for lockdown easing. With foreign travel being hinged on a number of factors, will the British public look to UK staycations for their holidays?
According to a survey, approximately 73% of people will choose to holiday within the UK after travel restrictions have been lifted. In opposition, just 19% of the 2002 people questioned said they would travel abroad for their first holiday after travel restrictions are eased. It is quite clear then that staycations will prove to be the more popular choice of holiday while the pandemic lingers on throughout 2021.
Investing in a domestic holiday let may be a smart choice for many in the property business as the market has seen a boom in the last year. Awaze, the holiday rentals and resorts business whose brands include cottages.com and Hoseasons, has sold more than 10,000 UK breaks at a record rate of up to one per second. Their stats back up and suggest the popularity of staycations in the country as the pandemic continues.
For investors, it is essential to note the factors which make up for a successful holiday let.
Staycations are infinitely safer than holidays abroad, but it is down to the property owner to keep this up. People need to feel assured knowing they are protected from the risks of COVID-19.
Staycations give more freedom and power to holiday-goers as they can keep within their own household or support bubble, minimising the risks of infection. Compared with hotels abroad, this cannot be guaranteed as people are more likely to mix, leading to the potential of COVID-19 spreading. Property investors can ensure safety to UK people in their holiday lets through their COVID-safe policies and measures. For those serious about investing in this department, safety is paramount to success.
Being able to protect people in case of an accident or emergency involving a holiday let is important. But investors also need to protect themselves if anything goes wrong as well.
Taking out insurance on a second property should lead to peace of mind. Guest screening protocols will also add to this comfort, knowing that the people renting are ‘good’ guests rather than ‘bad’ guests. Ensuring any company, property or community is protected will be the end goal for all investors, so getting guests to abide by all rules and regulations is critical.
Holiday Let Tax Relief
Lastly, another two benefits of staycations are the higher income potential and holiday let tax relief investors could stand to receive. Mike Liverton, the founder of Jetstream, has said some investors are “considering swapping buy-to-lets for holiday lets” to capitalise on “surging demand from pent-up holidaymakers.”
Understanding what counts as a furnished holiday letting is vital to know if a holiday let can gain from tax relief or not. With enough due diligence and effort put in to qualify, investors could reap the benefits, especially with growing trends such as guests staying in holiday properties for more extended periods, combining leisure with remote working. This is definitely an option to consider for serious investors as they could quickly see profits if done in the correct manner.
Assessing the current market and the expected boom revolving around it, staycations may literally be here to ‘stay’ for longer than anticipated.


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Aurora’s existing partner Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation, has invested in Aurora as part of a Series B financing round. The company has raised more than $600 million as part of its Series B financing.
Aurora has worked with Hyundai and Kia over the past year to develop the Aurora Driver’s integration into Hyundai’s flagship fuel-cell vehicle NEXO. Continuing the partnership, Aurora will expand research and development of a self-driving platform for a range of Hyundai and Kia’s models.
“We are pleased with the progress made with the Hyundai and Kia teams,” said Sterling Anderson, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Aurora. “Together with all of our ecosystem partners, we are seeing the convergence of a powerful platform that will deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.”
“Aurora is the leading innovator of self-driving technology, and we look forward to building a stronger collaborative partnership with them,” said Youngcho Chi, President and Chief Innovation Officer at Hyundai Motor Group. “Working closely with industry leaders around the world will help us develop fully self-driving vehicles that are safe and innovative for our customers.”
Aurora's self-driving system, the Aurora Driver, consists of the LiDAR, radar, and cameras that perceive the world around it and the computer that runs the software modules.
Hyundai Motor Group’s future mobility plans include commercialization of Level 4 autonomous vehicles by 2021 with the pilot launch of a fleet of autonomous robo-taxis in smart cities.


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Microsoft has announced a new Pinterest integration for OneNote and Word on the web that lets users embed Pinterest pins directly into their documents. The new feature should be particularly beneficial for educators, and it makes it easier to add interactive Pinterest content into their lesson plans and shared class notebooks.
The month of December is coming to a close, and it is now time to look back at the new features introduced in Microsoft 365 this year. In 2020, Microsoft announced plenty of new services and features to help users deal with the ongoing pandemic and adapts to remote learning or working.
As usual, we have divided this recap into different sections to highlight different Microsoft 365 apps and services, including OneDrive, Teams, Microsoft Outlook/Word/Excel, and more. Here’s a look at what you need to know.


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FEB 8, 2018
When looking at gold as an investment and a long-term store of value, one tends to focus on other the behavior of other gold investors, increasing federal government reserves, investment bank warehouse holdings, etc. But one of the beauties of gold is that there is a great deal of consumer demand for it, too. One of the beauties of gold is the beauty of gold.
Nowhere is this demand so pronounced as it is in China. And it is rising, especially among young consumers.
Wang Lixin, managing director of the WGC in China, said that annual demand in China last year was 8 percent higher than in 2016, comfortably above its five-year average of 284.8 tons.
"Looking at jewelry demand, China's 6 percent growth year-on-year in the sector in the fourth quarter heavily contributed to a 3 percent rise in annual jewelry demand－the first yearly increase since 2013," Wang said.


