The self-taught Annie Feolde started cooking dishes for the Wine Bar of Giorgio Pinchiorri, her husband. A dozen years later, she was awarded 3 Michelin Stars; one of the highest, most exclusive distinctions for a chef.

Located in a Renaissance Palace in downtown Florence, their restaurant Enoteca Pinchiorri is known worldwide for its pasta and its wines.

What is your secret for Italian Pasta?

We prepare our Pasta daily by mixing 15 egg yolks with 1 kg of flour. Then we shape different kinds of stuffed pasta such as agnolotti, cappelletti or ravioli. We also craft different lengths such as tagliatelle, tagliolini or spahetti alla chiterra.

In that case, we use a long specialized tool called a chiterra (shaped like a guitar), to cut the pasta into the right width. We also make dried Spaghetti with hard wheat flour.

In your world-class cellar, which of your 120,000 bottles are you the most proud of ?

Our first purchases are the ones we hold nearest to our hearts, like Sassicaia 1968/1985, Monfortino Barolo 1958/1971 from Italy; and Petrus 1961, Mouton Rothschild 1945 or Cheval Blanc 1947 from France.

We also have great new wines from Tuscany such as Masseto, Solaia, Redigaffi, Perca, Flaccianello and Silversmiths, and wines from the New World such as Screaming Eagle, Colgin, Maya, Harlan Estate, Dominus or Opus One.

And we can’t forget the Champagne, with the Krug Collection 1966, Krug Clos du Mesnil and Clos d’Ambonnay 1996, Dom Perignon Enoteque 1959, Cristal Rose 1996, Pommery Cuvee Louise 1996 or Salon 1990.

Can Glasses really make a big difference in the taste of the wine ?

Oh yes… At Enoteca Pinchiorri, we offer over 40 types of crystal glasses. There are glasses for Champagne, white wines, young red and ripe, sweet wines…. For every type of wine, we can say there is a glass to showcase it perfectly.

When a customer selects a really special bottle of wine, we will choose the most beautiful, elegant shape to give the customer the most pleasure and ensure that the selected vintage will taste the best. As a restaurant, we do not produce wine but we enhance the taste with our service.

Can you say a word about yourself ?

My passion has always been to make others happy. My husband and I share the same passion for quality. Our pleasure is to help our customers to rediscover traditional, often forgotten products and recipes such as oven-roasted pig, with its crisp skin, potato salad, beet oil, and sweet-sour shallots.

Annie Feold is one of the Grand Chefs at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. With her husband, she owns Restaurant Enoteca Pinchiorri, one of the most celebrated restaurants in Italy.

For C-suite executives, leaving the corner office doesn’t mean leaving the field—there are many ways to remain professionally engaged and involved.

Whether former CEOs are in transition toward another full-time post or settling in to full-time consulting, they have resources that allow them to leverage their decades of experience across a global client base.

Despite the current poor job market, there will always be demand for the right kind of knowledge and experience.

Many CEOs keep themselves current, involved and remunerated through expert networks such as Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG).

GLG connects CEOs with clients, as part of our mission to help leading business decision makers find, engage, and manage subject matter experts across a broad range of industries and disciplines. We work closely with our senior investment and corporate clients to match them with the expertise they need most.

Our 250,000+ experts worldwide include thousands of former CEOs, across industries and geographies, whom we recruit through a combination of referrals and our own industry knowledge. We also ensure the highest standards of ethics and have built an industry-leading compliance framework for expert consulting.

Relying on personal and professional connections is the tried and true solution, but in today’s online, intensely networked age, former CEOs can do far more to keep themselves in the mix.

They can join a diverse and highly specialized group of experts who are consulted by corporations and financial institutions worldwide for everything from a brief conference call on a specific issue to a long-term engagement.

Consulting via an expert network can bridge the gap between one senior executive role and the next—or it can evolve into a solution in and of itself. Former CEOs have a wider range of choices than they realize, and those choices may become solutions for investors and others in search of informed insight.

Staying fresh, informed and smart in your field is crucial in today’s challenging job market. While that’s always the case for any job candidate, it’s essential for former C-suite executives in this increasingly competitive environment.

Joshua Hittman, is Vice President EMEA of Gerson Lehrman Group, the global marketplace for expertise. Its 19 offices are located in North America, Asia, Europe, and South America.  Learn more about becoming a GLG Council Member.

The recent financial crisis has brought to light the complexity of certain financial products, as well as a profound lack of transparency within the financial system. Despite strong criticism denouncing this lack of transparency, investors have, nevertheless, increasingly had recourse to hidden trading platforms on the equity market, better known as dark pools.

By way of clarification,  let us dive into the world of dark pools! The EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MIFID, came into force two years ago. It allowed for the opening up of new trading systems, in particular in the equities market.

In order to ensure market transparency and integrity, this Directive set up pre-trade and post-trade transparency requirements. For example, the directive’s pre-trade transparency requirements include the obligation to make public on a continuous basis during trading hours current bid and offer prices and the depth of trading interests at these prices.

This EU directive also allows for the waiving of these obligations for transactions that are large in scale compared to normal market size. The aim is to prevent the acquisition or transfer of a large number of shares from triggering a large increase or decrease in share prices if this order were made public. This has spurred the development of dark pools for block trades.

Dark Pools thus refers to Trading Systems operating without pre-trade transparency using the waivers provided for in the MIFID. It currently represents less than 10% of trade volume on the European equity shares market.

The most well-known dark pools include: Smart Pool founded by NYSE Euronext, Baïkal founded by the London stock exchange (which recently merged with the alternative European platform Turquoise, founded by BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale and UBS) or Neuro Dark founded by Nasdaq OMX.

Although the post-trade transparency requirements apply to dark pools (in particular the obligation to make public the price, volume and time of transactions), they are criticized for their lack of pre-trade transparency. Some investors could sell large quantities of shares within a regulated market after purchasing these same shares at a much lower price from a dark pool.

Beyond the risk of price manipulation, the rise of dark pools might also distort competition and create a disadvantage for private investors who do not trade in large quantities of shares and who cannot have recourse to dark pools. This highlights the risk of liquidity fragmentation and, as a consequence, a possible deterioration of the price formation process on the equities market.

Due to the multiplication of shares trading systems, equity issuers complain when the price of their shares is altered. Since they don’t know the exact stock exchange price of their shares, they can’t determine the actual price of their financial capitalisation.

In the US, dark pools emerged in the 1990s. In October 2009, because of the growing number of those hidden platforms, the Stock Exchange Commission proposed measures intended to increase transparency of dark pools in the United States, so investors get a clearer view of stock prices and liquidity.

Did MIFID really achieve its aim of protecting investors through setting up a more integrated, transparent, effective and competitive capital market? The European Commission has scheduled a revision of MIFID for 2010, which we hope will provide an opportunity for the pre-negotiation transparency waivers to be rethought in order to prevent the development of this dark side of the financial markets.

Antoine Juaristi is Partner at Lovells, in the Dispute Resolution Group. Lovells is one of the largest international law firms with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

You often talk about the wisdom of the ancients, how would you define it ?

As for any art or job, you first need to know the basics and to build solid foundations through academic training. Then, as you get more knowledge and practice, you get the freedom to create and to innovate.  Mixing generations in my teams and in my courses has always been stimulating for everyone including myself.

Tell us about you ?

After studying in Spain, I set up my own restaurant in 1975 in San Sebastian, my native town, in the Basque region. We are located the Igueldo Mount above the Atlantic sea. Our ambition is to be one of the hubs of creative cuisine. I also love to share my cooking secrets.

How do you teach your art ?

I have been teaching cooking on TV everyday for 15 years at Tele5 and at Etb2. It was a great way to meet and teach students every day in the intimacy of each home thanks to the massive mail contacts we had. Now, I am more inclined to give classes at my own restaurant or in schools to the younger generation of people. I wrote a dozen books. As they are all out of print, I am now preparing the next one.

Spain produces outstanding wines. What do you recommend ?

I love wines in all the price ranges. Here are some of my preferred red wines : San Vincente 2005 or Las Gravas 2006 about 20 € ; I appreciate a lot the Finca El Bosque 2007 or the Finca Dofi 2005 around 100 € ; then you can find ultimate wines such as Pesus 2004 or La Faraona 2005 for about 250 €.

Which of your many distinctions you are the most proud of ?

For any chef, the Michelin macarons are among the most prestigious distinction you can get. Each year, you also have to be good enough to keep them. We have got our third Michelin Star in 2007. This has been great recognition for the whole team.

Pedro Subijana is one of the Grand Chefs at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. He is also the founder and the owner of Alekare, a 3-Star Michelin Restaurant located in Spain. He is teaching cooking all over the world and advises several hotel groups.

Extending seniors’ employability is currently a hot topic for most European countries. European countries are recognizing the value that older workers bring to an organization: experience, institutional memory, wisdom, maturity. In 2010, each member of the European Union must achieve the target of increasing its employment rate of seniors (aged between 55 and 64 years old) to 50%.

In 2008, the average rate of senior employment in Europe was 46%, which is the rate recorded for Spain. Above this average are The Netherlands (53%), Germany (54%) and The United Kingdom (58%). They are finding it difficult to keep up with the lead taken by the top of the class: Sweden, with 70 % of seniors in employment. Amongst the worst performing are France (38%), Italy (34%) and Poland (32%) who are now striving to reach the 50% target.

The way to avoid encourage seniors to delay entry into retirement differs from country to country. Some governments try to increase the age of retirement (Finland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany), while others create incentive measures to hire or maintain senior employment by exempting social security contributions (Italy, Spain). Sweden pays subsidies to companies hiring senior employees, and Finland and the UK promote the positive impact of employing seniors via public campaigns.

Whereas the current economic and financial climate obliges most companies to implement constraints or voluntary departure plans for a large number of employees, French companies have to commit to maintaining or hiring senior employees.

The approach taken by France to reduce this gap is worth focusing on since the French model is distinctly punitive, as opposed to offering incentives. Companies having more than 50 employees are required to take certain number of quantifiable measures which favor senior employment. These companies will be sanctioned with a penalty of 1% of the global gross salaries if they do not comply with these regulations as of January 1st 2010.

In Sweden, all the economic players are fully aware of the challenge. To respond to their ageing workforce, companies are encouraged to take creative measures. Like Vatenfall this publicly owned energy company, which in order to avoid terminating more than 8 000 of its senior employees in 10 years time, has established the “80-90-100″ program: 80% work time provides 90% salary and 100% pension funding.  Other companies such as SwedBank, a leading bank in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have taken similar initiatives.

Different countries have vastly different approaches to attracting and retaining seniors, but it is clear that the initiative is taking hold, and one way or another it will be here for some time.

