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Economics & Finance

Will the Shifting Economic Power Balance Topple Democracy?

Ilian Mihov

A view on where global democracy stands and where it’s headed in the new economic world order.

Economics & Finance

Key Players in the Indo-Pacific Region

Pushan Dutt

Amid ongoing conflicts, shifting allegiances and incumbents jostling for influence, emerging powers such as India will play an increasingly important role in shaping Indo-Pacific relations.

Economics & Finance

Bridging Prosperity and Need

Alexandra Roulet

A country's overall economic figures don't always speak to the difficulty of life for many people. Even Singapore needs a food bank.

Economics & Finance

When Firms Behave Irrationally

Lin Tian

The actions of firms in low-income countries don’t always match our assumptions.

Strategy

Why Some CEOs Are More Likely to Downsize

Guoli Chen

A firm’s decision on whether to downsize when facing performance shortfalls may depend on the CEO’s internal attribution tendency.

Economics & Finance

The World Economy in 2024: Are We Back on Track?

INSEAD Knowledge

Professor Antonio Fatás explores the long and short-term trends shaping the global economic landscape.

Responsibility

The Risks and Rewards of Community-Driven Business Models

J. Singh, A. Adbi and M. Lee

Understanding the hidden dangers of leveraging social capital in low-income communities.

Economics & Finance

When Information Won’t Reduce Stock Price Volatility Immediately

J. W. Bae, F. Belo, J. Li, X. Lin, X. Zhao

Where company disclosures are concerned, “the more the merrier” doesn’t always apply; complexity and timing matter too.

Economics & Finance

How Web3 and AI Will Transform Finance

J. Davis, J. Kasko

Artificial intelligence and crypto are not only reinventing financial products and delivery, but also influencing who gets to participate.

Economics & Finance

INSEAD Insights: December 2023 Research Picks

Lily Fang

Recent findings on consumer confidence, preventing financial runs, competitor information, regulation and gender bias in the workplace.

Economics & Finance

Thawing US-China Relations: Competition Meets Interdependence

Pushan Dutt

What are the biggest wins from the Biden-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Forum?

Career

INSEAD Insights: October 2023 Research Picks

Lily Fang

Recent findings on bias in employee evaluations, shareholder activism, children’s mental health, the meaning of work and knowledge weighting.

Economics & Finance

China: Caught in the Middle-Income Trap?

A. Fatas, I. Mihov

What would it take for China to get back on its growth trajectory?
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Pay Attention to the Details

Shiwon Song

Focusing on the right information can pay dividends for any investor.

Economics & Finance

Deflation Woes: Can China Avoid Japanification?

Pushan Dutt

What the world’s second-largest economy could do to stop its spiral into economic stagnation.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Covid-19 Furloughs Helped Firms Thrive

M. Bennedsen, B. Larsen, I. Schmutte, D. Scur

Even keeping low-wage workers on the payroll yielded benefits after Covid-19 restrictions ended.

Economics & Finance

Managing Systemic Risks in Tech: Lessons from Finance

F. Candelon, D. Martinez, P. Nathanial, T. Evgeniou, L. Van der Heyden

The financial sector's track record in risk management offers invaluable lessons for the tech industry.

Economics & Finance

Better Geographic Investing Begins With an Inclusive Index

Bernard Dumas

A novel stock return index can help portfolio managers make more informed investment decisions and better manage risks.

Economics & Finance

Why Demographics Matters More Than Ever for Businesses

C. Zeisberger, D. G. Munro

How understanding expanding and shrinking population subsets could help business and investors identify opportunities to pursue and pitfalls to avoid.

Economics & Finance

US-China Ties: Damage Controlled But Obstacles Ahead

Pushan Dutt

Even before the top US diplomat headed to China this week, talk of a new Cold War was unhelpful. Still, Washington and Beijing have their work cut out steering their relationship back on course.

Economics & Finance

The Future of Energy Transition and Climate Finance

Lily Fang

What more can companies and investors do to facilitate the transition to cleaner energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Economics & Finance

What Comes After the Fall of Silicon Valley Bank?

INSEAD Knowledge

The bank’s collapse could have significant implications for monetary policy and banking regulations.

Economics & Finance

The Costs of Fuelling Economic Growth

Robert (Bob) Ayres

A study of ten large global economies shows that exergy – not human labour – is the primary driver of GDP growth. Existing production models cannot explain growth.

Economics & Finance

Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Collapse?

L. Fang, K. Snellman, C. Zeisberger, D. G. Munro

Risky investments and a lack of regulatory oversight contributed to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Will ESG Investing Solve Our Pressing Problems?

Lily Fang

ESG or sustainable investing suffers from a principal-agent problem. Far more impact will be achieved when business leaders incorporate sustainability into business decisions.

Economics & Finance

The World Economy in 2023: A Recession Year?

INSEAD Knowledge

How current market and economic conditions will shape the year ahead.

Economics & Finance

China is Back: What Its Reopening Means for the World

L. Fang, C. Lin, G. Chen, X. R. Luo, B. Zhou, A. Fatás

What the world economy, businesses and investors could expect from China’s return to the fray.
1 comment

Responsibility

Five Global Trends in Business and Society in 2023

K. Le Goulven, I. Mihov, M. Stabile

INSEAD faculty weigh in on the greatest threats and opportunities for the year ahead.

Economics & Finance

In the US, Owning a Home May Not Lead to a Better Life

Pierre Mabille

Policies meant to help lower-income Americans purchase homes may be perpetuating the Black-white wealth gap.

Economics & Finance

After the Fall, What’s Next for Crypto?

INSEAD Knowledge

Amid the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, Lily Fang, Antonio Fatás, Peter Zemsky and Jason P. Davis unpack why it happened and where crypto could go from here.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The Importance of Soft Skills in Driving Productivity

M. Guadalupe, B. Ng

The economy of the future requires a workforce with strong soft skills. Investing in these crucial skills can result in increased productivity.

Economics & Finance

The Road Ahead for Venture Capital

Katy Scott

In this Thinkers50 webinar, Claudia Zeisberger provides insights into the state of the venture world in today’s climate of unprecedented uncertainty.

Economics & Finance

China’s Economy: Dragon in Turbulence

Pushan Dutt

Anaemic growth and a crippling economic war with the United States weigh on Xi Jinping even as he cements his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao.

Economics & Finance

Can Fintech Be a Force for Good?

Geraldine Ee

In this Thinkers50 webinar, Lily Fang discusses how the meeting of finance and technology could unleash a transformative force towards more inclusive financial services.

Economics & Finance

A Perfect (Macroeconomic) Storm

Antonio Fatás

The outlook for the world economy next year doesn’t inspire optimism.

Responsibility

Responsible AI Has Become Critical for Business

C. Zeisberger, A. Bose

Investors need to prioritise the ethical deployment of AI – too much is at stake if they don’t.

Economics & Finance

Banning Payment for Order Flow May Benefit No One

B. Zhou, M. Baldauf, J. Mollner

Increased regulations could result in reduced market liquidity and a negative impact on retail traders.

Economics & Finance

Affordable Homes for the Poor Can Boost Collective Well-Being

Pierre Mabille

For all their much-studied drawbacks, affordable housing policies can be a net positive for the aggregate welfare of city dwellers.

Economics & Finance

Casting a Wider Net in OTC Trading: For Better or Worse?

S. Glebkin, B. Y. Zhou

Simultaneous multilateral search for quotes may not always lead to the best deal in over-the-counter trading for dealers and the market.

Economics & Finance

A China Blockade of Taiwan Will Hurt Us All

Pushan Dutt

The global economy will bear the consequences of an all-out economic war between the United States and China should the latter try to shut off Taiwan.

Economics & Finance

Biden’s Misguided Tax on Share Buybacks

Theo Vermaelen

The Biden administration’s ideological distaste for companies purchasing their own stock may do more harm than good.
2 comments

Responsibility

Bob Ayres at 90: Key Insights on Energy in the Economy

The Organising Committee of the Bob@90 Conference

Groundbreaking observations on the fundamental role energy and materials play in the economy.
6 comments

Economics & Finance

Too Many ESG Funds Mislead Investors

Theo Vermaelen

Regulatory reckoning with ESG funds does not go far enough.

Economics & Finance

Don’t Kill Share Buybacks

A. Bonaimé, T. Vermaelen

New proposed restrictions on companies buying back their own stock would likely backfire.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Sales Numbers Are Up? It May Only Be Inflation

O. Binz, E. Ferracuti, P. Joos

Managers need proper information systems to decipher the real causes of any bump in sales revenue and decide whether investments are required.

Economics & Finance

Where a Firm’s Value Truly Lies

F. Belo, M. A. Vitorino

A new approach to uncovering the sum of all the parts of a modern firm.

Responsibility

Can Private Equity Make Money While Doing Good?

Claudia Zeisberger

With the right tools, investors can help prevent an impact investing debacle.

Economics & Finance

China’s Urban Rich and the Quest For Common Prosperity

L. Yang, S. H. Lee

The key to closing China’s income gap lies in education and bolstering the ranks of its professionals, the meteoric rise of its urban elites in recent decades suggests.

Economics & Finance

The Unexpected Role of PE Firms in Reducing Within-Firm Pay Inequality

Lily Fang

The incentives that drive PE firms have an interesting by-product: a reduction in income inequalities, such as the gender wage gap.

Economics & Finance

How DBS Became the ‘World’s Best Bank’

V. D. Rao, R. Speculand

The Singapore titan’s tech-charged quest to take the banking out of banking has paid off handsomely.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

A Sign of the Times: The ESG Buyback

Theo Vermaelen

Using ESG sensitivities to market financial products.

Leadership & Organisations

Aligning Individual and Organisational Values

M. Guadalupe, Z. Kinias, F. Schloderer

How employees’ personal values fit within their organisation.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Trust, Social Capital and the Bond Market Benefits of ESG

Hami Amiraslani

Although ESG-oriented investments are becoming increasingly common, their benefits are often only realised during certain time periods. So, when do these investments deliver economic payoffs?

Economics & Finance

When Scandal Hits, It Pays to Resemble the Villain

Ivana Naumovska

Financial wrongdoing by a single firm often batters its industry peers. Managers and investors may yet profit by using a granular lens to identify a handful of firms that will emerge stronger.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

In Global Trade, Familiarity Breeds Commerce

Pushan Dutt

Given time and experience, even countries far apart in geography and culture can build strong trade links.

Economics & Finance

The Missing Millennial Homebuyers

Pierre Mabille

Property prices fell during the Great Recession, but millions of millennials in the US still couldn’t afford their first homes. Here’s why – and how we could tackle the next housing crisis better.

Economics & Finance

How Africa Could Astonish the World

P. Yadav, V. D. Rao

Already the most dynamic and youngest continent, Africa could be the world’s next growth miracle – with the right type of leadership.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Rethinking Capitalism: The Power of Creative Destruction

P. Aghion, I. Laporte

With the proper safeguards, creative destruction – the process by which the new replaces the old – remains the way to greater economic growth and prosperity.

Economics & Finance

When American Firms Misbehave, Chinese Companies Pay the Price

Ivana Naumovska

“Guilt by association” in US financial markets appears to be driven by investors’ prejudice against Chinese firms.

Economics & Finance

When Do Managers Have an Information Advantage Over Analysts?

Theo Vermaelen

The role of network centrality in timing buybacks.

Economics & Finance

There Goes the Neighbourhood: Legalised Marijuana and Property Values

Lin Tian

When a recreational marijuana dispensary opens, it depresses property prices in its immediate vicinity.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Social Capital Makes the Difference Between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Buybacks

S Huang, K Snellman, T Vermaelen

Executives who respect both the letter and the spirit of ethical norms aren’t born – they’re shaped by their home communities.

Economics & Finance

Reverse Mergers Went Bust. Will SPACs Follow?

Ivana Naumovska

Despite current exuberance, the signs don’t augur well for “blank cheque” companies.

Economics & Finance

Who Wins the Market: The Swift or the Smart?

Bart Zhou Yueshen

Both speed technology and information are vital trading inputs.

Economics & Finance

Can State and Shareholder Capitalism Combine?

The structural “liabilities” of state-owned enterprises can, in fact, be creative assets that privately owned firms can emulate.

Economics & Finance

What It’s Like to Be a Gig Worker During a Pandemic

M. Stabile, A. Roulet

How precarious workers balance financial uncertainty, health risks and mental well-being in the age of Covid-19.

Economics & Finance

Why Universal Basic Income Should Be President Biden’s Top Priority

Robert Ayres & Jeroen van der Bergh

An updated system of income and taxes would alleviate the worst crises the United States faces, including climate change. What’s more, we’ve got the numbers to prove it can work.
9 comments

Economics & Finance

In Bad Times, Decentralised Firms Outperform Their Rivals

P. Aghion, I. Laporte

When there’s increased turbulence, delegating power improves sales and productivity, boosting a firm’s chance of survival.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Doing Good: Where Sustainable Investing Gets It Wrong

Lucie Tepla

A high sustainability rating does not necessarily equate to real sustainability impact (and profit).

Economics & Finance

A Liquidity Cushion in Troubled Times: The PE Secondaries Market

Even without deep discounts, secondaries’ modest risks and returns are attracting investor interest.

Economics & Finance

Covid Cost-Cutting May Backfire in the Long Run

Oliver Binz

Macroeconomic uncertainty makes firms more profitable in the short-term, but the bill comes due later.

Economics & Finance

How Would an Immigration Surge Affect Your Pay Cheque?

Lin Tian

Workers whose product or output is not easily sold elsewhere are more likely to lose out amid an inflow of immigrants.

Economics & Finance

How Trade Made the Richest 0.1% Even Richer

Dimitrije Ruzic

Better access to foreign markets benefited exporting firms’ top executives disproportionately more than rank-and-file workers.

Economics & Finance

Introducing Excess Value: A Metric for Private Market Outperformance

A Turetsky, M Pyrz, B Griffiths, J Lujan, I Beckel

The gains from private market investing are best understood relative to public benchmarks. But there has been no way to compare the two in currency terms – until now.

Economics & Finance

How Universal Basic Income Could Save Capitalism

Robert U. Ayres

A viable democratic social system must not allow a “winner takes all” approach.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

What’s Behind the Rising Inequality of Everything?

B. Kessler, M. Olsen

However you parse the data, capitalism increasingly appears to disproportionately benefit the very top performers.
7 comments

Economics & Finance

Can Investors Save the Planet While Making a Profit?

D. Gospodinov, C. Zeisberger

Sustainability is fast becoming a core investment focus. Here’s what the industry can learn from the most successful climate impact funds.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Corporate Funding Gap and the Role of Fintech

N. Maneri, J. Dermine

Financing for small and medium enterprises is limited in many parts of the world. Is P2P lending the magic bullet to narrow the funding gap?

Economics & Finance

Covid-19 Furloughs Are Getting the Job Done

M. Bennedsen, B. Larsen, I. Schmutte, D. Scur

Despite questions as to their cost and fairness, employment subsidies in the EU appear to be working as intended.

Economics & Finance

Has Venture Capital Strayed From Its Roots?

M. Varadan, K. Hassan, C. Zeisberger

Take a step back in time to observe how Georges Doriot – the founder of both VC and INSEAD – set up a machine to fuel and fund innovation and development.

Economics & Finance

Impact Investing in Covid-19 Times: A Three-Step Mission

Despite the economic crunch, the joint pursuit of profit and purpose may have a very bright future. But first, we need to return to basics.

Economics & Finance

Private Equity’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan

Benjamin Kessler

Board members and senior managers can learn from the “structured crisis management” techniques PE firms are employing with their portfolio companies.

Economics & Finance

To Save India’s Economy, Think Big, Blunt and Fast

Pushan Dutt

With unemployment pushing 30 percent, the world’s fifth-largest economy needs a strong dose of fiscal and monetary intervention.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Social Norms for the Era of Social Distancing

Rachael Noyes

What we do determines the trajectory of the pandemic.

Economics & Finance

Three Keys to Ending the Great Lockdown

Lily Fang

Mass testing combined with AI is our best hope of managing the coronavirus and containing the economic fallout.

Economics & Finance

COVID-19: Four Reasons for Optimism About the Stock Market

Theo Vermaelen

Although this economic crisis is unique, there is good news from the recent and distant past.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Shape of the COVID-19 Economic Recovery

Rachael Noyes

The shock of shuttering the economy is real and very large. But this is not a normal recession because we decided to shut it down. What happens when we choose to reopen?

Economics & Finance

COVID-19: A Turning Point for Inequality?

Benjamin Kessler

The pandemic calls into question the economic trends of the last four decades.

Economics & Finance

What China’s Cyber-Cash Advantage Means for the Global Economy

Aly Madhavji & Mansoor Madhavji

The rise of cryptocurrency could threaten the dominance of the US dollar and cost the United States trillions in increased debt financing charges.

Strategy

The Changing Tides of the Global Economy

L. F. Monteiro, M. Troyjo

Political economist and diplomat Marcos Troyjo advises us to buckle up for a possible new round of globalisation.

Economics & Finance

The Psychology Behind Coronavirus Panic Buying

A. Yap, C. Chen

The rush for toilet paper and other necessities in the face of COVID-19 is a natural behavioural response to the loss of psychological control.
7 comments

Economics & Finance

The Problem With Politically Motivated Funding Boycotts

Banks that refuse to back controversial companies create space for less fastidious lenders to step in – and to gain advantage.

Economics & Finance

Turn the Office Into a Lab

Using randomized controlled trials, firms can find out what is really going wrong (and right) in their organisations.

Economics & Finance

Warning Tremors Before a Flash Crash

Cross-market arbitrage that connects one marketplace to another should be watched more closely than it is.

Economics & Finance

How the Daily Commute Affects the Gender Wage Gap

A. Roulet, T. Le Barbanchon, R. Barthelot

Women’s aversion for commuting motivates them to look for closer and not-so-well paid jobs compared to men.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

India’s Quiet Digital Revolution

Vinika D. Rao

As China’s breakneck digitisation rivets the world, another Asian giant is unfurling its own transformation.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

When an 80-Hour Workweek Helps

High potentials need to work a lot and in a way that is visible to the firm.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

A Hippocratic Oath for Corporations

When it comes to corporate responsibility, it’s time to stop the virtuous talk and begin to take simple actions.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Universal Basic Income: Lessons From a Failed Experiment

The world needs well-designed studies to move beyond the philosophical aspects of how wealth should be distributed.
4 comments

Economics & Finance

The Changing Face of Family Offices in Europe

C Zeisberger, C Decker-Lange, K Lange

The tumultuous events of the last two decades have affected European family offices differently, in accordance with the continent’s diversity.

Economics & Finance

Information About Differences Ultimately Leads to Profit

When firms participate in industry classifications, their product may turn out to be better or worse than that of their competitors. Either way, the bottom line is boosted.

Economics & Finance

The Global Impact of the Trade Stand-Off Between Japan and South Korea

A regional trade tiff has the potential to bring on a global recession.

Economics & Finance

Less Than Zero: The New Normal for Interest Rates?

Antonio Fatas

Will your bank pay you to borrow money?
6 comments

Economics & Finance

How Benchmarking Can Make Markets More Opaque

Adrian Buss

The growth of assets under management by institutional investors influences the informational efficiency of financial markets, asset prices and investors’ portfolio returns.

Economics & Finance

BRT: A New View of Corporations and Capitalism

Theo Vermaelen & N. Craig Smith

Our experts respond to the Business Roundtable's revised statement of the purpose of a corporation.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

BRT: The Fuzzy Purpose of the Corporation

The Business Roundtable’s statement confuses rather than clarifies.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

BRT: The New Capitalism?

US CEOs have unveiled a bigger tent that puts shareholders on a par with customers, workers, suppliers and communities.

Economics & Finance

Cautious Creativity With Investment Funds: A Guide for Non-Profits

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Why charities should be interested in exchange-traded funds.

Economics & Finance

How the Volkswagen Scandal Turned ‘Made in Germany’ Into a Liability

Dimitrije Ruzic

Firms that leverage a collective reputation for marketing purposes should never lose sight of the fact that one bad apple can spoil the barrel.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Getting Rid of Gender Bias in Venture Capital

M Varadan, K Hassan, C Zeisberger

The gender gap in VC doesn’t merely reflect society’s sexism. It’s an alarm bell, warning of an industry’s obsolescence.

