World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
Browse Articles or use Lyrarc's US patented "Groups" and "Links" for new insights. A Lyrarc Group of Articles on a topic gives insights into particular angles shown in the Group Title. A Lyrarc Link shows more specific insights for 2 articles.
All Topics Links
Andy Grove of Intel and a reminder about Silicon Valley's role now missing role as a serious innovator and job creator at home
07/01/2010
Andy Grove reminded Silicon Valley about the dangers of forgetting manufacturing's important role in the U.S. in 2010. This is even more true today with the working class lagging behind in this recovery. He asked at the time what kind of society are we creating with professionally employed workers and lots of unemployed. It reminded him of 1932 with troops holding bayonets facing unemployed people outside the White House, and of his days in Hungary in the 1956 uprising. Grove also called for serious innovation which he did not see happening at the time in Silicon Valley.
Linked Articles
Andy Grove’s Warning to Silicon Valley
New York Times 03/25/2016
Andy Grove: How America Can Create JobsBusinessWeek 07/01/2010
The failure of CEO's before Akio Toyoda to address quality problems at Toyota.
01/28/2010
Quality problems were evident as early as 2006. Both CEO's Okuda and Watanable failed to get agrip on these problems in the midst of rapid expansion.
Linked Articles
Akio Toyoda - Toyota's plan to repair its public image
Washington Post 02/09/2010
Toyota Heir Faces Crisis at the WheelWall Street Journal 01/28/2010
Obama's Cairo speech on June 4, 2009 to the Muslim world coincides with Moussavi taking on Ahmadinejad for his extremism in Teheran in an election debate.
06/04/2009
Moussavi debated forcefully with Ahmadinejad on Iranian television calling for good sense in relations with the rest of the world and calling Ahmadinnejad an extremist. He called Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust as undermining Iran's dignity, while Obama called it baseless, ignorant and hateful. Something that could only occur in the climate created by Obama's opening of a dialogue with the Muslim world and helping melt old attitudes and perceptions.
Linked Articles
President Obama's Cairo Appeal
Washington Post 06/05/2009
Iran President and Challenger Clash in DebateNew York Times 06/04/2009
The shift in management at Toyota to Akio Toyoda and the changing priorities as the market changes.
02/24/2009
What worked for Toyota in the past doesn't work anymore, and rapid expansion by CEO's before Akio Toyoda brings a whole range of problems even before the recall disaster of 2010. The company's narrow Nagoya, Japan, based management world view, with hardly any American representation on its Board, only makes things worse.
Linked Articles
Akio Toyoda - Toyota's plan to repair its public image
Washington Post 02/09/2010
A Scion Drives Toyota Back to BasicsWall Street Journal 02/24/2009
Sheila Barr voices concern about lack of serious homeowner help, only institutional help.
08/27/2008
FDIC's Sheila Barr voices concern for a lack of serious homeowner help and an incomprehensible reluctance to do anything serious for homeowners in Congress or the Bush Administration even as Barr, Paulson and Bernanke offered no choice to CEO's of leading banks at the meeting last week in Paulson's offices but to sign term sheets for accepting $125 billion from the government. Another $125 billion goes to smaller banks. And a unspecified amount goes to buy troubled assets under TARP, and money to buy commercial paper, and other institutional help. Still nothing on a large comprehensive basis to help homeowners in difficulty which is at the root of this crisis according to Feldstein, Hubbard, Bair.
Linked Articles
FDIC Chief Raps Rescue for Helping Banks Over Homeowners
Wall Street Journal 10/16/2008
Agency’s Head Expects Banking’s Crisis to WorsenNew York Times 08/27/2008
How McDonalds has changed by borrowing ideas from Starbucks and from the next generation of franchisees
01/07/2008
McDonald's takes the ideas of baristas from Starbucks and gets ideas for picture based ordering, credit card payment and community event participation from younger franchisees. Along the way it is trying to change perception of the chain as not being healthy eating. A lot remains to be done to move away from the super size obsesson.
Linked Articles
McDonald's Takes On A Weakened Starbucks
Wall Street Journal 01/07/2008
'Super Size Me' Generation Takes Over at McDonald'sWall Street Journal 03/08/2012
Apple products at manufacturing plants in China and at retail stores in the U.S.- low worker pay and lack of future prospects
05/29/2010
The high margins for Apple achieved through a combination of keeping costs low- even at the risk of providing poor wage and working conditions for the majority of employees employed in the retail stores in the U.S. and in supplier Foxconn plants in China- and by a grasp for innovation and technology. The paradox of a well deserved image for pioneering in technological innovation and the indifference to working conditions and prospects for employees who add value in manufacturing and customer interface. This model of growth is a recent development, put in place after 1997. In 1995-1997 Apple was nearing collapse under Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, as documented by WSJ technology reporter Jim Carlton in his book- "Apple- The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders." Steve Jobs returned as CEO in 1997 and set the future course and this model in place emphasizing design, his ability to grasp technologies that would appeal to customers, and hired Tim Cook to set up the manufacturing which had high rate of defects and higher costs. The model was as full of paradoxes, of genius combined with mediocre behavioursas the man Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has responded to criticism in 2012 by having the Fair Labor association audit Foxconn plants in China. Foxconn increased wages in 2012, shifted plants to the interior of China, and increased use of robotics.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 05/29/2010
Apple Stores Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on PayNew York Times 06/23/2012
Danone and P&G's (Procter & Gamble) innovative strategies for reaching low income customers in emerging markets.
12/12/2009
In 2004 Indonesian managers showed Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone, a pyramid of customers in Indonesia's population of 240 million people. It showed only 20 million customers at the top of the pyramid as the only ones who could afford Danone products. At that point Ribaud made up his mind to go after the large number of people at the lower end of the pyramid and come with strategies to do this profitably. By 2010 46% of Danone's sales were from emerging markets, up from 10% a decade earlier, showing the pace of the change. Unilever, P&G, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and other companies are following similiar strategies. P&G has used Mexico as a lab for experimenting with new products at low price points and Danone has done this in Indonesia.
Linked Articles
Danone Expands Its Pantry to Woo the World's Poor
Wall Street Journal 06/25/2010
P.& G. Sees the World as Its ClientNew York Times 12/12/2009
GE (General Electric), GE Capital, CEO Immelt and the global financial crisis of 2008
03/07/2009
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 01/26/2011
Behind the Curtain at G.E.New York Times 03/07/2009
Akio Toyoda brings a broader mindset, American and overseas experience to his CEO role.
01/12/2009
The grandson of the founder was educated in the U.S. and worked in the Chinese operations. He brings a broad exposure to countries around the world that his predecessors lacked with their more parochial backgrounds. This will be invaluable as he steers Toyota back to its roots and accomodates a changing world.
Linked Articles
New York Times 06/02/2010
Toyota, Needing Change, Taps a Scion to LeadWall Street Journal 01/12/2009
ACA- Insuring the CDO's
04/03/2008
The insurance itself was not insurance but a chance to use different accounting rules to take the issuance of collateralized debt obligations to new heights. ACA was an outfit by the river issuing flood insurance. It had an A rating and was supposed to insure AAA securities.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 04/03/2008
Building WonderlandNew York Times 04/06/2008
The new Pemex- the comparison with Petrobras and the PAN party's efforts to follow the route set by Cardoso in Brazil in 1995
12/19/2007
Linked Articles
Economist 12/19/2007
Mexico Energy Bill to End Pemex's Monopoly on OilWall Street Journal 12/08/2013
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us