Marie-Charlotte Diriart is Counsel on Employment at Lovells. Lovells is one of the largest international legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

A pricing function focused on managing in a downturn is fraught with risk. At best, a company could miss the potential short-term gains offered by an improvement in the economy, and at worst it could damage the long-term price positioning of the overall enterprise. With companies clearly beginning to position themselves for an upturn, now is the time for executives to be sure that their business has the right pricing strategy and execution capabilities.

As companies prepare for an upturn, we see actions in the following areas as key:

• Ensure that your pricing strategy can accommodate a “multi-speed economy”. In an upturn, geographic, product and customer segments recover at different speeds. Companies need to employ micro-segmentation techniques coupled with differentiated pricing strategies to operate in this environment. Micro-segments should be continually re-analyzed and migrated across strategies as required during the recovery.

• Strengthen your analytical capabilities to support better pricing performance measurement and segmentation. A comprehensive set of analytical reports and KPIs is the basis for any pricing capability; especially if the performance of individual micro-segments are to be monitored and results utilized in strategy and execution.

• Increase the efficiency and accuracy of price setting, execution and control. As the recovery takes hold, prices may change rapidly for a specific micro-segment. Companies should utilize standardized price-setting models and processes mapped to the segmented strategies, enabling transparency, control and efficiency in the process. Differentiated price targets and floors should be utilized during sales negotiations, coupled with a clear price policy document to enforce segment-based rules.

• Integrate and automate pricing technology and data to improve decision making and efficiency. As the pricing environment becomes more complex, pricing technology is increasingly critical to driving effective execution. Leading-edge pricing applications provide the required insight and automate rote pricing tasks, freeing skilled pricing resource up to focus on the more complex processes and exceptions.

• Improve the skills and performance of the pricing organization. Processes, policies, technology and data all play key roles in effective pricing, but the human element is the most critical. Several areas will enhance the overall performance of the pricing organization including: revising and documenting clear pricing roles, authorities and accompanying training for the organization; developing an effective performance management system based on the chosen pricing strategies; and exploring ways to bolster the pricing team through selective hiring.

Optimizing pricing can be challenging even during the best of times, but it is particularly difficult during uncertain economic conditions. By creating a robust pricing capability that leverages leading practices and technologies, companies can effectively capitalize on emerging growth opportunities and, as the economy recovers, position themselves for high performance over the long term.

Julian W. Short leads the Accenture Price & Profit Optimization practice across Europe, Africa and Latin America. Mr. Short works across multiple industries to help companies shape and deliver their pricing strategy. He is based in London. Learn more at Accenture.

A lot of managers, after long careers in big corporations, used to approach head-hunters for positions in companies under LBOs. This has changed in these difficult times for Private Equity: fewer operations, less leverage, smaller dreams…

Are there real opportunities today to join an LBO company as CEO or CFO?  Many managers (and it begins generally in their early 40’s) are looking for more independence and entrepreneurship, but do not want to create their own companies, because it is either too risky, or because they do not have The Idea.

Then, they think they can take over a company, or find a position in a company under LBO. It is true it can be a good deal: nice compensation, and potential leverage. Generally Private Equity firms propose that they invest 1 year salary, and the goal is to have a multiple of this investment once company is resold.

If the drivers of this kind of opportunities have not changed, the economic situation has, and candidates know that. In 2009, they showed less enthusiasm for this kind of job, because they know that there is less leverage.

There are also fewer opportunities all over the world. For example, In France in 2008, out of 194 LBO operations there were only 24 Management Buy In (MBI) or Buy In Management Buy Out (BIMBO) of which 80% were valued below 15 Mi€. On the first semester 2009 out of 62 LBO, there were 13 MBI or BIMBO of which 100% were valued below 15 Mi€. In a nutshell, for CEO, we are talking about only 24 new positions in France in 2008.

What profiles do those jobs require? Quite surprisingly, Price Equity firms are always open to meet good candidates. For them, this means experienced managers, with a good knowledge of the sectors those firms have invested in (which is often public) or of the sectors they are considering investing (information they need), ideally with a mix of experience in large groups and smaller companies.

Why are Private Equity firms opened to meet candidates while not recruiting? Because they want to know the market, the good potential candidates for their investments, identify potential board members, discover a new market through a specialist… They love seasoned managers presenting them investment opportunities. They can help you to externalize one of your less strategic activities or to prepare for your next career step. So if you have a chance to meet them, do not miss it.

Igor Quézel-Perron is Partner at Eric Salmon and Partners and conducts global search. Eric Salmon and Partners is a leading European executive search firm with 6 offices in Europe.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/lbo-mbi-bimbo/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/transition-management/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/transition-management/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:33:49 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=712 By Dominique Langlois & Frederic Marquette, EIM

Balancing Excellence and Urgency is a hard, daily challenge for many executives.

In addition to staying top of the daily business life, executives may face unexpected exceptional circumstances such as the long-time absence of a key man, a deep organizational change, the integration of new company, a heavy restructuring because of a lower volume or a sharp cost increase, redefinition of target market or niche, or the launch of a new activity abroad.

When managing all this calls for specialists, that is the everyday business of a few Transition Management Firms.

How does it work? We have built an important pond of highly seasoned executives including all kinds of management roles in all the industries. Those executives can be asked to contribute for a few weeks (experts), a few months (transition) or a few years (recruiting). Most executives can be available for the customers within days.

How are selected the executives? Our executives have been identified because of their solid academic training, of their professional backgrounds and their concrete achievements in the various positions they held. As for any hiring, we only add them in our database after serious reference checkings and in-depth interviews.

How do they work? As soon as they start working for our customers, those managers are permanently assisted by one of our Partners. They all come from top management consulting firms with valuable operational experiences including executive roles. The manager needs to execute fast decisions, to understand key strategic elements, and take the right measure of the environment. This high level assistance is key ingredient for the success of the mission. Even if the challenges are new, the stakes are big and the customers’ expectations are high. A partner will assist the manager with wisdom and seasoned experience.

Dominique Langlois and Frédéric Marquette are Partners at EIM, a leading transition management firm with 15 offices in Europe, Asia and in the US.  EIM has carried out over 6,000 missions in the last 20 years and has over 15,000 high level executives available on demand.

France has recently introduced a new trust and security mechanism transferring the management and the ownership of an asset to the trustee. Those new security tools should help the finance industry to leverage new pools of assets, to contribute to lower borrowing costs and to provide lenders greater diversification. In a cash crunch environment, unleashing a wave of financial innovation is an opportunity for many corporations to free up cash.

How this happened? The law about the trustee or fiducie was first introduced in 2007. It was not judged sufficiently clear and protective by the stakeholders and thus became largely ignored. In January 2009, the regulator introduced rules to organize the management and the security of the assets. For instance, it is now possible for a borrower to provide trade receivables, movable or fixed assets as securities for his loans.

How it works? Pursuant to the fiducie agreement, the asset is transferred to a trustee (which can either be the lender or a third party) as a separate asset. This protects the lenders in case of bankruptcy proceedings against the grantor or the trustee.

When the fiducie agreement guarantees the financing of the transferred asset, a secondary agreement might be introduced, leaving the transferred asset under the control of the grantor. The grantor can then use and manage the financed asset which is now owned by the lenders. Some uncertainties remain regarding this secondary agreement in the context of insolvency proceedings.

The Fiducie concept exists under various forms in several other European countries: in the United Kingdom it is called Trust, in Germany Treuhand and in the Netherlands Bewind.

Despite these uncertainties, Fiducie has been qualified by some commentators as the future “Queen of security rights”. It is in our view premature to make such a strong statement. It is undeniably an interesting concept which will hopefully “find its way” and generate innovative security package schemes in the market.

Richard Jadot and Louis-Jérôme Laisney are respectively Partner and Lawyer at Lovells, in Finance and Banking. Lovells is one of the largest international legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/french-trust/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/cooking-naturally/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/cooking-naturally/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:54:41 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=688 With Johann Lafer

1. Why is German Cuisine is so diverse and yet relatively unknown?

German Cuisine differs a lot by region. In Hamburg, the cuisine is inspired by fish, shellfish, and fresh seafood, while Bavarian food is based more on well-crafted sausage, wiener and sauerkraut. Our vast forests provide a great variety of wild game, fruits and mushrooms; vegetables like asparagus and cabbages are of exceptional quality. We almost always include dedicated dishes with delicious potatoes. Poultry and meats are included in many recipes, but cooked very differently in each region.

2. Why do you so often add aromatic herbs? Where do you find them?

Aromatic herbs are essential to cooking. They help to modify and magnify the taste, and add essential freshness to the meal. I have always included them in my recipes. For years I have been planting and growing them in my kitchen garden.

3. You teach cooking on ZDF, a national TV network. What is your advice for home cooks?

Cooking should be enjoyable. My passion is to promote natural cooking and the arts of the table with my compatriots. In Germany, because of the wars, we missed two generations of family cooking. We have to begin again with the basics: great ingredients lead to great food. At Table d’Or, we start with simple recipes to get the basics and educate your palate. Then you will enjoy haute cuisine whether you cook it yourself or you savour it at someone else’s table. Be curious, take your time, have fun, and enjoy it to the fullest.

4. What are you passionate about?

First, I love my Chef’s job. With my team, we select the very best products. We are always very curious about the best recipes and how to improve existing ones. I love the creative potential of my job. I feel I can improve the German feel for taste and great food. My greatest reward is when I see the happiness in the eyes of my customers. Cooking is giving Nature our deepest respect, every day.

Johann Lafer is one of the Grand Chefs at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. He is also the owner of the Relais & Chateaux Stromborg, Germany. He teaches cooking on ZDF, a national German network and at Table d’Or.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/11/cooking-naturally/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/missions-and-mergers/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/missions-and-mergers/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:47:03 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=684 by Didier Toussaint

Some figures assert that less than half of the mergers among business corporations can claim to be successful. While at first it makes sense economically, the implementation of the merger eventually tends to destroy value after implementation. Why?

With a growing concern for profitability over the three past decades, the notion of corporate mission has been left aside.  While making a profit is crucial for survival in a free market economy, corporations need to foster the collective motivation that keeps people working together towards a common goal. Before it can generate profits, a corporation is an institution based on an original intention. Usually determined by its founder, the corporate purpose is what makes it meaningful.

Louis Renault founded his firm in 1899 with the concept of a low-cost vehicle. Renault kept the company geared towards innovation with a rather authoritarian management style.  The Logan, a low-cost car now assembled in Romania, is successful partly because it is consistent with that vision.  The attempt to join forces with the high-end Volvo in 1993 was not a good fit; the luxury market required a softer type of management.

Strangely enough, corporate mission is a well respected concept as far as brand management is concerned, but far too often undervalued when it comes to people management.

Mismanagement happens when processes and people collide, and anxiety develops among executives. Managers see the new diversity of knowledge, historical backgrounds, and identities as confusing or even destructive, rather than acknowledging it as a major resource. They impose artificial organizational structures for the sole purpose of reaching a complete homogeneous environment, dictated by reason and imagination rather than experience or realism. Field work and day to day operations suffer, as morale and a sense of mission are lost.