Economics & Finance

The Trick to Predicting Recessions

A primer on predicting the unpredictable.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The High Cost of Being Private

Privately held companies need to understand that cost of debt is higher for them, but they can adapt to alleviate it.

Economics & Finance

How Charities Should Manage Their Cash

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

For non-profits, a large cash position could signal prudence or betray a lack of investing sophistication.

Economics & Finance

Why Managers – Now More Than Ever – Need to Understand Corporate Finance

Gabriel Hawawini

Sound business strategy isn’t about shareholders vs. stakeholders, but about holistic vs. narrow value creation.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

When Should Non-Profits Invest More Adventurously?

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

In select cases, alternative assets can help to diversify a charity’s portfolio and ease the volatility of returns.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Latin American Family Firms and the Path to Longevity

A. Albers-Schoenberg, C. Zeisberger

Survey of family firms shows institutionalisation enables them to overcome the third-generation challenge.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

What Non-Profits Should Know Before Engaging With Money Managers

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Trustees and investment committee members need to acquire a basic understanding of financial instruments.

Economics & Finance

Creating More Economic Equality for Women

B Kessler, C Cortland, Z Kinias

How to address resource-based gender gaps across a wide variety of contexts.

Economics & Finance

Is Full Employment Sustainable?

Antonio Fatas

Research shows in previous economic cycles, the U.S. has not been able to sustain a low unemployment rate.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

How PE and VC Are Closing the Gender Gap in Emerging Markets

Claudia Zeisberger & Heather M. Kipnis

If including women in senior private equity and venture capital leadership teams improves returns, why is the gender gap still so pervasive?

Economics & Finance

What Non-Profits (and Governments) Need to Know About Investment Strategy

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Charities investing in hedge funds isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.

Economics & Finance

Viewing Healthcare Through the Lens of Economics

Hubert Gatignon

A multidisciplinary group of experts share their insights into health economics.

Economics & Finance

Gender Wage Gaps Close When They Are Disclosed

New evidence confirms that transparency creates a more equitable workplace – with no impact on firms’ profit.

Economics & Finance

Finance as a Force for Good

Industry experts discuss how investors, businesses and society all benefit from sustainable finance.

Economics & Finance

The Growing Danger of EU Disintegration

A stabilising hegemonic power or coalition is vital for the EU to survive future crises and the rise of populism.

Economics & Finance

Should Central Banks Start Issuing Cyber-Cash?

Antonio Fatas

To move the fintech debate forward, we need to distinguish between money and payments.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Four Strategies for Balancing Charities’ Investment Risks

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Avoid, reduce, transfer and accept are bywords for a disciplined and cautious approach.

Economics & Finance

The Five Archetypes That Define National Culture

Dissecting the values that constitute culture reveals unexpected contrasts and commonalities between nations.

Economics & Finance

The Return of Realpolitik and the Rise of Populism

The imminent departure of Chancellor Merkel concludes a dystopian era for the European Union.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Fact and Fantasy About Buybacks: The International Evidence

Share repurchases are good for long-term shareholder value globally.

Economics & Finance

Charities and the Investment Risks They Face

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Macroeconomic changes and fraudulent behaviour pose investment challenges.

Economics & Finance

The Growing Menace of Non-GAAP Measures

S. David Young & H. David Sherman

Firms have become increasingly brazen in their use of alternative metrics which cast their financials in a favourable light.

Economics & Finance

KPIs Should Never Be Tied to Compensation

S. David Young & Kevin Kaiser

Monetised indicator targets too often get in the way of value creation.
9 comments

Economics & Finance

The WTO Is Not Passé

The WTO has played a greater role in the expansion of world trade than preferential trade agreements between small groups of nations.

Economics & Finance

Charities’ Path to Financial Longevity Begins With a Manifesto

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

An investment policy statement should guide the work of investment committees.

Economics & Finance

Why Venture Capitalists Should Invest Like Poker Players

K. Hassan, C. Zeisberger

No matter your level of experience, early-stage investments are considered high-risk gambles. Why not treat them as such?
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Unemployment Doesn’t Have to Be So Damaging

Alexandra Roulet

Adequate government policies can eliminate the health and death hazards that usually come with business shutdowns.

Economics & Finance

Can Private Equity Reinvent Itself as Patient Capital?

Kyle Lee & Konstantin Synetos

There is a rising trend against short-termism in private equity.

Economics & Finance

European Safe Bonds Are Unlikely to Attract Investment

The European Commission’s proposal for European safe bonds (ESBies) will not entice low-rated banks away from holding risky domestic government debt.

Economics & Finance

How Charities Can Ensure Financial Longevity

Boris Liedtke & Peter Lai

Charities should create an investment strategy to meet long-term financial liabilities.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

ICOs and Financing Blockchain Projects

A new mechanism for financing innovation: seigniorage.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Business Model Innovation Comes to Private Equity

Many investment firms go beyond leveraged buyouts to build sector-specific investment ecosystems.

Economics & Finance

No End in Sight for the “New Normal” in Monetary Policy

Getting out of a low inflation environment is proving much harder than what we thought.

Economics & Finance

Giving Workers Equal Representation on the Board

Beatrice Weder di Mauro

Germany’s unique, consensus-based system of corporate governance demonstrates how society’s demands shape business culture.

Economics & Finance

Impact Investing Comes Into Its Own

A discussion with Kevin Lu, Chairman for Asia at Partners Group and Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD’s GPEI.

Economics & Finance

Impact Investing Business that Makes a Difference

Jasjit Singh

How one of the world’s largest asset managers is experimenting with a unique impact investing model in Asia.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

The Paradox of Protectionist Populism

Pushan Dutt, Devashish Mitra

Most Americans support free trade. So what accounts for the protectionist rhetoric of a putatively populist president?
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Still in the Danger Zone

The continuing surge of anti-European populists casts a dark shadow over the future of the EU.

Economics & Finance

How the Unbanked Can Save and Borrow

The composition of savings groups makes all the difference to their effectiveness.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Who Suffers in a Trade War?

The U.S. president is shoring up his base at the expense of the international trade order.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

When Fintech Goes Green

B. Liedtke, P. Walburg

Instead of competing directly with banks, some fintechs are finding opportunities banks haven’t noticed.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Why Economists Should Think Like Plumbers

Mark Stabile

When good policy doesn’t work, it’s often because of bad plumbing, rather than bad economics.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Short Sellers Hiding in the Noise

B. von Beschwitz, O. Chuprinin & M. Massa

How a soft news story enables short sellers to hide their sales amongst the noise traders.

Economics & Finance

What the Productivity Paradox Means for Our Economic Future

In the midst of a tech boom, productivity growth is slowing. Is the global economy simply gathering strength, or is innovation becoming elusive?

Economics & Finance

Economic Narratives for 2018 Are Too Simplistic

Concerns about rising debt and asset prices driven by central bank liquidity are overstated.

Economics & Finance

Should We Fear the Robot Revolution?

The AI boom holds both utopian and dystopian possibilities that we may not yet be prepared for.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Surviving the Generational Clash

How society can avoid fragmentation as generations blame one another for these precarious times.

Family Business

What Family Firms Need to Ensure Longevity

Bowen White

The professionalization of leading family firms.

Economics & Finance

The Stock Market’s Potential as a Wealth Equaliser

Nudging people to invest in the stock market could reduce wealth inequality.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Governments: The Next Heroes of Innovation

As the world’s biggest buyers of goods and services, governments can play a starring role in the pursuit of knowledge-economy reforms.

Economics & Finance

Retail Trading Ripe for Fintech Disruption

Warren Lee & Theodoros Evgeniou

Start-ups in the capital market space are a small part of the fintech world but find multiple opportunities to disrupt retail trading.

Economics & Finance

Why China Needs “Soft” Infrastructure Investment Now

W. Lam, A. Schipke, B. Weder di Mauro

The Chinese government must move away from directing and owning resources.

Economics & Finance

Europe’s Single Resolution Mechanism Is Creating Instability

Recent bank bailouts show that the Single Resolution Mechanism doesn’t work in its current form.

Economics & Finance

How Value Is Destroyed in Acquisitions and Disposals

Boris Liedtke & S. David Young

Corporate incentives are often skewed towards short-term gains at the expense of long-term value.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Virtuous Circle Between Financial Information and Innovation

Firms’ R&D activities and financiers’ information about innovative projects reinforce one another.

Economics & Finance

Share Buybacks Are Corporate Suicide

R. Ayres, M. Olenick

When firms invest too heavily in buying back shares, there is likely to be trouble ahead.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

How Private Investors Can Narrow the Global Infrastructure Gap

Governments have been unable to address infrastructure shortfalls. Private investors can help fill the gap.

Economics & Finance

The Role of Digital in Financial Planning

Lucas Weatherill & Boris Liedtke

Retirement planning, riddled with uncertainty and consumer biases as it is, may be best handled with a mix of digital and face-to-face advice.

Economics & Finance

The Dark and the Darker Sides of the Market

Bart Zhou Yueshen & Rachael Noyes

Total transparency in financial trading can be costly.

Economics & Finance

Banks Are Passing the Buck in Cost Cutting

Boris Liedtke & S. David Young

Misaligned incentives still reign in the banking industry, turning cost cutting into a hot potato passed around divisions.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Response to Henning Huenteler: Use Climate Funds to Deal With Consequences

The amount of money needed to comply with Paris Agreement would be better spent on funds that will alleviate climate change damage.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Response to Professor Vermaelen: U.S. Climate Policy Is Based on Shaky Arguments

Giving President Trump credit for a careful cost-benefit analysis misses the details and implications of this decision.

Economics & Finance

How In-Work Benefits Reduce Poverty

The U.S. and Canada adopted similar programmes to combat family poverty in the 1990s. How have they fared?

Economics & Finance

Trump’s Climate Policy is Based on Cost-Benefit Analysis

President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris accord is based on economic arguments.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Why Your Financial Planner Should Be a Robot

Lucas Weatherill & Boris Liedtke

Retirement planning requires more data and less human involvement to nudge customers to a more comfortable future.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Banks Are Still Thinking Short-Term

Boris Liedtke & S. David Young

A single-minded focus on the bottom line can destroy value.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

China’s Colonial Ambitions

Paulo Vicente dos Santos Alves & Fabian Salum

China is heading down the path of colonialism as it tries to slake its thirst for resources.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

A (Temporary) Reprieve for Europe

Macron’s probable victory gives the EU a chance to recover from recent shocks but will he be able to “turn around” France?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Private Secondary Markets: A Growing Investment Opportunity

Tech companies want to stay private for longer, driving interest and liquidity in secondary markets.

Economics & Finance

How Invisible Inequality Hurts the Poor

We need to confront how increasing income inequality is affecting people’s inner lives.

Economics & Finance

A Recipe for Employee Motivation

Absenteeism is less prevalent in family firms than in non-family firms.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Mortgage Foreclosures: A Necessary Evil?

Limiting foreclosure will make mortgage-backed securities more risky and banks lend less.

Economics & Finance

The Economic Consequences of Shareholder Value Maximisation

Robert U. Ayres

Shareholder primacy is causing secular stagnation.

Economics & Finance

The Stars Are Aligning for Socially Responsible Investing

Calls for a more inclusive style of capitalism are boosting a budding industry.

Economics & Finance

What Are Trump’s Promises Really Worth?

Poorer voters may have misjudged Trump by taking him “seriously but not literally” on income inequality.

Economics & Finance

Mix Enforcement With Persuasion

For the best compliance, don’t just enforce the rules, set the norms.

Economics & Finance

The Future for Share Buybacks Under Trump

Despite his protectionist tone, some of President Trump’s proposed policies indicate a positive environment for buybacks ahead.

Economics & Finance

The Implications of the EU vs. Apple Case

Morten Bennedsen & Mark Stabile

The European Commission is taking a gamble with its case against Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

How Business Can Respond to Populist Pressures

The rise of public-sector power obliges firms to get serious about emotional capital and rely on middle managers.

Economics & Finance

Unilever: Why Firms Should Maximise Shareholder Value

If firms lose sight of shareholder value maximisation, they make themselves vulnerable to takeover.
6 comments

Economics & Finance

How the Market Reacts to Media “Bias”

The stock market is incapable of distinguishing between actual and perceived media bias.

Economics & Finance

Anti-Takeover Provisions Backfire

The more protected the firm, the less takeover premium it can command.

Economics & Finance

Building a Cluster from the Outside In

Abu Dhabi’s diversification strategy rests in part on laying the seeds of future industries overseas while preparing for their reception at home.

Economics & Finance

Thinking in Scenarios Improves Forecasts

Making accurate predictions based on historical precedent is flawed, but thinking in scenarios reduces uncertainty.

Economics & Finance

Financial Regulation in Volatile Markets

A. Buss, B. Dumas

Regulation should limit speculative activities without impairing risk sharing.

Economics & Finance

Are Investors Underpricing Current Risks?

Since the U.S. election, the risk premium has gone down, which is puzzling.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Future World Order

With globalisation on the ropes and a hegemon in decline, prevalent political science theories suggest a conflictual future.
4 comments

Economics & Finance

How to Model Our Future Cities?

The representation of the city we need is a mystery to us; now, without that vision, we "mutilate" urban value.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Why You Should Give Investors Greater Say on CEO Pay

Even non-binding shareholder votes on CEO pay improve firm performance and shareholder value.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

How China Can Innovate

Unless China improves its intellectual property protection, it will not create the environment needed for sustained innovation and growth.

Economics & Finance

Understanding Populism: Inequality by the Numbers

The populist surge of 2016 was a long time coming, as data on income inequality demonstrates.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The End of Globalisation? How Executives Should Respond

If globalisation is to be preserved, business may be required to give up some economic freedom.

Economics & Finance

Emerging Markets – The Comeback Story

Uncertainty in the rich world and a new growth normal in developing economies add up to big changes.

Economics & Finance

What Really Matters Is Poverty, Not Income Inequality

P. Dutt, I.Tsetlin

Machine learning affords insight into what affects social and economic progress.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The End of Globalisation?

Political science suggests that a reversal, or even collapse, of globalisation is a distinct possibility.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Donald Trump: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

INSEAD professors react to the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

Economics & Finance

Why the Intellectual Elite Can’t Learn Its Lesson

Even after failing to predict Brexit and Trump, elites haven’t reckoned with their own limitations.
10 comments

Economics & Finance

Hail the Populist Counter-Revolution!

The parallels between today and the 1930s are disturbing.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Forget the Stereotypes About Conglomerates

Nirmalya Kumar

Not all diversified groups deserve the “conglomerate discount”. Some types are more likely to add value than others.

Economics & Finance

The EU Cannot Be at the Mercy of the Few

A small group of farmers blocking an important trade agreement highlights the EU’s vulnerability to the “tragedy of the commons”.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Sensational News Distracts Retail Investors

Daniel Schmidt & Joel Peress

Sensational TV news events drain liquidity and reduce volatility in stocks mainly owned by retail investors.

Economics & Finance

Actually, the Stock Market Looks Cheap

Some investors fear that the recent records set by the stock market are signs of a giant bubble.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

The Ocean Cannot Absorb Much More CO2

Robert U. Ayres

Most carbon emissions are absorbed by the ocean, but it’s running out of capacity, which could make global temperatures rise even faster.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Is Hillary Clinton Right About Share Buybacks?

Theodoros Evgeniou & Theo Vermaelen

Share buybacks do not undermine long-term shareholder value.

Economics & Finance

The Climate Could Be More Sensitive to CO2 Than We Think

Climate sensitivity could be underestimated, adding urgency to reducing carbon emissions.

Economics & Finance

The Middle East’s New Oil Paradigm

Nasser Saidi & Patricia McCall

Saudi Aramco’s proposed partial privatisation is the start of much needed GCC reform.

Economics & Finance

The Factors That Create Outperforming Stars

A small number of people account for the vast majority of value creation in private equity.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Operational Improvement the Private Equity Way

The private equity approach to operational improvement is selective and takes place in phases.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

European Union Faces Another Year of Living Dangerously

Beware - the European Union is not set in stone. It can disintegrate.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Settling the Debate on Climate Change

Robert U. Ayres

Scientists are closer than ever to definitively proving that climate change exists and putting the deniers to rest.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Why We Need Facts and Experts

Reasoned economic and scientific debate is sorely lacking in developed countries despite high education levels.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Gender Diverse Boards May Have Less Inside Information

Theos Evgeniou & Theo Vermaelen

Gender diverse boards are less likely to use share buybacks to buy undervalued shares and achieve excess returns, than male-dominated ones, which may have better access to information networks.

Economics & Finance

Commercial Real Estate Needs a Digital Transformation

From landowners to urban residents, all stakeholders would benefit from bringing digital, collaborative and transformational elements together in the traditional real estate value chain.

Economics & Finance

The Brexit Breakup Brings New Opportunities

The Brexit referendum result sparked market volatility, upending the status quo, but it is not all doom and gloom.

Economics & Finance

The Mixed Results of Motivational Rankings

Andrew Shipilov & Henrich Greve

Rankings designed to shame companies into changing their behaviour often accomplish just the opposite.

Economics & Finance

Doing Good by Investing in Sin

Diverting investments away from “sin” doesn’t necessarily make the world a better place.
13 comments

Economics & Finance

The Cost of Being Associated with Tax Havens

James O'Donovan, Hannes Wagner & Stefan Zeume

Firms with shell companies in four tax havens linked to the “Panama Papers” leak lost more than US$220 billion in market capitalisation following the revelations. Firms with activities in corrupt countries suffered even greater losses.

Economics & Finance

Soft Stick Regulation Improves Disclosure

Open communication between regulator and company improves disclosure practices and reduces investor uncertainty.

Economics & Finance

Ten Questions to Ask Before Pursuing an Acquisition

Claudia Zeisberger & Graham Oldroyd

Corporate acquirers can benefit from asking the same questions private equity firms ask themselves before pursuing acquisitions.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

China’s Slowdown is a Natural Phenomenon

When compared to other countries making the transition to developed economies, China’s slowdown looks normal.

Economics & Finance

The Benefits of Inflating Inflation Expectations

Setting a higher target should move inflation expectations in the right direction and help the ECB reach that target.

Economics & Finance

Fintech Versus Banks: Déjà Vu?

Those sounding the death knell of the banking industry at the hands of fintech start-ups are underestimating the resilience of banks to disruptions.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Cost of Geopolitics to M&As

Laurence Capron & Olivier Bertrand

When geopolitical relations between nations are strained, states are more inclined to intervene to block mergers and acquisitions on national security grounds. But this makes mergers more difficult and more expensive, putting them at odds with the national interest.

Economics & Finance

The Innovation Potential of Human-Centred Cities

Cities designed around the individual can support sustainable urban development and create lasting value and innovation.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The Best-Case Scenario for Avoiding Brexit

The Brexit referendum could be a knockout victory for Cameron and Whitehall, if they adopted this simple solution.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

How China Can Avoid the Middle Income Trap

Michael A. Witt

Without further institutional development, China is headed for the middle-income trap.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Is Fintech Here to Stay?

2015 was the best year for venture investment in US Fintech start-ups since 2000, with $21.6 billion invested, but the number of deals fell for the first time since 2009.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Central Banks Need to Get Real (Not Nominal)

To benefit the economy in the long–term, central banks need to reassess their attitude to short-term nominal interest rates.

Economics & Finance

What Now For the European Central Bank?

The European Central Bank seems to have hit the limit of what it can do to stimulate growth.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Does Democracy Help or Hinder Growth?

Regardless of its appeal politically, can democracy be defended on economic grounds alone?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Road to Brexit and What it Would Mean

The United Kingdom (U.K.) may vote to leave the European Union (EU) on June 23. The implications of this – for the EU as well as the U.K. - are important … and overwhelmingly negative.
4 comments

Economics & Finance

China: Years of Decline?

Hellmut Schütte

China’s 2015 growth rate sent shivers through global markets, but the country added the equivalent output of Thailand and the Philippines to its economy last year.