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Consumers didn’t come to their senses out of the blue, realizing all of a sudden that they’ve been wasting enormous sums of money on “mindless accumulation,” as a new book puts it. Instead, the Great Recession, with its destruction of investment portfolios, home values, and many people’s careers, has forced folks to come to an undeniable conclusion: The buy-happy-instant-gratification path they were on was simply, to use a popular word nowadays, unsustainable.
Now that the recession is over and the U.S. and world economy is supposedly on the road to recovery, we’re getting a good look at the “New Normal.” Not the trendy “new frugality,” in which some consumers refrained from conspicuous purchases because showing off demonstrated bad taste during a tough economic climate, and because all the cool kids were living cheaply, at least while terms like “frugal chic” were being tossed around. The real “New Normal” is one in which people are scaling back not to make due and get over a brief rough spell, but in which people are grimly adapting to genuine, long-term changes to spending habits, work, and expectations about, to use another popular word nowadays, lifestyles.
So what does the longer-lasting New Normal look like? A new report from the National Employment Law Project shows how the job market has evolved since the start of the recession. On the positive side, some industries have experienced job growth. But that positive is actually a negative for workers. How could that be? As the report says:
Growth has been concentrated in mid-wage and lower-wage industries. By contrast, higher-wage industries showed weak growth and even net losses…
Net job losses in 2008-2009 were widely distributed and included significant losses in higher-wage industries; by contrast, net job growth in 2010 has been driven disproportionately by industries with median wages below $15.00 a hour.
So, odds are that you’re more likely to be earning less than you did a few years ago—if you have a job at all, of course. You’re also more likely to have entered a world called “Perma-Templand,” in which disposable workers without benefits or anything close to job security are hired (Want good wages? Unlikely) and fired (Want a severance package or unemployment pay? Unlikely) periodically as befits the needs and whims of companies.
The other, obviously related part of the New Normal is a big, lasting change in how people shop and spend. Today, if you weren’t aware, marks the beginning of National Coupon Month, when a Coupon Fairy dressed in ragged thrift-store clothing visits homes and leaves bonus discounts for children who’ve been dutifully using their safety scissors to clip coupons in newspaper circulars. Join me in singing the Coupon Fairy song (“He knows when you’ve been browsing. He knows when you’re entering a credit card at Amazon.com’s checkout page.”)
Kidding, of course. Forgive me for the nonsense about the fairy. But pay attention to the factoids gathered on the National Coupon Month organizers. Particularly:
93% of shoppers said they will remain cautious and keep spending at their current level, even if the economy improves.
92% of shoppers have changed their grocery shopping behavior in the last two years.
In 2009, 88% of consumers said they used coupons when planning shopping lists; an increase of 10% from 2007.
51% of consumers indicate they will consider each purchase more carefully over the next five years.
These changes represent the New Normal, just as much as working for $10 an hour does. But how real and lasting is the idea that consumers just aren’t spending like they used to?
A SmartMoney post says consumer frugality is “hogwash” by taking the long view of the national savings rate:
Our current savings rate is well below the average of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and about on par with the first half of the ’90s…. [making it] plain that the eight or so years ended 2007 were anything but normal. They included two stock bubbles and a housing bubble – and wanton consumer spending.
The savings rate has now topped 5% for 20 consecutive months. Its average during this period? Just under 5.9%. Our crisis of frugality looks more like a return to normalcy, and perhaps we’re not quite there yet.
So perhaps the New Normal of saving more and spending less and more carefully is actually pretty similar to the old normal—or rather the older normal of the early ’90s. As for that decade or so ending in 2007? The norm of that era wasn’t normal at all. It was an anomaly, when “normal” people did things that would have looked stupid and abnormal to normal folks during most other eras.
However, what makes today’s New Normal different from the norms of older, more prudent times is that now and in the near future, we have an unemployment rate hovering around 10%, and those lucky enough to be employed are more likely to be earning an income hovering not much above minimum wage.
No matter how good consumers get at spending less, these factors also seem unsustainable.


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"Universities nationwide are facing the same challenge: how to make textbooks more relevant, meaningful and engaging for students. This problem has grown as the lack of student engagement—especially among general education classes—continues to be a contributing factor to today’s rapidly declining RPG (retention, progression, and graduation) rates."—Source: eCampus News
WHY THIS MATTERS:
At Kennesaw State University, replacing a textbook with online courseware didn't just keep students more engaged, it also made them more successful, cutting the DWFI (D, fail, withdraw, incomplete) rate by a whopping 48 percent.


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USA: Rainforest Cafe, Inc. Postpones Merger Vote
Rainforest Cafe, Inc., "A Wild Place to Shop and Eat®" (NASDAQ: RAIN) announced today that it is postponing until April 28, 2000 the Special Meeting of Shareholders which had been scheduled to be held on Tuesday, April 18, 2000. At the Special Meeting, shareholders will vote on a proposal to approve Rainforest's merger with Landry's Seafood Restaurants, Inc.
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Brooks uses Higg Co to reveal strategic changes they can make to their footwear products, for positive impact on runner and environment.
Brooks used the Higg Design & Development Module (Higg DDM) to unlock knowledge, develop a baseline, uncover trends, and create a sustainable path forward for some of their most popular products.
In order to manage their supply chain impact, Brooks started with Higg Co at step one: measuring to establish a baseline.
Brooks conducted Higg Design & Development Module (Higg DDM) assessments on three of their most popular footwear styles, and six of their most popular apparel styles. They looked at the historic performance of these styles dating back to Spring 2016, to develop a baseline assessment, to uncover trends and for historical analysis.
In Spring 2020, they plan to use the Higg DDM during the product creation process for these select styles.
The intuitive format was key in helping them progress. “A single score also allows us to benchmark ourselves against other products in our company and our industry,” said David Kemp, Brooks’ Sustainability Manager. “We rely on the Higg DDM to help keep pushing us forward.”
And the more brands who use these tools, the better the industry benchmarking gets. “Knowing how we compare within our industry is important for driving strategic decisions,” Kemp said.
We look forward to helping Brooks continue to improve their supply chain impact along the way.


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Dick-Smith recently opened a new-look Queen Street store, which can be seen as the maiden example of the change to the electronic retailer's branding.
The new store is slicker, apart from being more established. The store boasts of interactive areas, which will enable customers to touch, feel and test the products they are interested in.
"Our new store format features the latest computers, communications, cameras, gaming and entertainment brands and products. Technology is becoming a basic commodity of life so we have designed a new store to provide customers with a place to find all their technology needs in one location," said NZ Country Manager James Cunnold.
Grand opening events and specials would be hosted by the Queen St store from 7 to 9 August.
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- Vodafone adding 34 European countries to ‘AU$5 per day’ international roaming option
- Telstra launches its new ‘Every Day Connect Data Share Packages’
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Justice Dept. sues VW for cheating on vehicle emissions tests
The Department of Justice has sued German car manufacturer Volkswagen, which includes other brands Audi, Porsche, and Lamborghini, for its use of software in hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests.
In one of the biggest scandals in the history of the auto industry, Volkswagen was found last year to have been using software which manipulated the information collected by tests carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency. In September, Volkswagen admitted the software was used in SUVs and diesel cars as far back as the 2009 model year.
The DOJ, which filed suit in US District Court on behalf of the EPA on Monday in Detroit, charges that almost 600,000 vehicles were affected. The software hid the automobiles’ potential greenhouse gas emissions, but once outside of testing conditions, it turned off, allowing for the full performance power which emitted up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide than federal standards allow.
"Car manufacturers that fail to properly certify their cars and that defeat emission control systems breach the public trust, endanger public health and disadvantage competitors," John C. Cruden, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ, said in a statement.
"The United States will pursue all appropriate remedies against Volkswagen to redress the violations of our nation's clean air laws alleged in the complaint," Cruden added.
The nearly 70-year-old company, which posted over $13 billion in profits in 2014, faces fines of more than $18 billion and compulsory recalls if it is found in violation of the Clean Air Act. Atop that, other criminal charges could still be filed by the federal government, plus many private and class-action lawsuits are expected as well, representing a possibly crippling future for Volkswagen.
The lawsuit was brought after the EPA felt Volkswagen was not cooperative enough in fixing the software issue which affected five Volkswagen models and six Audi models spanning 2009 to 2016, as well as the diesel version of the last three model years of the Porsche Cayenne.
“So far, recall discussions with the company have not produced an acceptable way forward,” Cynthia Giles, EPA assistant administrator of its Enforcement and Compliance Assurance office, said in the statement.
“These discussions will continue in parallel with the federal court action,” Giles added.


