Apple sees major car industry upheaval; Extraordinary demand surge for Lego toys; Halal tourism as business niche

1 Apple sees major car industry upheaval (FT/Gulf News) Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, has warned that the global automobile industry is on the brink of a technology-led upheaval, in his most direct public comments yet addressing reports that the iPhone maker is planning to start making its own cars.

“It would seem that there will be massive change, massive, in that industry,” Cook said during an interview. “I do think that industry is at an inflection point for massive change, not just evolutionary change.” Apple has been assembling a team of automotive experts and studying what it would take to become a carmaker, according to people familiar with its thinking.

Cook did not respond to questions about whether Apple would make its own cars, but made it clear that a series of technology shifts were coming together to create a rare opportunity for outsiders to break into the business.

The growing importance of software, both in controlling vehicles and acting as the interface with drivers, has already opened the way for electric car maker Tesla Motors to become the auto industry’s most significant insurgent in decades. Tesla has released new software for its Model S saloon to bring self-driving features like automated highway driving and self-parking, and has promised to use over-the-air updates to keep advancing the capabilities of its existing vehicles.

The emergence of electric vehicles was also threatening to destabilise the existing car makers, according to Cook. “A lot of the major technologies in the car shift from today’s combustion engine focus,” he said. Apple’s CEO said that, for now, his company’s focus would be on winning over car owners with its CarPlay system, which provides a way to plug an iPhone into a car’s systems to act as an entertainment, information and communications gateway.

Cook also revealed that Apple’s new Music service has already amassed 6.5 million paying subscribers, or around a third as many as market-leading subscription music service Spotify. Apple Music represents the company’s biggest overhaul of its digital music business since the launch of the iTunes store in 2004. Along with paid subscriptions that echo rivals like Spotify, it has added a digital radio service with human curators, a move that Cook claimed had given it a leg up over competitors.

http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/automotives/apple-sees-massive-car-industry-upheaval-1.1603622

2 Lego toys sees demand surge (The Guardian) Some children may not see their Christmas wishes fulfilled this year, as Lego’s factories, although running at full speed, may not be able to make enough plastic bricks to keep up with the demand from Europe’s toy stores. The Danish company has become the world’s largest toymaker by sales, overtaking Mattel, the US manufacturer whose toys include Barbie dolls.

Lego’s success is thanks partly to toys linked to movies, including The Lego Movie. But difficulties in forecasting demand accurately means some orders may not be filled on time. “We will not be able to deliver all of the orders coming from customers in the remainder of the year,” said spokesman for Lego, Roar Trangbaek.

“It is really extraordinary and it has exceeded both ours and our customers’ forecasts,” Trangbaek said when asked why the company had not foreseen the surge in demand. The Danish company’s sales grew by 18% in the first half of this year to 14bn Danish crowns (£1.36bn), putting it ahead of Mattel and Monopoly-board maker Hasbro, whose revenues came in at $1.9bn (£1.23bn) and $1.5bn respectively.

The unlisted company, owned by the family of founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen, invested more than 3bn crowns in plants and equipment last year to manufacture more toys. Before Christmas last year, there were some shortages in some countries including Denmark and Canada.

The company is building a factory in Jiaxing, China, 100km from Shanghai, which is expected to be up and running in 2017 and should go on to produce most of the Lego toys for Asia. Lego already has factories in Denmark, Hungary, Czech Republic and Mexico.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/21/lego-factories-brick-wall-christmas

3 Halal tourism as business niche (San Francisco Chronicle) A rental company in Orlando, Florida, is offering "halal vacation homes" with curtained pool decks and rooms with prayer mats and copies of the Quran. A British company's app lists gourmet restaurants serving halal meat in London and Dubai, while a Boston-based developer's app offers travel guides for 90 cities with local prayer times and a compass pointing Muslims toward Mecca for daily prayers.

The so-called "halal tourism" market was once seen as a niche revenue stream, limited to pilgrimages like the multi-billion dollar-a-year revenue stream generated by Muslim travelers to Mecca. But now there's a movement in the tourism industry to widen the "halal tourism" market to cater to Muslim travelers worldwide, particularly those from wealthy Gulf Arab states.

