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Research in motion's Blackberry faces steady decline with slow sales of Blackberry 7 smartphones
01/28/2012
Blackberry takes a $267 million writeoff on unsold Blackberry 7 model phones at retail stores in March 2012. After new CEO Thorsten Heins took over his strategy was to put put more of the new Blackberry 7 model phones into user hands. The failure to compete with new Android phones and the Apple iPhone places Research in Motion into a position from which it will be hard to recover.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 03/30/2012
New RIM Chief Plots OverhaulWall Street Journal 01/28/2012
Ford's focus on new models in 2009-2013
01/06/2012
Linked Articles
Revitalized Detroit Makes Bold Bets on New Models
Wall Street Journal 01/09/2012
Ford Aims to Shake Up Family Car MarketWall Street Journal 01/06/2012
How the Sony-Ericsson mobile joint venture turned out to be a big mistake for Sony
10/06/2011
The CEO of Ericsson says Ericsson's strengths are not in the areas Sony needs for developing smartphones to compete with Apple and Samsung. The joint venture was made at a time when Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. This changed with the smartphone a decade later. Critical to Samsung's success in smartphones was speedy decision making and company wide manufacturing capabilities. Sony-Ericsson's glaring weaknesses were in these two areas. Sony acquired Ericsson's stake and now faces the challenge of tackling entrenched competitors starting with its home market.
Linked Articles
Sony Stakes Recovery on New Smartphone
Wall Street Journal 03/01/2013
Sony Nears Deal to Buy Out Ericsson From Joint VentureWall Street Journal 10/06/2011
Rising energy and food costs and India's failure to control inflation
09/12/2011
Repeated increases in interest rates in 201-2011 by India's central bank, the RBI, has failed to control inflation. This is slowing the growth rate.
Linked Articles
India Grapples With Soaring Energy Costs
Wall Street Journal 04/11/2012
India's Inflation Is a Lesson for Fast-Growing EconomiesWall Street Journal 09/12/2011
The Ford Focus EV and the Nissan Leaf electric cars in 2012-2013
07/19/2011
Linked Articles
Ford CEO: Battery Is Third of Electric Car Cost
Wall Street Journal 04/18/2012
Nissan Raises Leaf Price to $35,200Wall Street Journal 07/19/2011
The uncertain road ahead for U.S. automakers GM and Ford in 2012
05/05/2011
Linked Articles
Credit for Detroit's Auto Recovery
Wall Street Journal 07/13/2012
GM Roars, but Road Ahead UncertainWall Street Journal 05/05/2011
Pfizer's focus on its core pharmaceutical business in 2011-2015
05/02/2011
Rockoff's interview with Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, in which Read describes his strategy of focussing on new drug development and locating closer to hubs with large universities and research centers such as La Jolla, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, England. Pfizer sold its infant nutrition business to Nestle as part of this plan.
Linked Articles
Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent
New York Times 05/01/2012
Life Beyond Lipitor for Pfizer ChiefWall Street Journal 05/02/2011
The Fall of an American Icon- HP, Lee Apotheker and the Autonomy Acquisition Inc.
02/18/2011
The Autonomy acquisition charge of $8.8 billion announced by CEO Meg Whitman on Nov. 20, 2012, come at a time of declining sales and margins in its printer and PC businesses. The costly charges on bad acquisitions by H-P is likely to hurt investment in R&D for years.
Linked Articles
Hewlett's Loss: A Folly Unfolds By the Numbers
New York Times 11/20/2012
Chief Reboots H-P After ScandalWall Street Journal 02/18/2011
GE, GE Capital and CEO Immelt's legacy- skepticism about the role of GE CEO Immelt as head of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness
01/21/2011
Linked Articles
GE Seeks Exit from Banking Business
Wall Street Journal 04/10/2015
Obama's Corporate MakeoverNew York Times 01/21/2011
Inequality, the middle class and economic growth
01/15/2011
Studies show a growing middle class and lower middle class as one of the conditions underpinning steady economic growth. Adam Smith also points this out in his book The Wealth of Nations, written in the 18th century as England began its transformaton with the Industrial Revolution. Growing wages created a middle class and demand for goods and services that enable England to prosper. A similiar process took place in the U.S. with Henry Ford's effort to provide higher wages in his automobile plants in the 1920's that led to a growing middle class able to afford automobiles.
Linked Articles
Inequality: The rich and the rest
Economist 01/15/2011
The 1 Percent Clubâs Misguided ProtectorsNew York Times 12/10/2011
Reviving American Manufacturing- the views of Anthony Liveris and Andy Grove
07/01/2010
Anthony Liveris is CEO of Dow Chemical and Andy Grove headed Intel Corp.
Linked Articles
Dow Chemical's CEO on How to Revive Manufacturing
Wall Street Journal 02/23/2012
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
David Rieff provides insights on why all developing countries, Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia and China need to take child malnutrition seriously
10/11/2009
The Indian lower house of parliament passed a Food Security bill in August 2013. Rieff says China made serious progress to reduce malnutrition from over 21% for children under 5 years to around 7% today after 1990. In India malnutrition for children under 5 years is above 40%. There is a lot that developing coutnries can learn from each other in this area including the Bolsa Familia program in Brazil which uses the concept of improving vaccination for children and school attendance as requirements for subsidy payments to the poor. Mexico and Indonesia have different versions of programs to help the poorer sections of society. The problem is acute in India because of indifference induced by caste and other considerations and the high level of malnutrition for children. Rief says how good is ademographic dividend when many of these children are permanently and silently impaired by malnutrition by the age of three. India's Congress party leader, Sonia Gandhi, put it differently in parliament: "What is our responsibility to these people?"