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Glossier names Amazon vet Melissa Eamer as new COO
Digital-first beauty brand Glossier has reportedly poached Melissa Eamer for its new chief operating officer, tempting the top Amazon executive away after a 19-year stint at the Seattle-based e-commerce giant.
As reported by CNBC on Friday, Eamer will assume responsibility for overseeing the growth-driving parts of Glossier’s business when she joins the company, while the brand’s founder and CEO, Emily Weiss, will maintain her focus on core branding, community building, content and product expansion.
At Amazon, Eamer most recently served as VP for sales and marketing of Amazon devices, having previously filled positions including VP for consumer engagement, VP for sports, outdoors & toys, technical advisor for the company’s consumer business, director of the Kindle Content Store, and director for home & garden.
Before joining Amazon, the executive, who holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and a BA in English from the University of Vermont, served as marketing manager at Microcosm, Ltd and sales coordinator at Chapters Publishing.
“I am grateful for 19 years at Amazon and very excited to start my next chapter as COO of Glossier,” said Eamer in a post shared on her LinkedIn profile. “The opportunity to work at a customer obsessed beauty company filled with super smart people and a visionary founder seems strangely familiar.”
Founded in 2014, Glossier was valued at $1.2 billion earlier this year, when it secured $100 million in a series D funding round led by Sequioa Capital. Since then, the company, which has a strong millennial following, has been building out its leadership team with a series of strategic executive hires.
In March, Glossier appointed Vanessa Wittman as its new chief financial officer, while later in the same month the brand tapped former Elle.com digital director Leah Chernikoff as its head of content.
As the company pushes forward with its expansion, Glossier also launched its first Glossiwear apparel and accessories collection in July.
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Disneyland Paris, which has been closed since October 2020, will remain closed up until April 2021 at the very least due to “prevailing conditions” regarding the Coronavirus aka COVID-19 in Europe!
The Park says in an official statement posted to their Twitter account: “Due to the prevailing conditions in Europe, Disneyland Paris will not reopen on the 13th of February as initially planned. If conditions permit, we will reopen on the 2nd of April 2021 and will welcome reservations from that date forward. Given the current context our plans continue to evolve, but please know that we will make every effort to share with you any updates as soon as it is possible.”
The European theme park first closed its doors in March 2020 due to COVID-19 and was set to reopen in July – however they shut down again in October 2021 while the President of France Emmanuel Macron put the country into lockdown! Other Disney parks including DisneyLand Hong Kong, DisneyLand California, DisneyLand Tokyo, Walt Disney World in Florida, and DisneyLand Shangai are currently open but operating with limited capacity.
Due to the prevailing conditions in Europe, Disneyland Paris will not reopen on the 13th of February as initially planned. If you have a booking with us during the closing period, please check our website for our latest commercial conditions: https://t.co/3c0DbxYPLC pic.twitter.com/yom7cB4it3
— Disneyland Paris EN (@DisneyParis_EN) January 18, 2021


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Neil writes: "It's been around since 1995, but with PES 2018 dipping its toes into the mobile scene, Konami are today able to announce 100 million sales of their footballing franchise. That calls for some serious celebration."
I would celebrate, but screw Konami
N4G is a community of gamers posting and discussing the latest game news. It’s part of NewsBoiler, a network of social news sites covering today’s pop culture.


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Hasbro Pulse Con returns September 30 and October 1
Hasbro has announced the return of Hasbro Pulse Con 2022 on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, which promises fans one-of-a-kind experiences to celebrate the company’s iconic brands. Reaching fans in the US, Canada, UK and Germany, Hasbro Pulse Con will be livestreamed exclusively on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel.
Hasbro Pulse Con 2022 will feature engaging brand panels, exclusive content drops, over 55 new product reveals, celebrity appearances, exclusive Hasbro Pulse Premium Member opportunities, the long-awaited launch of Hasbro Selfie Series, and music from West Coast hip hop legend DJ Amen. The event will showcase content from Hasbro’s iconic brands, including Transformers, Starting Lineup, Fortnite, G.I. JOE, Power Rangers, Avalon Hill and Magic: The Gathering, along with premier collaboration brands, including Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Marvel.
Actor, influencer, artist, and entrepreneur Khleo Thomas returns to host this pop culture and fandom celebration and co-host DJ Amen will join him. The festivities will kick off with an exciting pre-show on Sept 30 at 8 a.m. PT.
During the virtual event, fans will be able to preorder Hasbro Pulse Con Exclusive items, including:
- Star Wars The Vintage Collection The Rescue Set Multipack
- Star Wars: The Black Series Cassian Andor & B2EMO
- G.I. JOE Classified Series Serpentor & Air Chariot
- Transformers: Legacy A Hero is Born: Alpha Trion & Orion Pax 2- Pack
- Magic The Gathering: Stay tuned for a new Secret Lair drop
Hasbro Pulse Con Exclusive product images can be found HERE.
Additionally, Hasbro is partnering with Toys for Tots for this year’s event. For every viewer of Hasbro Pulse Con 2022, Hasbro will donate two toys or games to Toys for Tots, up to 60,000 pieces.
Attendees of Hasbro Pulse Con can expect a robust lineup of programming, including multiple new collaboration announcements and the highly anticipated launch of Hasbro Selfie Series, the new personalization platform that allows fans to add their own face to debuting figures with fan-favorite character costume designs from Marvel, G.I. JOE, Ghostbusters, and Power Rangers, as well as designs inspired by Star Wars heroes. Additional programming details and scheduling for Hasbro Pulse Con will be announced soon.


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Event marketing automation platform Evvnt has announced a new partnership with Site Impact, an email marketing operator for the newspaper industry.
Evvnt is a dynamic event marketing automation platform which syndicates events content to multiple event listing sites and calendars as a service. The new integration will bring email to the forefront of Evvnt’s product offering for promoters and venues, incorporating email marketing into an existing event listing.
Utilising our email marketing capabilities on Evvnt’s innovative platform expands our ability to connect event organisers with their ideal event-goer,” said Jennifer Gressman, Site Impact’s vice president of operations. “Email marketing has become a crucial revenue stream for print and digital media companies and Evvnt is the perfect platform to bring that to the forefront.”
Richard Green, CEO of Evvnt, added: “Consumers love email and we wanted to make it as simple as possible for local event organisers to create and send communications marketing their events to a targeted, opt-in audience.
“Our mission was to enable customers to create, target and send an email in three clicks, to an audience of up to 500,000 potential local customers, with no technical expertise required.”


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Laticrete, a global manufacturer and a leader of premium installation and finishing systems for the building industry, has announced the promotion of three key personnel within its technical services department.
Bostik, Inc., a manufacturer of adhesives and sealants, was the recipient of the CLEARselect™ Award for “Most Preferred Brand of Urethane Grouts,” which was presented on January 29, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV, during Surfaces 2014.
Andean Stone Co., the Miami, FL-based sales, warehousing and distribution logistics center for Minera Roca Andina has introduced a completely new totally revamped and easy-to-use website for 2014 at www.andeanstonecompany.com.
Blanco, the German innovator of finely crafted sinks and faucets, has added two more distinguished honors to their list of accolades -- the 2013 International Davey Awards silver win for the Blanco 2013 showroom catalog and for the Blanco faucet brochure.
The store, located at 1400 N. Interstate 35E, has 3,500 square feet of warehouse and showroom space, and will allow the company to better serve customers across the region with stock on hand and experts in the store.
Tony Malisani, of natural stone fabricator Malisani, Inc., has been elected President of the Marble Institute of America (MIA), the 1,600-member global organization representing the natural stone industry.
For this issue, we are excited to share with you four features that focus on using compact and ultrathin slabs in both residential and commercial projects. As these products continue to gain popularity, we wanted to share different ideas of applications, including an upscale dining environment in the interior of a Saks Fifth Avenue.