Travelers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman will spend $64 billion traveling this year and are expected to spend $216 billion by 2030, according to a 2014 study for the travel tech company Amadeus. The study found that, on average, a traveler from these countries spends around $9,900 per trip outside the Gulf. For Emiratis, the figure reaches $10,400.

Halal in Islam literally means that which is permissible. Observant Muslims typically avoid alcohol and areas where there can be excessive nudity, like beaches and nightclubs. For women who adhere to Islam's modest dress code, swimming can pose a challenge. That means resorts that offer gender-segregated beaches and pools have an advantage.

Along Turkey's southern coast, several all-inclusive resorts have expansive private beaches and pools for women. One resort even built a structure in the sea to keep people on boats from catching a glimpse. Malaysia is also aggressively seeking more Muslim tourists, promoting itself as "Muslim-friendly Malaysia".

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Halal-tourism-emerges-as-businesses-serve-6579467.php

Saudi crude stockpile at record high; Morgan Stanley profit drops 42%; Learnings for workplace from standup comedy

1 Saudi crude stockpiles at record high (Khaleej Times) Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is storing record amounts of crude in its quest to maintain market share as it cut shipments. 

Commercial crude stockpiles in August rose to 326.6 million barrels, the highest since at least 2002, from 320.2 million barrels in July. Exports dropped to seven million barrels a day from 7.28 million.

"The fall in Saudi crude exports reflects the market reality," Mohammed Ramady, an independent London-based analyst, said. "It's normal to see this fall knowing that the market is becoming highly competitive, with many countries in Opec selling at discounts and under-pricing the Saudi crude."

Crude inventories have been at record highs since May, a month before Saudi Arabia's production hit an all-time high of 10.56 million barrels a day. The nation has led the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in boosting production to defend market share, abandoning its previous role of cutting output to boost prices.

Brent crude oil prices have slid 13 per cent this year as Saudi Arabia led Opec in boosting production to defend the group's market share amid a global supply glut. Brent futures for December settlement dropped 1.5 per cent to $49.69 a barrel in London on Monday.

Saudi Arabia cut back oil production in August to 10.27 million barrels a day from 10.36 million in July. The kingdom told Opec that it produced 10.23 million barrels daily in September. It pumped at an all-time high of 10.56 million barrels a day in June, exceeding a previous record from 1980.

http://khaleejtimes.com/business/energy/saudi-crude-stockpiles-at-record-high

2 Morgan Stanley profit drops 42% (BBC) Profits for US investment bank Morgan Stanley slumped in the third quarter as revenues for commodity, bond and foreign exchange trading fell. Net profit fell 42%, to $939m, from $1.63bn for the same three-month period a year ago, the bank's second consecutive quarterly drop. Net sales fell 13% to $7.77bn, missing analyst estimates of $8.5bn.

Rivals Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have all reported dips in trading revenue. During the three months to the end of September oil prices slumped and investors speculated over when the Federal Reserve will raise rates. It was also the time the Chinese stock market collapsed in value.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its forecast for global economic growth for 2015 to 3.1% from the 3.3% it predicted in July. The 2016 forecast is down to 3.6% from 3.8%. Last week, rival banking giant Goldman Sachs reported a sharp fall in profits as its trading activity stalled.

Goldman's quarterly profits were $1.43bn, down more than a third on a year earlier. The results contrasted sharply with those of Citigroup, which posted a 50% jump in profits, to $4.29bn.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34572563

3 Learnings for workplace from standup comedy (Liz Fraser in The Guardian) The one thing I’ve always wanted to do is standup comedy. Talk to anyone who’s done standup, and they will tell you that it’s the most terrifying thing you can do (I assume these people haven’t worked down a 200-ft mine, defused any bombs or had lunch with my mother.)

It’s especially difficult if you have no previous experience and have just booked yourself 25 solo one hour shows in one of the main venues of the biggest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh fringe. So that’s what I did.

These are the life lessons that I learned from my nerve-wracking month of comedy: Slow Down. In standup, an hour is a very long time. It’s not sixty minutes. When it’s going badly, an hour lasts for at least a week. When it’s going well … I’ll get back to you on that one when it’s happened to me.

Don’t judge yourself by your audience’s reaction. If they’re not laughing it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t think it’s funny, it just means they’re not laughers. I suppose it might mean that they think you’re rubbish, but the best advice here is to never ask. Just go home, have a hot bath, and high-five yourself in the mirror.