Linked Articles
New York Times 10/11/2009
India's Lower House Passes Food Bill to Help PoorWall Street Journal 08/26/2013
Ford's effort to improve profit margins in 2010-2013
01/11/2012
Linked Articles
Mark Fields Is Fordâs Mr. Inside, and Its Heir Apparent
New York Times 02/18/2012
Small Cars Test Ford ResolveWall Street Journal 01/11/2012
Pentup demand after the 2008 global financial crisis and the surge in sales at Chrysler, GM and Ford in 2011-2012
01/05/2012
Linked Articles
U.S. Auto Sales Finish Year Strong
Wall Street Journal 01/05/2012
U.S. Auto Makers' Party Is Braking UpWall Street Journal 04/03/2012
Free trade and its impact on counties and communities across the U.S.
09/27/2011
About one-third to two-thirds of the benefits from trade are erased by the cost of government payments in the form of unemployment insurance, food stamps and disability benefits for U.S. communities that fare worse from a surge in imports. This is one of the conclusions in a research study by professors Hanson and Autor of 722 clusters of counties in the U.S.
Linked Articles
Cities Adapt With Mixed Results
Wall Street Journal 09/27/2011
Tallying the Toll of U.S.-China TradeWall Street Journal 09/27/2011
Ford Motor Company's push to meet new fuel efficiency standards on the F-150 for 2014
07/27/2011
Ford plans to cut body weight on the F-150 pickup truck by 700 pounds, 15% of the body weight, by switching to aluminium from steel. This will enable a 25% increase in fuel efficiency.
Linked Articles
Ford's Trade-In: Truck to Use Aluminum in Place of Steel
Wall Street Journal 07/27/2012
Five Car Makers Back White House's Tougher Fuel Economy RulesWall Street Journal 07/27/2011
The politicizing of the 2011 budget process- Obama, Cantor and McConnell (1)
07/14/2011
The negotiations taking place for the U.S. budget behind closed doors is against the spirit of the Budget Act of 1974, says a former CBO assistant general counsel and Stanford professor of constitutional law. The law requires transparency and accountability and sets forth a process for public scrutiny of the budget in Congressional hearings. This has not happened and in its place both political parties are seeing this as a start to the 2012 presidential election, with the public sorely left out of the process.
Linked Articles
Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
Wall Street Journal 07/14/2011
Top Democrats laud GOP debt-ceiling move - The Washington PostWashington Post 07/14/2011
U.S. House Speaker Boehner's Republican proposal in "fiscal cliff" deficit negotiations and the Feldstein proposal for 2% cap on deductions
05/04/2011
Linked Articles
Plan to Limit Tax Breaks Gets a Push From Boehner
Wall Street Journal 12/05/2012
Raise Taxes, but Not Tax RatesNew York Times 05/04/2011
BP's steady focus on safety under CEO Bob Dudley
04/20/2011
Dudley says BP is not going to get off the path of focus on safety, and "stepping up the accelerator of performance, thats not going to happen." BP's second quarter 2012 performance reflected lower levels of production to permit maintenance and improvements in infrastructure at its deep water oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Similiar maintenance will be undertaken at North Sea fields in the rest of 2012. Cost cutting on maintenance and infrastructure improvements to improve profit performance created an environment that led to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and created huge legal liabilities.
Linked Articles
BP Posts Unexpectedly Large Loss
New York Times 07/31/2012
The Lessons of Deepwater HorizonWall Street Journal 04/20/2011
How a services-led consumption based economy has failed America through a loss of jobs, prosperity and prestige.
01/21/2011
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, says the concept that the US could transition from a technology based export-oriented economic powerhouse to a services-led consumption based economy was fundamentally wrong. Mathew Slaughter of the Tuck School, Dartmouth, in a WSJ op-ed piece argues for a textbook principle of comparitive advantage, without considering the way it operates in a real the real world situation facing America as it struggles for economic renewal.
Linked Articles
Comparative Advantage and American Jobs
Wall Street Journal 01/26/2011
Jeffrey R. Immelt - A blueprint for keeping America competitiveWashington Post 01/21/2011
The slow shift to healthy choices at grocery chains and restaurants in the U.S. even as the healthcare costs reach alarming proportions
01/20/2011
U.S. companies, workers, and the U.S. economy is squeezed between the growth in obesity related diabetes and other obesity related diseases and the growth in health care costs to treat these diseases. Yet no coordinated action plan exists to tackle the problem between companies, government, universities, public interest groups, and other groups. And the progress charted out by grocery chains, restaurants and other organizations in the food business to provide and encourage healthy choices is incredibly slow.
Linked Articles
Wal-Mart Plans to Make Its House Brand Healthier
New York Times 01/20/2011
Low-Cal Items Fuel Restaurant SalesWall Street Journal 02/07/2013
Why at the heart of the Volcker Rule for bank regulation, according to Mr. Volcker, is the idea of CEO attestation
10/28/2010
Volcker's advice about writing the rule was to keep it broad so that it limited the room for evasion. Volcker advised regulators to remember what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography -"I know it when I see it." Treasury Secretary Lew pointed to the responsibility of the top executive to "set the right tone," for the whole organization.
Linked Articles
Volcker Rule to Require CEOs Guarantee Compliance
Wall Street Journal 12/06/2013
Volcker on His 'Rule'— Keep It BroadWall Street Journal 10/28/2010
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
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