The way Air France and KLM joined forces while respecting the existing brands and identities is a perfect example of how a merger may be successful. Individual management style was taken under consideration, as was the sensitive role of the airline as a national symbol.

The nearly impossible construction of a common identity within EADS is a famous counter-example. This company has been suffering from an ill-defined identity since the beginning. In spite of this weakness, the firm is successful because it is in a business which requires a high degree of centralization and planning as far as production is concerned, and strong political support as far as sales are concerned.

Respecting the corporate purpose and meaning of each firm involved is the key to a successful merger. It requires a type of manager with exceptional interpretative skills rather than predetermined normative concepts.

After several years with Heidrick & Struggles and A.T. Kearney as a Vice-President, Didier Toussaint is a founding partner of DIT, a consulting firm focusing on change management by leveraging the unconscious processes of business corporations. He is the author of several books including Renault ou l’inconscient d’une entreprise.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/missions-and-mergers/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/the-buzz-online-assurance/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/the-buzz-online-assurance/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:14:35 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=670 By Jacki Johnson, The Buzz Insurance

The launch of a total online insurance business within the Insurance Australia Group was about a fundamentally different business model, enabled by a variety of technologies, with the internet as the main customer interface. In the journey to launch, we discovered some insights about customer behaviour and desires that helped us shape the new online insurance experience.

In 2008, we engaged insurance consumers in face-to-face and online insight sessions on myinsuranceideas.com.au. Our target customers made it clear they wanted to control their price and product features and stressed the need for transparency in price, coverage and fairness. They were very aware that a low price may mean a lack of product features or/and a high excess.

Increased access shapes consumer attitude. For the first time, we are seeing a significant increase in the number of consumer “switchers” based on policy/service than price. Research show s many online transactors are providing comment or seeking advice from other consumers on line through social networks such as blogs, Facebook or Twitter.

Activist baby boomers are now marching online in Insurance too. The online transactors driving the success of internet businesses such as eBay and Amazon are the tech savvy mid to high socio-economic group who are 25-54 years old. It’s also this group who want to influence the service and product offerings. They truly are the activist baby boomers!

General mistrust of the financial sector has led customers to automatically look for the catch. So in creating The Buzz, we built features the customers asked for while ensuring there was ‘no catch’. Our product allows customers to select their own options and choose their agreed value and basic excess – about 20% of our customers are taking up these options.

Customers are also annoyed that the ‘entry’ price is not what they get when they renew. We make sure we price risk appropriately with little volatility. Renewal and loyalty is important. We need to be competitive while basing price on risk rather than policy growth.

The initiative to have live chat and not click to call came at the request of consumers. We provide full online claims lodgement but we offer phone support too. For many small claims like a chipped windscreen, customers want very fast, responsive service – they do not want to wait on the phone. Ironically the most common question has been where the company is based with customers expressing the desire to deal with an Australian company.

Jacki Johnson is the Chief Executive Officer of The Buzz Insurance, the leading online insurance company in Australia. The Buzz Insurance is owned by Insurance Australia Group which underwrites $8 billion of premium per annum and operates in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Asia.

Business leaders understand that climate change is a major issue, but many are awaiting clarity about future regulation. Here are six actions to take today to prepare for climate change:

a. Weatherproof your business: A rise in average global temperatures of 1-4°C under current emission paths could result in rising sea levels and greater frequency of freak weather events. Depending on location and industry, this could have severe consequences for a company’s plant, its transport and logistics networks, its supplier base, the welfare and mobility of employees, and critical elements of IT infrastructure. Companies need to understand these stress points and factor them into their long-range business planning.

b. Factor a carbon price into business planning—now: Caps or taxes will mean that CO2 emissions will have a price, something that will drive initiatives that eradicate carbon inefficiencies. Even if a business does not operate in an industry where carbon emissions are directly regulated, many of the firms in its supply chain will, thereby indirectly affecting costs and prices. Companies can audit their carbon footprint and their supply chains to identify carbon “hotspots”. They can explore various options to decarbonize their supply chains such as clean vehicle technologies, optimization of logistics networks, and low-carbon sourcing.

c. Anticipate the trade-related aspects and risks of climate change: Protective measures imposed by economies with high levels of carbon regulation against those with low levels of regulation may mean that companies inadvertently fall foul of border taxes or import restrictions. Companies will need to be highly attuned to this greening of the trade landscape, and act nimbly to manage its attendant risks.

d. Follow the green-brick road: Buildings, transport networks, energy sources, power generation and industry will all need to be upgraded. Advances in information technology will enable the creation of smart cities. Companies should look to harness green incentives provided by governments. They should reorient R&D functions in order to tailor innovations to meet the green growth opportunity. And they should form partnerships to tap into sources of knowledge, expertise and technology.

e. Go and talk to regulators and scientists: Given the complex and multi-faceted nature of climate change, there is a real danger that policy, science and business strategy could each develop in its own vacuum. Businesses should engage with the scientific community, policymakers and regulators to ensure effective, well-designed policies.

f. Harness the greening power of IT: Technological advances such as cloud computing and green data centers are enabling significant reductions in the carbon footprint of information and communication technologies Video conferencing technologies, social networking tools and software can support remote working and reduce the need for travel; smart grids in electricity supply can enable businesses and households to regulate their energy usage and generate power locally that can be sold back to the grid, enabling significant savings.

Matthew Robinson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance, where he leads the global trends research program. His current research interests include carbon economy, the re-emergence of a multi-polar world, open business models, scenario planning, and business simulation. He is based in London. Learn more at Accenture.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/prepare-for-climate-change/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/hype-and-reality-in-green-it/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/hype-and-reality-in-green-it/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:40:42 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=626 By Guy Hervier

The 90s saw incredible growth in Information Technologies. Few people paused to consider implications of parallel growth in electrical consumption.

The US Energy Star specification in 1992 was one of a few initiatives which regulated the efficiency of all this equipment.

In 2007, the American Congress published a report considered a milestone of the Green IT paradigm. It showed that the electrical consumption of all data centers in the US had doubled between 2000 and 2006, totaling 2% of the entire US electrical consumption and equalling the energy consumed by the world’s airline jets. And if nothing is done, it will double again by 2011 representing 100 billion of KWh or 7.4 billion dollars a year. In the prestigious Los Alamos labs, RoadRunner, the world’s fastest supercomputer eats 2.5 MWh a year, or as much as 500 US households. While computer performance efficiency has multiplied by a factor of 25 between 2000 and 2006, energy efficiency has progressed only by a factor of 8.

There are compelling reasons to think over the electrical consumption: 55 % is consumed by the data center infrastructure and 45 % by the computers; at the server level, 70 % of the energy is used by the power supply, memory, fans and storage leaving 30 % to the processors; within the processor, 80 % is consumed by processors in an idle state.

Welcome to wasteland: combining all these factors leads to a mere 3 % efficiency. Information Communication Technologies, which include all of our digital equipment ubiquitous in our daily lives, consumes 14% of the electrical production in a country like France. Even where they are in sleep mode, our systems are consuming energy.

However, even if data centers are consuming 2% of the electricity, they can help us optimize the other 98%. Information Communication Technology plays a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To name a few: innovative workplace organization such as telecommuting, videoconferencing and workgroup software, e-commerce, dematerialization of administration forms, smart grid, home automation, electric cars…

Some IT applications can have a spectacular effect on reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. IBM, for example, developed and deployed a toll system for cars in Stockholm that had cut emissions by 40% only 15 days after the system was implemented. Intelligent meters could lower power consumption by 10%, by sending information that electrical companies can use to better manage the grid, reducing useless production and losses.

While there is plenty of room for growth in the efficiency of technology, there are many opportunities for technology to increase our energy efficiency on a broader scale.

Guy Hervier, is Editor in Chief, ITRmanager, a leading publication for IT managers.

]]> http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/10/hype-and-reality-in-green-it/feed/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/09/in-inventory-since-1760/ http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/2009/09/in-inventory-since-1760/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:44:43 +0000 TheOfficialBoard http://www.theofficialboard.com/newsletter/?p=592 With Patrick Henriroux

Patrick Henriroux is the Chef and the proprietor of La Pyramide at Vienne, France. In 1989, he bought this mythical hotel-restaurant which was then in jeopardy. He has transformed it into a must-visit in the Rhône Valley.

You have one of the most exclusive wine lists on the planet. What is included?

When taking over La Pyramide, I inherited an exceptional array of historical vintages. In Bordeaux wines, for instance, we start with Napoleon’s time: a Laffite Rothschild 1806. Our Cognac dates to 1788 with the French Revolution and our Chartreuses Liquor even goes back to 1760…

Located in the vicinity of Burgundy, we buy all the millennium of its best wines. We also source wines from all over the world including France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Argentina and the United States. For each of our millenniums (even the oldest ones,) we often have 50 to 100 bottles in our cellar. We taste them to make sure that our wine list displays only the ones that deserve to be drunk now.

How can one appreciate such a wine?

To spend a unique moment, I suggest you to start by choosing your wines. Take your time to absorb the list. For every customer, there is something magical as they get a sense of the magnitude of the history available here. Once you have made your selection of wine at 100 €, 500€ or 1000 €, we can help you build the perfect meal.

Then, our wine waiters bring special care to the conservation, the preparation and the discovery of each bottle. Even if an old bottle has its tags a little tattered, our guests will be delighted with the contents.

How do you decide what to charge for a 50 year-old or 100 year-old bottle?

Of course, I could sell most of my bottles for premium prices at Sotheby’s. I have not chosen to set up in Paris, Tokyo or New York. I am more interested in offering reasonable prices to my guests (from this region or traveling here) who are looking for those exceptional vintages and an authentic experience.

What are you passionate about?

Guilds matter a lot to me because they are about transmitting our heritage to future generations. I was one of the lucky beneficiaries. For me, meeting a well-known Chef like Georges Blanc or Pierre Trois-Gros, even for a short while, is a moment of great emotion and pride.

Though these informal Chefs’ guilds, our team members get valuable experiences. I also appreciate it when the Chef is at the piano in the kitchen and not just traveling to his restaurants in five continents. I also love making my visit to the daily market. We have about one hundred great producers within a 20 km radius of Vienne.

Patrick Henriroux is the Chefs’ Coordinator at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. He is also the owner of the Relais & Châteaux La Pyramide in the Rhone valley, France.

Tax lawyers like to think that in any law there are loopholes, and if these loopholes exist, it is because God created them.

In international taxation, tax havens are a major loophole for sheltering the assets of the wealthy. Tax havens are vilified as the scapegoat of the financial market collapse and the source of an underground economy threatening the world stability.  Most jurisdictions have taken legal steps to fight tax evasion by individuals or companies.