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SCIPL files suit against Tata Motors Ltd on use of 'Ultra T.Series' trademark
Friday,25 February 2022 05:12 PM IST
New Delhi, Feb 25
The Super Cassettes Industries Pvt Ltd (SCIPL) has filed a suit in Delhi High Court seeking a permanent injunction against Tata Motors Limited (TML) from using the marks 'Ultra T.Series' or 'Ultra Sleek T-Series Range' in Tata Motors Range of Trucks.
In the plea, SCIPL has claimed that the mark 'T-Series' is a registered mark of SCIPL under Class 12 since October 13, 1989.
It has been alleged that the second week of March 2021 it came to know that TML has launched a product under the impugned mark 'T-Series'/'T.Series' which is identical to SCIPL's mark 'T-Series.'
TML launched the video for the product 'Ultra Sleek T-Series range' on Youtube which has more than 2,32,800 views. The launch of the product is promoted under the mark T-Series and is widely reported on various news platforms, it said.
The matter was listed on Friday before the bench of Justice Amit Bansal, wherein Tata Motors Ltd. was represented by Senior Advocate Sanjeev Sindwani along with a team of advocates from Karanjawala & Co.
It was contended on behalf of TML that the present case is misplaced as there has in fact been no trademark infringement or passing off as alleged in the plaint.
It was submitted on behalf of Tata Motors Ltd. that in March 2021 a new range of smaller cabins on TATA Ultra were introduced which included a series of vehicles and its variants including T.6, T.7, T.9. The launch included a series of vehicles across Ultra range i.e. T.6 Cab, T.6 High Deck load body, T.6 Half Side load body, T.7 Cab, T.7 High Deck load body, T.7 Half Side load body, T.9 Cab, T.9 High Deck load body, T.9 Half Side load body.
The vehicles were registered with ARAI also as T.6, T.7, T.9 . This series of vehicles signifying a cluster and that 'series' was used as a descriptive word. It was submitted that in the automobile industry the term 'series' is used as a descriptive word signifying a cluster of vehicles.
Other automobile giants like Audi, BMW, Scania also use the term 'series' to launch a line of new vehicles. It was submitted by way of illustration that BMW has 7 series, Audi has Q series.
In view of the submissions advanced, the Court was of the view that the matter can be resolved amicably since it pertained to two well-known and reputed companies.
In view of the same, the matter was adjourned for four weeks so as to enable the parties to amicably resolve the issue.


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CLEVELAND — Vendors remain upset with the slow pace of improvements at the more than 100-year-old West Side Market.
But it’s not just the outdated electrical system, the malfunctioning coolers, damp and moldy basement or broken elevators. Some vendors could fill a lunch hour talking about the structure’s physical problems -- and the city’s broken promises to fix them.
The real issue, some vendors told 3News, is the city’s failure to embrace a new way of managing and marketing the landmark, which still offers fresh meats, fish and baked goods.
Don Whitaker, president of United West Side Market Tenants Association, said Darnell Brown, the city’s chief of operations, has agreed to explore dramatic changes. Among them: adding a customer hub – which would function as an onsite concierge – and bring online shopping to the market.
“People have to be educated on how to shop down here,” said Whitaker, who’s sold meats in the market for the last 29 years. “It’s different than a grocery store.”
Whitaker said he envisions people placing orders in person or online and then visiting nearby restaurants and bars.
“You come here, and you got all these bars and restaurants and you do your shopping. It’s like a coat check, you put in your bags, and go have a beer and go to the restaurants and come back …. It’s part of the evolution you have to keep up on.”
Whitaker also said that city is seeking to hire a marketing firm to better sell the market experience in the fast-changing grocery market in Cleveland. He said a study by a Cleveland State University class found “everyone in the city loves the market, you just have to remind them about it.“
Several longtime vendors are leaving when their current leases are up, vendors told 3News. They declined to speak on the record.
Exactly how many vendors will be left in 2020 is unknown.
Mayor Frank Jackson’s office refused to make someone available to talk on camera. Instead, his office posted on Facebook an interview with Brown conducted by a member of his press staff.
3News is not using material from the interview because reporters were not present to ask questions.
Spokeswoman Latoya Hunter did confirm several issues, including that the city is considering creating an online shopping program.
The city has said it has invested millions in the market in recent years, most notably to the market's parking lot, which now charges $1 per hour, after 90 minutes of free parking.
Vendors’ reaction to the parking changes remain mixed. One vendor, who did not want to speak on record, citing his lease’s prohibition on talking to reporters about market issues, said his older customers have stopped coming because of the paid parking, and the poor communication about the free time.
The parking gates have also slowed traffic entering the market from Lorain Avenue, which creates congestion on Saturdays, the markets busiest days.
Whitaker said the city is promising to change the gates and traffic pattern entering the market.
A couple of produce vendors pulled 3News aside Monday and shared photos of the market’s basement. These included images of the coolers’ thermometers, which were showing temperatures below those prescribed to keep the food cold. Other photos showed leaky ceilings and discolored walls.
The city has said it’s completed a capital assessment of the building and is in the process of awarding a design contract for over $5.5 million in planned improvements. This includes upgrading the electrical system.


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Small businesses represent the overwhelming majority of our members, volunteers, and are sometimes the individuals actively involved in group service. Customized by area for our international readers in US, Europe, and Asia, the brand new app allows users to access Businessweek anytime, anyplace for perception and analysis on the global tales that matter most.
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Find out how business groups have organized city-broad advertising and marketing campaigns to shift shopper spending again to locally-owned businesses.
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Every year the Faculty of Enterprise devotes a particular a part of a semester to foster interactions with business leaders and students in an effort to provide them with additional real-world enterprise experiences past what is covered of their lessons. Per week of FREE workshops, drop-ins and seminars geared toward giving Pendle companies a boost is again by widespread demand for the seventhÂ year. Meet the various metropolis departments that small companies interact with, get on-the-spot advising, and learn to do business successfully in Oakland.
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With the evolution of web and ecommerce, dropshipping has increased multifold. Additionally, even though there have been quite a few research in the West about successfully implementing social media advertising campaigns, the results of these research could or might not apply to the Lebanese context. Leadership within the goal advertising company was fast paced, speculative and challenging.


