1 Walmart stays top of Fortune 500 list (Jessica
Glenza in The Guardian) Walmart remained top of Fortune's annual list of 500
highest-earning US companies, nearing half a trillion dollars in annual revenue
and netting $16bn. The top 10 highest-earning companies were the same as last
year, pulling in revenues worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but there was
some notable reshuffling.
Apple, the highest-ranking tech company, moved into
the fifth-place slot, with $170bn in annual revenue and $37bn in profits. Berkshire
Hathaway, the corporate conglomerate helmed by billionaire Warren Buffett,
edged oil refining company Phillips 66 out of fourth place. The investment firm
pulled in $182bn in annual revenue last year. Phillips 66 dropped to the sixth
slot, with $161bn in annual revenue.
The Fortune 500 list includes US companies, public
and private, filing financial statements with federal or state agencies. The
list was conceived by Time editor Edgar Smith in 1955. In 1994, the list was
retooled to include "service" companies such as McDonald's and
AT&T. Previously, it only included industrial companies.
2 World wants ‘China’s money, US leadership’
(Michael Green & Murray Hiebert in Straits Times) Predicting the US' demise
in Asia has long been a cottage industry in many countries, including those in South-
east Asia. But what do the majority of international relations experts across
the Asia-Pacific really think? The Centre for Strategic and International
Studies in Washington, DC, put that question to over 400 thought leaders.
The respondents came from 11 countries and economies
around the Pacific Rim: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea,
Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and the US. More than half of the elites
surveyed (57 per cent) think the region will still be defined by US leadership
in 10 years, a point that remains true of specialists even within China,
although some don't necessarily see this as a good thing.
Just over half of the respondents believed China
will be the greatest power in East Asia in 10 years, while 43 per cent believed
the US would continue in this role. Similarly, 56 per cent of respondents
across all 11 economies expect China to be their country's most important
economic partner in 10 years, followed by the US at 28 per cent. Respondents on
average were generally happy about China's economic impact on the region. But
61 per cent felt that China was having a negative influence on regional
security.
Beijing should pay close attention to the broad
support in Asia for the US rebalance, and tendency of thinkers outside China to
reject the assertion that the move is confrontational. While Asia's thought
leaders welcome China's economic growth, they also clearly want continued US
leadership.
3 US ambassador sworn in on Kindle (Kristen V Brown
in San Francisco Chronicle) It was an oddly telling sign of the times: On
Monday, when US ambassador Suzi LeVine was sworn in, there was no printed copy
of the US Constitution on hand. Instead, LeVine was sworn in with a digital
copy of the document stored on a Kindle Touch.
LeVine, the new US ambassador to Switzerland and
Liechtenstein, is now the nation’s first to take the oath of office with an
e-reader. The US Embassy in London tweeted out a photo of the event, captioned
a “very 21st century swearing in.”
It’s no secret that print products are on the
decline: as sales of e-books continue to rise, and paper books continue to
fall, the size of the e-book market is expected to surpass print in 2017. As
Monday’s swearing-in ceremony demonstrated, words may be sacred, but the medium
through which they are displayed certainly isn’t.
4 India’s Modi and the power of communication (Neeta
Lal in Khaleej Times) With the dust settling on the Indian general elections,
many profound lessons have been learnt. Perhaps the most vital one has been how
effective communication can pole vault a politician to superstardom. Nobody
exemplifies this better than India’s freshly-minted 15th prime minister
Narendra Damodardas Modi. His powerful oratory was a contrast to the
taciturnity of erstwhile Indian PM Manmohan Singh who many believed was a
diplomat masquerading as premier. Singh always thought twice before saying
nothing!
In a message on his website, Modi has promised to
leverage social media to communicate directly with the people. Like Modi,
examples abound of other politicians whose oratory has reaped them rich
dividends. US President Barack Obama comes to mind pronto. He is known to
mesmerise, tantalise and energise his audience. Obama’s predecessor Bill
Clinton has now made a lucrative profession out of his communication skills.
And to think that he was the same guy who was almost booed off the stage at a
Democratic Convention at the start of his career!
Rather than throw in the towel, Clinton persevered
and focused with laser-like intensity on polishing up his speaking skills. And
look where it got him. Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai also find their
names high up on the marquee of great speakers. According to renowned
psychologist and speech expert Albert Mehrabian, a good speech is like a
nuanced recipe. It is 7% verbal, 38% vocal and 55% visual. A good communicator
thus needs to foremost make the listeners believe in his vision. Here, he not
only needs to know his facts well but has to deliver his words passionately,
holding the audience rapt.
Martin Luther King delivered one such speech in 1963
in Washington DC. In what is arguably the greatest speech of the 20th century,
King spoke for over an hour holding his audience spellbound. What was his
secret? He made his delivery conversational, confident and full of self-belief.
Mid-speech, when he sensed that he wasn’t reaching his audience as he intended,
he tore up the original script and began speaking extempore. The result was
electric. King received an 11 minute-long standing ovation at the speech’s end!
http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2014/June/opinion_June6.xml§ion=opinion
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