Economics & Finance

Aramco IPO: It’s Not About the Money

Is the proposed sell off of Aramco the start of a Thatcherite revolution in Saudi Arabia?
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Have the BRICs Hit a Wall? The Next Emerging Markets

As the BRICs falter, a new group of growth economies is emerging, but they have lots of work to do before they are stable enough to become serious players.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

What “The Big Short” Gets Right—and Wrong

For a Hollywood movie, “The Big Short” is surprisingly sophisticated about what caused the financial crisis, but it fumbles a few key issues.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The Risks of Fast News Analytics and Institutional Trading

High frequency news analytics services give institutional traders an edge by speeding up reaction times to new information. But this efficiency comes at a price.

Economics & Finance

Keep Europe Borderless

The Schengen Accord is one of the most tangible achievements of European integration and a boon for cross-border business. Resurrecting border controls will be politically and economically costly.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Even in Non-Corrupt Countries, Political Power Pays Off

Illegal rent-seeking may be rarer in Western developed nations, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be concerned with transparency.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Fiscal Consolidations Make Crises Worse

Post-crisis fiscal consolidations can have persistent and permanent effects on growth. More aggressive fiscal and monetary policy is needed, not less.

Economics & Finance

A New Look at The Housing Market

Amine Ouazad

A new formula for forecasting house prices suggests easy credit can do more harm than good when it comes to creating a fair and open housing market.

Economics & Finance

Collaborating to Compete

Maria Guadalupe

The Dutch flower cluster shows how much value can be found in a commoditised sector that collaborates before it competes

Economics & Finance

Is The World Ready For the Next Recession?

Another recession is coming in the not-too-distant future. With monetary policy not yet back to normal, governments and central banks should start planning their responses.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Time for an Economic Rethink

As the "lowflation" phenomenon continues, is it time to revolutionise how we view the world's economies?

Economics & Finance

The Double-Edged Sword of Globalisation

Seven long-term trends underscore both the hope and the threat that globalisation has brought to our world.

Economics & Finance

Where Are the Best Private Equity Returns?

Quarterly and annual returns from Chinese private equity are more volatile than global funds, but a portfolio of Chinese funds offers a surprisingly good risk-return profile.

Economics & Finance

Innovation Enriches the 1%, While Increasing Social Mobility

David Hemous

The quickening pace of innovation has made life both sweeter and more unstable for the mega-rich, and given the poor a higher chance of reaching the top.

Economics & Finance

Protecting Minority Shareholders Pays

Where minority shareholders are protected, more investment takes place.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Real Cause of Low Interest Rates

Are lower interest rates creating an unstable financial future?

Economics & Finance

Why Do Governments So Often Disappoint?

Maria Guadalupe, Subi Rangan

Notwithstanding serious effort and dedication, so often there is a shortfall between peoples' expectations of government and what government delivers. At a recent symposium on government and progress, participants explored why and suggested that a new social contract is needed between public leaders and citizens.

Economics & Finance

The Left Has Found a New Enemy: Share Buybacks

Attacking share buybacks is misguided. When companies buy back shares it is not only a sensible use of excess cash, but good for shareholders and good for the economy.

Economics & Finance

It’s Time for the EU to Embrace Haircuts on Greek Debt

European taxpayers have already lost money on loans to Greece. EU lenders should accept a haircut on Greek debt to shield them from even greater losses.

Economics & Finance

Hack Society

Government has always decided where to allocate resources for the greatest social good, but it might be better done by “the crowd”.

Economics & Finance

A Third Scenario for Stock Markets

Are stock prices expensive or cheap? Compared to other asset classes, prices are consistent with historical levels.

Economics & Finance

Governing in an Age of Great Expectations

Government matters for societal progress and will always do so. In which ways and to what extent depends on the social contract.

Economics & Finance

Who’s Afraid of BlackRock?

Should large asset managers be subjected to the same scrutiny as banks and insurers? The industry says financial giants like BlackRock pose no threat to the marketplace. But our research tells a very different story.

Economics & Finance

Do You Have What it Takes to Work in Private Equity?

The dynamic, fast-paced operating environment of a PE-backed company can provide executives with a unique career opportunity and very attractive rewards. But it’s not for the faint hearted.

Economics & Finance

How Greece Can Unite its People

Divisions and distrust are keeping Greece from bouncing back. Uniting the people for the sake of the nation, not of its politicians, could help.

Economics & Finance

Micromanaging European Reforms is Sowing Disunity

“More Europe” is not necessarily the solution to ensuring a robust domestic reform agenda in member states.

Economics & Finance

The Euro Is in Deep Trouble

Last-minute agreements may have prevented a “Grexit”—for the moment—but the Eurozone’s troubles are only likely to worsen.

Economics & Finance

Impact Investing in Future Leaders

“Soaring inequality isn’t about education, it’s about power.” Paul Krugman, Economics Nobel Laureate
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Lack of Trust Is Preventing a Long-Term Greek Solution

Any outcome of the current negotiations between Greece and its European creditors won’t satisfy either party.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Are Central Banks Keeping Interest Rates Artificially Low?

Interest rates are currently low everywhere. There is little evidence that central banks are the cause.

Economics & Finance

Why You Should Care About Family Office Values

Asian family offices are at a nascent stage of development; while they are keen to progress, there are clear philosophies they don’t see the need to change.
4 comments

Economics & Finance

Reforming Europe: It’s Time to Accept Differences

Reforms are happening where they’re needed in Europe, but their effects are not as big as planned and they’re not always happening fast enough. To accelerate the reform process, national approaches are needed.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

When Three’s a Crowd: How to Upset a Good Partnership

The French state’s intrusion into Renault-Nissan may upset a very strong alliance.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

A Stand-off in Euroland: Athens on a Knife-Edge

The future of the Eurozone has been thrust into uncertainty as Berlin and Athens descend further into mutual resentment.
2 comments

Entrepreneurship

Capitalism: Making Altruism Sustainable

Those with a genuine interest in helping the poor can apply capitalist principles to understand the needs of the market and provide it with what it needs.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Competition Makes Bloggers Reckless

As bloggers strive to be heard are we missing out on the truth?

Economics & Finance

Is The Greek Dra(ch)ma Making a Comeback?

If Greece leaves the Euro area, it could generate a crisis of unknown consequences. This should drive the negotiators to seek compromise over the issue of reforms.

Economics & Finance

Is Urban Harmony Bad for Business?

Market realities are more to blame than social elites for the rise of segregation in today’s cities.

Economics & Finance

Stop Selling!

We don’t trust salespeople because they are mostly obsessed with satisfying their own interests, not the customer’s. This must change.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

The Future for Labour Is Self-Employment

The technological revolution won’t phase the human worker out of existence, but it will change the way we work.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Four Ways to Gain Positions of Power

Weak players in organisations can overcome their dependence on powerful actors, but it comes at a cost.
8 comments

Economics & Finance

Fighting Inequality Starts with Early Childhood Development

Kaisa Snellman

Income inequality may have the greatest impact on society’s most vulnerable: very young children. Without addressing early childhood development, efforts to close class gaps may fall short.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

The Path of an Exemplary Leader

Lee Kuan Yew was a pragmatic realist who favoured logical problem solving over idealism. Singapore is his monument.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Changing Face of Private Equity in Emerging Markets

Bowen White

Brazil reflects the changing fortunes of emerging market investment and how private equity firms are adapting.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

How Business Schools Must Evolve

Business education must enable students to reconcile enterprises with the changing realities of the global marketplace.

Economics & Finance

What’s Behind the September Stock Market Blues?

Lily Fang

Wall Street traders know that September is ominous for stocks. Despite the complexity of the market, the reason boils down to something as simple as the post-holiday “blues”.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Let the Central Bankers Inflate

Worries about central banks trying to create inflation are overblown.

Economics & Finance

What China’s “New Normal” Means for Leaders

Slowing economic growth and the changing shape of leadership and management in China.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Making Pension Systems Stronger via Financial Markets

Life expectancy keeps increasing and pension payout levels are often higher than what a company or fund originally accounted for. This risk of ‘longevity’ can be transferred to financial markets, but pricing and risk management of longevity risk are urgently needed.

Economics & Finance

Where the Great Recession Took the Greatest Toll

Sometimes just looking at the headline figure is not the best way to judge a country’s performance in times of crisis.

Economics & Finance

Fast and Furious Finance Careers Are Things of the Past

Finance has become a difficult industry to operate in with tighter regulation around the world post financial crisis. Now more than ever, those set on a career in investing need long-term views, curiosity and lots of patience.

Economics & Finance

Not the Debt, But the Future: The Crux of the Eurozone Crisis

Now that the Syriza party has won the Greek election, what comes next will not be easy.

Economics & Finance

Margin Call on Overleveraged China

The explosion in margin lending has fuelled a baseless rally in the Shanghai Composite, but the magnitude of leverage in the stock market is still coming to light.

Economics & Finance

The Dark Side of Social Media: Did Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Kill Charlie?

Terrorists actively use social media networks to spread their propaganda and recruit fighters as well as copycats. Should social media be regulated and, if so, how?
4 comments

Economics & Finance

No Level Playing Field in After-School Activities

Working-class students are disappearing from extracurricular activities, an alarming sign of declining social mobility.

Economics & Finance

Are We Ready to Make Decisions for Our Retirement?

Rapidly aging populations are forcing policymakers to rethink pensions. Defined contribution schemes are quickly becoming the norm, but people don’t yet seem ready for them.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Buyback Fund That Gives Back

A buyback fund we launched in 2011 has continued to grow in 2014 and is now open to small investors.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

This is How Greece Might Leave the Euro

Germany and the ECB may not come to the rescue this time.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Negotiating the Sydney Siege

Crises are high-risk situations that benefit from a low-risk approach.

Economics & Finance

The Logic Behind the German Euro Gamble

As Europe’s economy continues to slide, the majority of member countries are seeking a more flexible interpretation of the stability pact. So, what’s behind Germany’s stubborn reluctance to give up its obsession with austerity?

Economics & Finance

Why Business Schools Should Teach MBAs to Maximise Shareholder Value

Maximising value for shareholders is the best way for firms to stay competitive and sustainable.
5 comments

Economics & Finance

Let's Talk About the Weakness of Capitalism

The undisputed success of capitalism doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking at alternatives to the current model, especially in light of widening inequality.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Is Refusing to Fight Climate Change Unethical?

Commentators say those not following the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are unethical. I disagree.
19 comments

Economics & Finance

Finding Opportunities to Make an Impact

Investing in industries that would have a minimal development impact in developed economies can yield the opposite in emerging markets where resources and practices are scarce.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

ECB Should Aim Higher on Inflation

The European Central Bank’s “asymmetric” inflation target is shackling its ability to react to crises and deflationary risks.

Economics & Finance

Are Today’s Regulations Sowing the Seeds of the Next Crisis?

Ever greater regulatory complexity, coupled with an increasingly integrated world is making risk management ambiguous.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

“College for All” Isn’t a Cure-All for Inequality

K. Snellman, J. M. Silva

Higher education is touted as an engine of social mobility, but it may have become just the opposite.
4 comments

Economics & Finance

Europe’s Power is Waning

With its economic and political influence increasingly questioned, can Europe ever hope to become a genuine world power?

Economics & Finance

The Permanent Scars of Fiscal Consolidation

Is potential output really changing or is it just our perception about long-term growth that is changing?

Economics & Finance

What’s Influencing our Growth Expectations?

With long-term output estimates significantly lower, are we awakening from a fictitious world of excess or is this recognition that scars from the financial crisis may be permanent?

Economics & Finance

Diverging Monetary Policies: Bad News for the Euro?

As Europe moves to encourage spending and the US tightens its purse strings, what’s the future for the euro?

Economics & Finance

Helicopter Mario (Draghi) to the Rescue

With interest rate cuts and policy reforms lacking the power to kick-start a Eurozone recovery, is it time for “helicopter money”?

Economics & Finance

Creating Growth: Stimulate Demand or Supply?

The French government’s recent shift to the right on economic policy illustrates the dilemma leaders face when kickstarting growth: Should policy be supply or demand driven?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Is the Next Recession Coming Soon?

The current expansion is already longer than the average post-war business cycle. But what does the data tell us about the chances of an impending recession?

Economics & Finance

Eurozone Growth: Stagnation or Recovery?

A battle between pessimism and optimism is being waged about whether Europe is stuck in a quagmire or marching back to growth. Both sides have strong arguments but they also agree on what has to be done.

Economics & Finance

Not All Debt Booms Are Unsustainable

Increases in debt cannot be interpreted as a definite signal that an economy is in an unsustainable boom.

Economics & Finance

How to Energise Economic Recovery

There is a surprising lack of awareness about the role of energy as a driver of economic growth.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Finding Value in the Environment

Private equity firms are building the capability to manage environmental, social and governance factors throughout their investment process.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Addicted to Central Bank Painkillers?

The argument that low interest rates during boom times creates debt bubbles and financial instability is potentially misleading.

Economics & Finance

Can Entrepreneurs Be Created?

European governments have an opportunity to transform their institutions into facilitators of entrepreneurship and innovation. Are they capable of providing the right environment?

Economics & Finance

How ECB Policy Could Stir Spending in the Private Sector

ECB President Mario Draghi says the central bank’s policy changes will support lending to the real economy. But is it that easy?

Economics & Finance

Does France Work Harder Than America?

Working-age labour force participation is worsening in the U.S.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Death of Distance is Greatly Exaggerated!

Barriers to global trade may be lower, but they still remain difficult to overcome for countries with less historical, legal or cultural ties and especially those far apart from each other. Experience can reduce costs and boost exports.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Asset Prices Are Too Damn High

Asset prices have risen back to levels that match fundamentals, but returns are not as high as they used to be.

Economics & Finance

Refocusing Economics Education

Economists failed to predict many aspects of the financial crisis but it was not because we didn’t have the right tools. It was due to where we chose to focus our teaching.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Honey, I Blew Up a Few Economies

New calculations of purchasing power have put China on course to overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy this year. The changes in PPP also alter our reading of living standards for many countries.

Economics & Finance

Harnessing Data for Growth

The Western world may have a wealth of economic data, but many emerging nations can’t get enough. A new Centre for Economic Growth (CEG) in the Middle East will provide original research to address the region’s massive unemployment problems and serve as a model for developing economies around the world.

Economics & Finance

The Contradiction in Economics

The study of economics includes many assumptions about behaviour, one of which is that everyone has learned all the lessons of economics.

Economics & Finance

Secular Stagnation or Secular Boom?

Growth sceptics think low growth is here to stay in advanced economies, and fear is growing that emerging markets won’t continue to grow as fast as they have.

Economics & Finance

Inflation in Europe: The Price is Wrong

The argument that low inflation raises income and boosts demand is not sound.

Economics & Finance

Is a Lack of Financial Acumen Putting Your Company at Risk?

Massimo Massa

The owners and directors on your company’s board may be skilled in foresight and implementing strategy but are they financially astute enough to understand the risk?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Private Equity’s Cautious Cash Pile

2013 was a record year for capital distributions to investors and private equity firms are comfortably raising new money, but are they putting it to work?

Economics & Finance

What Will it Take to Move the ECB?

The ECB press conference yesterday was yet another exercise in creating confusion about what the ECB intends to do next.

Economics & Finance

The Ukrainian Crisis: The Finland Option

During the Cold War, both Russia and the West agreed to keep Finland out of the fight. Ukraine should be granted the same neutrality.

Economics & Finance

Breaking Down Silos to Achieve Strategic Agility

Scotland’s civil service overhaul holds lessons for enhancing national competitiveness
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Should Comcast and Time Warner Cable Be Allowed to Merge?

There are fears that the tie up of the cable giants will only increase their monopoly power. While this is true, it’s not all bad news for customers.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Should Investors Worry About the Political Affiliation of CEOs?

Evidence suggests that the political leanings of CEOs can impact the dividends their companies pay to shareholders.

Economics & Finance

Long term unemployment: cyclical or structural?

The changing relationship between job vacancies and unemployment reflects growing inefficiencies in the labour market. What’s the problem?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Financial Market Arbitrage: Reassuring or Lovely?

High speed trading may reduce price deviations but does it get financial prices right?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The Permanent Scars of Recession

Central banks think output losses caused by the recession have become permanent. More aggressive policy action to reduce the length and depth of recessions would minimise such damage.

Economics & Finance

Higher Education: Still Valuable, But Changing

Benjamin Kessler

In an age of university-dropout billionaires and digital lectures, is higher education worth the sacrifice? panellists at the World Economic Forum in Davos weigh in.

Economics & Finance

Emerging Markets: The Future Is Now

Brazil is far from becoming a developed economy. Those making money there know this and they aren’t waiting around for it to happen.

Economics & Finance

Reading the ECB's Inaction

The Euro area does not have deflation today, but the risk could increase if policy inaction persists.

Economics & Finance

The Role of National Animosity in Business Partnerships

Historical national animosity can influence business ties.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Are Economists Conservatively Biased?

Economic models seek to simplify complex phenomena, but they have to make assumptions which are sometimes confused with political bias. This makes many uncomfortable about giving policy recommendations.

Economics & Finance

Modernising Doesn’t Mean Westernising in Emerging Markets

Personal connections still rule in modernising Asian financial markets, despite being taboo in the “Western” sense of a developed market place.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Obesity in the Young Is Increasingly Class-Based

Kaisa Snellman

A growing obesity “class gap” may indicate even greater problems to come.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Net Neutrality: Time for a Bandwidth Market?

Letting the market price internet bandwidth is not a bad idea.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Growth vs. Earth?

Bill Magill

If communism failed the people, capitalism has failed the planet.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Stimulus Deniers

There is too much distrust towards central banks and their ability to help smooth business cycles.

Economics & Finance

Making the Right Decisions in a Recession

Companies turn to ideology and imitation to make big decisions in hard times.

Economics & Finance

The Increasing Number of Euro Fools

Central banks don’t determine all interest rates.

Economics & Finance

France's Battle for Competitiveness

The country’s competitive standing has been sliding, but it has the means to reinvigorate its attractiveness.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Doha Reborn, But Keep Making Baby Steps

A breakthrough agreement revives the “Doha round” of global trade talks and should be celebrated, but the next steps should be equally small, incremental ones.

Economics & Finance

When Will People Avoid Corporations?

Colombian coffee growers take on Starbucks.

Economics & Finance

Why the Iran Deal Was Beautiful

The recent nuclear deal showed some winning moves in multilateral negotiations that should not be underestimated.

Economics & Finance

Marketing France as an Investment Destination

Our recent study, The State of France, finds that the country faces contradictory solutions to regaining its competitiveness.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Four Missing Ingredients in Macroeconomic Models

It is refreshing to see top academics questioning some of the assumptions that economists have been using in their models.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Austerity Won't Win the War

It is surprising that some still hold on to their economic theories even if the facts keep proving them wrong.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Why FIFA Should Be Learning From Brazil

FIFA’s anxiety over Brazil’s progress on World Cup preparations is a perfect example of developed countries’ expectations that need to be adjusted to deal with emerging markets.

Economics & Finance

The Price of Wise Forecasting

Crowds are better at predictions than individuals. But when everyone is doing it, the need for individual experts remains.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

From Stressed to Success: A Middle East Bank’s Turnaround

Since the global financial crisis, banks world-wide have struggled to rebuild balance sheets with a focus on openness and risk management strategies. One surprising success story comes from the Middle East, a region where corporate governance is still in its infancy.

Economics & Finance

Where did the saving glut go?

The reasons for falling investment in advanced economies are debatable.

Economics & Finance

Doing Good by Beating the Market

Our PV Buyback USA fund pays 10% of its performance fees to help INSEAD students in financial need. Here’s how it works.

Economics & Finance

Stubborn Bankers

The response of German bank CEOs to the possibility of negative interest rates in the Eurozone to spur lending is wrong.

Economics & Finance

Standing Tall: Lady Gaga's Shoes and Young Artists

Status matters to your network and it plays a big role in shaping a successful business.

Economics & Finance

Typhoon Haiyan: The Disaster-Relief-Recovery Cycle Must Be Broken

It’s past time for the international humanitarian community to get serious about disaster mitigation and preparedness.

Economics & Finance

Europe's Quagmire: Austerity or Lack of Reforms?