Fake it. Confident people are really just people who are good at appearing more confident than anyone else. It doesn’t mean they are. Filler techniques. All comedians and public speakers have their own fillers. Some take a sip of water, while others fiddle nonchalantly with the microphone lead.

The eyebrows have it. Successful performance, whether it’s a comedy show or a board-level presentation, is all about delivery. You can have the best speech in the world, but it can be totally ruined by a poor delivery. I’ve been to standup shows where 80% of the humour came from the comedian’s facial expressions and delivery. The material itself was average, but the show was great. For some reason, eyebrows seem to be key.

Have killer first and last lines. What happens in between is dictated by the first lines and remembered by the last. It’s the same in a three minute broadcast interview or a 10 hour talk. Your lines must be well prepared, concise, and delivered confidently. Thank you. And good night.

http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2015/oct/19/what-standup-comedy-taught-me-about-success-at-work

China growth slows to 6.9%; US rig count declines to 787; Norway as a model for electric car market

1 China growth slows to 6.9% in Q3 (Martin Farrer in The Guardian) China’s economic growth slowed in the latest quarter to a six-year low of 6.9%, despite repeated interest rate cuts and other stimulus measures. The figure released on Monday compared with a year-on-year expansion of 7% in the previous quarter. Although it was slightly better than economists expected, the rate was the slowest since the 6.2% recorded in the first quarter of 2009 during the global recession.

The GDP figures were part of a swath of data giving another snapshot of the world’s second biggest economy, which has seen stuttering growth in recent months after years of rapid expansion. It was also the first official confirmation of investors’ fears about economic growth since a Chinese stock market slump coupled with a surprise currency devaluation in July and August.

The output of China’s huge manufacturing sector cooled more than expected to 5.7% in September, disappointing analysts who expected it to rise 6% on an annual basis after a rise of 6.1%the prior month. Fixed-asset investment growth eased to 10.3% year-on-year in the January-September period, also missing market expectations. But retail sales rose by a better-than-forecast 10.9%.

The communist government has cut interest rates five times since last November in an effort to shore up growth, measures which have helped to ease investor fears that a downturn could trigger a worldwide slump. Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said: “Continued downward pressures from real estate and exports caused GDP growth to drop. But robust consumption and infrastructure prevented a sharper slowdown.”

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/19/chinese-economic-growth-slows-to-69-in-third-quarter

2 US rig count declines to 787 (San Francisco Chronicle) Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the US this week declined by eight to 787.

Houston's Baker Hughes said that 595 rigs were seeking oil and 192 explored for natural gas. A year ago, with oil prices about double the prices now, 1,918 rigs were active. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico lost five rigs, Oklahoma and Texas each declined by two and Colorado and North Dakota each lost one.

Louisiana gained three rigs, Wyoming gained two and California gained one. Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia were unchanged. The US rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/US-rig-count-declines-by-8-this-week-to-787-6574496.php

3 Norway as a model for electric car market (David Jolly in The New York Times) At a time when the Volkswagen emissions scandal has helped expose the drawbacks of Europe’s heavy reliance on diesel cars, Norway has become a global model of how to get the public to embrace electric vehicles, an experiment that is attracting researchers and policy makers from around the world.

No other country can yet match Norway’s proportion of all-electric cars. Though still only 2 percent, the figure is double that of the runner-up, the Netherlands, and is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. More than one-fifth of new car sales in Norway are of electric vehicles.

Some skeptics wonder whether the Norwegian program is cost-effective, or even an efficient way to reduce air pollutants. And some elements of the program simply may not be replicable in other countries. But for many, Norway is showing a path forward. “If there’s anyone in the world who should be using electric vehicles, it’s Norway,” said Julian Marshall, an associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Minnesota. “That’s a place with clean energy.”

Making Norway’s project to shift away from fossil-fuel cars all the more notable is the fact that the country is one of the world’s biggest producers of oil and natural gas. But it is also blessed with an abundance of fast rivers, allowing it to generate virtually all of its electricity from hydropower. That makes Norway’s electricity cleaner and relatively cheap — a further impetus for adopting e-cars. (A country where much of the electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants would not see as many environmental benefits from switching to electric vehicles.)