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Google LLC said today it’s teaming up with the business planning software provider Anaplan Inc., in a partnership that will help that company’s customers take advantage of its unique cloud capabilities.
Anaplan sells an enterprise platform of the same name that’s used for business planning. Its platform is centered on an in-memory database and calculation engine called HyperBlock that enables customers to organize and analyze disparate sets of data quickly from finance, human resources, sales and other business operations.
One key advantage of Anaplan’s platform is its Excel-style functionality, which helps make it more accessible to ordinary business workers. The software includes modules to help make data-driven decisions in key areas such as budgeting, demand, quota and workforce planning, planning and forecasting, commission calculation, financial consolidation and profitability modeling.
By running its platform on Google Cloud, Anaplan will gain better performance and more scalability, and benefit from more secure infrastructure, Google said.
In addition, Google Cloud will help provide a boost to Anaplan’s data storage and analytics capabilities via integrations with BigQuery and Google’s artificial intelligence and machine learning services. The integrations make it possible to blend Anaplan data with third-party information to provide more in depth analysis, for example.
Ana Pinczuk, senior vice president and chief development officer at Anaplan, told SiliconANGLE that the integrations would enable customers to innovate more by going up the stack and leveraging the value of Google’s AI and machine learning capabilities. For example, a retailer in Asia Pacific could look at broader economic and consumer data behavior to optimize its supply chain and intelligence forecasting, she said.
Besides that, the partnership enables Anaplan to extend its global reach, so customers can use its platform at closer proximity to their business operations to comply with local and industry-specific data residency and compliance requirements.
“We have a global footprint but this leverages the power and reach Google Cloud has,” Pinczuk said. “We can offer [our platform] much more locally now, in countries where we don’t have a presence.”
Google said it can vouch for the effectiveness of Anaplan running on its cloud. That’s because it’s a customer itself, having used Anaplan to orchestrate financial planning and analysis, sales and operations planning, call center forecasting and more, across multiple business units, teams and geographies, since 2016. All of Google’s Anaplan workloads run on Google Cloud, it said.
Pinczuk said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several ways in which enterprise’s business planning strategies can be improved. She said companies that typically relied on quarterly or annual plans have now shifted to monthly or weekly plans to account for rapidly changing economic dynamics, for example. Meanwhile, enterprises have realized that simple things such as spreadsheets simply won’t suffice anymore when people are working remotely.
“What used to be annoying before is just not possible in a remote pandemic world, and so we’re seeing an influx of digital transformation,” Pinczuk said. “Customers are demanding this foundation of enterprise planning that’s all digital. Things are changing so fast that the connection between finance and sales or finance and supply chain is much more important.”
Siddhartha Agarwal, Google Cloud’s managing director of software-as-a-service partnerships and co-innovation, told SiliconANGLE that it was this trend that brought the two companies closer together. He said Anaplan’s customers need more compute capacity and better performance, and they need the ability to do things remotely.
“Change is constant and accelerating,” Agarwal said, who added that change is happening across all lines of business, HR, supply chain, finance and more.
Agarwal said Google is working with a number of global systems integrators to help customers deploy Anaplan on its cloud, including Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., Accenture Plc. and Wipro Ltd. These GSIs can help customers better plan their migrations to Google Cloud and work out the best way to leverage BigQuery and its AI and ML tools, he said.
“System integrators love this opportunity, and it can bring thought leadership to the C-suite,” Agarwal said. “All have significant Google Cloud practices and all use Anaplan.”
With reporting from Robert Hof
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In this week’s PeerIQ Industry Update they cover the slowing growth rate of consumer credit which points to consumers being more cautious about borrowing; Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released proposals for a 15 percent cap on credit card interest rates and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the CFPB; Peer IQ takes a deep dive in credit card earnings for American Express, Capital One, Discover and Synchrony; data shows delinquencies are up by remain far below peaks and card companies are increasing loan loss reserves as normalization continues. Source.
Todd is the host of PitchIt: the fintech startups podcast, a weekly interview show featuring emerging fintech founders and leading venture capitalists. He is responsible for leading the content team which covers fintech through daily & weekly email newsletters, editorial, virtual events, and in-person conferences. He has been covering fintech, banking, and venture capital for more than 15 years, including speaking regularly at industry events.


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By Matthew Parker, CEO of Lumesse,
Matthew Parker discusses the key talent issues facing the retail sector and how technology can help overcome these challenges.
Over the last decade technology has revolutionised the retail industry. The internet and the growth of online shopping has not only helped many retailers cut costs and improve efficiencies, it has expanded the customer experience and customer choice. But how else can technology aid the growth of the sector?
As consumer spending slows across the UK and retail competition increases, it’s obvious that staff talent is one major differentiator that is vital to success. But great people are hard to find and hard to keep — so there is an opportunity to use technology behind the scenes, developing a retailer’s workforce and employer brand. For a people and service-driven industry, recruiting, retaining and managing the best possible talent will go a long way to ensuring the success of an organisation, both from a financial and brand perception perspective.
But finding the right talent within the retail sector has become an increasingly difficult task. Considering the industry’s high staff turnover, varying seasonal demands, a volatile economic climate and vastly different positions to fill, it’s little wonder that attracting and retaining the right talent remains an ongoing battle. Effective development and deployment of retail talent means continually managing the pipeline of people and work, by matching and moving the best internal and external talent to the positions for which they are most suitable. However, according to a survey of retailers by Deloitte, 41 per cent said that they do not have the HR technology to support talent management within their organisations.
Retail is a high-turnover industry and when employees are less committed to their organisations they are often less satisfied with their jobs and therefore less likely to stay with their current employer. Not only can HR technology improve retention rates, by developing and promoting talent from within, it can support recruitment processes, helping the retailers meet their diverse talent needs — from recruiting customer-facing employees to senior roles in corporate headquarters.
Whether a retailer is large or small, the talent acquisition challenge remains the same — accessing the best local talent in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest cost. One of the UK’s leading retailers, WHSmith, implemented an online recruitment solution to help address this. Relying on its manual, paper-based processes meant that recruiting the 4-6,000 new staff needed each year was extremely time intensive. The solution not only eased the administrative burden, but created a better applicant experience, because they could receive prompt, high-quality responses at every step of the process. As is the case with the majority of retailers, WHSmith understood that most of the company’s 17,000 staff were customers before they became employees, so offering a candidate-friendly recruitment process was important for maintaining its brand perception.
The company had to overcome the common perception that the retail industry provides a stop-gap career. The dispersed nature of large retail organisations can make it difficult for retailers to align its employees with the business objectives and maximise an individual’s productivity by highlighting career progression opportunities. Performance management has the potential to close the loop on HR practices, and, when done right, can help employees see retail as a viable career choice. It not only helps retailers achieve the most from their employees once onboard, but helps retain them within the organisation, by keeping them engaged.
As the industry evolves, retailers should turn to technology to improve their people management process and to find and nurture their talent. Tomorrow’s leading retailers are already taking to steps to create and refine their talent processes, streamline internal operations and focus on their customers. According to research from talent experts Bersin & Associates, organisations that develop mature talent processes promote twice as many employees, are 92 per cent better at creating a pipeline of successors and are 68 per cent more able to plan for future talent needs. Retailers around the world understand that just as technology has been used to optimise inventories and supply chains, they need to appreciate its value in refining retail talent processes throughout the employee lifecycle. Great people are a hugely valuable asset, and using the right talent management solutions can reduce costs, increase efficiencies and align individual effort with organisational goals to help retail managers lead their companies to success in the future.
Join us on