Yet, recently, countries that appear to be tax shelters have joined the European Union.  Ireland, Malta and Luxembourg are among the best locations in Europe for carrying out a business activity in a low tax environment.

Freedom of establishment is embedded in the founding principle of the European Union, making it hard to limit tax shelters. States have to allow their citizens and companies to carry out business in any other EU member state. And furthermore, most of the recent court decisions have ruled in favour of the tax payers, rather than the tax administrations.

The recent financial turmoil is changing the game. Banking secrecy has been challenged, and some states have been forced to sign exchange of information agreements or face sanctions. Most have complied. Whether blessed or excommunicated by the international community, tax shelters in places like Switzerland, the Channel Islands or Lichtenstein have been listed in different categories of white, gray, etc.

In the US, the paranoia is even more forceful, as shown by the number of laws challenging the use of tax shelters. A draft law called “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act” was introduced before the Senate by President Obama before his election. This act calls for the establishment of a blacklist of offshore secrecy jurisdictions. An alternative proposal by Senator Baucus would establish a compulsory report of offshore accounts.

Is the use of tax shelters still recommended? Our politicians should keep in mind that there will always be people and companies who try to avoid paying high taxes. Ultimately, the simplest solution for a taxpayer may be to transfer their tax residency to a tax haven rather than transferring their wealth there. For the country of origin all tax opportunities would be lost. We are witnessing an increasing number of wealthy people considering this option.

The alternative for the governments of the civilized high tax countries would therefore be to become more tax friendly. One day they might even ask themselves, should we become a tax haven?

Hervé Israël is Partner at Lovells, in Direct Tax, Indirect Tax, Tax, Tax Disputes. Lovells is one of the largest international legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

With Patrick O’Connell

Patrick is the chef, proprietor and the cofounder of The Inn at Little Washington, considered one of the top 10 restaurants of the Planet by the International Herald Tribune. It became America’s first 5 Star country house hotel.

Usually we refer to the Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese or Japanese cuisine. How would you define American Cuisine?

Every country’s cuisine is a reflection of its history, culture and geography.  America is no exception.  Even though our country is often referred to as “melting pot” of nationalities and ethnic sub-cultures, our cuisine is still identifiable and unmistakably unique. It tells the story of a land conquered by Spanish, French and English explorers who vanquished the  Native American Indians and moved west as pioneers in covered wagons during the gold rush to settle the new frontier.  Like a vintage photograph, every one of our cherished recipes documents a moment and place in time connecting us to our ancestors.

It has taken me a long time to realize that what I’ve been doing over the last quarter century at The Inn at Little Washington is evolving and refining many of the dishes I grew up with, making them relevant to a new century while keeping their soul intact—building a sort of culinary bridge between the past and the future.

In France a distinction has always been drawn between everyday home cooking and “haute cuisine”.  Finally American cuisine has evolved to the point that we also have two distinct levels of cooking and our own equivalent to la grande cuisine of France.  I refer to this as “Refined American Cuisine”.

Being a Chef is hard work and long hours. What are your most rewarding moments?

Every day is rewarding in its own way.  There is always some aspect of growth or newness.  Every day is a fresh canvas where a new miracle can be created. I am satisfied and happy if I can see some tangible improvement in any aspect of our work each day.  This way there is always a new challenge and nothing feels stale.  A chef’s work, like any artist must reflect his present state of mind and evolution in order to feel authentic to an audience.  Therefore, as I evolve, so does my cuisine.

The Inn in Washington is located in Virginia, far from the traditional finest restaurants and customers spots. How do you deal with this?

There are both advantages and disadvantages in our country location.  We are much closer to nature and to our products. We raise many of our crops and have a network of local farmers who supply us with some of the greatest materials in the world.  On the other hand we sometimes feel a bit detached from the mainstream and in a sort of timeless bubble.  Thankfully, our remote location seems to help keep us immune from silly trends or fads.

What is the next big thing for American cuisine?

The next big challenge is to convince the media that beauty and luxury are essential components to our well-being and that an exquisite meal in wonderful surroundings can be therapeutic and enhance a person’s self esteem.  At the moment, we seem to be experiencing a new Puritanism fostered by the economic downturn.   The public needs to realize that sometimes the best value can be found in the most expensive restaurants.

In the future the guest experience will become more interactive.  For example, at The Inn at Little Washington we invite our clients to take a walk to the chicken house and choose their own eggs for breakfast.  They can stroll through the herb garden and pick the herbs they want in their omelette.  Almost everyone visits our kitchen and many guests choose to dine there at the Chef’s tables.

Patrick O’Connell is one of the Grand Chef at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. He is also the owner of the Relais & Chateaux The Inn in Little Washington, in Virginia, United States. He wrote two best selling cookbook, The Inn at Little Washington Cookbook : A Consuming Passion and Refined American Cuisine, The Inn at Little Washington.

How well positioned is your company to respond effectively to the downturn? The answer is a function of three assessments: relative performance (as measured over recent business cycles and management eras), your own unique circumstances, and overarching global conditions.

From our extensive research over the past six years, we know that on its own, a rising share price tells observers little about whether a company is consistently outperforming its peers.

Accenture’s formula for judging high performance examines company performance by looking at metrics that indicate true competitive strength: strong profitability balanced with strong revenue growth and positioning for the future, all delivered consistently and over time.

The downturn, however, threw a wrench into some of this machinery. Consider relative performance: not all high performers were in strong positions when it hit. Some found themselves cash poor, for example, perhaps because of recent strategic acquisitions. Likewise, some low performers, perhaps because of an inability to identify promising investment opportunities when the economy was strong, had cash on hand.

Once a company has established its relative competitive stance, it should assess its own particular circumstances. Accenture research following previous recessions found that leading companies practice sound, value-based financial management, emphasizing cash flow and strong balance sheets during good times. This approach provides flexibility and financial muscle during bad times. While there is no perfect formula for downturn readiness, some elements are clearly important: cash position, balance sheet strength and the diversity of cash flows.

The key questions to ask about cash reserves are, “Do we have sufficient cash to see us through the crisis?” and “Do we have enough to make long-term investments attractive at this moment?”

For its balance sheet, a company must ask, “Is our balance sheet sufficiently strong that we can credibly take an aggressive stance in the market rather than a defensive position?” And in a broader context, it must ask, “How susceptible is our current position to additional volatility and a worsening of global economic conditions?” The answers to those questions will help companies understand their options.

The third assessment: changes in the global context. The shift to a multi-polar world—one characterized by multiple centers of economic power and business activity—creates new challenges and opportunities distinct from those experienced in a national or regional downturn.

For example, sovereign wealth funds and national governments have become significant bargain-shopping investors as well as sources of bailout funds. Also, large companies in a multi-polar world are almost always part of a dense web of networks, so it’s important to assess not only your own strengths and risks but also those of your partners, customers and suppliers. Their fate can substantially influence yours. A formal, 360-degree risk review, with a focus on worst-case scenarios, should be undertaken.

In total, these three assessments will force companies to look deep inside and far abroad to determine their financial health and their chances of maintaining, achieving, or regaining high performance after the downturn passes. To read more, see “Managing in extraordinary times: New choices for new challenges” (by Paul F. Nunes, Caroline Firstbrook and James M. Ellis).

In the evolution towards the Global Village, Social Networks are accelerating the process. Tools like Facebook are shrinking the world. I can be friends with my neighbor and a Hmong peasant from the Guizhou region, in southern China.

Is this sustainable in the long run? It is hard to tell because these tools stretch much farther than our ability to handle them directly. Anthropologists explain that it is impossible to maintain stable social relationships with more than 150 people. Can Barack Obama keep a personal contact with his 6,000,000+ Facebook supporters or 2,000,000+ Twitter followers?

In a few years, how will we use Social Networks in our professional and personal lives? The Web is only 15 years old, Facebook 5 and Twitter 3. The quick evolution of these technologies makes things a lot more challenging. The GenY generation, who grew up with cell phones and the Internet has difficulties imagining – even understanding – that there was a life before all that.

We are still at the experimenting and tinkering stage:

1. For starters, these tools are spreading across all age groups; not long ago the only ones using them were 18-24 years old.

2. On the issue of privacy, the Canadian magazine Cyberpsychology & Behavior recently published the results of a study on the implications of the use of Facebook. The study shows that users who tracked the activities of their partner on the social network became more jealous and suspicious. There was a correlation between the amount of time spent and the level of distrust.

3. Political movements are using these tools a great deal. As everyone knows, social networks were a main part of Barack Obama’s Internet strategy in the presidential election. Today, the White House is increasing the use of such technologies.

4. In the business world, the employees who used these tools for their personal needs are beginning to use them for their professional life. And the difficulty of separating the professional from the personal is causing some problems. An article recently published by the Wall Street Journal showed that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and other tax departments in the US are gathering some information from Social Networks to detect possible fiscal fraud.

5. Enterprise Software vendors - SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Open Text or Telligent to name a few - are integrating some social network functionality into their enterprise applications.

Guy Hervier, is Editor in Chief, ITRmanager, a leading publication for IT managers.

Is it a new concept? Not really. Over the years many companies have wanted their employees to think and act as owners. Some are much more successful than others.

What strategies have been tried? Granting options, Restricted Stocks and Long Term Incentives. In many cases, these strategies seemed to work. But was it because of the ownership feeling or was it due to the general economy and growth of the stock market?

There’s a difference between an owner and an investor. Investors generally have a short- or medium-term time horizon, and they’re thinking strictly in dollar terms. By contrast, owners are in for the long haul, and they have an emotional attachment to the company that goes beyond dollars. Equity type incentive plans can be a good idea, but the only way to get people to think like owners is to elicit real ownership behaviors.

At Cott we started focusing on this by setting objectives for employees that directly related back to business objectives. At the time we did this, it seemed like the right thing to do.

As we implemented and developed scorecards to measure the objectives, we realized we had created a monster. We assumed that everyone could attach a dollar amount that could be measured as their contribution.

We decided that simple is better and began to focus on 4 things all employees can wrap their hands around as owners. The vision we set out was “The 4c’s” : Cash, Capex, Customers, Cost

By focusing on these, it is easier to emphasize thinking and acting like owners. It is easier to talk about all 4 C’s when your anchor is Cash. If you have a lot of cash your focus is investing it wisely. If you don’t have a lot of cash you’ll need to watch what you spend, affecting costs. Having cash allows you to invest in Capex while having low levels of cash makes you think very hard about Capex and how quickly will you get your money back.

How do our people do this in their daily tasks?

• For our line operators and mechanics, line efficiency is key. The more production without waste means higher levels of efficiency and the very clear goal of being nominated as the plant of the year.
• Our accountants now provide concrete suggestions on how to better focus expenses without affecting worker productivity.
• Salespeople now focus on long term solutions, partnering with our retailers to bring quality products and efficiencies for Cott.
• The procurement team’s everyday focus is looking at ways to efficiently partner with suppliers to creatively reduce costs.