Austerity can be blamed for Europe’s sluggish growth, but what about Southern Europe’s structural issues?

Economics & Finance

ECB Rate Cut Justified

Hans-Werner Sinn, the president of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research says the ECB was wrong to cut rates. I disagree.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Muted Recession Graduates

Hungry graduates are grateful to have jobs, but are today’s young people complaining less than they should?

Economics & Finance

Google Under Attack -- Again

Patent wars loom for Google and its Android operating system. Can it defend itself this time?

Economics & Finance

The Interrelated Market Efficiency Debate

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics to Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller gives both sides of the Market Efficiency debate due recognition. But the two are also interrelated.

Economics & Finance

Party Like It's 1995?

For some it is clear that the all-time record levels in the stock market are supported by loose monetary policy and the day policy starts changing, stock markets will suffer a sharp drop. While I also worry about the tendency of stock markets and investors to be overoptimistic, I am less concerned by the fact that we are hitting all-time record levels.

Economics & Finance

Creating Sustainable Business in a Conflict Zone

Risk management in normal situations relates to economic or financial change. For companies entering politically unstable markets in the Middle East, the concept gets a little more complex.

Economics & Finance

Exchange Rates Matter Less Than We Think (Part 3)

For countries that have been running a large current account deficit for years, a “sudden stop” of capital is contractionary, regardless of the flexibility of exchange rates.

Economics & Finance

The Market Efficiency Debate is Alive and Kicking

Are markets fundamentally efficient or inefficient? Economists are polarized, and the Nobel Prize Committee is playing both sides of the debate.

Responsibility

Impact Investing: Unleashing Institutional Capital

The interest surrounding impact investing has not yet translated into a substantial increase in the amount of capital deployed. But that may be changing.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Going Direct: The Case of Teachers’ Private Capital

Threatened by looming shortfalls, pension funds are searching for riskier private enterprise investments to fund the gap. With its innovative approach to new markets and risk-adjusted returns, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is a model worth emulating.

Economics & Finance

Rebalance Climate Policy

Scepticism and uncertainty surrounding the recent conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should not be a call for policy inaction

Economics & Finance

Perspective: The 'London Whale'

As headlines of apparent risk management failure or weak oversight inside one of Wall Street’s largest institutions abound, we argue that the story of a loss of 0.25 percent of the bank’s assets is getting too much face-time from regulators and the press.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Passion: I like the way you look

How to produce and deliver a winning presentation Part 3: Passion – I like the way you look So you will have seen through Part 1: Prepared Goals and Part 2: Command Attention, the sequence of events and tasks that help you ensure that your presentation is remembered for all the right reasons, rather than all the wrong reasons. Here in this section of Part 3 I want to focus in on your Passion through facial expression. What do I mean by Passion?

Economics & Finance

Sharing Big Pharma's Value

Could creating shared value be the next stage of evolution for CSR? The pharmaceutical industry shows how it can work.

Economics & Finance

Building Ecosystem Alliances

Yves L. Doz

The CEO of the GAVI Alliance speaks to INSEAD professor Yves Doz on increasing access to vaccinations in the developing world.

Economics & Finance

Climate Science Politics at Full Speed

Are governments working to protect the political consensus around climate change at the expense of truth?
4 comments

Economics & Finance

German Elections: Did Merkel Win Too 'Well'?

The extent of her victory may cause her more problems during the next four years than she had in the last four.

Economics & Finance

How to command attention and deliver a winning presentation

How to produce and deliver a winning presentation Part 2: Command Attention Firstly, thank you for all your comments on Part 1: Prepared Goals. It is a great honour to read your inputs and thoughts, please keep them coming. So, here we go with Part 2 (of 4): Command Attention.

Marketing

Turning Expectations Into Customer Satisfaction

Hilke Plassmann

Expectations can determine the perception of your product. Setting that expectation and spreading it is the next step, but beware of trickery.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Journeying to Luxury's New Frontiers

Luxury used to be reserved for a single elite; now the elite is plural, changing, and global.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

How to Make Your Company More Creative? Hire a Senior Executive Who Worked Abroad

Andrew Shipilov

Creativity is an important driver of competitive advantage for companies. One way your company can be more creative is to hire executives who worked abroad. These people are likely to offer non traditional solutions to your problems.

Economics & Finance

Germany United as Europe's Stable Core

Barring unexpected and improbable last-minute shifts in German voters’ preferences, Angela Merkel will remain German Chancellor after the federal elections on 22 September and the direction of German domestic, European and foreign policies will remain largely unchanged.

Economics & Finance

Championing Telecoms Innovation in the Middle East

Despite 100 percent mobile phone penetration and only two players, the U.A.E. is a fiercely competitive telecoms market. Staying ahead means never-ending work on products, pricing and innovation.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Boosting business confidence key to driving EU job creation

While unemployment is falling in some OECD countries, notably the United States, it remains stubbornly high in much of Europe. The challenge facing governments is to boost business confidence in order to stimulate a return to growth.

Economics & Finance

To Compete in Today's Global Economy, Germany Has Put Itself First

Germany’s sense of duty to the EU is taking a back seat to its own commitment to being a global economic powerhouse.

Economics & Finance

Comment: How Should Multinationals Be Taxed?

The recent attack on the tax policies of corporations becomes close to ridiculous when politicians argue that companies that try to avoid taxes (legally) are “socially irresponsible” and “immoral."
6 comments

Economics & Finance

How Should Multinationals Be Taxed?

G20 leaders will commit themselves to bringing greater fairness to global tax arrangements at their annual summit meeting in Saint Petersburg on 5-6 September. But just how far and how fast they will be able to change a system that has become riddled with distortions is still open to doubt.

Economics & Finance

Luxury: Catering to the Super-Wealthy

The rich “are different from you and me,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yes, but just how different? And what do they want to buy? Meet the new Ultra High Net Worth Individual

Economics & Finance

Just who are the Very Rich Consumers?

They are famous yet elusive, jet-setters though low-profile. And thus far, a mystery…
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Infosys at the Crossroads

Can the IT giant re-invent itself to regain market share, sales, and investor confidence?
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Can Europe Regain Its Once-Competitive Edge?

The continent has educated talent, a huge population, and massive wealth. It also has rigid labour laws, crushing tax systems and a bias against risk-taking.

Economics & Finance

Good News Can Explain Why Today’s Market is Not A Bubble in the Making

Despite high unemployment and low growth, U.S. and European stock markets have increased by more than 20 percent during the last 12 months, while European bank stocks have increased by 35 percent. So is the stock market simply a casino unrelated to the “real” economy? Not really.

Economics & Finance

The Road to Economic Recovery: Clearing Skies, Bumps Ahead

The outlook for the world economy is gradually brightening. But it is going to be an uneven recovery, with some countries emerging from recession faster than others and many still needing to address major structural weaknesses. A report from the OECD.

Economics & Finance

What Lies Ahead for the Eurozone?

The Eurozone may be ringed with the dark clouds of pessimism, but there are some rays of hope shining through.
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Economics & Finance

From Frontier to Emerging: What’s an Upgrade Worth?

Regulators and investors in the rich Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Qatar are celebrating the recent Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) upgrade of their countries from frontier to emerging market status. But how important are these rating revisions, and what do they really mean for the countries involved?

Economics & Finance

Preventing a Run on the Bank

A healthy balance sheet can’t keep a bank safe from massive customer withdrawals; preventing panic is the real challenge.

Economics & Finance

Risky Business: How Admiral Captured the U.K. Car Insurance Market

Twenty years ago, Henry Engelhardt (MBA ‘88J) turned car insurance on its ear by taking on maverick customers and aggregating the product. Today he owns the U.K. market

Economics & Finance

Emerging London

London has the talent and the tradition to remain a world financial centre in tomorrow’s expanding business world...can its infrastructure and city planning rise to the challenge?

Economics & Finance

Businessmen are Impatient with Widening Gap Between Europe & the World

New INSEAD-Booz & Company Survey for State of the EU Conference points up Shifting Mood

Economics & Finance

Building Skyscrapers in the Sand

Despite a minor real estate set-back a few years ago, Dubai is back – building structures most people only dream about. But how long can this last?

Economics & Finance

Cities of the Future

L. Van Wassenhove, C. Howells

Globalisation has meant urbanisation, and by 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities. What should we do to survive and thrive in this brave new world?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Taking India Inc. Global

The biggest stumbling block to global expansion for Indian companies is the country’s own image. Now what?

Economics & Finance

Fixing India’s Human Infrastructure

How can India’s private and public sectors work together to plug some of the gaps in services to the country’s poor and destitute?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

OECD Economic Outlook: Global Growth this Year

Monetary easing is finally working, but what happens when the cheap money goes away?

Economics & Finance

How to produce and deliver a winning presentation Part 1: Prepared Goals

The goal of my articles to date here on the LinkedIn Influencers platform has been to help you slow down and guide you on the journey inwards, to discover your true Self, to help you be the Captain of your Ship.

Economics & Finance

Improving European Board Effectiveness – insights from participants of the INSEAD International Directors Programme

Timothy Rowley

A healthy capital system is an important ingredient for European competitiveness. Indeed, investors look for stability and predictability, which leads to the necessary flow of capital into our markets. Besides the key role government plays in creating confidence, there are three main actors in the capital system: “owners” who supply financial resources, managers who apply their expertise to build attractive returns on the owners’ investments, and boards of directors that oversee the process. The entire system relies on each actor contributing such that economic value is created.

Economics & Finance

Russia’s Invisible Economy

It’s not all about exporting natural resources to the developed world. Russia has a vibrant network of SMEs operating under the radar screen, fuelling growth.

Economics & Finance

Shale Oil and Gas: The Contrarian View

No one is questioning the fact that we have either reached or will soon reach “peak oil”; that existing fields are being depleted at the rapid rate of 7 percent a year, and that the search is on for “unconventional oil” as alternative forms of energy are slow to reach critical mass.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Shale Gas and the Environment

The recent shift in energy generation towards shale gas is likely to have an important impact on greenhouse gas emissions and therefore on global warming. However, whether this impact will be positive or negative is much debated.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Shale Gas: Hype or Hope?

A two-thirds plunge in U.S. natural gas prices thanks to soaring output of shale gas has given a boost to U.S. industry that is now being felt in the rest of the world. The impact in terms of competition threatens to be particularly strong in Europe, where high labour and energy costs are discouraging investment and driving companies elsewhere.
3 comments

Marketing

What’s in a Brand?

Tradition, culture, craftsmanship all contribute to the brand you buy. But how much more are you willing to pay for that label?
1 comment

Career

Networking in the Middle East

Competition for jobs in the Middle East is heating up and job candidates are finding that making contact on the ground is the only way to stay ahead of the pack.
1 comment

Marketing

Clicks vs. Bricks: The Battle for the High Street

Nigel Roberts

Could social media and e-commerce provide the road to salvation for beleaguered High Street retailers? In Britain, shopkeepers figure you can beat them – but how?

Economics & Finance

Transatlantic Trade: A Chance to Get it Right?

As hopes for a global trade agreement fade, the U.S. and EU are eager to draw closer. Could the time have come to tackle trade barriers and technical differences once and for all?

Economics & Finance

Doha Still the Best Way to Go

In the absence of agreement on the Doha round of trade talks, Asia has embarked on a host of bilateral and region-to-region trading arrangements which have increased trade complexity. A global deal is safer.

Economics & Finance

Why you need First Aid to be a great communicator and leader

The theme that runs through my previous articles is that when you truly know yourself, standing or sitting in front of an audience with real presence and genuine confidence, being the big person that you are, is not something you suddenly have to switch on there and then in the moment, because it is there with you all the time.

Economics & Finance

India Business Dialogue Highlights

INSEAD professors & top Indian business leaders will join the INSEAD India Business Dialogue in the heart of the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, on April 20th, where they will share their thoughts on the direction of Indian business and the country’s economy. The dialogue will focus on two themes: how Indian companies are increasingly venturing abroad and examine best practices and the capabilities needed as well as how firms are working to develop, nurture and bring new markets into play at home.

Leadership & Organisations

Arab Flair for International Women's Day

Arab women are educated, determined and have increasing government support. What’s standing in their way? A report from the INSEAD seminar in Abu Dhabi.

Economics & Finance

Europe’s shale gas competitiveness challenge and consequences for the petrochemical sector

“I think it’s simply irresponsible to declare that we don’t need [shale gas] and we don’t want [shale gas] here in Europe”. Kurt Bock, CEO of BASF[ii]

Economics & Finance

The Wisdom of Default

Germany’s support for the euro has thus far been consistent but behind the united façade, there are signs of cracks in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s united CDU party. Some members are even mentioning the “D” word when it comes to countries such as Greece.

Economics & Finance

Finding Growth at the Base of the Pyramid

As competition in emerging economies intensifies, multinationals are searching for new growth opportunities. Could the poorest of the poor hold the key?
3 comments

Economics & Finance

China: No Demise in Sight

Just because China’s GDP growth has slipped a bit doesn’t mean its growth story is over. There are still a billion people waiting to be served and budding emerging market multinationals are eager to oblige.

Economics & Finance

Ordering off the Menu: Entrepreneurship Arab-Style

In its search for capital Aramex became the first Arab-based company to list on Nasdaq. It was a mistake that became the making of the company.

Leadership & Organisations

The Abaya in the Boardroom

With strong role models and new opportunities, Arab women are making their mark in big business.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Best Advice: Tips for Success and Happiness

Linkedin asked its 150 Influencers “What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?” I can’t pinpoint one particular piece of advice I’ve been given as the pièce de résitance, because I’ve had the great fortune to have absorbed, and continue to absorb, some priceless gems. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the many people that have had a positive influence in my life and for those that continue to do that right now.

Economics & Finance

Socially Responsible Investments: alpha on earth or alpha in heaven?

In recent years we have seen a remarkable growth in funds that call themselves Socially Responsible Investments (SRI). In order to qualify as a SRI some funds work with an exclusion list: for example, they exclude companies that make guns, tobacco or cluster bombs. Others follow the opposite approach: invest in companies that are screened for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria. They only invest in companies with high ESG scores. This has created work for consultants who advise on measuring ESG as well as accountants who produce triple bottom line (Economic, Ecological and Social) reports.

Economics & Finance

How to unlock your genuine loving self

At the end of my first article, How to be a genuinely masterful communicator, I said next time it would be my honour to help you slow down and guide you on the journey inwards, to discover your true, authentic self. What better opportunity than Valentine’s Day to unlock your genuine, loving self.

Economics & Finance

Extreme Focus and the Success of Germany’s Mittelstand

In a recent post on Harvard Business Review bloggers network, we discuss the extreme focus business model of Germany’s famed Mittlestand:
2 comments

Economics & Finance

INSEAD Professors’ Fund Ranked Number One

Investing in companies announcing share buybacks as a strategy is returning market-beating results

Economics & Finance

Analyst Forecasts: How to Read Between the Lines

Accurate financial information is critical to investors. But is consistency more important than accuracy? And what’s the trade-off for investors?

Economics & Finance

Energy, Money and Industrial Civilisation

Oil and coal have fuelled the development of civilised economies since time began. But fossil fuels are finite. What resources will drive future economic growth?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Get a Little Help From Your Friends

Microfinancing used to be for the bottom of the pyramid. Now it’s moved up the corporate ladder.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

SMEs Embrace the Bond Markets

In these days of tight money and tough credit, smaller businesses are looking to the corporate bond market for financing. The risks are high but so are the returns.

Economics & Finance

It’s Not Enough to be Competitive

It’s a brave new world out there. Former fierce competitors are finding the only way to chart a course to success is through collaboration.

Economics & Finance

Where I Work: Happy Faces, Hungry Minds

Linkedin asked 50 of the 150 Influencers to “Show the world what you see when you work” When there are no barriers in a work (or learning) space, the connection is enhanced, which has a positive effect on my MBA participants, and myself.

Economics & Finance

How to be a genuinely masterful communicator

A client once told me he would rather have four teeth removed without anaesthetic than stand in front of an audience and speak! As for talking to the media, another client said “No thanks, I’d rather go swim with the sharks!” We don’t need to check out any of the “biggest fears” surveys to know that the majority of people really do have a genuine fear and dislike of presenting at meetings and conferences. Even general communication can be a challenge for many.

Entrepreneurship

Ecosystem Economics TM is the New Industrial Model

Great News for the CEO of large companies! There are entrepreneurs out there working on solving the problems that you face running your FTSE 100 business, or your medium-sized enterprise of 1000 employees, or your multinational. You have scale, distribution, reach, audience, established brand and reputation: you are a highway. But the entrepreneur, the digital industrialist, is the car that will drive you into the high-growth, digital economy. The cars need a highway for high-growth, and you can put in a toll booth to exact your fee for the assets you’re ‘sharing’.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

All That Glitters is not Gold

Great Britain was a winner in the 2012 Olympic medals race. But now that the cheering has stopped, British business feels like an “also-ran” in the economic stakes.

Economics & Finance

Italian Business: More Than Flashy Cars, Fashion, Families And Pasta

Can an Italian conglomerate compete, make money, and get respect in today’s increasingly global marketplace?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

INSEAD Brings the MBA to Abu Dhabi

INSEAD’s first MBA module in Abu Dhabi is giving participants a real taste of how business is conducted in the Middle East.

Economics & Finance

Les Etats De La France 2012

An INSEAD study shows why and how France can reconcile efficiency and equity.

Economics & Finance

The Changing Face of Air Travel

More aircraft aloft but fewer seats... blame the boom on Asia, where the desire to travel has given a new lease on life to the airline industry.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

What’s Ahead For 2013?

No one fell off the fiscal cliff. The euro didn’t collapse. Greece is still in the European Union. The stock markets are rebounding. But are we still in the Twilight Zone?

Economics & Finance

The Middle East Challenge in 2013

After the Arab Spring of 2011, is the Middle East now facing the winter of discontent? Many Arab nations are tasked with rebuilding infrastructure, revitalising industry and finding jobs for the growing mass of unemployed.

Economics & Finance

So You Think You Understand Asian Business?

We may talk about “Asia” as a block, but the businessman or woman looking to be successful in the region had better start differentiating between Asian countries – politically, socially, and economically. Here’s a review of 13 countries to get you started.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Survey Shows Business Sentiment Rising

Business sentiment at Asia's top companies rose slightly in the fourth quarter, reversing two consecutive quarters of decline, according to the latest Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Survey which was published today.

Economics & Finance

Business Model Innovation: The Gift that Keeps Giving

In a recent blog post on the Harvard Business Review bloggers network, we discuss the sustainability of the advantage that come from innovating the business model. With the Winter holiday shopping season, fashion apparel retailer Zara has been the focus of media attention — the New York Times recently profiled the innovative fast fashion business model pioneered by Zara, while Elizabeth Cline’s book on the costs of fast fashion has climbed up the sales charts.

Economics & Finance

What Makes Industrial Excellence?

European managers reveal the strategies that put them ahead at the annual event created by INSEAD, WHU (Germany) and IESE (Spain).

Economics & Finance

The New Cultural Revolution in China

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students leave home to study abroad each year, hoping a foreign diploma will land them respect and a good job at home. Today that’s not always the case.

Economics & Finance

China's New Ruling Elite: Scandals and Promises

The size of the turnaround makes this one of the most significant transitions in decades.

Economics & Finance

Perfect Storms?

Flooded coastal cities, shattered infrastructure, and blown-out power: this is the forecast for the near future, based on the increase in number, scale and cost of recent natural disasters in urban areas over the past decade. In the wake of the damage, some ugly truths are coming to light...

Economics & Finance

China Rising

What does China's ascendancy mean in geopolitical and economic terms? And how will it affect the West and its Pacific allies - notably Australia - in the coming decades?
2 comments

Economics & Finance

2012 Tsinghua Management Global Forum

A global platform for scholars, high-level business people and politicians to exchange views on business practices and policies in China and the world.

Economics & Finance

Deal-making in China: More Than Money

During the past decade, Chinese firms have become aggressive cross-border acquirers. Unfortunately they have been struggling to actually close their deals.