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- |Sustained consumer spending brings $jfc as among the favorites|
- | Smashburger & CBTL’s to profitability adds a positive element to the outlook |
- | Confidence of prospects for the the year remains leading |
| A promising $JFC |
Despite investors unloading shares of Jollibee Foods Corp. for the majority of 2019 due to profitability concerns, the stock may once again be back on the shopping list with one analyst saying the current stock price is already at a bargain.
The Caktiong-led company was the ninth most traded stock last week, with P381.92 million worth of 1.77 million shares exchanged hands on the local bourse during the two-day trading week from Jan. 2 to 3, data from the Philippine Stock Exchange showed.
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Amway mulls exports from India, to up global sourcing
- Union Cabinet recommends President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh
- Rafale jet deal on right track, says French President Hollande ahead of India visit
- Three girls commit suicide in Tamil Nadu, blaming college, high fees
- Tavleen Singh's column: Could Rohith have been saved?
- Netaji files: Centre rejected probe reports twice, to assert ‘Bose dead’
Amway India Enterprises, better known as Amway, a direct selling FMCG company, is seriously considering exporting products to neighbouring countries and make India as a sourcing hub for herbs, concentrates to its global operations.
The company is targeting to become a $1-billion company by 2020 for which it is setting up its first manufacturing facility in India in Tamil Nadu with an estimated investment of R500 crore, said William Scott Pinckney, managing director and CEO, Amway India.
In an interview with the FE, Pinckney, who was in Chennai to announce the launch of a slew of new women healthcare supplements, said: "We are bullish on our growth prospects in India. We will definitely consider exporting range of products to countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, UAE and West Asia once our manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu goes on stream by end of 2014. Since the plant is coming up at Nilakottai near Madurai, which has a port facility in the near vicinity of Tuticorin, Amway will definitely consider exporting as a potential opportunity as it would make lot of sense for us."
To a question on whether the company will do away with contract manufacturing owing to its own upcoming plant in Tamil Nadu, he said: "No. Not at all. We are expanding and we have set a target to become a $1-billion company by 2020 from calendar 2012 level of R2,288 crore. We have been growing at a CAGR of over 20%. We will continue to contract manufacture to meet our targets and for expansion. However, we have plans to move some products , currently manufactured at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh to our own plant in Tamil Nadu."
Currently, Baddi plant manufactures 85% of Amway's products and the company had invested around Rs 105 crore into this contract manufacturing, he added.


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The Galaxy Book2 will be available online at from AT&T, Microsoft, and Samsung starting Nov. 2, and will be available in stores at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon later in the month. Samsung says that the Galaxy Book 2 can last up to 20 hours on a charge, while Qualcomm promises a 20% increase in battery life over its previous Windows 10 processor. On the outside, the Galaxy Book 2 looks very much like a clone of Microsoft's detachable, thanks to its new kickstand. Samsung 2018 Galaxy Book 12" FHD+ 2-in-1 Touchscreen Tablet Laptop Computer, Intel Core i5-7200U up to 3.10GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, AC WIFI, Bluetooth 4.1, USB Type-C, Detachable KB, Windows 10 … But Samsung … Samsung's latest Surface wannabe has a surprising twist.
Questions To Ask While Reading A Book,
Satopanth Expedition 2018,
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City Of Reno Street Parking Rules,
Samsung Wa50t5300ac Manual,


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Northern Foods profit plunge
NORTHERN Foods is likely to be forced to sell a major part of its operations after its recent dramatic profits slump, insiders predicted this weekend.
The group warned last week that profits for the financial year about to end were likely to be only £45 million, down from £62.2 million in the previous 12 months.
Chief executive Pat O'Driscoll plans a 'strategic review to examine the business model, product portfolio and cost base'.
Northern's share price, 1601/2p when she arrived in April 2004, has dropped to 1023/4p.
Northern said no option was ruled out, but people with intimate knowledge of the group predicted that one of the group's three businesses - chilled food, pizzas and biscuits - was likely to be sold.
The most likely disposal is Northern's operation making biscuits under the Fox's name and for supermarkets to sell under their own label.
There has been ferocious price cutting in the biscuit market as sector leader United Biscuits battled to win share ahead of an expected float by its three three private equity owners.
While total biscuit sales have declined, UB brands such as McVitie's Chocolate Digestive, Jaffa Cakes and Go-Ahead have taken market share from rivals.
Northern said last week its biscuit sales in January and February were down 12 per cent on a year earlier.
O'Driscoll has issued three profits warnings. Some expected her to resign last week and now think she may go at the end of May.
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Research on the problems that led to the withdrawal of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 have been completed and Samsung will release the results during a press conference on Monday from Seoul.
According to the company said on its Web site press , both Samsung and researchers to independent organizations will then know the results of what actually happened in the manufacturing process of the now defunct device.
The company also said that it will communicate the new measures it has implemented to prevent this type of problems from being repeated in its production line.
Several reports have claimed that Samsung will blame the battery and not to the manufacturing process phone, which left little room for this and threatened their internal stability, as suggested independent investigations published so far.
The Samsung conference comes exactly one month before the company arrives in Barcelona for its participation in the World Mobile Devices Congress (MWC), where it yearly tends to launch its flagship device of the year.
In 2016 the protagonists were the Galaxy S7 and S7 Galaxy Edge, although several rumors suggest that this year the Galaxy S8 be presented during another event later in the year.


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Wal-Mart employees will fork up between 8 and 36 percent more in premiums for their medical plan in 2013, resulting in approximately 1.4 million workers to precede coverage in general, according to a report from Reuters.
Wal-Mart workers received the notification via standard mail. Corporate stated that rates would rise because healthcare costs have steadily increased. Wal-Mart states that costs will rise 4.4 percent for next year. In comparison, it is less than the 9 percent increase that is coming for all Americans next year.
This could be a protocol for other companies to use to control their expenses while also hitting the stipulations of Obamacare.
The law is supposed to lessen health costs but some wonder if it will work and how long it will take to work nationwide. Big companies have tried to control health expenses as they have been increasing by a 6 percent margin every year.
Wal-Mart will cover the normal checkups of workers. Workers need to pay deductibles of a minimum $1,750 before the company funds 80 percent of the cost of care like doctor appointments and other tests. Wal-Mart will chip in extra contributions for individuals and double that figure for families.
Some employees claim the bumps in price have forced them to shed their plan for next year.
More than 50 percent of Wal-Mart’s workers utilize healthcare. They are given the same plans as top officials in Bentonville, Arkansas Wal-Mart headquarters.
In October, Wal-Mart announced it would take care of all costs. Almost 66 percent of employees have signed up to take care of only themselves. Rates for sole individuals jump $2 to $11 per paycheck, about 13 to 23 percent. However, when they cover their families it could boost from 8 to 36 percent.
The company does have a few plans with premiums that are underneath the country average. Their lowest plan will be $17.40 or every two-week paycheck next year.
“Over the past few years we’ve all seen the cost of health care continue to rise nationwide, and 2013 is no different,” Wal-Mart said in a statement. “As a result, we are adjusting rates for some of our health care plan choices. We are doing our best to keep health care costs as low as possible for our associates.”
National studies show the average worker spends $79 a month for individual coverage.
Premiums are likely to rise 6.3 percent next year across the board.
New hires who are part-time workers must work at least 30 hours a week before they are eligible for coverage. It used to be 24 hours.
No matter what Obamacare has brought about, Wal-Mart says they would need to boost premiums anyway for 2013.
Those who have relinquished their plans are members of a brigade called “OUR Wal-Mart”. The group wants to discuss the healthcare conundrum as well as pay and hours.Employees at Wal-Mart to Pay More for Healthcare by Harrison Barnes