Proponents argue that electric cars are essential for a transition to a low-carbon economy, as they are vastly  more efficient than conventional autos, transferring about 60 percent of their energy to the wheels. That compares with only about 20 percent for gasoline motors, which waste most of their energy in the form of heat.

After more than a decade of government support, official projections had held that there would be 50,000 e-cars on Norway’s roads by the end of 2017. That number, in fact, was reached this past April, and by September had grown to 66,000 all-electric cars, and an additional 8,000 gasoline-electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius.

Oslo now has only about 700 public charging spots, although city officials aim to raise that to above 1,000 before the end of the year. For most people, that means most of their charging is done at home. City and regional governments in Norway, meantime, have started to complain of a revenue shortfall from all the free-riding e-cars that are not paying fees and tolls.

Some critics say Norway is not getting its money’s worth from the program. Anders Skonhoft, an environmental economist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, estimates that the total value of subsidies works out to about $13,500 a year per electric car over each vehicle’s life. But for all the money Norway has put into the program, he said in an interview, the country has cut its carbon dioxide emissions by no more than one-tenth of one percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/business/international/norway-is-global-model-for-encouraging-sales-of-electric-cars.html?ref=business&_r=0

Crisis warning from UK steel industry; Steve Ballmer takes 4% equity in Twitter; The real risk to our kids: Mollycoddling

1 Crisis warning from UK steel industry (BBC) The steel industry is "in crisis" and needs "life-saving surgery", the director of UK Steel has warned. Gareth Stace has called on Business Secretary Sajid Javid to honour promises he has made to address some of the challenges facing the industry. It comes as Tata Steel is expected to announce 1,200 job cuts at sites in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire.

Mr Javid said "there is no straightforward solution to the complex global challenges" facing the industry. The Tata Steel redundancies follow the closure of the blast furnace and coke ovens at SSI's plant in Redcar, Teesside, where 2,200 jobs have been lost.

Tata Steel is expected to significantly reduce the workforce at its Scunthorpe site, which employs 4,000 people and is one of the UK's largest steel plants. It may also cut jobs at Clydebridge, Cambuslang, and Dalzell, Motherwell. Tata has not yet confirmed the job cuts but said it has been facing challenges in the UK, including a surge in steel imports and the strong pound.

Unions have also called on ministers to take urgent action to save the industry, while CBI director-general John Cridland has urged the government to work with businesses on a long-term industrial strategy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34561630

2 Steve Ballmer takes 4% equity in Twitter (Gulf News) Los Angeles Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has bought a 4-per cent stake in Twitter, a vote of confidence in the struggling messaging company. That makes Ballmer one of Twitter’s largest shareholders.

A Twitter account that identified itself as Ballmer’s said that he bought stock in Twitter in the last few months. The high-profile investment comes as Twitter is trying to win more users and turn a profit. This month, its co-founder Jack Dorsey returned as its permanent CEO.

Then the company announced that it would lay off up to 8 per cent of its workforce and unveiled a new feature, ‘Moments’. Those packages of commentary, video and photos about major events are an attempt to make Twitter more accessible and broaden its appeal.

Ballmer also said he liked that Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal and his investment company bought more shares of Twitter. The prince and his firm said this month the stake had doubled over a six-week period to more than 5 per cent.

Ballmer’s holdings would make him the third-largest individual owner of Twitter shares after company co-founder Evan Williams and Prince Al Waleed. Ballmer, who was Microsoft’s CEO for 14 years ending last year, is also the largest individual owner of Microsoft stock with a 4.2-per cent stake.

http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/technology/ex-microsoft-ceo-says-he-s-taken-4-stake-in-twitter-1.1602015

3 The real risk to our kids: Mollycoddling (Viv Groskop in The Guardian) A new, all-party parliamentary group report on what constitutes “a fit and healthy childhood” has concluded that “risky play” is occasionally to be recommended for children, especially “playing near potentially dangerous elements such as water, cliffs and exploring alone with the possibility of getting lost”. Hey, parents, leave those kids alone! Clifftop activities are good for your wellbeing, guys! And childcare is expensive.

Somehow, in the course of a generation, we’ve lost all the normal rites of childhood. And in attempting to protect children (often because we fear things happening we can’t control), we expose them to very real and obvious dangers we could actually control.