We have had good success with our 4c’s. People talk about them and embrace them. Of course not everyone agrees all the time, but people have a theme to latch onto as they begin to think like owners. It is like the owner of a new car; you wash it, wax it and look for scratches.

Michael Creamer is Head of Human Resources at Cott. Cott is one of the world’s larger beverage companies supplying over 200 retailers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico through 20 manufacturing facilities.

More than 90% of new graduates believe that they will be exposed to more geographic mobility than their parents. In a global world, international mobility and employment across borders will continue to increase, and in many cases the applicable legal terms are still evolving.

A successful international assignment should be in line with good business strategy. Drafting the appropriate legal documentation will fix the terms and help anticipate some unexpected issues.

The first question is which legal entity employs the individual for his new, peculiar, career step. For several years, the trend has been to have local contracts with the local entity subject to local law. However this is not always the best solution. For both parties, it may raise uncertainty about the real identity of the employer when instructions come from the head office. Maintaining the original employment contract may be easier and more flexible.

Is the immigration documentation ready upon the day of arrival ? Who is taking care of the immigration issues for the employee’s family and will the spouse benefit from a work permit?

Which legal rules will govern the employment relationship? In case of a mix between the law of the country of origin and local law, which rules will apply to issues of work time and safety and can the parties agree about which court will have jurisdiction in the case of a dispute?

Pensions and Coverage: Will it be possible to continue contributions to the social security regime of the country of origin and who will bear the cost? If there is no longer a contribution to the pension scheme of the country of origin, but an affiliation to the local pension scheme, will it be taken into account by application of an international treaty?

Which tax regime will apply and will there be assistance to ensure that the employee will be tax compliant in the jurisdiction he will be working in as well as in his home jurisdiction?

Is the compensation structure cost effective (special attention to specific benefits such as housing allowance, hardship allowance…)?

Is there an international assignment policy?

Is there a minimum and a maximum duration for the assignment? What are the conditions for early termination of the assignment and repatriation? Will there be any follow-up after repatriation?

Philippe Thomas is Partner at Lovells, in Employment, Pensions, Employee Share Incentives Practice. He is also the Managing Director of the Paris Office. Lovells is one of the largest international legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

With Jean-Michel Lorain

Jean-Michel Lorain is the chef of La Côte Saint-Jacques, a prestigious family hotel-restaurant, which won three stars again this year in the famous Michelin guide.

Part of a chef’s secret mystery is in the ingredients he chooses. What are your favorite ones?

I love mushrooms for their subtle flavours, their tastes of woodland and their wild side. When I go collecting mushrooms with my team, we never know how many ceps, chanterelles, coulemelles, or coprins we will find.

I also appreciate many vegetables from the past which have often been somewhat forgotten, like many varieties of cabbage, winter squash or Jerusalem artichoke. They deserve a special place on our menus.  I buy my vegetables on the market at Joigny, Burgundy near our restaurant or from two truck farmers with whom we have worked for dozens of years.

What is your favorite recipe?

My favourite recipe is the one I will create tomorrow. I enjoy always striving for a challenge: creating a new dish, building a new menu, and always trying to do better. My latest creation is a piece of beef cooked half fried, half Tartare.

On our menu, we always try to be as descriptive as possible and call it “Hereford Beef filet in chaud-froid (hot-cold) with creamed corn, Chanterelle, and green beans with truffle”.

What advice do you have for somebody willing to become a chef?

Before you start, define your goals, the guest-house, the region, the style of your cuisine, but also the life you want… My personal choice was to take over the family business founded by my grandmother in 1945. I could have chosen a very different style.

Starting with your mission is essential because you need to be passionate to stay at the top. It requires a lot of daily hard work and a strong discipline to create a unique experience for each of your customers.

Who has helped you the most in becoming one of the most-renowned chefs?

First, my parents gave me a passion for this profession and discipline. I had to make a name for myself which has not been easy because the environment is so selective and because each chef has a strong personality.

Two great chefs, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, have been my professors and have shared their talents with me.

Today, my 75 employee team helps me bring daily pleasure to our clients. 15 of them been working with me for the last 10 to 20 years. I owe a lot to all of them.

Jean-Michel Lorain is the Chefs’ European Coordinator at Relais & Châteaux, a family of 480 prestigious hotels and restaurants in 56 countries. He is also the owner of the Relais & Châteaux La Côte Saint-Jacques in Burgundy, France.

It is possible to combine the principles of ecology and finance to reach a sustainable development under the regulating umbrella of responsible policy makers.

Our strategic development in green finance is not about philanthropy, it’s about profit. Corporations have to manage new risk created by constraints imposed by the Kyoto treaty limiting carbon emissions.

Promoting those sustainable investments is possible if the corporations are convinced they can improve their ecological impact and reduce their costs in the long run. For example, with the help of BeCitizen, an engineering group in sustainable development, we have helped an important European company to structure the financing of photovoltaic panels on the roofs of its building.

How? In several European countries, the electric utilities have to purchase that kind of produced energy at a fixed price on a long duration. The free cash flow generated minimizes the risk for the investors and helps the company to value those dormant assets. A stable regulatory environment with the right financial incentives is the key ingredient. Customer pressure is also a strong motivation.

The government role is pivotal in passing new laws and incentivizing corporations to adapt their technologies to the new environmental constraints. The Kyoto protocol has forced many companies who don’t match the emission quotas of carbon dioxide to consider investing in projects which reduce emissions in emerging countries. Such an investment receives a certificate which compensates the deficit. Those certificates can help with financing or backing loans.

To help financing such projects, we are about to introduce several private equity funds dedicated to polluted land remediation, sustainable development, green buildings and clean tech.

Corporations will invest only in profitable environmental programs. There are still too few of those projects on the planet. The finance community has to show flexibility and creativity in this transitional phase of sustainable and positive economic development. It won’t be long before sustainability and profitability are successfully meshed.

Hugo Ferreira is member of the management board of Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild. Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild is a global leader in asset management and in structuring public/private partnerships.

The past decade has seen a huge increase in the processing of personal data, both in terms of volume and importance. Whether for the terms and conditions of a social networking website, for a new file implemented by a local government, or for a new data breach, data protection is necessary and ubiquitous.

Often, local subsidiaries believe that creating a file or implementing software to follow up on clients and prospects or to manage employees has nothing to do with data protection. But practices involving the processing of personal data have significant implications if the same entity decides to outsource resources to an affiliate at the other end of the planet.

The main issue with the protection of personal data in a global environment is the lack of an internationally applicable standard.

Even the most harmonized system has inherent disparities. The European Union’s directives on the protection of personal data have ensured a minimum level of harmonization, but their implementation by the 27 respective Member States has led to important disparities.

Compliance with one set of local laws or undertakings might not be sufficient. European legislation prohibits the transfer of personal data to countries which are regarded as affording inadequate levels of data protection unless certain conditions are met. Since the United States are considered to be in that category, the European Commission and the US Department of Commerce (DoC) have set up a “Safe Harbor” scheme whereby US companies can subscribe to a number of data protection obligations through the DoC and obtain certification allowing them to receive data from the EU.

In addition, once they are in good standing under the Safe Harbor scheme, data will only be lawfully transferred to them from the EU if the entity sending the data has complied with its own obligations under the laws of the country in which it is established.

What are the risks? In most European countries, data protection authorities have recently seen their prerogatives extended and their budgets and staff increased. This has resulted in more investigations and a surge of penalties being imposed on major corporations. In many countries, infringement of data protection legislation can be regarded as a criminal offence and lead to administrative penalties. Sanctions have, up to now, remained relatively low. However, the heat seems to be gradually increasing, as evidenced by the forthcoming trial of four Google executives before the Milano (Italy) criminal court charged with defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data.

Clearly, there is a growing legitimacy to the current hype around data protection.

David Taylor is Partner, Intellectual Property, Technology and Media at Lovells. Lovells is one of the largest international legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States

The common check has a colorful history. In the 1930s, Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, a British humorist created the urban myth that a man called Albert Haddock won a landmark court case to force the tax collector to accept a check written on a cow.

The story was pure fiction, but reminds us that a check was simply an instruction for a bank to pay someone a sum of money. Long ago, people wrote checks on whatever scraps of paper they had at hand.

The earliest recorded check in the UK was dated 16 February 1659 - which means we have just passed its 350th anniversary.

Personally, I saw my first check as a rite of passage when I turned 18. Every year, like many of us, I struggle to remember to write the right year on the check each January. But times have changed.

The check is in the mail often reveals the uncertainty of a timely payment.  In 2009, the idea of paying with a piece of paper which embarks on a slow clearing journey might seem outdated. In France alone, the over 3+ billions checks issued every year represent more than 4000 tons of print paper.

In the UK, Tesco and Marks & Spencer have stopped accepting checks. Why? To speed up checkout, reduce fraud, enhance tracking and cut costs… In Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands, checks have been replaced by direct payments and electronic payments issued by consumers.

After the financial sector turmoil, banks may perceive the cost of processing checks too expensive, considering the availability of alternative options. Although small businesses are often portrayed as championing the check, we’re finding more and more of them are jumping at the chance to take online payments.

The tangible process of writing a check remains, for some people, a more reassuring way of paying; it provides a higher level of control and assurance. In most EU countries, adults are more concerned about misuse of their credit or debit card information than about electronic payments.

Paperless money will not happen overnight, but… Most flight tickets are now replaced by one’s passports and a booking code.  The Amazon’s Kindle is reshaping the book publishing model. The countdown for the check’s extinction has started…

Mark Jaugey is Communication Director at Paypal Europe. Founded 10 years ago, PayPal provides electronic payments to 184 million consumers in 190 countries.

After its first ten years, Microsoft had achieved revenue of 140 millions of dollars, compared to Google’s 21.7 billion dollars. Ten years after it started, Google had achieved revenue eighty times higher than that of Microsoft even after including a 3% annual inflation rate. Over the fiscal year 2008, 97 % of Google’s revenue comes from advertising, with 68 % from Google’s sites and 32 % from its partner sites.

It’s fair to call Google a tremendous success, one of the greatest stories in economic history. Google’s mission statement is noble but also disquieting, “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. The comparison with Microsoft owning a de facto monopoly on the workstation becomes interesting, but Google is on a completely different scale. Google is building a monopoly on the access to information. Things can only get worse as Google continues with its astounding success.

The American administration gets involved. After IBM, AT&T, Microsoft and Intel, Google is now in the crosshairs of the American administration. Among the many ongoing Class-Action Lawsuits, the agreement between the Internet giant and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers is the most controversial. It states that Google will hand out 125 million dollars for the possibility of providing access on the Internet to works with expired copyright, those in the process of being printed, but possibly to works that aren’t available in paper format but that are still under copyright. The Department of Justice (DoJ) sent a formal request of information to Google, and to the editors that signed the agreement regarding the online publication of books.