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Slack users can now get breaking news from NFC World delivered into their favourite news channel. We’ve made a special compact and clutter-free feed that you can add to the popular team messaging and collaboration tool by typing “/feed subscribe www.nfcworld.com/slack” into your channel of choice.
- Spanish clothing retailer to roll out QR code payments
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While GMV serves as the Tupac Trust Nobody Photo 2020 shirt besides I will buy this ultimate fashion recap this season, each of Elsesser’s looks are just as much a celebration of American design talent as the show itself. From a Telfar shirt to Agmes earrings, shop the edit below and get acquainted with some of America’s best design talent.
President Donald Trump made it official this past weekend, less than 24 hours after the Tupac Trust Nobody Photo 2020 shirt besides I will buy this death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “I will be putting forth a nominee next week,” Trump said during a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Saturday night. “It will be a woman.” He went on to add: “Article II of the Constitution says that the president shall nominate justices of the Supreme Court. I don’t think it can be any more clear, can it?” His announcement prompted chants of “Fill that seat! Fill that seat!”


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President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum Thursday, continuing a tough stance on trade despite pleas from many within his own party, including from Georgia’s two Republican senators.
Mr. Trump slapped 25 percent duties on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, using a 1962 law that allows the president to tax imports to protect national security.
Supporters praised the move as necessary to bring back industries decimated by foreign competition. Flanked by steel workers during a White House briefing, Mr. Trump said the U.S. would no longer “betray” its own workers.
Critics say the move is short-sighted and risks touching off a global trade war while harming other sectors like the auto industry — now a Georgia mainstay — which will see the cost of inputs rise.
Canada and Mexico were exempted from the tariffs for now, but that could change if NAFTA talks go south, Mr. Trump said.
“We’re going to hold off on tariffs for those two countries to see whether or not we’re going to make the deal on NAFTA,” the president said.
Other countries have 15 days before the tariffs go into effect to plead their cases for exemption with the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
“America will remain open to modifying or removing the tariffs for individual nations as long as we can agree on a way to ensure that their products no longer threaten our security,” Mr. Trump said just before signing the order.
Mr. Trump hinted that exemptions for allies like Germany, South Korea and Japan — all major steel producers and home to auto makers with factories in the South — could hinge on their flexibility on military and security cooperation and funding.
Up until today, Mr. Trump had maintained that the tariffs would apply equally to all countries, but his shift U.S. Sen. David Perdue right. The Georgia Republican, widely considered to be one of the closest legislative allies of the president, had predicted Mr. Trump would take a more pragmatic approach.
“I think his instincts are right, and I think you’ll see a more targeted approach as we get into the details of this,” Mr. Perdue said Wednesday on CNBC.
Sen. Johnny Isakson was more blunt about the potential harm to a globally integrated Georgia economy, calling the tariffs a headwind to the manufacturing recovery and a “new tax on American consumers.”
But he also argued hinted that he’d be more supportive if Mr. Trump backed away from a blanket tax on all countries.
“It is my hope that the administration will work to address unfair trade policies and overcapacity by certain global actors that have plagued these industries, but with a targeted approach that does not harm American workers and consumers,” Mr. Isakson said in a statement March 1.
Atlanta-based aluminum giant Novelis (owned by Indian conglomerate the Birla Group) didn’t disagree with the premise that protecting the U.S. industry was vital to national security.
But the company praised the Canadian exemption while saying more needs to be done to address the real culprit: China.
“Novelis believes in free trade, and while we support the decision to exempt Canada from tariffs due to the vital connection between the Canadian and U.S. aluminum industries, we do not believe broad aluminum tariffs on imports address the core problem of aluminum overcapacity in China,” the company said in a statement emailed to Global Atlanta.
Ambassador Charles Shapiro, former U.S. envoy to Venezuela and current president of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, warned Tuesday of a tit-for-tat response from U.S. trade partners.
Everything Mr. Shapiro needed to know about trade relationships he learned on the playground of E. Rivers Elementary School, the Atlanta native said in a speech to the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta.
“If you push somebody, they will push you back,” he said during his luncheon address. “If you trip somebody, they will trip you. And if you raise tariffs they will raise tariffs on you.”
Mr. Trump’s tariff order came the same day 11 countries signed a revised version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Santiago, Chile. The U.S. had pushed for the pact covering 40 percent of the global economy, but Mr. Trump bowed out of it on his first day in office.
That said, Mr. Trump could have other priorities on his mind, Mr. Shapiro said.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if this decision has more to do with domestic U.S. politics than it does with the realities of international trade.”


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BOSTON ( TheStreet) -- That cool new smartphone you got this holiday season can help you find a cool new place to live if you're planning on going house-hunting in 2013.
That's because real estate firms, listing services, mortgage companies and more have thousands of free smartphone apps available to help you find your piece of the American Dream.
"There are a number of different apps that can show you what houses are for sale or what's previously sold near wherever you happen to be," says Daniel Terdiman, a senior writer at electronics-review site CNET.com who's using mobile apps in his family's search for a San Francisco-area home.
Terdiman says good house-hunting apps use your smartphone's global-positioning system to figure out where you are, then provide a wealth of information about nearby listings."These apps are definitely a good thing to have when we're out and about looking at houses," he says. "It's like filling in the gaps of things you can't know about a listing because you're not near a computer." Here's a look at six free smartphone apps that anyone who's looking for a new pad should definitely check out: Redfin
This property-listing app from Web-based real estate firm Redfin is Terdiman's favorite. "The interface is very intuitive, and they've really spent a lot of time thinking about what people looking for houses actually need," he says. Redfin's app uses your choice of a touchscreen map or a powerful search engine to look up current listings, recent sales or upcoming open houses anywhere in America. Simply enter a ZIP code or the name of a city or neighborhood you want to check out, or type in "Current Location" to see listings near your present position. Terdiman says Redfin does a better job than other property-listing apps in indicating whether a home for sale is already "under agreement." That's where someone has signed a contract to buy the place but hasn't yet closed on a deal. Homes under agreement are still technically for sale, but not worth spending much time on unless the pending sale falls through. "I've found that with some of the other apps, you'll say: 'This place looks great!" -- and then you realize the home is already


