External Environment

High Street Dreams

A new series begins on BBC1 tonight that will no doubt provide some excellent material for Business Management students.

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Take Off for Air Asia - Finding Opportunities in a Recession

I have heard many presentations from business folk over the years and the last two years of our embryonic Entrepreneurship Society have been memorable for some superb talks. None has quite matched the impact and the quality of a talk given by Tony Fernandes, Founder and CEO of Air Asia last Thursday night.

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Banking Culture Change

JPMorgan Chase are at the forefront of changing the rewards culture in the banking sector.

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C of E acting responsibly?

The Church of England has been under mounting pressure over the past year to disinvest in the FTSE 100 company after it continually refused to back down on its plans to construct an open-cast mine on Niyamgiri mountain in Orissa, India. Activists believe it will destroy the area’s ecosystem and threaten the future of the 8,000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe, who depend on the hills for their crops and water and who believe the mountain and surrounding forest to be a sacred place.

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Bye Bye Big Mac

Iceland will say “bless” to the only 3 MacDonald’s restaurants in the country. The only franchisee in Iceland said it had become too expensive to operate the restaurants after Iceland’s currency, the krona, plunged in value.

The fluctuating currency has seen a great change over the last 10 months. In January 2008, it cost more than 95 Icelandic krona to buy one euro and on Tuesday that exchange rate shot up to more than 186 krona.

 

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Navigating our global future

Ian Goldin speaking at the TED conference in Oxford in 2009. A short but deeply interesting talk about globalisation and some of the systemic risks and systemic shocks that are likely to become more virulent.

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Land of Hope and Walmart!

The global downturn has seen many large and small firms file for bankruptcy and cease trading. It has become a common scene to see streets that were once full and bustling to go into decline in both the number of consumers and number of stores in existence. The negative multiplier effect of these scenes are being witnessed in towns, cities and countries over the last number of months. Closing firms lead to unemployment and reduced disposable income.

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