1 US growth picks up to 2.3% (BBC) The US economy
grew at an annualised pace of 2.3% in the three months to June. The figure -
the first estimate of growth in the second quarter - followed an upwardly
revised growth rate of 0.6% in the first three months of the year.
The Commerce Department said growth was boosted by
increased consumer spending and cheaper fuel prices. Analysts said the figure
could make the US Federal Reserve more likely to raise interest rates in
September.
The 2.3% annualised growth rate is equivalent to
0.6% growth quarter-on-quarter, as measured in most other countries. For
example, on Tuesday, official figures showed that the UK economy grew by an
estimated 0.7% in the April-to-June period from the previous quarter.
Recent figures have shown the US economy creating
more than 200,000 jobs a month, and the unemployment rate has now dropped to
5.3%. The latest figures fit with the pattern seen since the recession ended
six years ago: weak growth at the start of the year, followed by a rebound in
spring and summer.
The Commerce Department also downgraded its
estimates for US growth between 2011 and 2014, saying the economy expanded at
an average annual rate of 2% rather than the 2.3% previously forecast,
underlining the tepid expansion.
2 Shell and Centrica cut 12,000 jobs (Terry
Macalister in The Guardian) More than 12,000 jobs are being axed by two of
Britain’s leading energy companies on the back of lower oil prices and major
internal restructuring.
Shell is to cut 6,500 staff and contractors
worldwide while Centrica, the owner of British Gas, wants 6,000 jobs to go,
mainly in the UK. The cutbacks at Centrica – one of the big six domestic gas
and electricity suppliers – is likely to cause a political storm as the British
Gas arm doubled its profits to £528m.
The price of oil has halved over the past 12 months,
forcing oil and gas companies to go on the defensive and spending to be
slashed. But Centrica has come under new management, which promised radical
change. Shell saw its second-quarter profits slump by 35% to £3.36bn, while
Centrica’s first-half adjusted operating profits were down by only 3% to £1bn.
Centrica, under its new boss, Iain Conn, says it
wants to save £750m of annual cost savings by 2020 and plans to dispose of up
to £1bn of oil and wind assets. Conn, who was brought in from BP at the start
of the year, said he was cutting back on North Sea exploration and production,
as well as power generation but promised to keep investors happy.
3 How not to be too busy for one’s own good (Jesse
Sostrin in San Francisco Chronicle) You have likely heard some version of this
conventional wisdom about business success: If you work longer, push harder and
give more, then you might break through. But you've also likely pondered the
problem: How can you break through when you’ve pushed yourself to the breaking
point?
I believe it is time for busy entrepreneurs,
managers and leaders to take off their superhero capes once and for all; the
superhuman notion of getting more and better work done with fewer resources is
a profoundly damaging myth whose time has passed.
The reason is the destructive pattern that stems
directly from the myth and affects the vast majority of entrepreneurs, managers
and leaders. The problem with this inverse equation is that when demands
outpace the resources you have available, you end up negotiating with yourself
about which fire of the day you will put out while painfully neglecting the
others. I call this set of imperfect choices the manager’s dilemma because it
is truly a no-win situation without an obvious solution.
To assess your own risk level for the dilemma,
answer these three questions: Have the demands on you increased over the past
several months? Are they likely to stay elevated and/or continue rising? If
your demands have increased, have you gained enough additional time, energy,
resources and focus to adequately address them?
You’re tilting toward the danger zone if you
answered “yes,” “yes” and “no” to these questions -- describing a sequence that
reflects the underlying dynamic of the inverse equation. If you can’t afford to
relax and recharge because things are too busy, then you know you must make the
time.
And if some priorities have to be sacrificed because
you are overwhelmed by too many deadlines and demands, then you know you have
to redefine what truly matters and commit to that. If you cannot make these
changes, you just might be too busy for your own good.
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