The report cites endless research, depicting a society where children are increasingly less likely to walk or cycle to school or play outside. Childhood is instead dominated by “a toxic brew of adult fear (stranger danger, traffic density) and school restriction (shortened playtimes, ‘organised’ activity, poor use of space)”. This is a world where childhood has become “passive, sedentary and solitary”.

This isn’t only about the obesity crisis, although that is a key issue. Earlier this year, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said at a conference about childhood obesity that we will “go bankrupt” if we don’t address this issue. But this is equally about more nebulous influences. Isn’t there a danger that we’re raising a generation of children who are not self-reliant because they’re not used to coping outside in the world on their own? And how well socialised will these children be if their best friend is the screen?

If you add these influences to the fact that fewer teens and twentysomethings are able to set up on their own when they reach adulthood (because they can’t afford to leave home)... Forget the phenomenon of the perpetual student – we risk raising perpetual children. Some kind of desperate measures are needed to push parents out of this false sense of security.

As the American authority on children and obesity, Dr Mark Tremblay, puts it: “We have lost the balance between short-term safety and long-term health.” A generation ago, 70% of children walked to school. Now it’s 46%.

Of course, childhood is a time when you should be protected and looked after and some of what has happened in the past few decades is a reaction to our not having looked after children properly in the past. I’m not just thinking about chimney sweeping here – although that wasn’t very nice of us adults – but now we have gone too far in the opposite direction. It’s time to push children again. Not up the chimney this time but, instead, closer to the cliff edge.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/18/real-risk-to-kids-play-mollycoddling

US industrial output falls for second month; Tata Steel UK to axe 1,200 jobs; Redefining communication for your career

1 US industrial output falls for second month (Gulf News) US industrial production fell for a second straight month in September on renewed weakness in oil and gas drilling, the latest indication that the economy lost momentum in the third quarter. Industrial output slipped 0.2 per cent after a revised 0.1 per cent dip in August, the Federal Reserve said.

Industrial production rose at an annual rate of 1.8 per cent in the third quarter. The industrial sector has been undermined by a slowing global economy and resurgent dollar, which have eroded demand for US manufactured goods. It is also being weighed down by lower energy oil prices that have undercut capital investment in the energy sector, as well as a so-called inventory correction.

The weak industrial production report added to soft trade, retail sales and employment data that have suggested a significant slowdown in growth after the economy expanded at a 3.9 per cent annual pace in the second quarter. Third-quarter growth estimates are currently below a 1.5 per cent rate. Slower growth and low inflation have diminished expectations of an interest rate hike from the Fed this year.

http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/us-industrial-output-falls-for-second-straight-month-1.1601687

2 Tata Steel UK to axe 1,200 jobs (Karl West & Terry Macalister in The Guardian) Britain’s biggest steelmaker is set to deal a new blow to the industry by axing up to 1,200 jobs at a plant in Scunthorpe and at two sites in Scotland.

A widening of the crisis in the industry came as Sajid Javid, the business secretary, promised to try to help competitiveness when he oversaw an emergency national steel summit in Rotherham, West Yorkshire.

Tata Steel UK, which owns the rump of the former British Steel group, is expected to announce the Scunthorpe job losses next week. These redundancies will add to Tata’s own earlier cuts and to the recent collapse of the Redcar steelworks on Teesside. SSI UK, owned by Thailand’s Sahaviriya Steel Industries, went into liquidation earlier this month with the loss of 2,200 jobs after its owner said it could no longer sustain mounting losses.

An industry source said the latest jobs cull at Tata, which includes the Dalzell and Clydebridge sites in Scotland – would be followed by further cuts across the company’s long products division, which makes steel for the rail and construction industries.

It is thought Tata, the Indian conglomerate that also owns Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley Tea, is also preparing to cut several hundred roles in operations that serve the Scunthorpe plant, mainly at its Rotherham site. However, sources suggested that if current market conditions prevail, Tata executives may opt to wind down the Scunthorpe operation over the next few years.

The 151-year-old Scunthorpe plant has been on the endangered list ever since August, when Gary Klesch, the billionaire industrialist who owns the Klesch group of global industrial commodities, walked away from a deal to buy the lossmaking mill. Britain’s steel industry has been battered by a toxic cocktail of cheap Chinese competition, high energy costs, a strong pound and slowing demand.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/16/tata-steel-uk-axe-1000-jobs-scunthorpe

3 Redefining communication for your career (Kim Thompson in San Francisco Chronicle) To keep with the pace of sharing information you are more likely to use one-way communication rather than face to face which impacts your career. There are many ways to communicate with your coworkers, such as emailing, texting, face to face conversations and instant messaging, to name a few. Some ways are more effective than others, especially with relationships that could have a direct influence on your future career goals.

