The reasons that led to the Great Recession of about a decade back, have unfortunately not ebbed away. Conditions remain for another such event occurring again. Mortgage-backed securities or bonds still abound in the open market. This is especially true for the USA where a number of mortgage originators disappear the moment a crisis is discovered. So, beyond the regulation of the documentation, real changes will have to made in the implementation. The housing inflation on right now is a potent reminder of how things became just prior to the previous crisis. Banking needs to restrain itself rather than constantly trying to leverage its business potential. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is no longer as effective as it used to be. Some strong regulation is needed which will effect changes from the banks’ corporate strategy level itself.

Source:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-the-us-headed-for-another-mortgage-crisis/

Uploaded Date:13 September 2018

There is an agenda among several citizen-centric governments to change their style of functioning. Four major strategies have been identified which governments would be well advised to take up as citizens expect these kinds of end services. First of all, instead of designing entities around sectors, they will be developed on the lines of the citizen priorities. Sporadic centres of excellence will instead give way to empowered accelerators right at the heart of the government. Talent management will get renewed focus as agile teams will be built and resources allocated accordingly. This will end the earlier practice of static and siloed teams. Instead of the fragmented, entity-centric services, governments must now have a single, multichannel platform that will act as its face.

Source:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reorganising-government-four-changes-help-your-provide-vincent-chin/

Uploaded Date:11 September 2018

The future of global trade is being affected by two contrasting factors. One is increasing protectionism thanks to acts such as the US withdrawal from the TPP and UK’s from the EU. The other factor is the increasing digitization that is blurring national boundaries. As a result of the latter, it is the platform-based economy that is replacing the pipeline model. This model saw manufacturing get outsourced away from developed countries to developing ones. Now the scale of this model is reducing thanks to reduced expenditure in the home developed countries using robotics and automation. Developing countries have also seen an upsurge in commodity consumption leading to a slower pace of delivery of final goods to the developed ones. Another impact is that while goods traffic is plateauing, services is actually growing. GE and Siemens as a result are leveraging their enormous data warehousing capabilities to venture increasingly into providing services instead of equipment. This platform economy is also enabling many smaller players to participate in the global marketplace taking advantage of platforms such as Alibaba’s, with We Chat and Amazon soon set to join in. All this will make platforms even more power. Salesforce’s Einstein and IBM’s Watson for example are already providing cutting edge business intelligence to organizations. A lot of traditional big companies that are supply-chain leaders too will need to rethink their strategy to occupy some space on the platform side. Such platforms will even affect low-income countries such as Philippines and Bangladesh who may lose jobs in the future to the army of freelancers working now in the gig economy.

Source:https://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/how-the-platform-economy-is-reshaping-global-trade-9991

Uploaded Date:11 September 2018

The top IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Yahoo have generally led most rankings on employee satisfaction. Workplace perks such as free meals and on-site gyms are a common site. Now, several other industries have also joined in such as the Virgin Group that is giving up to a year’s paternity leave to fathers. However, there was until recently little conclusive proof that all these workplace perks genuinely drive profits or improve the company’s image for smoother talent recruitment and retention. So, a massive study with a huge data set was conducted using Thomson Reuters’ data. The study clearly confirmed the biases, that indeed these are beneficial. Employment quality, health and safety, management training and workplace diversity are four aspects companies would be well-advised to work on.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Workplace-Perks-Wasteful-Indulgence-or-Powerful-Profit-Driver?gko=3a4f3

Uploaded Date:11 September 2018

A decade back, the belief underpinning business teams was that the human need to talk to others regarding product knowledge would soon be over. This would instead be replaced by web chat or text messages. While this field especially via WhatsApp has indeed grown, the focus of businesses has shifted to voice-based devices such as Google Home Pub or Amazon Echo. Marketing research conducted by You Guv asserts that in a period of barely six months ending March 2018, there was a doubling in the number of people in the UK owning a smart speaker. Google’s Duplex is the next level in terms of such innovation. For the older established players to match up to the digital natives, they will first have to master a family of related technologies such as machine learning and business analytics. The customer service industry too will need to revaluate its existing infrastructure to gauge best how it can utilize the same.

Source:https://www.future-customer.com/put-down-your-phone-and-ask-alexa-instead/

Uploaded Date:11 September 2018

A new book has been released titled The Happiness Track, its writer Emma Seppala claims that stress is not a necessity for striving towards success. She cites real-life experiences and studies to show how happiness is actually a better ingredient for success across cultures. This happiness too can be clubbed under two differing categories. The first one is short-lasting as it is about attaining life goals or achievements. The other one, with a longer impact is towards a sense of fulfilment. This even leads to improved health and longevity. The modern desire to constantly showcase oneself as busy is damaging. One needs to slow down and move away from the mantra of “work hard, party harder”, as that merely raises the adrenaline. Corporate training sessions need to be introduced which focus on increased calmness. Low-intensity words such a serenity and peace are much appreciated in East Asian countries.

Source:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-new-success-track-happiness/

Uploaded Date:04 September 2018

On first glance, the results of PwC’s 21^st annual survey of chief executive attitudes seems positively surprising. On the whole, it is much more positive in tone. A staggering 57% of CEO respondents are optimistic about global economic growth over the next two business quarters. This is in stark contrast to a mere 15% back in 2012 or 29% as was last year. In particular, it is in North America that the mood among the top executives improved the most. To put things into perspective, similar business research conducted by Edelman asserts that in six countries surveyed- China, Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Malaysia and the UAE- there has been no perceptible change in moods, while in another six- India, South Africa, Colombia, USA, Italy and Brazil – it has actually declined. One of the reasons for this bounce up in optimism in the PwC report is that due to the erosion of trust from the media, governments and NGOs, the private sector is now viewed more positively. So, solutions to current problems such as cybercrime, environmental damage, income inequality and terrorism are now being expected out of business leaders. They have also become more accountable now as practices are more visible. Social responsibility that any business takes up needs to be in sync with its overall identity.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Optimism-and-Trust-on-the-CEOs-Mind?gko=e65ba

Uploaded Date:04 September 2018