Economics & Finance

When Investing Has an Impact

In late 2010, four highly-paid (INSEAD MBA) financiers walked away from lucrative jobs and set up a private equity company to prove that creative and equitable investment can change the world. They call it “responsible capitalism”.

Strategy

In Defence of Military Procurement

Western governments are debating hefty cuts in defence spending as deficits soar and the threat of large-scale war recedes. Now it’s the major contractors such as Northrop Grumman who are under fire. What’s their winning strategy?
1 comment

Responsibility

Going Green – Or Else: The Dilemma Facing Abu Dhabi

With depleting gas supplies and a looming power shortage Abu Dhabi is looking to nuclear and renewable energy to fuel its ambitious development plans. Is the oil titan going green?

Economics & Finance

The Changing of the Guard: China’s New Leadership

At the conclusion of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China unveiled its fifth generation of leaders under Communist rule. This once-in-a-decade event will have momentous repercussions for the world’s second-largest economy as well as the global community. How will the incoming administration headed by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang build upon the legacy of previous leaderships?

Economics & Finance

Super Storm Sandy: The Aftermath

The winds and water have subsided, the power is back on in most places, but relief efforts still face logistical challenges.

Economics & Finance

Gender quotas for boards: how to destroy European Competitiveness

The following is a reply to the INSEAD Knowledge News Alert “Women on Boards: No Quotas…Yet” from INSEAD Finance Professor Theo Vermaelen, who is expressing his personal viewpoint.

Economics & Finance

Movie-making In Abu Dhabi

How does a devout Muslim country with a tiny local audience, minimal film-making experience and a strict moral code break into the cut-throat film-industry? Why does it want to? And who can do it?

Economics & Finance

Competitiveness In Europe

Could Europe's perceived weaknesses actually be a source of strength? INSEAD launches a school-wide initiative to find out.

Economics & Finance

U.S. Elections Comments

Barack Obama has won a second term as President of The United States. How will he handle domestic issues and foreign policy over the next four years? INSEAD Professors Theo Vermaelen, Charles Galunic, Douglas Webber, Pushan Dutt, Amine Ouazad, and Gianpiero Petriglieri share their thoughts.
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Economics & Finance

The Competitiveness Challenge of European Manufacturers: The Case of Michelin

Michelin has done it all. It was the innovator of the radial tire, which the world is still driving on today; Michelin’s tires are very frequently voted the best tires by authoritative consumer surveys around the world; its Bidendum man brings smiles to young and old and is one of the best known brands around the world; Michelin was the single supplier of tires to the Space Shuttle during the entire life of the space program; and Chefs in restaurants around the world aspire to get a star from the same Michelin company. Michelin has set the standard for several decades.

Economics & Finance

Nobel Prize for a Noble Cause – Under Threat

A good friend of mine, formerly a high-level civil servant in the European Commission’s delegation in Washington, typically begins lectures on the EU by recounting how he was once asked by the person sitting next to him in a domestic flight in the US where he worked. When he replied, ‘I work for the EU’, his neighbour asked him: ‘The EU – is that an insurance company?’

Economics & Finance

How a Scandinavian Firm can teach The World on how to use Social Media inside their Organizations

Andrew Shipilov

When we discuss about European competitiveness, there is often gloom and doom thinking about European non-competitiveness. We believe that such thinking conveys an over-pessimistic picture of Europe’s competences in many aspects of business. In this short text, we want to focus on European managerial competence and to underscore that there are executives in Europe who are exceptionally good at managing both the hard and the soft aspects of management to achieve competitive advantage.

Economics & Finance

Google and France (and Europe)

Today, the French government announced that it will introduce legislation requiring Google to pay a fee to French media sites for listing their content pages. Google promptly responded that in this case it will stop listing French media sites in his search queries. CNN’s report on the conflict can be read here: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/21/technology/google-french-links/index.html?iid=obinsite.

Economics & Finance

Merger Control and Practice in the BRIC Countries vs. the EU and the US: The Timing

Karel Cool

By Philippe Ombregt, Karel Cool, Nicolas Harlé Mergers or acquisitions are often the preferred way to enter rapidly growing geographies such as the BRIC countries. Also, domestic companies in these geographies frequently use M&A’s to challenge foreign entrants or to become a player with global ambitions. Without surprise, the number of M&A’s in the BRIC countries exploded during the last decade. We documented in a first article “Merger control and practice in the BRIC countries vs. the EU and the US: The facts”, that the number of M&A’s in the BRIC countries increased more than twenty-fold between 2001 and 2011, from 346 to 7654. This is equivalent to about half the number of M&A’s in the EU or the US in 2011; it stood at roughly a twentieth in 2001.

Economics & Finance

China’s Africa Policy

In 2009, China overtook the U.S. as Africa’s prime trade partner. It happened because China substituted the export of revolution for development at home. Mao died with few friends. Now China has many.
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Economics & Finance

Austerity Hurts. But Does It Work?

A former British Chancellor of the Exchequer fears we may be confusing pain with gain.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

China Finds Bargains in Germany

German engineering companies have become a prime target for Chinese investment. But it’s a mixed blessing.
3 comments

Economics & Finance

Africa Means Business: Opportunities in Frontier Markets

According to the IMF, from 2000 to 2010, six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa and the forecast for the next five years is even more optimistic. What does this mean for global businesses? How can global MNCs carve out a stake and identify opportunities in Africa’s growth story?

Economics & Finance

CNOOC-Nexen: Global Resources Landscape Shifts Eastward

China’s bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc. ignited worldwide debate over China’s perceived ambitions. What do we deduce from China’s largest-ever foray abroad?
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Economics & Finance

Could Women’s Rights be Sacrificed for Peace in Afghanistan?

The eventual withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan raises fears of what will happen next? Afghanistan’s female MP, Shinkai Kharokhail, hopes women won’t lose their hard-won gains.

Economics & Finance

Making car manufacturing sane: Business Model Innovation at Volkswagen

After a brief hiatus due to vacations and travel over summer, the Renaissance Innovator blog is back! While I was catching up on the stack of journals which accumulated over summer, a Fortune article about Volkswagen which describes transformation of the company from a local German producer to a global phenomenon with over €160B in sales caught my eye. Volkswagen has quietly passed General Motors and Toyota last year to become the largest automotive maker in the world. So what is its secret?

Economics & Finance

Merger Control and Practice in the BRIC Countries vs. the EU and the US: Review Thresholds

Karel Cool

Written by Nicolas Harlé, Philippe Ombregt and Karel Cool With more than 90% of global GDP growth coming from the rapidly developing economies,[2] companies from around the world are targeting these markets for future expansion. The BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) cluster has been a major magnet as it represents about 25% of global GDP and over 60% of global growth.

Economics & Finance

Banksters: The scandals continue

Four years into the economic crisis, a Harris poll of U.S. adults in 2012 found that 70 percent believed “most people on Wall Street would be willing to break the law if they believed that they could make a lot of money and get away with it”. Despite efforts to regulate better behaviour in banking, there is ample evidence that little has changed.

Economics & Finance

How to succeed when the market shrinks

When the odds of expanding in its home market proved slim, the Berlin Börse (Berlin Stock Exchange) used new EU laws and ventured out into the world. Today, it’s a mecca for small European investors and companies looking for an easier European listing. But can growth continue as trading volumes across the continent contract?

Strategy

Euronews: Confronting the revolution

Can a consortium of state broadcasters win the war for news viewers in the age of social media?

Economics & Finance

The year of the austerity Olympics

The 2012 Summer Games cost £9 billion. What kind of stimulus will that bring to the U.K. economy? And what will remain after the medals have been awarded and the cheering stops?

Leadership & Organisations

Meet China’s top executives

Forget the stereotype of a conservative, collective leadership. China’s top corporate heads are competitive, diverse individuals with a global focus…and very few MBAs.

Economics & Finance

The moment of truth has arrived

The announcement of Mohammad Mursi as the next president of Egypt on June 24, 2012 was a historic moment for Egypt, the Arab world, and potentially for the rest of the world too. For Egypt, the election represents the first time Egyptians have freely elected their president. Mursi is also the first civilian Egyptian head of state since the military coup against the King in 1952. But for many, the election of Mursi, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, this is the arrival of the “barbarians” at the gate.

Economics & Finance

The future of European competitiveness

Scott Hammen

Is Eurosclerosis again threatening the economy and forestalling a recovery?

Economics & Finance

From Brussels to Bombay: The euro crisis could spread

How real is the global impact of Europe’s debt crisis?

Economics & Finance

Africa: The next frontier for investors?

Africa’s murky image deters some investors, but those already there say the prospects are bright and there is money to be made.

Strategy

Are you creating value for your firm?

It’s a tough world out there and only firms that succeed in creating value will survive in the long-term. The key is to focus on what your customers really want.

Entrepreneurship

An Online Travel Startup Grows Up

M. Reddy, A. Bajpai

India-based iXiGO launched five years ago in a nascent online travel sector that’s since mushroomed into one of India’s most competitive companies. Now the company has received a new round of venture-backed funding. What next?

Responsibility

Combatting diabetes: Some things money can’t buy

INSEAD Knowledge

Faced with a deadly and expensive diabetes epidemic, Gulf states are looking at innovative business marketing techniques to promote healthy behaviour and keep a cap on spiralling health costs.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Corruption: A piecemeal solution

As Russia struggles to shrug off a corrupt legacy from its Soviet past, businesses are taking a step-by-step approach to managing the “informal practices” putting their companies at risk

Economics & Finance

Will multinationals from the emerging world take over?

Today's emerging markets are also "emerging" as big businesses on a global stage. What explains their success and how serious of a threat are they to dominant multinationals in the West?

Economics & Finance

Roland Berger: Rating Europe

The founder of one of the world’s top consultancies reflects on German unification, the European economy and the need for a European rating agency.

Entrepreneurship

The high cost of connectivity: it’s not just you who’s paying

The mobile telecom industry is about much more than telephone calls today. A huge and increasingly sophisticated user base wants the world at their fingertips. But who’s going to pay for it all?

Economics & Finance

Business and the euro

The euro has become a political football these days, but some of the players in that game have businesses to run. What is their end game?

Economics & Finance

British style: Austerity wears a party mask

The public outcry from the U.K. these days isn’t all about budget cuts. There are celebrations going on…which could mean a soft landing to the proposed austerity measures.

Economics & Finance

Forget austerity? Not completely, say economists

Lack of trust, lack of confidence, lack of visibility. Which way out of the world economic recession? Cut back or spend more or…?

Economics & Finance

Don’t just pine for economic recovery! Roll up your sleeves!

Despite its electoral promises, France’s new left-wing government is unlikely to have much leeway for spending the country’s way out of its economic doldrums. Instead, what France needs is a dose of more positive thinking at every level of society, according to French business consultant Emmanuel Bonnet.

Economics & Finance

So it’s the euro, not the drachma…

New Democracy won a narrow victory in the recent Greek election and is on the verge of forming a three-party coalition government. What’s going to be interesting is to see how the new government is going to renegotiate the bailout with the “Troika‟ (European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank).

Economics & Finance

Carrefour: the new Kmart?

Karel Cool

The newly appointed CEO of Carrefour, M. Georges Plassat, has given himself three years to rebalance the Carrefour Group. Describing Carrefour as a “duck without a head”[i] – and thus no vision –, he is certainly aware of the challenge he is up to. The fall from grace of Kmart of the US is a frightening reminder of the potential urgency of Carrefour’s refashioning.

Economics & Finance

Merger Control in the BRIC Countries vs. the EU and the US: The Facts

Karel Cool

Written by Karel Cool, Nicolas Harlé and Philippe Ombregt With more than 90% of global GDP growth coming from the rapidly developing economies,[i] companies from around the world are targeting these markets for future expansion. The BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) cluster has been a major magnet as it represents about 25% of global GDP and over 60% of global growth.

Strategy

Where are Europe’s gazelles?

Javier Gimeno

In business, longevity has merit. Research shows that about a third or more of start ups discontinue within the first three years. Even for those that survive, most remain small, and unable to grow beyond their initial niche. Surviving for a long time requires dealing with ownership and management transitions, new technologies, new market trends, and new competitors. So, it is impressive when companies manage to remain vibrant for decades or even centuries.

Economics & Finance

Moving up the ranks

Moving up the global competitiveness rankings is an incentive for developing nations. But do these indices really reflect a nation’s standing?

Economics & Finance

New challenges for Islamic states

As Islamic-led systems of governments evolve out of the Arab uprisings, their success depends on whether they can retain legitimacy by positioning Islam as a religion of democracy as part of their response to demands for social rights, economic opportunity and an end to corruption.

Economics & Finance

Can Egypt rise like a phoenix from its economic ashes?

The outcome of Egypt’s first free presidential elections will flag a new direction for the region, but can it move the country out of crisis?

Economics & Finance

Are we headed for just another jobless recovery?

Closing the gap in the budget deficit is old hat: business executives now say the way out of economic turmoil is to close the skills gap and ensure people have what it takes to find real employment in the new economic order.

Economics & Finance

No newspaper today? Watch stock market volumes shrink

Conventional wisdom has been that newspapers don’t add much to stock markets. However, don’t write off the power of the press too fast.

Economics & Finance

Louis Vuitton or Hermès?

Individualism is not the first association that comes to mind when one thinks of China. However, following the country’s economic reforms, consumerism has become a new phenomenon on a huge scale. Consumerism, that is, for Western luxury goods… due to a lack of Chinese luxury goods. How can two French fashion houses help to change this market imbalance.. to the benefit of Chinese companies?

Economics & Finance

Why are Chinese consumers crazy for Apple?

Chinese consumers are hungry for foreign brands but for Apple products, in particular, the demand is insatiable. What explains China’s love affair with Apple?
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Economics & Finance

Consumer spending in China

Retailers have looked at the Chinese consumer as the saviour of economic growth. But as recession hovers on the horizon, will these consumers be putting away their pocketbooks?

Economics & Finance

New or improved: What consumers really want

Do companies require radical innovations to woo consumers? New research suggests…no!
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Career

Banking on Russia’s future

‘Russian management’ may seem like a conflict in terms to some cynics in the business world, but a new programme for the region’s largest bank created by INSEAD and the Moscow-based New Economic School is changing all that.

Economics & Finance

Betting on the little guy

Unemployment in the EU is making many politicians sit up straight. The jobless rate rose to a seasonally-adjusted 10.7 percent in January – up seven-tenths from the same month last year. As expected, EU leaders have made job creation one of their biggest priorities. The big question is how to stimulate employment in a diversified economy. Brussels believes it has the answer in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Economics & Finance

What’s wrong with banking regulation today?

Indebtedness is both a consumer and a financial industry problem. Regulatory bodies think more banking regulations will fix the problem. INSEAD Professor of Banking and Finance Jean Dermine is not so sure.

Entrepreneurship

Bang Bang Films: Creating a commercial revolution in India

Move over, Bollywood. One startup advertising agency is out to hire your directors…
1 comment

Marketing

Selling soap to Nigeria: One Indian conglomerate goes beyond

India is the darling of investors looking to benefit from the rapid growth of emerging markets. But well-established Indian companies are looking for growth, too, and they are finding it in the developing world.

Leadership & Organisations

Putting Arab women in the picture

Three Emirati marketing graduates recognised from their vast network of contacts that many women faced the same challenge: they were “time poor but mind active”, and searching for ways to contribute to the region’s social and their own personal and professional, growth.

Strategy

Bumpy roads in the sky

Rapid economic growth and an increasing demand for travel should make it easy to make money in the airline business in India. But it’s not. One private company explains how it’s navigating through the clouds.

Responsibility

Entrepreneurship awards and grants: are they worth the chall

Grants are a vital part of early capital-raising for many social enterprises. But can the distraction in competing for these awards affect the development of the business?

Economics & Finance

The Russians are coming!

Sberbank has been the bank of babushkas since the day of the Tsars. Now it has its sights on a much bigger market.

Economics & Finance

Benefit from the networks of your lost employees

Andrew Shipilov

Is losing employees bad for your firm? An intuitive answer would be a straight “yes” because by losing employees, your organisation seemingly loses not only its human capital (i.e. their skills and tacit knowledge accumulated over the years) but also its social capital (i.e. all the internal and external connections your employees have made over their career inside your firm). In other words, conventional wisdom suggests that by losing employees, companies lose both brains and address books. This idea is out of date.

Economics & Finance

How the rich got richer

The gap between the rich and poor used to be the province of third world countries. Why is it an issue in developed countries these days?
4 comments

Economics & Finance

What makes an emerging market?

Qatar and the UAE are still waiting for an upgrade in the status of their stock markets from “frontier” to “emerging”. It could still take a while…

Economics & Finance

Egypt in transition

Can Egypt’s secularists accept an Islamic state? One human rights activist and former Mubarak minister says one year on, many questions remain and the revolution is far from over.

Economics & Finance

Botswana comes of age

Diamonds helped pull Botswana out of poverty and catapulted the country’s economic growth into the double-digits. Where does the land-locked world-class diamond producer go from here?

Economics & Finance

EasyCredit: Bucking the tight money trend

In these days of tight credit and stiff regulations, one young German bank is trying a new approach to customer service, and winning awards for its efforts. But can it really make money?

Economics & Finance

Missing elements in the inequality debate

Furor over income inequality is gaining traction on campaign trails, protest movements and economic development agendas. But are they looking at the big picture?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Pension reform: Juggling aging and money

The baby-boomer time bomb is set to go off in the next few years, just as both public and private pension providers are trying to cut costs dramatically. Now what?

Economics & Finance

Economic recovery: A long road with new horizons

The signs of economic change are all around us, but are they harbingers of something better? INSEAD economics professor Antonio Fatas looks at a world in flux.

Economics & Finance

The ten principles for doing business in China

Everyone is opening shop in China because “it’s the place to be.” Before you sign the lease, read this…

Economics & Finance

The Big Day for the Fed

On January 25th, 2012, in addition to its regular statement from the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve published for the first time two additional documents: Economic Projections of Federal Reserve Board Members and Federal Reserve Bank Presidents and a Statement of Longer-run Goals and Policy Strategy. The media and the markets reacted positively to the statement. The most quoted phrase was:

Economics & Finance

Europe: a global power with global reach?

All EU assessments appear to indicate that ‘business as usual’ points to a downward track of growth at home and reduced influence abroad. But if we wish for something better, then perhaps we should start by thinking differently about Europe, and then matching our thoughts with our actions, writes INSEAD emeritus professor Jonathan Story.

Economics & Finance

Beyond Oil

Enormous oil revenues and a far-sighted government have powered Abu Dhabi’s economy for 40 years. But as the UAE heads into its fifth decade, it is time for private enterprise to lead the way.

Economics & Finance

How China is managing Western hostility

After the global financial crisis, confidence levels in the United States and other Western economies plunged. Western hostility towards China’s economic and political power is rising, based on a lot of unanswered questions. A Tsinghua University professor writes from China’s perspective.

Economics & Finance

Beyond downgrades: Seeking signs of recovery

If today's economic crisis seems akin to the Great Depression, consider this: so is the caution that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Economics & Finance

Can Asia sustain the world?

Clouded prospects in developed markets cast a shadow over outlook for trade and economy in Asia.

Economics & Finance

India’s top-performing CEOs

A new INSEAD study reveals the emerging nation’s top-performing CEOs. Who made the list and what earned them top marks?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Emerging markets

Spectacular growth, cheap labour, abundant natural resources, pent-up consumer demand – emerging markets have it all! Now here’s the downside…

Economics & Finance

Occupy Wall Street is not a machine. It’s a work of art.

It took Occupy Wall Street just three months to go from Twitter hashtag to global movement. Since the first protest promoted by the anti-consumer magazine “Adbusters” set up camp in lower Manhattan, the number of Occupy sites around the world has surpassed 2,500. There have been marches, arrests, evictions, and growing media attention.

Economics & Finance

Art insurance: where beauty meets the beast

With investors turning to art as a place to park their money hoping for high returns, behind-the-scenes, one corporate CEO is keeping tabs on the risks vs. rewards of art as an asset and what it takes to keep the formula from falling apart.

Economics & Finance

From grass huts to halls of ivy: Can money buy academic exce

Faced with a small local workforce and the need to diversify its economy, Abu Dhabi is overhauling its entire education system and fulfilling its desire to be recognised as a regional academic powerhouse.