The way you communicate reveals more about you than you might have imagined. For example you might have wonderful intentions of updating your boss. However, your thoughts could be running faster than your typing skills and you leave out a couple of words or misspell them creating confusion. Either way, it sends a message that you pay less attention to details.

The point is: You might not be as careless if you were talking with your boss in person. You wouldn’t finish a half of a sentence and walk away or perhaps say things unfiltered, yet that’s the message you are sending through emails.

It pays to look at what type of message you are sending, and most importantly how you send it. One way communication will never replace the power of observing non-verbal reactions and picking up on subtle cues. The cardinal rule that gets broken more than most will admit is “never send messages when you are upset or wouldn’t want the world to see”.

You need to use emails and other forms of communication, however don’t make the habit of solely relying on them. Very rarely will you be promoted without seeing or verbally talking with someone. Emailing your boss who is three steps from you is not a good form of communication; albeit could be faster, yet you aren’t building the rapport you need to move in your career.

Communication styles differ with each generation at work and everyone needs to be adaptable. From a career stand point, keep your messages clear and timely. Be sensitive to what types of messages go out and how they could be perceived. It’s a good idea to trade places with the receiver, and if the message you are conveying isn’t clear, make sure it is before you hit send.

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2015/10/15/redefining-communication-a-new-look-to-an-old-topic/

Goldman Sachs sees profits plunge; China slowdown hits Burberry sales; Why new hires are quitting so soon

1 Goldman Sachs sees profits plunge (BBC) US banking giant Goldman Sachs has reported a sharp fall in profits as trading activity slowed owing to concerns about global economic growth. Net profits for the three months to 30 September were $1.43bn, down more than a third on a year earlier. Revenue fell almost 20% to $6.9bn.

The results contrasted sharply with those of rival Citigroup, which posted a 50% jump in profits, to $4.29bn. The bank said it was able to offset a fall in revenue by cutting costs. Goldman's investment banking division saw revenues increase, but other divisions, particularly market making and bond trading, saw revenues drop.

Earlier this week, other big US banks also reported a drop-off in trading during the quarter. Revenues at Citi fell by 5% to $18.69bn, but the bank was able to cut costs dramatically.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34542139

2 China slowdown hits Burberry sales (Julia Kollewe & Sarah Butler in The Guardian) Burberry blamed a sharp slowdown in sales on a tough global market for luxury goods, in particular weaker demand from Chinese customers. Shares in the company, known for its British-made trench coats and cashmere scarves, tumbled 8% to a two-year low wiping more than £500m from Burberry’s stock market value. Shares across the luxury sector were hit, including Prada, Kering and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Burberry joins LVMH, which earlier this week became the first major luxury goods company to warn that the stock market collapse in China over the summer had affected sales, particularly at its flagship Louis Vuitton brand.

China’s economic slowdown has prompted fears over the global economy. The country’s stock markets have seen repeated bouts of panic selling this summer, with “Black Monday” sending world markets into a spin. This prompted Beijing to take unprecedented measures to stop the rout, including the biggest devaluation of the yuan in 20 years, to help exporters and boost the flagging economy.

Burberry’s sales in mainland China and Asia-Pacific fell in the six months to the end of September. The region makes up 40% of Burberry’s revenues. The company has stepped up efforts to cut costs by £20m to minimise the impact on this year’s profits, which include a hiring freeze outside its retail operations.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/15/chinese-slowdown-hits-burberry-sales

3 Why new hires are quitting jobs so soon (Kia Croom in San Francisco Chronicle) One day you’re introduced to your company’s newest hire. No sooner than you learn his or her name and claim to fame, you notice he or she is no longer there.

Marion, an analyst relations worker, says she recently quit her job after two weeks, all because she suspected her supervisor was a workaholic. Marion was worried about meeting her supervisor’s reasonable expectations.