Competition is one click away. Faced with the administration’s growing interest, Google has launched a “charm offensive”. One of Google’s strongest and often-repeated arguments is that competition to its search engine is only “one click away” and that all a competitor needs to take over is a new technology. That is what happened to AltaVista, Lycos, and others. And the new competition from Microsoft’s new search engine Bing gives Google some credit. Unlike what happens with other markets, Google’s users are not locked in, they consent to their fate.

Google Inside. Google is magnificent tool, with many side projects born from the minds of the company’s talented engineers. It is also a black box with its non-transparent ad auction system and profiling of private user data. According to Google, advertisers pay for what a click is worth. But as they have little visibility over what goes on, they pay what Google charges them. If Google is to avoid the current antitrust concerns, an option might be to provide more transparency to customers and regulators.

Guy Hervier, is Editor in Chief, ITRmanager, a leading publication for IT managers.

We know the song:“I’ve got it” . It is exactly what any newly appointed executive wants to say. Finally, after years of hard work: I am, I exist, I made it!

But reality soon dispels the fiction. Nothing seems really new. Since the times of Plato, we know that power corrupts, and we are just beginning to understand what that means for large corporations.

The current crisis has shed light on the legal transgressions of a few corporate leaders. Every leader is beginning to understand that everyone has been tarred by the same brush. Power may corrupt but also corrode those who try to exercise it.

To the loneliness of today’s executive, we can also add the loss of the authority. Leaders can no more claim the legacy of experience and legitimacy based on skills. Their authority is continually questioned by the shareholders, customers, employees and suppliers.

Becoming a leader and remaining one, while the magnitude and duration of the economic crisis are still being debated, will require exectuives to endure the loss of different aspects.

• The first aspect, less prominent in the United States than it is in Europe or Asia, is the loss of statutory elements such as the attended business schools or the number of secretaries.

• The second aspect is the loss of competence (Yes, you read correctly). The crisis, beyond displaying the golden parachutes and the bonuses, has also highlighted the lack of common sense, the silliness, the incompetence and the powerlessness of a few executives.

• The combination of the two clearly has deleterious effects on everyone including the competent leaders. The third aspect, finally, is the loss of self-confidence, which is certainly the most corrosive.

Of course, those loss of orientation or loss of competence would deserve more developments about understanding whether they are simply the expansion of the democratic principles to the corporate world. Companies have for a long time escaped to the democracy focusing almost only on their shareholders.

The current global crisis has acted as a particle accelerator, revealing that “the Emperor is naked” and eroding confidence in executives. Each executive might first acknowledge those losses as he would acknowledge a loss on his company financial statement. He can also “sing the blues” and manage what makes every transaction possible: trust.

Its loss is not forever. Executives can patiently rebuild reputations and stakeholder confidence. You may have lost it temporarily but you can find it again in all ages!

Catherine Blondel is an Executive Coach, a psychoanalyst, and essayist. She has published several books including Quand le travail fait symptôme in January 2009.

One of the key tools that the European Commission uses in its fight against cartels and other anticompetitive behaviour is a dawn raid, an unannounced on-the-spot investigation. There are some hard facts emerging from recent dawn raid practices which businesses should be aware of.

Wider use of dawn raids

In 2008, the Commission opened a sector inquiry into competition in the pharmaceuticals sector and dawn raided a number of pharmaceutical companies. This is the first time that the Commission has launched a sector inquiry by means of a dawn raid. The case illustrates the Commission’s determination to use its dawn raid powers increasingly widely.

IT Searches

Inspectors have the right to examine and copy documents stored on a computer system. The inspectors bring IT experts who can use forensic search techniques and can retrieve deleted documents. The documents do not have to be on the computer system on the premises. The Commission takes the line that they are entitled to review and copy all documents which are accessible from the premises, and this can include documents which are stored on a server outside the EU.

Privilege

The recent Akzo judgment has confirmed that communications with in-house lawyers can be reviewed and copied by inspectors in an EC investigation. Only communications with independent, external, European Economic Area-qualified lawyers are protected by legal professional privilege. So, for example, advice from a US qualified lawyer, which may be privileged under US rules, can be inspected and copied by Commission officials for use in their investigation.

Sealing

If a dawn raid lasts more than one day, it is standard practice for the Commission inspectors to seal rooms and filing cabinets. It is absolutely essential for companies to ensure that these seals are not broken or tampered with. In 2008, the Commission imposed a fine of Euro 38 million on E.ON Energie AG for breaking a seal fixed by the Commission during a dawn raid.

Obstruction

The Commission has a clear policy of punishing companies severely for obstructing investigations. In its first application of its new 2006 fining guidelines, the Commission imposed an increase of 30% to Sony’s fine for obstruction of the dawn raid. This was on the grounds that a Sony employee had refused to answer oral questions asked by the Commission’s inspectors and another employee was found to have shredded documents during the inspection.

Waiting for the company legal advisors

The presence of a legal advisor is not a legal condition for the validity of the inspection, and the inspection must not be unduly delayed or impeded by awaiting the arrival of legal advisors. Inspectors may be willing to wait a maximum of 15 minutes for legal advisors to arrive.

Home searches

The Commission has the power to raid private homes in addition to business premises. In May 2007 inspectors raided the home of a director in the marine hose cartel investigation, and another inspection at private premises took place in 2008.

Further guidance?

We have developed an e-learning course on how to deal with dawn raids for you and your teams in Europe. This is an interactive screen-based course which employs a series of role plays to deliver training to a number of staff within any organisation.

Peter Citron is Head of Practice Development and Knowhow for the Competition and EU law practice area of Lovells. Lovells is one of the largest international business legal practices with offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Trust in the voice of authority is fading as consumers increasingly put their faith in each other. Messages from businesses, politicians and tabloid newspapers are being listened to with scepticism.

The economic crisis has caused a seismic shift in attitude. Consumers are now entering what the company calls the “age of emotional proximity”, where peer recommendations surpass all other marketing.

We have moved on from a place where we automatically respected our elders and betters to one where we trust friends and family first and foremost. The shift from deference (people accepting what they are told) to reference (asking advice from peers) has been developing since 2002 according to our quantitative surveys.

This has moved on again and accelerated as the Internet has grown. The unravelling of financial institutions has resulted in a wider loss of confidence, not just of the City but of other businesses too. The majority of the public (73%) and opinion leaders (85%) agree that “bad management in a variety of business areas has increased mistrust”.

Celebrity promotions

It appears we are not even buying into celebrity endorsements any more. While stars are still rated as more trustworthy sources of information than “leaders”, the glut of reality TV “stars” that have invaded viewers’ screens has lowered opinions of celebrities.

Some retailers such as Marks & Spencer in the UK have now moved away from big names fronting ad campaigns. The UK retailer is scaling back its use of celebrities in advertising campaigns in favour of a greater emphasis on promotional discounts.

People have become much more sophisticated in the way they think about celebrity endorsements, and brands need to think carefully before signing up a star name.

Brands should focus instead on the trend of peer-to-peer “proximity” to get their messages across. eBay, Amazon and TripAdvisor promote through recommendations to give you a sense that you are hearing from people like you.

Extended trust networks

Consumers are still putting most of their trust in the opinions of their friends and family, but they also put faith in friends of friends and family, whom they consider to be “people like us”. Even opinions on forums and social networks are seen as trusted sources of information.

This trend has been accelerated by the rapid growth of the Internet and increasing popularity of social networking. Consumers want to know that opinions are honest and not just marketing spin and a vested interest in the outcome.”

Familiar household names are ideally positioned to capitalise on trust by combining with reliability. If a product has been around for a long time, it becomes “like a friend” and has a reputation for meeting consumers’ needs even in a tough economic climate.

Familiar face

But this doesn’t mean that newer brands have to sit back and patiently wait for trust to build. Google is incredibly clever because it feels like it is your friend. It’s such an easy way of getting information. People’s perceptions are that it is accurate and transparent.

Now is the time to get out there and be a part of people’s lives and empathise with them.

Viki Cooke, is joint CEO at Opinion Leader and a Member of the Executive Team at Chime Communications, a leading global communication group located in London, UK.

With the global economy in upheaval, traditional distinctions between consumer and producer nations, and between developed and emerging markets has blurred, creating promise and peril for multinationals as the early “shoots” of economic recovery take root.

1. Brazil, Russia, India and China are evolving into vast market economies, and many smaller economies are making similar progress. China has emerged as today’s third largest economy and is poised to surpass the United States in GDP before mid-century, with countries like India and Brazil not far behind.

2. Demographics and education levels are changing. The population of the Western world is growing older relative to that of the East. Brazil, Russia, India, and China have a high and growing percentage of college educated adults; now approaching 20% - second only to the United States.

3. Widespread use of information and communication technology is changing the world. The PC, the internet, and inter-operable software have made real instantaneous communication on a global scale. This development has forever altered all facets of our economic, political and social lives.

The PC has been a key enabler of evolution to world sourcing. Lenovo, partly because of its origins, has pioneered its use in the PC industry. Its world sourcing approach to business has created a platform for success and leadership. A new kind of company that blends the best thinking of East and West is emerging to meet the needs of a changing world.

What did it take for us to be a world sourced company? World sourcing meant locating resources strategically to serve key markets globally. That meant having the most talented and innovative people, the strongest infrastructure, the deepest language proficiency, the finest technology capabilities, the most efficient operations and  facilities, wherever they are best available to sell wherever profitable markets exist. Easy to say…

Our World sourcing addresses 3 key challenges in getting closer to customers.  First, competition has no borders: you can’t hide from high-value, low-cost offerings.  Second, customer service is critical, but it is harder to deliver well because it demands increased knowledge of local markets, cultures and business practices including underserved consumers in developing market economies. Third, in a world with essentially one time zone, we have to source materials, innovation, talent, logistics, infrastructure, and production wherever they are best available.  And we sell wherever a profitable market exists, anywhere in the world.

In today’s economic climate, companies must world source or perish. It is that simple…

Reid Walker, is Vice President Global Communication at Lenovo, one of the 3 leading global PC suppliers.

In our research and work with clients around the world, we see the challenges that many companies are facing in this difficult economy.  Management must demonstrate their ability to run day-to-day operations better than before, maintaining flawless operations despite the need to tighten belts and deal with suppliers in crisis, customers lacking in confidence and ongoing merger-integration challenges.

In this downturn, consumers don’t have the same spending power, are more price sensitive and they’ve lost trust in companies and brands. They now have a higher propensity than ever to switch.

First, consumers may have lost some spending power, but that doesn’t mean they have lost their consciences. Yes, they are cutting  back, but their values and good intentions remain.  If they are able to support their values despite the economic pressures, they do.