Economics & Finance

Eurozone: State of siege

Could stronger ties between France and Germany get to the heart of what ails the single currency?

Economics & Finance

Repairing Europe and reviving the US

Paul Volcker served as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve during a period of economic turbulence when his prescribed monetary policies helped tame double-digit inflation rates in the early 1980s. More recently, he served as chairman of President Barack Obama’s Economic Advisory Board from February 2009 until January 2011. A vocal advocate for banking reform, his eponymous Volcker Rule, due to come into force next year, is meant to prevent American banks from making big bets on markets with their own money or from backing private equity and hedge funds. In an interview with INSEAD Knowledge at the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy in Singapore recently, he discusses Europe’s response to the sovereign debt crisis, stagnant U.S. unemployment and shortfalls in banking legislation in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

Economics & Finance

Dangers on the horizon for China

Grain, oil and finance present a triple threat to China’s future. David Daoikui Li tells Knowledge what China can do about it.

Economics & Finance

Islamic banking comes out of its niche

The global economic crisis has meant lower interest rates, higher risk, and an investor flight to safety. Can Islamic banking pick up the slack?

Economics & Finance

Storm clouds in the Pacific

In 2009, government spending in China and the rest of Asia helped bail out the West when the markets tanked and the economy followed suit. Today, Asia has its own problems and may not be able to carry the West through the second wave of economic times.

Entrepreneurship

Renault-Nissan: Building with BRICs

Carlos Ghosn is spending more than a billion US Dollars to get a better foothold in Brazil.

Economics & Finance

Too much demand, too little space

China’s booming luxury goods market means even the fashion industry’s flagship publication is working flat out to keep pace.

Responsibility

Who cares for society?

The economic crisis has put most governments on an austerity programme, cutting social benefits at a time when demand for such services is skyrocketing. Enlightened businesspeople can make a difference as social entrepreneurs.

Economics & Finance

Sub-prime mortgages and segregation

Sub-prime mortgages were supposed to put an end to segregated neighbourhoods by allowing affordable housing to more people. But a new study shows that better access to mortgages leads to more - not less - racial segregation.

Economics & Finance

Can Russia end corruption?

Bribes, payola, threats…do they have to be part of the Russian business landscape? One group is trying to find the political will to change that.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

The corruption trap

Emerging markets are where money is to be made: pent up consumer demand, cheap labour, few regulations. But just under the surface lies the murky world of corruption, ready to derail even the most scrupulous businessperson. Now what?

Economics & Finance

Arab oil money: Empowering Women

Empowered by education, the internet and a $40 billion nest-egg, a new generation of Arab women is forging its own path to financial and social independence.

Economics & Finance

What kind of recession is this?

Not since the Great Depression has the world economy seen such a perfect storm of failed policies, rising unemployment and stalled growth. Many use the “R” word … but is that “recovery” or “recession”?

Economics & Finance

There is no Chinese wall around the economy

No country is immune to the global debt crisis. Even China’s double-digit growth is in doubt as the world economy switches from sustained growth to increasing contraction … but what can the Sleeping Dragon do about it?

Economics & Finance

What's behind the UK riots?

Nigel Roberts

With less than a year to go before the London Olympics, the August riots in Great Britain raised concerns over their impact on the Games, while others claimed this unrest signalled the end of Western civilisation altogether. A former BBC-CNBC reporter shares his three decades of experience from behind-the-lines.

Economics & Finance

Can the economic crisis encourage European unity?

When Jean Monnet said the European Union would be drawn together in moments of crisis, he was most likely thinking of martial threats. Today’s economic crisis is nearly as damaging as past wars have been, but can this crisis foster unity within the EU, and between the EU member states and its long-standing allies?

Economics & Finance

Bridging the gulf

Grace Segran

GCC nations have attempted to modernise and standardise their legal frameworks in the past 30 years to encourage foreign investment in this rapidly growing region. But how much investment can be expected when foreigners can’t own their businesses outright and business debts are secured by a cheque?

Economics & Finance

Handing out some radical Asian philanthropy

Mrinalini Reddy

Wealthy Asian dynasties are redefining the way they share their gains with the communities that helped them prosper. A new study by INSEAD and UBS reveals for the first time shifting trends in Asian philanthropy, from obscure donations to progressive strategies.

Economics & Finance

Market moves: Not what you learned in B-School

Worried about your stocks portfolio? Amid today’s wild market gyrations, it can be hard to get a grip on what, exactly, causes moves in share prices. Here are some price-movers that are decoupled from the economy, but still have an impact.

Economics & Finance

The crisis you can’t see: New rescue package needed

At the core of the current global crises – be it the U.S., the Middle East or the EU - is the sudden and rapid erosion of safety, and the loss of the ‘known.’ The ideologies that have shaped our perceptions of the world for much of the 20th century, such as socialism, capitalism, democracy, and social justice, have all taken major blows recently. From the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the protestors of Tahrir Square and Wall Street in 2011, the failure of ideologies has been marked by attacks on the institutions that represented them.

Economics & Finance

Fanning the financial crisis: Has regulation gone wrong?

Far from being the classic “risk management tool”, government bonds today are beginning to look like toxic assets. And bailing out the governments issuing these bonds is tantamount to bailing out the banks… yet again. So hypothesises INSEAD Finance Professor Theo Vermaelen…

Economics & Finance

Trading places

Numbers may not lie, but often their true significance lies in closer scrutiny. And a good example of this statement lies in the numbers used to tout the world’s great trade imbalance with China - a deficit that shows the EU trade deficit growing from 50 billion euros in 2000 to 297 billion in 2008. “But,” says Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the 153-member Geneva-based World Trade Organisation, “trade imbalances ... are not negative in themselves. What is important is to look at the overall trade balance. In Europe, more than 70 per cent of trade is intra-European. The impact of Europe’s trade imbalance with China is therefore more limited than one would think.”

Economics & Finance

M&As in China: do politics still speak louder than money?

A couple of foreign M&As of Chinese companies look likely to go through. Is it just a chip in the Great Wall of protectionism or a real shift in policy?

Entrepreneurship

Is there a place for entrepreneurs in the Arab world?

Where does the new breed of Emirati entrepreneurs fit in to a landscape dominated by multinationals and big family-owned Arab businesses?

Economics & Finance

Private equity comes of age

Big potential exists in these large emerging markets, but for how long?

Economics & Finance

Luxury sector goes viral

It’s a tiny circle known for exclusivity, but its global reach into emerging markets means the luxury business needs online networking.

Economics & Finance

Is Europe’s economic power in decline?

The Euro zone has key strengths but INSEAD professor Amine Ouazad asks whether its future growth is being held hostage by sovereign indebtedness.

Economics & Finance

Emiratisation: The way forward?

Unrest in the region has accelerated the UAE’s Emiratisation programme. But Emiratis may be struggling with motivation.

Economics & Finance

How does media coverage affect share prices?

INSEAD research suggests the best returns come from companies who never make the news.

Economics & Finance

Luxury and the Abaya: The Middle East makes its mark

Classic brands are playing by different rules today to grow in the new markets of the East. But is the “New Look” worth it?

Economics & Finance

India’s growth finds fuel in Africa

One robust emerging market is finding the real growth opportunities are not on Wall Street but in the “dark continent".

Economics & Finance

China sharpens its Africa focus

Looking at the bigger picture of Africa’s improving economic fortunes in the past decade, it is clear that China’s influence in Africa has been largely a success story.

Economics & Finance

Can Africa unlock its potential?

Africa is turning the page on 50 years of over-reliance on Western economies, thanks to strengthening trade and investment links with emerging countries like China, India, Turkey and oil-rich countries in the Middle East. And although the continent’s economic growth will be hit this year by the turmoil in North Africa, analysts say prospects for sub-Saharan Africa are brighter than they have been for some time.

Economics & Finance

Depression or Recession? Parallels with 1929

John Godfrey Morris can tell you a little about The Depression. He lived through it. As one of the more respected photojournalists of the past century, he worked with such names as Robert Cappa and Henri Cartier-Bresson and such publications as Time Life, National Geographic and The New York Times. An American, Morris covered the landings in Normandy on D-Day for Time Life and followed the allied troops into Paris. He returned to the city in 1983 and is still there today, having been made a member of the French Legion of Honour. Now, at the sprightly age of 94, John shares his recollections of the Great Depression with INSEAD Knowledge.

Economics & Finance

Are we really in a recovery?

It’s the infamous tug-of-war between Wall Street and Main Street: stock markets are recovering nicely and bondholders are being repaid, but unemployment lines are increasing and governments are finding their coffers falling deeper into the red because of lower tax revenues. Is this really a recovery? INSEAD Knowledge put several questions on the economy to a handful of professors. Here are some of their answers…

Economics & Finance

Rats replace doctors in pioneering disease diagnosis

Brian Henry

Send in rats to prevent the spread of a deadly disease? The idea seems like a contradiction in terms, but a team of Johnson & Johnson executives and MBA participants took the Blue Ocean Strategy to a new dimension for their imaginative solution to reducing tuberculosis cases.

Economics & Finance

Irish unions seek a soft landing to harsh economic measures

INSEAD Knowledge

Could a consolidated EU financial administration mean an end to draconian bailout repayment terms? Ireland’s Union leader thinks so…

Economics & Finance

A tale of two Telefonicas - Spain rings Latin America for he

At one end of the line is Telefonica of Spain - cutting costs, sacking thousands and fighting to hold on to mobile customers in a stagnant home economy. At the other end is its regional business in Latin America where strong profits, new markets and a growing middle class are all helping to prop up the telecoms giant. But for how long?

Economics & Finance

Germany: Divided by a common currency

The German government is standing firm on austerity measures to overcome the Eurozone debt crisis. But how flexible is Angela Merkel? And what is the price of failure?

Economics & Finance

The European Union: One crisis too many?

The “father” of the European Union, Jean Monnet, once wrote that an integrated Europe “will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for these crises.” Today, as the European Union reels from the economic crisis and the political crisis triggered by the arrest of IMF former Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York, Monnet might have added that not every crisis is or will inevitably prove to be a boon for the cause of European integration.

Economics & Finance

InnovaLatino Survey: Surprises in Latin America

There’s one thing about innovation: you never know where you’ll find it. A new report shows that there’s an abundance of innovation in Latin America that more than compensates for the region’s information technology challenges. INSEAD and the Development Center of the OECD surveyed more than 1,500 manufacturing firms from eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay) to compile the InnovaLatino Report which documents Latin America’s tech-readiness and was funded by Fundación Telefónica.

Economics & Finance

OECD Economic Outlook

The global economy is recovering but it’s going to take some hard work to keep it going.

Economics & Finance

Who should shoulder the cost of bank bailouts?

INSEAD professor of finance Theo Vermaelen makes a case for his own version of convertible capital as the panacea to government bailouts when banks fail.

Economics & Finance

UK economy: Trimming the fat or incipient anorexia?

When the new government swept into power in the UK, the mandate seemed clear: get out of debt fast. Now, it’s not so easy.

Economics & Finance

When profits are private and losses are public

Thomas Huertas of the Financial Services Authority, regulator of the financial services industry in the UK, is a firm believer that better regulation will avoid a repetition of the recent financial meltdown.

Economics & Finance

Attitude is everything: The case for Turkey

Yilmaz Argüden

Turkish membership could make the EU a world leader, contends Yilmaz Argüden, chairman of Istanbul-based ARGE Consulting.

Economics & Finance

Looking ahead for the Middle East

As the situation in the Middle East continues to simmer, Christian Koch, Director of International Studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, discusses implications for international relations, the possibility of democratic governments, Arab-Israeli relations, radical Islamic factions and Iran.

Economics & Finance

Can there be financial transformation in the Middle East?

Shellie Karabell

The Chief Economist of the Dubai International Financial Center describes his vision for economic growth, consolidation and investment in one of the world’s most diverse regions in the Middle East?

Economics & Finance

China and luxury: A rekindled romance

Luxury is all about dreams. It represents the best. So says Marketing Professor Li Fei of Tsinghua University, China, in a recent interview for the Chinese media. He shares his thoughts with INSEAD Knowledge on the recent boom in this lucrative sector and in a country which shunned luxury and ostentation for almost all of the last century.

Marketing

Fast fashion meets luxury labels

Take a stroll down London’s Old Bond Street or Milan’s Via Montenapoleone and you will see the latest offerings of Chanel and Gucci: exquisite creations of the finest material and craftsmanship. Hop over to Oxford Street or Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and you will discover the window displays of H&M and Zara are exhibiting pretty much the same designs – albeit with lower quality materials, questionable craftsmanship, and significantly lower prices. Guess which is flush with cash? INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Frederic Godart, has some surprising predictions as to which way this lucrative market is heading.

Economics & Finance

Gallup polls take stock of the Muslim world

As the winds of change sweep the Arab world, the world is also beginning to view the region and Muslims in a different way. Gallup polls show that more than 80 percent of the American public said that they sympathised with the protests in Egypt.

Economics & Finance

Arab youths, revolutions, rise of the ‘second society'

The sudden and rapid change that has swept across the Arab world over the recent few months has taken the world by surprise. All of a sudden, the status quo was challenged and the long-held prerequisites for change were replaced by mobile phones, an Internet connection and a Facebook account.

Economics & Finance

Assessing the economic aftershocks

As Japan battles its worst natural disaster in modern history and an on-going nuclear crisis, its prominence among global economies has far-reaching implications for financial markets, supply chains, national energy security as well as its own political leadership and economic recovery. INSEAD professor Michael Witt offers an analysis.

Family Business

Andrea Illy: The man behind a good cup of coffee

It’s twice the price of store brand coffee, but aficionados happily pay it. What makes a niche brand of coffee so sustainable? INSEAD Knowledge meets CEO of illycaffè, Andrea Illy, to find out more about this business model with a difference.

Family Business

Trouble at the family mill?

Family-owned companies need to be run with emotional, as well as professional leadership, experts say. That’s one area where senior family members often have a crucial role to play.

Economics & Finance

Real estate in the UAE: from speculation to solid value?

When the flashy Emirate of Dubai asked for a six-month moratorium on its debt obligations just over a year ago, the world trembled. In reality, the problems of Dubai had been well-known in the region for over a year: unfinished developments, redundancies with expatriates returning to their home countries and the collapse of the property market.

Entrepreneurship

‘Question everything’

Sam Pitroda, IT and innovation advisor to India’s prime minister, speaks to INSEAD Knowledge Editor Stuart Pallister about innovation and the need for a new paradigm.
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Economics & Finance

CEO view: Gary Wang (MBA ‘02J), founder of Tudou.com

Tudou.com, China's answer to YouTube with user-generated plus paid content, is one of the country's fastest-growing companies. Founder and INSEAD alumnus Gary Wang discusses strategy and what it takes to start and grow a media company in China.

Entrepreneurship

Western economies need to adapt

No longer content to be cost and talent arbitrage destinations, emerging markets are becoming hotbeds of innovation, says SD Shibulal, co-founder of Infosys Technologies, one of India's leading IT firms

Entrepreneurship

Pushing the boundaries: innovation or imitation.

How do Asia's emerging giants measure on the innovation scale and can they shake off their reputation for imitation rather than innovation?

Economics & Finance

What next after human capital, infrastructure, and good gove

It takes more than human capital, infrastructure and good governance to foster economic growth and development, writes Sami Mahroum from INSEAD's campus in Abu Dhabi.

Economics & Finance

Trading places

Nicholas Bloy (MBA ‘86D), co-Managing Partner of Navis Capital, speaks to INSEAD Knowledge Editor Stuart Pallister about the development of private equity in Asia.

Economics & Finance

Navigating Asia’s private equity markets

Regional players debate issues such as the lack of corporate governance and the need for due diligence during a panel discussion on private equity in Asia.

Economics & Finance

Bank investments in private equity: an unfair advantage?

A recent study co-led by INSEAD Professor Lily Fang has called into question private equity investments by bank-affiliated PE firms, that accounted for more than a quarter of all PE investments between 1983 and 2009.

Economics & Finance

Private equity in Asia

As investment hotspots go, China and India are arguably to the private equity industry what ice cream is to a six year old with a sweet tooth.

Economics & Finance

The big picture from West to East

Continuing debt issues have put central banks and governments the world over into uncharted waters. What lies ahead for the US, Europe and Asia? Sir Andrew Large, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Gertrude Tumpel-Guggerell, an ECB executive board member and Zhuang Juzhong, Deputy Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank, share their outlook.

Economics & Finance

Cargill’s business longevity in China

For agribusiness giant Cargill, doing business in China required adapting its global business model to China's diverse domestic economies. An interview with Robert Aspell, President of Cargill China.

Marketing

Indo-vation: tapping the Indian market

Two decades of trials have placed L'Oreal high in the Indian beauty market. But with still low penetration levels and cut-throat competition, where are the company's next opportunities

Responsibility

Emerging economies in healthcare

INSEAD Knowledge

The emerging markets with their populations in the billions have become a potent source of revenue. The representatives of companies in India, Brazil and China have made it clear they do not plan to leave these emerging markets to the Western industrial giants.

Economics & Finance

Why the French love social conflict

The French are still taught today that class warfare is the nature of their society and will remain, as long as not all classes are equal. However, equality is impossible, writes INSEAD professor of finance.
7 comments

Economics & Finance

On pricing anomalies and the limits of arbitrage

Textbooks say that even minuscule differences in the price of identical goods in two places should be short-lived. But anomalies do exist, and they often persist for far longer than theories predict, write Denis Gromb and Dimitri Vayanos.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Building an Asian bank

With most economic indicators and forecasts signalling the Asian century, Singapore-based DBS Bank plans to step up its game by playing to the region’s surging megatrends and relying on its greatest asset – a reliable home-grown brand.

Responsibility

A view of the Indian Healthcare landscape

Harpal Singh of Fortis Healthcare examines the strengths and challenges in the Indian business arena.
2 comments

Economics & Finance

Between property boom and bust

Are property prices in China excessively high and is there a lot of leverage in the market?
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

Why diversity matters

Japan's economy has been in dramatic decline, says INSEAD professor Stewart Black. What's causing its malaise and can we expect a rebound?
1 comment

Economics & Finance

Foreign firms eye China’s rural markets

Foreign multinationals in China looking to expand are gearing up for its rural markets. Where are the opportunities and will the government facilitate their efforts?

Economics & Finance

Getting back to basics in a world of luxury

As China's middle class expands, does consumption behaviour change? According to Sir David Tang, founder of Shanghai Tang, consumption behaviour doesn't shift with economic development; it is only perceived to do so.

Economics & Finance

The heat is on

"Valuations are higher - and when valuations are higher, people feel a little bit more comfortable about taking on risk,” according to Philip Bilden, Managing Director of HarbourVest Partners (Asia).

Economics & Finance

Coming of age

“This may surprise market participants since absolute numbers, particularly in context with Asian economic forecasts, always point to much stronger growth of Asian PE relative to the rest of the world,” says Claudia Zeisberger, Academic Co-Director of INSEAD’s Global Private Equity Initiative.

Economics & Finance

Due diligence in China’s private equity market

When it comes to doing due diligence, Yibing Wu, the President of CITIC Private Equity Funds Management, believes in leaving "no stones unturned," especially as financial statement of Chinese companies tend to be “less trustworthy” than those of western companies.

Economics & Finance

The upside of a down market

How did Spain's biggest bank become a white knight in the UK and emerge as the fourth most profitable bank worldwide? António Horta-Osorio, CEO of Banco Santander's UK operations discusses strategy and future plans.

Strategy

M&As: Not necessarily the best way to grow your company

There could be other ways to acquire the skills and competencies you need without actually buying them outright, says INSEAD Professor Laurence Capron.

Economics & Finance

Exploring the consequences

While China and India dominate headlines for their growth potential, there's opportunities brewing in other geographies. Grace Segran reports from The Economist’s Emerging Markets Summit in London.

