Why some people have power over companies and others don’t HENRY KISSINGER was guilty of understatement when he said that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. In fact, power is the ultimate life-improver tout court. Powerful people not only have more friends than the rest of us. They also enjoy better health. Numerous studies demonstrate that [...]
E-commerce is becoming more social and more connected to the offline world THOSE who cherish privacy will recoil in horror, but for digital exhibitionists it is a dream. At Swipely, a web start-up, users can now publish their purchases. Whenever they swipe their credit or debit card (hence the service’s name), the transaction is listed [...]
Facing heavy-handed government regulation, America’s for-profit colleges are reforming themselves “EGREGIOUS, outrageous, violated everything we stand for”: Don Graham’s denunciation of recent activities by some employees of his own firm is stark. On August 4th a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found evidence of deceptive recruitment tactics by 15 of America’s leading for-profit [...]
Two technology titans squabble over HP’s former boss LARRY ELLISON, the chief executive of Oracle, likes a fight. Shortly after Hewlett-Packard (HP) parted company with its then CEO, Mark Hurd, last month amid claims he had filed inaccurate expense reports that appeared to conceal a relationship with a female contractor, Mr Ellison blasted its board [...]
Why expensive consultancy firms are giving away more research IN THE run-up to the climate-change conference in Copenhagen last year, a curvy graph was passed around by policymakers and NGOs. It showed various options for cutting carbon-dioxide emissions. At one end of the chart were simple efficiency improvements which would both cut CO2 and save [...]
BP casts the blame for the Gulf oil spill widely THE dramatic case study in corporate crisis-management acquired another chapter on September 8th. BP’s report on the causes of the accident that led to the loss of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the biggest oil spill in American history describes a litany of mistakes. Had [...]
A retailer shows Japan how to beat the curse of thriftiness THE Japanese used to be to conspicuous consumption what the Chinese are to raw materials. When there was a fad in Tokyo for tiramisu in the early 1990s, the world market for mascarpone felt the strain—until a Japanese company invented a synthetic version. But [...]
Will Burger King be gobbled up by private equity? SHARES in Burger King (BK) soared on September 1st on reports that the fast-food company was talking to several private-equity firms interested in buying it. How much beef was behind these stories was unclear. But lately the company famous for the slogan “Have It Your Way” [...]
Renting cars by the hour is becoming big business CAR clubs, whose members pay an annual fee and then rent a car by the hour on a pay-as-you-go basis, are moving from a fringe fad for greens to a big global business. Carmakers have no choice but to pay attention: one rental car can take [...]
Brazil’s oil giant may be paying too much to pump the stuff FOUR years ago Brazil struck oil—up to 350km (220 miles) offshore and buried under deep water and thick layers of rock, sand and corrosive salt. In places, the oil fields are 7km below the surface, so getting the black stuff out was always [...]