One of the clearest headline findings from our latest survey of over 11,000 consumers worldwide is that consumers’ level of concern over climate change has remained unaffected by the challenging economic conditions. In fact, 3 out of 4 respondents said that they’ve changed their behavior to a “great extent” or “some extent” over the past 12 months to try and reduce their individual carbon footprints.

However, consumers aren’t prepared or in a position to pay a differentiated price. This is giving rise to the ‘frustrated consumer’.

Second, This is creating an opening for savvy companies.  As companies compete for limited consumer spending, the reinforcing ‘sustainability’ message is a differentiator and a positive response to the ‘frustrated consumer’ phenomenon.  Increasingly consumers want “embedded” sustainability.  Take the following examples:

• P&G has designed its Ariel and Tide washing detergents to work at low temperatures. In 2006, Ariel started the “Turn to 30 degrees” campaign in the UK. The campaign was effective, with an increase in the number of loads washed at 30 °C moving from 2% to 17% following the campaign. This translates into about 60,000 tons of CO2 emissions saved. For consumers, this means about £50 a year saved.
• In 2008, Clorox launched its Green Works line of natural cleaning products and already this new brand has captured 42% of the market.  According to Clorox, the consumer market for natural cleaning products has doubled since its launch in 2008.
• General Electric recently announced a 21% increase in revenues from their Ecomagination offerings. With over 80 products and services in the range – they are addressing consumers’ sustainability needs in refrigerators, smart meters for the home, turbines and engines for industries.  The 80 products represent a 30% increase from the 2007 portfolio, which GE plans to bring to US$25 billion by 2010.

Conclusion: there is an opportunity to turn this position into real business value.  If you can give customers everything they traditionally want, with features like price, quality, availability and sustainability, this is the winning formula.

For an increasing number of consumers, sustainability is a benefit – and lack of it is a cost. Using sustainability as a focal point and differentiator in the economic downturn makes sense.

Peter Lacy is the Accenture Sustainability Practice lead for Europe, Latin America and Africa.

What makes top executives like Georges Colony at Forrester, Bill Marriott at Marriott Hotels, Lucien Fa at Yoplait, or Françoise Gris at Manpower so similar? It’s not a question of language, nor sex, nor age, nor even industry. No, the common point between all those CEOs is much simpler: they all started a blog in the last 3 years.

When I say started a blog, I really mean a blog. A blog? Yes, those stupid little websites that kids worldwide have adopted in order to share, exchange and test new ideas.

But politicians like Mr Obama and Mr Sarkozy have long understood what benefits they can drive from these “kid’s” platforms. A corporate blog or a CEO blog is a valuable communication tool you can use whenever you need to emphasize specific topics, and can have a great impact on your business.

Why some C-Level managers at your company should start their blog right away:

1-Spend more time with customers. Managing your company requires strong agenda management, no matter your company size: meetings, phone calls, flights.  You rarely have the opportunity to develop a real discussion with customers. A blog will offer you an asynchronous way to reach them – and them to reach you. Don’t worry about the topics, they’ll naturally find their way to your mind: customers know what to ask – and when.

2. Enhance your online brand reputation. The web is the place where people look for information. People generally don’t know how to determine the most valuable voice out there. Why not add your own messages to the discussion? Your authenticity and your position will give your voice a tonality no other writer will ever reach, no matter what your level of writing skills may be.

3. Get high visibility for a small investment. Compared to traditional media, blogs are really, really cheap to start, maintain and develop. Yet, you’ll have to dedicate a small amount of time – one hour or two every week – in order to find the appropriate message to deliver to your customers, employees, analysts, competitors or partners. You can write these messages yourself, or rely on corporate blogging agencies to help. That’s it. All the rest (publishing, moderation, answering) can be delegated.

4. Own your communication channel. No one ever knows what the future will bring to your company or your business. The economic downturn, potential health risks, scandals, we don’t want our revenue to stumble on headlines. Depending on the crisis phase, you’ll easily find the appropriate tone: soft or passionate when you have to entice readers, strong or even tough when you need to defend your positions.

5. Learning by doing You can’t understand Social media (Twitter, Facebook, or blogging) by reading an article in a magazine or a report from your Chief Marketing Officer. Sure, they can tell you what they are, but you won’t be able to truly understand how they could change your business unless you actually use them.

Hervé Kabla is the CEO of BlogAngels, a leading corporate blogging agency located in Paris, France.

A cultural change we cannot ignore. Unless you’ve been completely unplugged, you’ve probably heard some rumblings about the benefits of workplace flexibility.  If not, here’s the scoop: study after study shows that it’s a top priority for employees and it’s good for employers, too.

Need further proof? US-based Best Buy and UK-based BT Group both have programs that allow employees’ maximum control over when and where they work  (called Results Only Work Environment and Freedom to Work respectively) and results of these programs have been impressive:  productivity improvements ranging from 15-35%; reductions in turnover and absenteeism; and significant savings in real estate costs.

While the concept of a truly flexible workplace - people working when and where they like as long as they get the job done - isn’t rocket science, it isn’t going to happen without proactive planning and leadership thanks to ingrained notions of work that have their roots in the Industrial Age.

Want to ensure you’re creating a flexibility culture that meets the realities of an Information Age workplace and workforce? 51% of Gen X workers say they’d leave their current employer for a chance to telecommute; 60% of working mothers view part-time as the ideal work arrangement; two-thirds of workers between age 45-74 desire flexible schedules.

Here are some tips:

1. Approach workplace flexibility as a broad business strategy that requires the support of the entire management team.  By relegating it to the ranks of an “HR program” instead of a strategic, company-wide initiative, you’ll guarantee that it doesn’t go far.

2. Examine your own ingrained notions of work and the messages you might be sending employees.  Do you make assumptions about someone’s work ethic and contributions based on when they arrive and depart the office?  What do you assume about the dedication of employees who work alternative schedules (e.g. part-time, job-share)?  Are employees rewarded for putting in long hours (“face time”) or for results?

3. Find out what your employees want. Workplace flexibility isn’t necessarily about working LESS; it’s about working differently so people can effectively manage the complex demands of work and life.  Take the time to understand your employees’ perspectives on flexibility so that you create a strategy that supports your business and your people.

4. Make the necessary operational changes to support a flexible workplace. Essential items include: strong performance management systems; technology that enables remote systems access; communications protocol; formal HR policies and management training (the “management” concept changes dramatically from managing bodies at desks to managing results!).

5. Lead by example. Many companies have written flexibility policies that go unused because the underlying corporate culture values face time over results.  What’s the best way to show your support of a flexible workplace?  Let your employees see you changing your work hours and location to meet the demands of business and life!

Maryanne Perrin is a founding Partner at Balancing Professionals, which provides new strategies for a new workforce.  They are located in North Carolina, USA.

Over the past five years, we’ve seen sustainability steadily move from the periphery to the heart of business. Companies have adopted sustainability practices for a host of reasons depending on the industries and geographies in which they operate. By now, it’s safe to say that most companies acknowledge that sustainability is good for business.

Today’s economic downturn, driven in large part by the frozen global credit markets, has placed an immediate premium on liquidity. As a result, companies are casting a critical eye towards all investments and initiatives, including those focused on environmental sustainability initiatives.

But high performing companies know that this isn’t the time to be shortsighted. It makes sense that amid continuing economic uncertainty companies scrutinize all investments, but not at the risk of eliminating or suspending sustainability investments because they would be viewed as superfluous.

Sustainability investments are closely aligned with critical moves companies need to make in a downturn—moves like “doing more with less”, returning to basics and investing prudently. Our research is proving that sustainability is a critical success factor for companies today and for how they set themselves up for the future. This is most visible in environmental programs that reduce emissions whilst simultaneously shrinking operating costs. To put it plainly, sustainability solutions and programs are a good proxy of high performance in companies.

Also, the key drivers of sustainability are independent of the present economic context. And they aren’t going away. The growing scarcity of natural resources will continue. So do consumer preferences for sustainable products and services. Employees are more aware of sustainability issues vis-à-vis the strategy and actions of their companies. In capital markets, we see not only more references to sustainability indexes, but also investments in sustainable technologies—demonstrating that investors still consider sustainability a wise investment option. Regulatory bodies at national, regional and global levels are not backing off. In fact, there seems to be an almost unanimous recognition among regulatory agencies to keep the pressure on.

Based on our most recent research and work, we recommend that companies follow five low-cost sustainability principles to gain an edge now:

1. Growth: Even today, there’s at least one place that companies are capturing the type of growth that the investment community craves—the growing market for sustainable products and services.
2. Profitability: More and more firms are finding that initiatives that reduce environmental effects also reduce operating costs.
3. Positioning for the future: By linking arms with stakeholders and competitors alike to showcase their sustainability actions and impact, companies can influence the direction of public debate about sustainability and prepare themselves for forthcoming environmental regulations.
4. Longevity: For companies seeking to stay current and capitalize on demand for sustainability products and services, the current downturn provides an attractive opportunity to acquire quality assets at below-market prices.
5. Consistency: Companies should make extra efforts to remain aligned with sustainability’s ongoing evolution while they attract and retain customers and boost employee engagement to ensure predictable results period after period.

It’s more important than ever to demonstrate the value of sustainability, not only for long-term success but also as a part of the effort to survive or even thrive in the downturn.

Bruno Berthon is Managing Director, Growth & Strategy at Accenture, the global management-consulting, outsourcing and technology company. Mr. Berthon is also the global lead for the Accenture Sustainability Practice.

It is commonplace to say that arbitration is the preferred mechanism to resolve international commercial disputes. The growing number and diversity of cases submitted to arbitration together with the use of arbitration clauses in the vast majority of international contracts are particularly convincing evidence of this current trend.

The reasons why international companies keep turning away from national court systems are equally well-known. Arbitration is the most appropriate mechanism of dispute resolution for complex international matters involving a high level of expertise and aspects of foreign law together with a large number of documents to be analysed and handled as exhibits in the course of the arbitration proceedings.

For the past few decades, arbitration has gained strength as a private system able to fulfil the parties’ expectations and needs and strike the most perfect combination between flexibility and efficiency in the resolution of disputes.

Arbitration has evolved and expanded. While it has always been praised for granting parties a great deal of autonomy in the administration of their cases, it is the recent phenomenon of institutionalisation which has contributed to making it so attractive and successful.

Indeed, major arbitration institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) or the American Arbitration Association (AAA), which handle thousands of new cases every year, have developed a sophisticated set of rules that guarantee a rational, fair and efficient treatment of international disputes. This has contributed to reinforce the confidence placed in the process, arbitration no longer being perceived as an obscure or dubious means of dispute settlement.

Despite this success, some practitioners have recently voiced concerns that arbitration may be on the decline. Among the reasons often cited to support these views are (i) the progressive disappearance of confidentiality motivated by an accrued transparency in cases involving important “public interest” and (ii) the length and rising costs associated to the proceedings, due to the use of increasingly complex procedures sometimes based on national court procedures (e.g. discovery process imported from US litigation model).