Responsibility

A unique opportunity

Innovation for green growth is the new mantra for advanced economies. From Australia to the United States, governments are pouring billions of dollars, euros and yen into eco-innovation programmes. The US has earmarked US$59 billion for green technologies as part of its stimulus packages; Australia has dedicated A$5.7 billion, while Canada has set aside C$2.8 billion for that purpose. Governments are also providing other incentives ranging from support for R&D activities to new regulations and standards on transport, buildings and manufacturing. The aim is to become greener while staying competitive, and to reach that delicate balance the OECD is working towards a Green Growth Strategy for its 30+ members.

Economics & Finance

Lessons from Germany’s banking crisis

In the aftermath of the economic crisis many governments are calling for tighter banking regulations to keep such a debacle from ever happening again. But Harald Hau, Associate Professor of Finance at INSEAD, says better bank governance may actually be a more effective answer to the problem – an insight which emerges from taking a closer look at the German experience.

Economics & Finance

MBC: Building a media powerhouse in an emerging market

Can Western broadcasters learn anything from the one of the Middle East’s most successful satellite channels? According to a recently-released case study by Annet Aris, Adjunct Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, the answer is yes.

Economics & Finance

China’s progress: can it breach the Great Wall?

With China's ascent as the world's second-largest economy, it may just be a matter of time before it eclipses the United States in productivity. But can it evolve to become a high-income, consumption-driven economy like the US?

Economics & Finance

Putting Europe back on track

What will it take to put Europe back on track? That question was the basis for the eighth European Business Summit and a research report conducted by INSEAD, Accenture and the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium, with funding from Sun and Microsoft.

Economics & Finance

Private equity’s challenge in the Middle East

INSEAD and Booz & Company have issued a report titled Private Equity in the Middle East: A Rising Contender in Emerging Markets. The report examines how the industry has evolved over the years as well as its current challenges and outlook.

Responsibility

The path to energy futures

There is an obvious connection between energy and economic growth: cheap fuel means lower production costs. As energy consumption is on an upward trajectory -with growth in the Far East and Latin America outpacing the industrialised countries in the near term - the key to prosperity is to develop cheaper and sustainable sources of fuel to replace fossil fuels and curtail the environmentally-unfriendly carbon footprint.

Economics & Finance

China’s foreign policy

INSEAD Knowledge

Even as China is poised to overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, its foreign policy is driven less by its sense of its role as a key global player than by a set of ‘narrowly defined’ national interests, says Professor Kenneth Lieberthal, Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at The Brookings Institution.

Economics & Finance

Sustainable practices: engaging consumers and suppliers

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is one firm that knows very well that its environmental and economic impact extends well beyond its factory gates. This starts with the ingredients it needs for its products to the natural resources required to make the packaging, "extending all the way to the people who buy and consume our drinks and handle the packaging," says CCE Europe's Communications Director, Shanna Wendt (YMP Sep '05).

Economics & Finance

EU-China relations

Europeans tend to be overpessimistic about their economic strengths vis-a-vis China, says Jonathan Story. He looks at the cultural and political forces that have so far shaped their relationship.

Economics & Finance

Message to Basel: Another way to avoid bank bailouts

The Basel committee on Banking Supervision is set to finalise new capital requirements for banks by the end of the year. They are also looking closer at so-called cocobonds, or contingent convertibles as an alternative to issuing equity to meet these requirements.

Economics & Finance

It's time that politicians had performance-related bonuses

During the financial crisis, politicians across the spectrum have assailed bankers’ bonuses. In a similar way, politicians should now use the sovereign-debt crisis as an opportunity to re-examine their own pay. The collapse of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, the European Social Model, is not caused by inappropriate bonuses, but by a lack of bonuses.

Leadership & Organisations

Prosperity through partnership

Education provided an ‘initial window of opportunity’ for women, says Haifa Al Kaylani, the founder and chairman of the Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF).

Economics & Finance

‘Intoxicated’ institutional investors

One of the least understood aspects of the financial crisis is how it spread from the financial sector to the general economy, where it nearly caused a global financial meltdown.

Economics & Finance

Doing it the Chinese way

As trite as the phrase ‘think global, act local’ may be, it nevertheless encapsulates The Walt Disney Company’s approach to making a success of its business in China. To that end, producing content that has a cultural and emotional resonance with Chinese consumers is crucial, says Stanley Cheung, Disney’s managing director for Greater China.

Economics & Finance

Lessons learned: The Nordic banking crisis of the 1990s

Once burned, twice shy. That's a lesson that has helped a lot of Swedish and Finnish businesses dodge major disaster during the world’s most recent economic crisis.

Economics & Finance

Getting back to basics

Whether in innovation and governance, private equity, or entrepreneurship, the messages in today’s increasingly global business environment are loud and clear: think differently, don’t underestimate emerging markets, and get back to basics. These were some of the main themes voiced at INSEAD’s Leadership Summit Europe 2010 held recently in Fontainebleau.

Economics & Finance

Making more from less

Global growth isn’t all about jobs and the stock market: it’s also about people. The global population will increase, despite the ageing baby boomer generation; there will be increased demands for minerals, energy, food, even blood.

Family Business

Braving the economic crisis through family values

When the economic crisis hit, the family owned and operated shipping-real estate Romav Group suffered a double-whammy. Practically overnight.

Leadership & Organisations

Is it over yet? Businessmen offer recession insight

These are indeed times that try men's (and women's) souls. But the way forward is not to cut back or sit on the sidelines. According to several business leaders attending INSEAD's Leadership Summit Europe, you’ve got to keep one eye on the balance sheet, another on the horizon and be mindful of constant change as new circumstances will often hide opportunities in what appears to be trouble.

Economics & Finance

Rebuilding Europe

With a weakened financial system and various European governments knee-deep in debt, the emergence of a new world financial order has taken on a new urgency of late. But instead of quick fixes as the Greek crisis has clearly demonstrated, we should instead be looking for sustainable solutions towards economic prosperity.

Economics & Finance

Upstart: China’s emergence in technology and innovation

It can easily appear as if China can make anything. Yet it makes goods not only at low cost, but now also of high quality, and this constitutes a particularly Chinese brand of innovation that enables China increasingly to shake up global markets. After coming of age in China’s domestic markets, Chinese firms are now replicating their domestic success in global markets by competing on price and quality. The success of the likes of Huawei and Lenovo are indicative of an emerging trend of Chinese technology and innovation, yet China’s emergence is only just beginning.

Economics & Finance

Infrastructure key to Africa’s growth: Asia has role to play

If Africa wants to bridge the chasm from emerging to developed economy, it must have one crucial component in place. According to Paulo Gomes, founder and CEO of Constelor Investment Holdings, which was set up in 2006 to harness investment opportunities in Africa, infrastructure is sorely needed for the continent.

Economics & Finance

The tortoise and the hare?

When asked what animals symbolise China and India, most people would probably say the dragon and the elephant. In terms of long-term economic prospects, however, the hare and the tortoise may well turn out to be the more appropriate choice. While India is moving more slowly than China at this point, there is a real possibility that over the next decades, we may see it catching up and, ultimately, pulling ahead.

Economics & Finance

In search of an effective innovation policy

Everywhere innovation has become a buzzword: in academic journals, popular media, corporate promotional materials and government strategies, writes Sami Mahroum. The use of the word has rapidly expanded from a noun to its various hyphenated transmutations.

Economics & Finance

Microfinance comes of age

"Microfinance is banking, and banking is our core competence, so it makes sense for us to be active in this area,” says Arthur Vayloyan, Head of Investment Services and Products, Private Banking, at Credit Suisse in Zurich.

Economics & Finance

China’s property bubble

INSEAD Knowledge

As Beijing looks to curb 'excessive' gains in the property market amid concerns of a property bubble in China, Bill Hunt, former president of Century 21 China Real Estate, remains sanguine that the bubble will not burst.

Economics & Finance

Advice to direct marketers: let the people do the talking

The explosion of social networking sites has been a boon for direct marketers. For the hundreds of millions of users of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and so on, they are fun ways to communicate with their friends and make more friends. But for marketers they are huge databases of consumer information.

Economics & Finance

Investing in unknown stocks could yield higher returns

By betting on stocks that lack media coverage, investors may be doing themselves a favour, according to a new research paper co-authored by INSEAD Assistant Finance Professor Lily Hua Fang and Associate Professor of Finance Joel Peress.

Economics & Finance

On the loss of legitimacy and contagion of scandals

One bad apple can spoil a whole barrel of the fruit, or so the traditional saying goes. It’s a useful piece of advice when shopping for food. Some suspicious shoppers might not just shun apples if they find one or two on display are rotten, but avoid other fruit at the supermarket too. After all, if the shop can’t be trusted to sell good apples, what does that tell you about the quality of its oranges? And what about other shops that sell fruit -- should they be shunned too?

Economics & Finance

Poorly Made in China: a reality check

Despite being hailed as ‘the world’s workshop’, China’s reputation of being a reliable and responsible manufacturer is far from world-class. In his new book ‘Poorly Made in China’, intermediary and author Paul Midler exposes the pitfalls of manufacturing in China, debunking several myths in the process.

Marketing

Leapfrogging over the Joneses

Measures to reduce conspicuous consumption by lower income earners in order to encourage them to boost their savings and spend more on healthcare, education and other essentials could backfire, according to recent research by INSEAD PhD candidate Nailya Ordabayeva and Associate Professor of Marketing Pierre Chandon.

Economics & Finance

The Lehman fallout

The banking industry, post-Lehman Brothers, is going to be quite a different one going forward, because the impact of the banking crisis was so profound that changes are inevitable.

Economics & Finance

Gaining a competitive advantage with knowledge-based skills

The financial crisis has highlighted deficiencies in knowledge-based skills in Europe and unless they’re tackled now, the region could get left behind. That was one of the key messages from an event held recently at INSEAD’s Europe campus in France.

Economics & Finance

China and the threat of protectionism

In a global economic environment still reeling from the financial crisis and a vast contraction in world trade, the fight between countries for market share – and ultimately revenue – has become even more intense. Governments have faced pressure from their constituents to save and create jobs and wealth, and in the complex system governing commerce between countries, desperate times seem to have inspired desperate protectionist measures. Having in 2009 become the world's leading exporting nation, built on a decades-long booming economy very successful in gaining global market share by means of cheaper exports, China has reason enough to fear protectionism.

Economics & Finance

Greed and deception: Is it too late for ethical banking?

As it turns out, Big Bang – the deregulation of stock markets across Europe back in 1986 – really was an event that shook the world. Author and independent stock analyst Cyrus Mewawalla tells INSEAD Knowledge that deregulation, greed and deceit are at the root of today’s financial crisis, and suggests ways to return to ethical banking.

Economics & Finance

Looking to the future: Fahad Al-Raqbani

Fahad Al-Raqbani talks with a combination of awe and pride about his seven-year-old son; his mastery of the internet, of high technology and his ease in a rapidly-changing world. For Al-Raqbani junior and others of his age, progress and change go hand in hand.

Economics & Finance

Polling the wisdom of the people

"There is a lot of information, but it's sometimes more noise than knowledge," says Dalia Mogahed, referring to the lack of accurate information on the real views of Muslims, and the ensuing misunderstanding between the Western and Muslim worlds.

Economics & Finance

A lesson in leadership: turning vision into reality

Abu Dhabi’s remarkable transformation in just a matter of decades can be attributed to the emirate’s astute leaders who have been able to translate their vision into action.

Economics & Finance

New paradigm needed

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an interesting case study in human capital, in part because there are few places in the world where you will find a predominantly expatriate workforce. While the economies of this and other oil-rich countries are still robust, the long-term effects of relying on transient foreign talent could very well derail progress for future generations.

Economics & Finance

Innovating in the Arab world

Innovation, it seems, is everything that it’s cut out to be. Done right, it can take a company, government or country from mediocrity to greatness. But innovation doesn’t come easy, and in some industries, the road to innovation is a long and arduous one.

Economics & Finance

Leadership in a changing world: turning dreams into action

Innovation, imagination and education: key themes at INSEAD's first Leadership Summit in the Middle East, held recently in Abu Dhabi.

Economics & Finance

A ‘naïve response’ to economic growth?

INSEAD Knowledge

With many economies expected to begin posting growth again this year, the group executive director and CEO of wholesale banking at Standard Chartered Bank has some words of caution: accepting GDP figures at face value “would be a naïve response”.

Economics & Finance

‘natural resource curse’

INSEAD Knowledge

Even though the signs of recovery from the financial crisis are strongest in Asia and the region is touted to be the most likely source of economic growth globally, rural poverty remains rampant.

Economics & Finance

Fulfilling the vision for knowledge-driven growth in the UAE

In an interview for INSEAD Knowledge, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan talks to INSEAD Professor Stephen Mezias about the challenges facing education in the Gulf and about INSEAD's role in the region

Responsibility

What’s next after Copenhagen?

Was there too much riding on the United Nations Climate Change Conference which concluded in Copenhagen at the weekend?

Responsibility

Copenhagen: what should investors be demanding?

The outcome of the Copenhagen climate conference may have disappointed some business leaders and may not be the ‘Global Deal’ that many, including the UK’s Carbon Trust, had been hoping for, but it is being touted as another small step forward in the long process towards reducing carbon emissions.

Economics & Finance

Book review: The Indian Renaissance

Economics examiners must love China and India. What a perfect pair of rising economic Asian giants to use for a compare-and-contrast question for their students. A thousand years ago, both countries were civilised and technologically advanced while Europeans huddled in draughty castles and gnawed meat off bones. Both countries missed out on the Industrial Revolution, and seemed bewildered by the rise of the barbarian West. But they succumbed to its domination, shook it off in the 1940s, then embraced socialism, before reforming their economies along market lines to power ahead in the 1990s and the new millennium.

Economics & Finance

Does the world need a new global reserve currency?

A new global currency should replace the US dollar as the international reserve currency, as the long-term deterioration of America’s economy and the greenback is fuelling a “currency-regime crisis”, says Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator of the Financial Times.  

Economics & Finance

Breaking the bank: finding value amid the debris

A whole new industry is springing up as a result of the financial crisis to deal with a central issue: how to handle failing banks. INSEAD Professor of Banking and Finance Jean Dermine has taken his quarter-century’s worth of research and turned it into something a bit more forward-looking: a book entitled ‘Bank Valuation and Value-Based Management.’ The thesis: if you focus on looking at long-term value rather than short-term cash flow, banks will be less risky and the financial world will be less susceptible to tremors from shaky deals. Then you apply this theory to quotidian bank management.

Economics & Finance

China faces an economic crossroads

With the collapse of external demand in the wake of the global financial crisis, China needs to reduce its dependence on exports and investments, and shift towards internal private consumption, says Stephen Roach, a leading economist and Hong Kong-based chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.

Economics & Finance

China and the debt crisis

The author of a new book on China warns that if 2010 is another difficult year for the US economy, Washington could "come under a lot of pressure to impose tariffs on Chinese products."

Economics & Finance

Infrastructure private equity

Investors putting their money into emerging Asia's infrastructure are looking for better returns than they'd get in developed economies, although they're not looking for 'PE-style' returns.
1 comment

Economics & Finance

How to save banks without using taxpayers' money

In the recent financial crisis, taxpayers in many countries had to pick up the bills that resulted from governments bailing out banks, say Theo Vermaelen and Christian Wolff. The idea that the government will save you if you make mistakes encourages excessive risk-taking. Bailouts have created popular resentment against bankers' compensation, which makes it difficult to pay competitive salaries after a bank is rescued. So bailouts, which also add to the government deficits and crowd out other government spending plans, have many undesirable characteristics.

Economics & Finance

Islamic finance: funding the ‘real economy’

The global financial crisis presents an opportunity for the Islamic finance industry to show its credentials, say several practitioners in the field. Speaking to INSEAD Knowledge at the 6th International Islamic Finance Conference here, Daud Vicary Abdullah, COO of Asian Finance Bank, says “the biggest opportunity really is around getting the messages across about the value-proposition of Islamic products and the way in which Islamic finance is done.”

Economics & Finance

Personal view: Welcome, ‘Stateholder’

The amount of government capital injected into the so-called “private economy” since mid-2008 is unprecedented. The United States and United Kingdom led the way, but many other countries drifted into the same uncharted waters. So now what?

Economics & Finance

Shining a Light on China

S. Karabell, J. Story

With an economy that’s set to grow at around 10 per cent despite the financial crisis, labour costs among the lowest in the world and a huge untapped domestic market with pent-up consumer demand to match, China beckons every businessman with an eye on containing costs and expanding his reach. But, business person beware, cautions INSEAD Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy Jonathan Story, who has just written a new book, 'China Uncovered - What You Need to Know to Do Business in China'.

Economics & Finance

Private equity in Asia: stepping back from the brink

Back from the abyss. That’s perhaps an apt description of the private equity (PE) industry in Asia, which saw deal flows grind to a virtual halt between the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Economics & Finance

Regulatory reforms among G20

In the face of the impending global financial meltdown a year ago, world leaders found clarity: financial regulatory frameworks needed to be overhauled.

Economics & Finance

A tale of two banks: hallmarks of the changing financial lan

It would be difficult to find two financial institutions more indicative of the plus and minus sides of the financial tsunami that hit the world of banking this year: on the one hand, ING, the venerable international Dutch bank, forced to go to the government for a 10 billion euro bailout and now facing public evisceration at the hands of EU regulators. On the other hand, Standard Chartered Bank, a bastion of banking in Asia since the era of British imperial rule.

Economics & Finance

Government, business and labour

While many countries are seeing unemployment rates rising sharply, Singapore’s has only gone up by about one per cent over the past year to 3.4 per cent and remains one of the lowest in the world, despite the global slowdown.

Economics & Finance

The outlook for China

China is poised to return to high single-digit growth in 2011, says Fan Gang, director of China’s National Institute of Economic Research and a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee.

Economics & Finance

The outlook for India

India’s economy could return to growing by eight per cent in the medium term, thanks in part to the “pretty good” financial health of the domestic corporate sector and the country’s strong savings, says Rakesh Mohan, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Economics & Finance

The outlook for Indonesia’s economy

Although Indonesia’s economy is moving in the right direction, with the government attempting to provide a level playing field, much still needs to be done.

Economics & Finance

Indonesia and the Middle East

INSEAD Knowledge

Indonesia’s efforts to attract Middle East capital have been ‘reasonably successful,’ says Tanri Abeng, former state enterprises minister.

Economics & Finance

Who supervises the board?

INSEAD Knowledge

Indonesia’s two-tier board system works well and could be a model for other countries. That’s according to the president of the supervisory board of commissioners at major telco PT Telekomunikasi, Tanri Abeng, who says he’s “a little bit critical” of the single-board system used elsewhere.

Leadership & Organisations

Why an MBA oath?

Business schools have become an easy target as the butt of jokes about the causes of the current economic crisis. A recent segment on ‘The Daily Show,’ an American satirical television programme, explored the theme of MBAs being to blame for the crisis and the MBA oath as a possible remedy. Its presenter feigned surprise that not all students were willing to sign up to an oath that said: “I will act with utmost integrity and pursue my work in an ethical manner.” No doubt the view that MBAs would have difficulty in making such a commitment is more widespread and yet it seems such a straightforward commitment to make. So in answer to the question, ‘why an MBA oath?’, one response surely must be: ‘Why not?’ Why should it be so difficult for MBAs to commit to behaving ethically?

Economics & Finance

How economic excesses of the past are influencing the presen

The global economic environment of cheap money in the past two decades has been an aberration, which has led to today’s “massive capacity destruction” of natural resources, says Pippa Malmgren, President and Co-founder of the financial services firms the Canonbury Group and Principalis Asset Management.

Economics & Finance

A new world order: the rise of China and decline of the West

While many are already talking about the notion of a shift in power from West to East, a thought-provoking book by author Martin Jacques called ‘When China rules the world’ takes this even further by proclaiming that China will not only thrive in the 21st century, but will do so at the expense of the United States.

Economics & Finance

The Middle Kingdom: Civilisation state or nation state?

China is a conundrum: past, present and possibly the future. Even as it is on course to overshadow the US as the next dominant economic superpower, author Martin Jacques argues that it will never become a Western-style society, but will likely remain highly distinctive.