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Any individual who has even considered rooting their Android smartphone must have found out about Cyanogenmod. If not, Cyanogenmod is a “more open version of Android” which gives an additional layer of customisability to the users. Prior just a group of custom ROM cookers, which has now transformed into an company, has officially begun giving software to several smartphone brands including Oppo and Oneplus. Oppo N1 was the first commercial device to accompany Cyanogenmod preinstalled while the second device is the Oneplus One.
As indicated by The Information, Cyanogenmod has purportedly hit an deal with Micromax to fabricate Cyanogenmod based phones. Presently, there is no additional data about the specific device from Micromax which will offer Cyanogenmod yet we won’t be shocked in case that it comes sooner than later. Micromax has long been attempting to greatly improve the high end Android smartphones however they haven’t been exceptionally fruitful as such. With devices like Micromax Canvas Gold A300 and Micromax Canvas Knight A350, it got to be clear that Micromax is producing much better hardware quality however the product has neglected to enhance so this move may provide for them a headstart. Not at all like some product overlays from brands, for example, Samsung, Huawei, LG, and many more, Cyanogen has figured out how to end up so prevalent in light of the fact that it gives important features and customisability without demolishing the performance of the device. Truth be told, it really enhances performance and battery life.
The entire story spins around Cyanogen declining Google SVP Sundar Pichai’s offer for purchasing the company. Kirt Mcmaster, CEO at Cyanogen has informed its financial specialists that they have refused a procurement offer from Google, which is a strong move. As per the report, Cyanogenmod is focussing on acquiring a $1 billion valuation before raising the third round of financing. A year ago, the company brought about $30 million up in funding.
As per a few reports, even Microsoft was in chats with Cyanogenmod for acquiring yet we figure it didn’t appear. We should trust that this move from Cyanogen demonstrates commendable and it figures out how to give a leaner, quicker and more customisable form of Android to every one of us geeks.


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Tech for Oldsters
This page is about tech for older people.
Marco Peluso's journey from managing a multimillion-dollar hedge fund to starting a health care technology company began the day his father suffered a stroke right before his very ears. "It was a rather intense experience because it happened while he was on the phone with me," Peluso, 37, said in an interview last week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where he was promoting his company Qardio's first two smartphone-enabled home health tracking devices. Qardio, based both in San Francisco's South of Market district and in London, is part of a rapidly growing field of health and fitness apps and devices. The trade show's sponsor, the Consumer Electronics Association, said the number of digital health and fitness companies exhibiting this year increased by 40 percent from 2013. http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Dad-inspires-app-linked-blood-pressure-heart-5134844.php


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MUSCAT — Customer care has always been a priority at National Bank of Oman (NBO). The Bank believes that customer care is a never ending process.
In keeping with its commitment to being a customer centric, progressive bank, the Bank introduced the customer engagement programme known as “NBO Customer Consultant Award”, which allows customers to win an award for innovative ideas that will further help improve and enhance the quality of the Bank’s products and services, in aspects seen viable and important to the Bank.
To be eligible for the “NBO Customer Consultant Award”, all customers need to do is to email their innovative ideas, suggestions or feedback, to: Retail Banking — Service Quality Division
The first winner of ‘NBO’s Customer Consultant Award’, Salim al Jahwari, NBO’s Qurum Branch customer, was recently recognised and awarded for his valuable suggestion, which resulted in the Bank introducing an additional feature in the ‘real time balance order’ transaction process.
During the function, Harsh Munjal, NBO’s General Manager — Retail and Private Banking, presented Al Jahwari with a certificate and cash cheque, in the presence of Senior Management Members and Branch Staff.
Speaking on the occasion, Salim al Jahwari expressed his sincere thanks to the Bank and said:
“This recognition means a lot to me not because of the certificate or the cheque, but because all of you showed me that you cared.”
Harsh Munjal added: “I take this opportunity to personally thank Mr Al Jahwari for becoming an ‘NBO Consultant’’ by providing his valuable suggestion for further enhancement of the Bank’s processes. We welcome honest and positive feedback from customers and potential customers.


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Expatriates rule the roost
By: Abdullah Sayel
SR 160 billion worth market is sold to non-Saudis. The retail business is run and owned by expats who are in most cases not qualified to run. The last campaign by the Ministry of Labor exposed that 88 percent of retail stores are not owned or controlled by Saudi businessmen. Moreover, more than 40 percent of those are illegal expats.
Although the door was widely opened to non-Saudis through the new regulations of international investment, yet many of them chose to remain as illegal retailers. The ‘legals’ of course are those who only use a Saudi name on commercial records. Saudis who had to give up their names (or rent them) found it impossible to continue while surrounded by immense pressures from non-Saudis.
The issue affects many aspects of daily life in Saudi Arabia. Most retailers sell goods that they are not qualified to sell. They claim expertise in clothing, gold, electronics, ornaments, constructions, painting, food and even plumbing! You name it!
The writer is Media Manager, King Saud bin Abdulaziz
University for Health Sciences. Twitter: @abdullahsayel


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Somehow this slipped past our radar, but it seems that Mazda was testing what is likely a rotary powered sports car as recently as December 2017. Spy photos captured a prototype based on a Mazda RX-8, a car that has been out of production since 2012, making it quite curious why it would be testing about eight months ago. Only a few US media outlets seem to have caught onto it, and it really should have created more fanfare than it did. Here’s why.
In photos obtained by Japanese site CliccCar, the RX-8’s license plate on the test mule reads “HG DC” and is consistent with other Mazda test cars. The plate locates the registration in Hochtaunuskreis, where Mazda’s German R&D offices are.
The prototype appears to be a complete RX-8, and not the stretched Miatas they used when developing the RX-8 itself. Only the front end, enlarged for more air intake, and some bits behind the grille look funny, so it must just be for engine testing.
That engine is likely to be a rotary, and although it’s possible they could be testing a SkyActiv piston engine of some sort, why would they test a piston engine in an RX-8? A straight-six engine wouldn’t fit anyway, and although an inline-four might, the RX-8 is a RWD platform.
Also, the RX-8 is a Spirit R, which was a Japan-only model commemorating the last 2,000 RX-8s made. That means that though the test mule is being driven in Germany, it was probably built in Japan, where Mazda conducts most of its rotary research and construction. Why would they build a prototype out of a limited edition? Well, maybe it was just what they had lying around. It’s also not that special, It’s the same as the Type RS/R3, just with a badge and different colored wheels.
The last official glimpse we saw from Mazda of what could be a rotary-powered sports car was the 2015 RX-Vision concept. Since then, Mazda has said that if the rotary comes back, it’ll be as a range extender in a hybrid setup, likely due to fuel efficiency laws and market forces that don’t favor sports cars at the moment. Maybe that’s true for production vehicles, but it’s nice to know that even if Mazda can’t bring a rotary sports car to market, it’s still hell-bent on trying.