“She told me within the last five years the most she’d taken off was three consecutive days when she was sick with the flu,” she said. “While I don’t plan on taking excessive time off, I have small children, who get sick from time to time, so I occasionally need to take off. I suspected she has no concept of work life balance and inclination to tend to my family and children wouldn’t go over well with her. So I unapologetically quit.”

A recent study by Bamboo HR reports 31 percent of workers have quit a job within the first six months. Reasons ranged from the workers didn’t like their boss or the job to they changed their mind of the career path. Others said they didn’t get enough training for the job or the work didn’t line up with the job description.

SFGate conducted a survey to learn other reasons new hires quit so quickly. One responded saying “the work culture wasn’t a good fit.” Another said he didn’t like the hours. One said she quit after completing the employee orientation because the “fringe benefits sucked.” According to her calculations, under her employer’s health insurance plan, medical benefits alone for her family would cost her one-third of her pay.

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2015/10/15/why-are-new-hires-quitting-their-jobs-so-soon/

Eurozone industrial production falls; Wal-Mart predicts lower profits; World's most powerful cities

1 Eurozone industrial production falls (Phillip Inman in The Guardian) Industrial production in the eurozone slumped in August by 0.5%, according to official figures that illustrate the impact of falling demand for Europe’s cars and machine tools in China and the east Asia. The latest figures showed an even bigger drop in the year-on-year growth rate to just 0.9% growth when a rise of 1.8% had been expected.

The weak figures are expected to put pressure on the European Central Bank to expand its stimulus programme when it meets next week in Malta. ECB boss Mario Draghi has hinted that €60bn a month of bond purchases under its quantitative easing plan until September 2016 could be increased in size or extended at the meeting on 22 October.

A 1.1% fall in Germany was more than offset by a 1.6% rise in France, but the weight of declines among Europe’s smaller countries dragged down the total for the currency bloc’s 19 members. A 4.3% decline in the Czech Republic’s industrial output spearheaded a long list of fallers that included the Netherlands, down 1.5%, Denmark (-1.1%) and Spain (-1.3%).

The situation in Germany is unlikely to improve in the next few months, according to analysts who say recent surveys and the Volkswagen scandal will only add to Berlin’s recent woes. The ZEW surveys of economic expectations among business leaders plunged from 12.1 to 1.9 points.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/14/eurozone-industrial-production-falls

2 Wal-Mart predicts lower profits (BBC) Shares in the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, have plunged after it cut its profit forecast. The company said it expected earnings per share to drop by between 6% and 12% in the next financial year. The announcement sent shares of the company tumbling by 8%, their biggest fall in six years.

Wal-Mart said the lower profit forecast was because it was investing in e-commerce as well as increasing employee wages. The retailer's spending efforts are in part a reaction to slowing sales, and competition from online retailers like Amazon. It is also spending more to train and retain employees. In April, the company raised its base salary to $9 per hour and will increase it to $10 next year.

Wal-Mart has blamed the fall in part on the strong dollar affecting overseas sales, something that has also affected other US retailers. Profits for the company dipped over the summer as sales in its UK supermarket chain, Asda, declined.The retailer also announced it would repurchase $20bn in shares from investors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34533894

3 World’s most powerful cities (Cleofe Maceda in Gulf News) London is the most powerful city in the world, according to a new survey. The Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies has released the results of its latest Global Power City Index (GPCI) 2015 report, which rates 40 global metropolises according to their desirability or power to attract human capital and businesses from around the world.

The cities representing Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Latin America were assessed according to six key strengths : economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, environment and accessibility.

London, which has held the top spot every year since hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, emerged as the overall winner for 2015, followed by New York, Paris, Tokyo and Singapore in the top five. Completing the top ten list are Seoul, Hong Kong, Berlin, Amsterdam and Vienna.

London took the top spot for cultural interaction and did consistently well in most of the other key indicators, ranking second in economy, third in research and development, and second in accessibility. The city, however, needs to improve its livability, taking only the 19th spot in the same category.

In the economy category, which took into account gross domestic product, wage level, total employment, corporate tax rate and total market value of shares on stock exchanges, among others, Tokyo topped the list, making it the most economically powerful city in the world.

In terms of research and development, New York is a clear powerhouse to reckon with. For livability, Paris emerged as the clear winner, while Geneva emerged as the winner in terms of environment. In terms of accessibility, Paris earned the highest score.

http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/revealed-world-s-most-powerful-cities-1.1600825