Arbitration today faces important challenges which deserve careful consideration. In particular, it is of fundamental importance that a creative approach to the needs of the parties is adopted by providing tailor-made and adapted dispute settlement tools, rather than following the path of imitating other domestic court systems.

The relative drawbacks do not provide sufficient grounds for pessimistic or absolute predictions about the future of arbitration. Rather, some recent moves provide encouraging signs of a strong dedication to still offer innovative and attractive solutions to international companies.

The recent release of reports and guidelines aiming at controlling time and costs and simplifying procedures (such as the 2007 Report of the Commission on Arbitration) are but a few examples of the strong commitment to constantly respond to the concerns of those that are involved in arbitration proceedings.

Jean-Georges Betto is Partner at Lovells. Lovells is one of the largest international business legal practices, with over three thousand people operating from 27 offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.

It’s referred to as the Indian Enron : by the beginning of January 2009, the fourth biggest Indian IT services provider has been at the center a huge financial scandal, stemming from the misbehaviour of its former CEO, Ramalinga Raju, just weeks after being banned from the World Bank in a case of “inappropriate benefits.”

Ramalinga Raju is understood to have diverted more than a billion dollars from Satyam, through hundreds of companies while artificially inflating the IT company business results in order to hide the fraud. Now, Satyam will be bought by another Indian IT company, Tech Mahindra.

But the question remains: how isolated is the Satyam case? What kind of a light does it shed on Indian corporate governance practices, in a country well known for its family-run business culture? According to Nasscom, the Indian National Association of Software and Services Companies, this is only a “sad incident as the Indian IT and BPO industry has set up very high standard rules for governance and ethics.” Nonetheless, Nasscom decided, by mid-February, to create its own governance and ethics committee.

According to Gilles Moutounet, Vice President, Strategy and International, Gitanjali Group, a leading Indian Jewellery group, the Satyam scam should not be seen “as a potential Indian issue.” Trying to be reassuring, the Indian Minister for Commerce explained, by the beginning of January, that “all necessary actions have been taken to avoid future scams” like this one.

For the Indian journalist Devidas Deshpande, working with the Pune Mirror (Times Group), the Satyam scam relates to a strong cultural heritage, extracted from the Mahabharata book, often considered the largest poem ever composed. In it, a king lost his kingdom after carelessly following his sons in their misbehaviours. According to Deshpande, there are several examples of this syndrome in the modern Indian worlds of business and politics..

In mid-December, Sucheta Delal, an Indian journalist specializing in corporate finance and governance, pointed out the unfriendly behaviour of the Satyam board, towards investors. In addition, an anonymous source at head of an Indian IT company asserts that local regulations encourage looting. Last but not least, in March the Asia Development Bank stressed the fact that « the Satyam scandal in India highlights the need for sound enforcement of rigorous accounting standards. A particular area for close study is monitoring family-run businesses. » The Satyam may definitely not be as isolated as some may want to believe.

In this quite tense atmosphere, the current Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, expressed, mid-April, his “confidence” in India regulators to prevent new scams like the Satyam one. Unfortunately, governance rules placed upon listed companies are said to encourage more and more companies to delist. Thus, a new and stronger code of governance is currently mulled for unlisted companies. However, nothing should really change before 2010, at least. But the Institute of Company Secretaries of India just launched a study on international corporate governance practices and intends to compare them to the Indian ones.

Valéry Marchive is senior editor at www.lemagit.fr a leading publication on technology analysis.

Cloud computing, like - green power -  or - environmentally friendly -, is a marketing term that encapsulates a range of technical, business, and social developments associated with the Internet.

The - cloud - term has taken over the previous term the - world wide web -. It comes from the common use of a cloud on PowerPoint slides to represent the Internet - which is a complex series of interconnected computer networks. Cloud computing involves virtualised computers, capacity on demand, and the ability to use and pay for this capacity in short intervals of time.

30 years ago, most computer applications operated on large shared mainframe computers, and each application received a “time-slice” to perform operations. Users paid for computer time. For the past 10 years, the low cost of individual computers has meant that most applications today assume people have their own computer to use. The problem with this model is that these applications only use a small fraction of a computer’s processing capacity.

When companies such as Google and Amazon begin to use many computers to operate their applications - there are great inefficiencies in use of space, power, and cooling. Even the weight of all these computers is an issue when placed in multi-storey buildings. Virtualisation is a software technique that allows an application to operate as though it has its own dedicated computer, but is able to share the same computer with other applications.

Additional computing capacity can be accessed as an application’s requirements change, and multiple copies of the application can be operating on multiple computers. Organisations that operate large collections of computers for their applications are now able to sell their computing capacity to other organisations - and this has given rise to the term “cloud computing”.

Cloud computing is still evolving. Microsoft is now creating software applications which support development for either on a local computer, or computers spread around the world. Ideally a company no longer needs to own or operate its own computers, but can now focus on developing software that meets their needs and use the “cloud” to carry out the computing tasks.

The advantage of cloud computing is that companies may not have to invest as heavily in technology hardware. Harvesting computer energy more efficiently is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

The downside of cloud computing may involve data management. Customer information - is the most valuable resource for a company. In a pure cloud model this information can be sent anywhere in the Internet where there is spare capacity, and may be able to be accessed by other parties.

Also software services which operate solely in the cloud - e.g customer relationship software, human resources applications - mean that the data is never in the hands of a company, because users enter their data directly through the user interfaces of those applications. If a company switches to a different software application, how does it retrieve customer information which may be in a proprietary format that the company has direct access to. Data can also be “lost” - clouds do dissipate and blow away in the wind!

Pure cloud computing is ideal where the data itself is either not important or would be made public anyway. For example, recent social changes mean that many users are happy to share personal information via services such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

A common application of cloud computing, is the use of Web Hosting Companies such as Melbourne IT - where the computers and data storage associated with a particular company application are managed within defined geographic locations (in that case, within Australia and within known secure data centres).

The data can be retrieved at any time and shared with other applications. This combines the benefits of cloud computing and sharing expensive computing capacity on demand, with the security and peace of mind of knowing where the data is located, who can access it, and how to retrieve all the data when the needs of your business change.

Dr Bruce Tonkin, Chief Strategy Officer, Melbourne IT.  Melbourne IT is an Internet services company that provides domain name registration and management, website and software-as-a-service hosting, online brand management, and digital recording solutions.

My passion for safety is driven out of a personal loss of a best mate in a work related accident in 2007. Hoping to prevent other losses, I wrote a book Practical Safety Guide To Zero Harm which tries to prevent workplace injuries by sharing my accumulated knowledge from working 20 years in Manufacturing, Mining, and Refinery. Proceeds from the book will help establish a safety scholarship fund.

My goal is to provide practical tools and techniques that can be applied immediately in any workplace. My hope is that people will not only read the information, but apply it in their workplaces.  If we are to avoid tragedies, it’s about safely doing what we say, when we say.

These 7 steps to success have proven themselves in several industries including manufacturing, projects, construction and refineries, with safety injury reductions in excess of 90%.  They have also been applied in several Greenfield site developments.

The Practical Safety Process:
Step 1. Identify Hazards and Assess Risks
Step 2. Identify Desired People Requirements
Step 3. Identify Compliance Requirements
Step 4. Ensure Safe Physical Work Environment
Step 5. Develop Safe Systems of Work
Step 6. Assess Competency
Step 7. Monitor and Review Performance

Before applying these 7 Steps there are 2 fundamentals that must be addressed which are:
1.    Commitment of Management and
2.    Involvement of Employees.

These are essential for success and are often difficult to address because they require a critical analysis of organizational design and a balanced approach to strategy and solution development. Safety must become an integral part of the organization planning and development and not just an “add on.”

Wayne Herbertson is a foundational Director of Practical Safety International. Wayne is also General Manager Human Resources at Bradken, a leading supplier of equipment for the mining industry.

Several years ago, the Photovoltaic trade publication Photon International posed some questions about biofuels, solar panels, and cars:

Given a hectare of land — roughly 2.4 acres — which energy crop would power a motor vehicle the furthest? The energy derived from various biofuels grown on the theoretical hectare were capable of propelling an internal combustion engine vehicle several tens of thousands of kilometers. 

What if solar panels were installed on that same hectare of ground and the electricity produced over the year was used to power an electric car; how far could that car travel?

The answer is more than 3 million kilometres! Why the huge difference?  Two fundamental reasons: solar panels convert sunlight more efficiently than plants and can do it year around, while most croplands in the northern hemisphere have to lie fallow a good part of year.

More importantly, an electric car is so much more efficient. The efficiency of electric motors is 85-95 percent, while even the best diesel engine is only one-third as effective.  Most of the energy in gasoline is wasted heat; only a small percent of the energy burned reaches the wheels and actually moves the car.

Besides unparalleled efficiency and surprising performance, the electric car is the ultimate alternative fuel vehicle.  Its “fueling” infrastructure is ubiquitous: there are literally tens of millions of electric power outlets everywhere.  Those outlets are powered by electricity generated mainly from domestic fuels: coal, natural gas, hydro-power, nuclear, geothermal and renewables like wind and solar.

We also have sufficient overnight capacity in our current electrical infrastructure to power tens of millions of electric cars and trucks. Pacific Northwest National Labs calculated in 2006 that 70% of America’s 230 million motor vehicles could be charged overnight if they were electric, with an actual decrease in carbon dioxide emissions despite much of that base load power coming from coal.

Electric cars are just emerging from a long technological hibernation, despite being around since the days of Thomas Edison.   They remain relatively expensive, and recharge times are far longer than the typical stop at a filling station, but advances in battery technology is providing greater durability, longer service life and faster recharge times.

Experiments with modern nano-based lithium batteries have demonstrated 10-minute recharges and driving ranges well in excess of 100 miles with second and third generation batteries promising 200 and then 300 miles between recharges by around 2015. However, before electric cars become as commonplace as cell phones, costs will have to come down. That will happen, as it did with cell phones, with volume and advances in technology and manufacturing processes.

Despite the current limited number of commercially-available electric vehicles, hope is around the corner.  While currently only Tesla is delivering cars, both domestic and foreign car companies are racing to bring vehicles to market: Mitsubishi, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, GM and  BYD all have plans to offer electric cars here in North America starting as early as 2010.

To be sure, they will initially be in relatively small numbers, as the industry gets comfortable with the technology and nurtures its supplier base. The trend, however, is clearly towards the increasing electrification of the motor vehicle fleet worldwide, promising a less petroleum-dependent, more sustainable transportation system in the coming decades.

Bill Moore is the Publisher of EV World.Com. EV World.com provides a human face to the topic of sustainable transportation with a focus on the people and policy, as well as technology.