Economics & Finance

Why, who and where? Chinese OFDI on the world stage

The phenomenon of Chinese companies going global has become a defining feature of China’s current stage of integration with the global economy. While China remains a minor player in terms of global Outbound Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) flows, the financial crisis has afforded some of its largest state-owned enterprises, or SOEs, unprecedented opportunities for landmark acquisitions. In the 10 months after Lehman Brothers became the defining casualty of the financial crisis, Chinese bidders announced 50 outbound offers worth US$30 million or more each, totalling about $50 billion.

Economics & Finance

Why Gymboree’s China strategy is no child’s play

As China’s star continues to shine, one of the more recent beneficiaries of the country’s economic boom is the early childhood development sector.

Economics & Finance

Green Technology: China Means Business

A substantial portion of the Chinese government’s stimulus package, more than a third in fact, has been earmarked for projects that would either, directly or indirectly, have a positive environmental impact. Are these green initiatives indicative of a broader strategic stance on the part of the Chinese government on environmental issues, or just a temporary boost to China’s economy and the country’s image?

Economics & Finance

Mining in a downturn: what's in it for China?

The last quarter of 2008 saw the end of a boom in the global mining industry. While some commodity analysts foresaw the collapse of mining and metal prices, very few predicted the speed of the declines or their steep descent. Record prices, net profits and expansion plans in the first half of the year suddenly gave way to falling commodity prices, reduced profits, production cuts and mine closures in the last quarter of the year and the first half of 2009.

Economics & Finance

Beating the market with buybacks

Six months ago, we invested in a portfolio of 24 stocks that we expected to beat the market using methodology we outlined in 'The nature and persistence of buyback anomalies' in the Review of Financial Studies (2008). The list of the stocks was posted in April 2009 on the INSEAD Knowledge website. Our methodology essentially involves buying shares of US-listed companies that announce open market share buyback programmes, and where it appears that the buyback is driven by the fact that the management believes its shares are undervalued.

Economics & Finance

In the world of banking, does size matter?

It was bound to happen. After pouring tens of billions of dollars, pounds and euros: as much as 5.5 per cent of the GDP of advanced economies, according to the International Monetary Fund, governments began to revolt. “If a bank is too big to fail, then it is too big,” the governor of the central bank of Belgium told a newspaper at the end of June. If this is true, then what about the corollary: “Small is beautiful?” If bankers’ bonuses are being capped, should the size of their banks be capped as well?

Economics & Finance

Further consolidation seen in private banking sector

Even as the global economic downturn continues to ease, there will be further consolidation in the private banking industry amid cost-cutting efforts and falling revenues, says Pierre-Francois Baer, SG Private Banking’s CEO for Singapore & South Asia.

Economics & Finance

Green shoots in the trenches?

Economists look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering over the 8,000 points level, as well as at signs of a pick-up in retail sales and housing starts, and see “green shoots.” Union leaders look at unemployment nearing 10 per cent, escalating bankruptcies and a middle class facing poverty and see quite another picture.

Economics & Finance

A winning global strategy: focus on China and India

Those who ignore the emergence of both China and India will do so at great peril, say the co-authors of the book ‘Getting China and India Right’. In fact, Anil K. Gupta and Haiyan Wangare advocating a joint China and India strategy, instead of choosing one over the other.

Economics & Finance

Crisis, clear skies and China opportunities

With every crisis comes a silver lining. While not everyone subscribes to that belief, Asian business leaders speaking at this year’s Bloomberg Leadership Forum in Hong Kong are certainly convinced of its validity.

Economics & Finance

Credit ratings: buyer beware

“Investors tend to take credit ratings at face value and rely on them too heavily.” So says ESSEC Economics Professor Patricia Langohr, who with her father, INSEAD Finance and Banking Professor Herwig Langohr, has written a book called 'The rating agencies and their credit ratings'.

Economics & Finance

A new perspective for the age of networks

The rise of international networks and globalisation have created a dilemma for business: companies need global networks to access resources and markets to be competitive, but the networks themselves present great risks.

Economics & Finance

The changing role of business schools in a global world

Globalisation is changing the way businesses operate and, in turn, is forcing business educators to evaluate the insights they’re imparting to MBA students and executives. Furthermore, the global recession has led to a re-think of the role of business schools in a global world, raising the curtain on a slew of new issues which need to be addressed.

Marketing

Global recession a catalyst for change in the advertising in

The downward spiral of the global economy is having some serious implications for the advertising industry, says Steve Henry, co-founder of London-based advertising firm Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury (HHCL).

Economics & Finance

India Infrastructure development

Infrastructure development will drive India’s economic growth in the next decade. That’s according to Kamal Nath, the country’s Road Transport and Highways Minister.

Economics & Finance

Book review: City of Thieves

Cyrus Moore’s first novel, ‘City of Thieves’, is well timed. A thriller that puts the boot into bullies and crooks in the city of London and the rest of the financial world may well sell better now that investment bankers are our favourite villains.

Economics & Finance

Aviation facing strong headwinds, reshapes industry

Falling demand, collapsing yields, low consumer confidence and fears of a pandemic have thrust the aviation industry into survival mode. Airlines are expected to post losses of US$9 billion this year, with an unprecedented drop in revenue of 15 per cent, that will see industry revenues shrink by US$80 billion to US$448 billion.

Economics & Finance

Powering the economic growth engine

It has been a key driving force, powering economies since the Industrial Revolution, yet it continues to take a backseat to other heavily-touted engines of growth, most recently consumer spending.

Economics & Finance

The changing social landscape of Malaysia

Like many societies, Malaysia is in a period of transition from one generation to a new one and with that comes many issues. After 51 years of independence, the question of who they are as a nation is one that plays a lot on people's minds these days.

Economics & Finance

How to avert a financial crisis

Ludo Van der Heyden

Companies are overreacting to the economic downturn but, had they been better prepared in the first place, they wouldn’t find themselves in such a fix. This is according to Ludo Van der Heyden, INSEAD Professor of Technology and Operations Management.

Entrepreneurship

How Obama used social networking tools to win

In his bid to help Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States, Scott Goodstein spearheaded the use of new social networking and mobile media platforms, harnessing technological innovations to expand the audience base for the Obama campaign.

Strategy

Exploring new terrain

iXiGO.com has the rare combination of a passionate team with an idea that is not only innovative but also timely. The travel search engine was launched in a market where Indian online travel agents had received more than 100 million US dollars in venture funding.

Economics & Finance

Consolidation in turbulent times

Lufthansa carried a total of 70.5 million passengers last year and was ranked number one by IATA (International Air Transport Association) for having carried the most number of passengers on international scheduled routes, leaving number two Air France lagging some 20 per cent behind.

Economics & Finance

Finding returns in times of economic turbulence

This year and next could well be “vintage years” for private equity returns, even though the private equity market has shrunk dramatically from its peak in 2006 and 2007, says Peter Cornelius, Chief Economist of AlpInvest Partners, a private equity shop which manages assets of US$40 billion.

Economics & Finance

Struggling for survival

Private equity was the darling of the investment world in the five years between 2003 and 2007, enjoying exponential growth fuelled by cheap liquidity, growing profitability across industries, rising asset prices, and strong support from investors. Today, amid the global economic slowdown, the private equity industry is struggling for survival in the face of “a perfect storm”.

Economics & Finance

Helping countries emerge from the economic crisis

Even though world leaders are talking up signs of economic “green shoots”, it’s still too early to tell whether the global economic crisis is near a bottom or even whether the economic decline is slowing, says Shigeo Katsu, Vice President for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank.

Economics & Finance

Examining responsible competitiveness in the Arab World

Islamic finance is experiencing a resurgence in the Arab world as a result of the economic recession, according to Alex MacGillivray, senior partner at AccountAbility, one of the co-authors of a new report entitled Responsible Competitiveness in the Arab World 2009.

Economics & Finance

Betting on a new marque in China as Detroit wanes

Layoffs. Output cuts. These are some of the buzzwords of today’s business world where just about everyone is trying to become as lean as possible to outlive a deep and prolonged recession most have never experienced until now.

Economics & Finance

Bridging the Chinese talent gap

Despite making huge economic strides in the last three decades, China is still wanting in the area of human capital. Not enough local talent is being adequately groomed to keep up with the country’s growth engine.

Marketing

A winning strategy for emerging markets

Innovation is often a key driver to a company’s success. Take Siemens, for example, which has a reputation for being innovative – and successful.

Economics & Finance

Back in business

One way or other, the global financial crisis has brought distress to the lives of people, be it in the form of lost jobs, lower wages or losses on investments.

Responsibility

CSR in the Gulf region

By now, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not only a familiar concept in many parts of the world, it has also become de rigeur in companies who appreciate the fact that CSR can make good business sense.

Economics & Finance

Russia should be a partner in the Western Alliance

Should Russia join NATO? Sixty years ago, the trans-Atlantic military alliance was created to protect Western Europe and the United States from Soviet aggression. Now a leading expert on European security says the West should strengthen ties with the Soviet Union’s successor, including membership in the 26-member alliance.

Economics & Finance

'Great Wall' stands in the way of China's economic ascent

Institutional inadequacies could prevent China from achieving its full economic potential despite its breathtaking growth in the past decade.

Economics & Finance

In defence of hedge funds

Hedge funds have come in for scrutiny of late, particularly for their role in the financial crisis. According to Christopher Fawcett, CEO of Fauchier Partners, which manages hedge fund and alternative investment portfolios, hedge funds have become a scapegoat as they are an easy target.

Economics & Finance

Business leadership in a time of responsibility

Looking at the global economy today, we can see that a much greater proportion of the world operates under the philosophy called ‘market capitalism,’ observes Subi Rangan, Associate Professor of Strategy and Management, and the Shell Fellow in Business and the Environment at INSEAD.

Economics & Finance

Rethinking what shareholder value means

By not ending too early, the current financial and economic crisis can actually be beneficial for shareholder value, says Urs Peyer, INSEAD associate professor of finance.

Economics & Finance

Buyback investing

Many investors are wondering: is it time to take the plunge and go back into stocks? While no one can predict the future, it is generally accepted that company insiders know more than outsiders. So, one way to check whether insiders have confidence is to check net insider buying data (insider purchases minus insider sales). However, such a signal is likely to be noisy, as in many cases insider sales are driven by personal reasons such as the need to sell stocks to finance consumption or pay off debt.

Economics & Finance

Re-skilling Europe for the new global knowledge economy

Europe today is suffering from a skills shortage, made even worse by the economic crisis. Over the past decade, many business leaders have stressed that Europe is simply not producing, attracting, or retaining sufficient numbers of scientists, engineers and IT specialists to meet the requirements of its industries, and the ambition of its ‘Lisbon Agenda’ - that is, to lead the global knowledge economy.

Entrepreneurship

Infusing European education with an entrepreneurial spirit

University students in China were given 1,000 RMB ($146, €112) each and told to turn their ideas into reality: ‘go into the streets, market the products and build something.’ A year later, most of them had something to show for their efforts.

Economics & Finance

Why free trade, not protectionism, is the answer

The completion of the Doha Round of global free trade agreements is central to resolving the current global economic crisis. Speakers at this year’s European Business Summit stressed that governments should help enable global free trade to rejuvenate economic growth, rather than turn to protectionist measures.

Economics & Finance

Barroso makes the case for conclusion of Doha Round

The world should embrace free trade and repudiate protectionism, urges José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, adding that completing the Doha Round on global trade would send a “very important signal” that free trade is vital in lifting the international economy from the current deep recession.

Economics & Finance

Sustaining Europe's ambitions

Europe needs to be a lot more focused as to what it wants to lead in, to sustain its ambitions. So should it be leading in terms of policy, markets, supply and skills?

Economics & Finance

Tackling Europe’s unemployment crisis

New and better solutions are needed to tackle the worsening unemployment crisis in Europe. Speakers at the EBS said the EU's Lisbon Strategy and 'flexicurity' should form the cornerstone of such solutions. But Will Hutton, executive vice chairman of The Work Foundation, warns that the accelerating pace of technological changes means that wrenching economic disruptions will "become the norm".

Economics & Finance

Obama’s first 100 days in office: a personal view

INSEAD Knowledge

Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University on President Obama's first 100 days in office.

Economics & Finance

Helping China's elderly come to terms with a digital world

INSEAD Knowledge

As the world’s most populous nation, China is expected to have 248 million people who are 65 years of age and above by 2020 – and those numbers will continue to grow. With life expectancy progressing well into the 80s, the elderly will pose an interesting challenge for society, and the Chinese government in particular.

Economics & Finance

US economy recovery 'likely' by year-end

Although the current global economic gloom continues to cause sleepless nights for many CEOs, it’s a “likely scenario” that the US economy could start to recover from its recession by the end of this year, says Ilian Mihov, INSEAD professor of economics.

Economics & Finance

Unveiling Latin America’s economic success

A lot of attention has been focused on the remarkable economic success of China, India and other Asian countries. So much so that the rise of Latin American companies as major players on the international economic scene has almost gone unnoticed.

Economics & Finance

Hard times for a talent hub

Like many countries around the world, Singapore’s economy has been hit by the global downturn. It will be a stern test for the city-state’s government as the recession bites and more Singaporeans lose their jobs, especially as the authorities have been encouraging foreign ‘talent’ to come to live in the city-state.

Economics & Finance

African entrepreneurs: creating opportunities for success

The solution to African development must be African and internally generated. However, it will need support from the developed world, mostly in terms of knowledge and training, as well as investment. This was the consensus of a panel at Net Impact’s Doing Good, Doing Well 2009 European conference held here.

Economics & Finance

Reversing Africa’s poverty slide: a view from the ground

For Noel de Villiers, founder and CEO of non-governmental organisation Open Africa, three issues are key for Africa’s development: the need for the emancipation of women, the need to overcome the debilitating effect of a lack of confidence among the people, and the need for people in rural and marginalised areas to get more exposure to success stories which could then inspire others. In his view, these three issues, if properly addressed, would help to reverse Africa’s poverty slide.

Responsibility

Transforming the lives of thousands in South Africa

Taffy Adler is hardly the most likely candidate for taking on the role of social entrepreneur. He had an impressive track record as a trade union organiser who shunned the world of business during South Africa's turbulent past and became the CEO of the Johannesburg Housing Company.

Strategy

Steering the MBA

Karen Cho

The numbers speak for themselves. When China first introduced an MBA programme in 1991, only 90 students signed up. Last year, an estimated 25,000 enrolled in China’s business schools. Choices are aplenty, with more than 100 such schools in China alone.

Economics & Finance

Coming full circle – the rise of the dragon

Has the global economy come full circle – starting with the West and making its way to the East?

Economics & Finance

How to recapitalise banks

The current approach to solving the banking crisis is to put more government money into banks. The problem with this approach is that it creates fear of government meddling in the operational and financial decisions of the banking sector. Banks can only survive if they are run by managers and boards who sincerely believe their goal is to maximise shareholder value. This requires managers who are willing to maximise shareholder value and are capable of doing so.

Economics & Finance

Global outlook: big spenders and penny-pinchers

In the US, extravagance is a normal way of life. In China, it is a sin. Such contrasting consumer psyche between the two economies needs to be evened out before a sustained recovery of the post-bubble global economy can be achieved in the longer run, says Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.

Entrepreneurship

Harnessing creativity to power up the economy

INSEAD Knowledge

Creativity is underrated – at least that is what Fredrik Haren, author of The Idea Book, believes. "We want to be thought of as being creative people, but, by and large, companies are not fostering creativity, but practically killing it ... through bureaucracy, through process-driven organisations," Haren told INSEAD MBAs at the school's Asia campus in Singapore.

Economics & Finance

Afghanistan's media battleground

Eight years ago television was banned in Afghanistan and its single national radio station was Taliban-run.

Responsibility

Social entrepreneurship in India: going beyond the symptoms

If social entrepreneurs in India focus on causes when mapping out challenges, rather than just fixing the symptoms, half the battle is already fought, says Rathin Roy, chairman of the board of directors of Rural Innovations Network, a Chennai-based company that helps social entrepreneurs incubate innovations and take them to the market to benefit the rural poor.

Responsibility

The Millennium Promise

The Millennium Promise, which runs some 80 villages in sub-Saharan Africa, aims to help communities move towards sustainable development. It is also trying to encourage the private sector to find solutions to key problems contributing to extreme poverty in Africa, such as Malaria, which kills between one and three million Africans a year.

Responsibility

Harnessing Africa’s medicinal plants to create new business opportunities for the rural poor

African farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are taking part in a social entrepreneurship project to cultivate medicinal plants for the pharmaceutical industry.

Responsibility

Combating malaria: How an oil company is helping to tackle the problem

INSEAD Knowledge

For Marathon Oil Corporation, its project to tackle malaria on an island off Equatorial Guinea is paying off. It reckons that for every dollar invested, the economic return is around four dollars.

Marketing

Branding Africa

Think of Africa and you’re likely to conjure up images of warfare, drought and corruption. But Ruurd Brouwer, Africa Director of entrepreneurial development bank FMO in the Netherlands says that, in order to attract investment to the continent, we need to get rid of the sorts of images as depicted by aid agencies and instead replace them with pictures of successful African bankers driving Mercedes cars.

Economics & Finance

World Bank to double lending to emerging economies in wake of crisis

The World Bank is aiming to double its lending to emerging economies that are most vulnerable from the fallout of the global financial crisis, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said at a recent forum in Singapore organised by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Responsibility

Maximising shareholder value: an ethical responsibility?

Finance professors often get criticised by ethics professors because they tell their students that the goal of the firm is to maximise shareholder value. Financial scandals such as Enron, Tyco and others are regularly blamed on the excessive focus on shareholder value maximisation

Economics & Finance

Can leadership withstand the ravages of the crisis?

The sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers and the fall of AIG have not just shaken the financial community to its core, which has sent reverberations worldwide, its leaders have also come under fire. But there's more to these highly-publicised institutional collapses than meets the eye, according to Subramanian Rangan, Associate Professor of Strategy and Management at INSEAD.

Economics & Finance

Governments have not done enough to address crisis

Governments around the world have not done enough to address the damaging effects of the global financial crisis triggered by the one-year old subprime credit crisis in the United States, economist Manu Bhaskaran says.

Economics & Finance

Online social networking and the economic crisis

In the fallout of the global financial meltdown, it’s difficult to think of a positive side to the economic crisis. But it actually might be good news for Web 2.0 social networking.

Marketing

Turning social networking on its head: where horizontal and vertical networks meet

Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Ning are getting a larger than usual following these days, thanks in no small part to the current financial crisis.

Economics & Finance

Business schools and the crisis

I have heard from a lot of people in the past month. Many of them ask me about the job market for our MBAs, our endowment, our executive education business and about our alumni whose jobs are at risk. But there are some who ask what are you doing about this? What is your role now and in the future as a business school?

Economics & Finance

The Obama effect

The latest US election, and Barack Obama’s campaign in particular, was unprecedented in more ways than one, having set new standards for future elections. “This campaign will change all campaigns going forward,” says Steve Okun, who worked on transportation issues in the Clinton administration and is currently chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

Economics & Finance

Anatomy of a crisis

Changes in financial regulation in the past decade, coupled with the loose monetary policy of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, are partly to be blamed for the financial crisis that has brought the world into the brink of recession, according to INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Accounting and Dean of the MBA programme, Jake Cohen.

Economics & Finance

Obama could help US economy recover by mid-2009

The victory of Barack Obama, the first African-American to become president of the United States, could help the troubled US economy recover by the middle of next year, says Ilian Mihov, professor of economics at INSEAD.

Economics & Finance

Tackling the financial crisis by changing tack

China, one of Asia’s economic powerhouses, is not immune to the global financial crisis despite enjoying double-digit growth in the last five years and being poised to achieve nine per cent growth this year. Share prices in Shanghai have fallen 72 per cent and house prices have come down 55 per cent. Demand has plummeted and thousands of factories have closed because of cancelled or delayed export orders.

Economics & Finance

Asia feels the pain caused by the crisis but could be poised for rapid recovery

Asia can’t escape the financial and economic crisis that is battering the rest of the world, but the region may be poised for a more rapid recovery if leaders in business and government work together and show leadership.

Economics & Finance

Blueprint for a new international financial order

Politicians have acted decisively to restore confidence and liquidity in the banking sector through the injection of capital and guarantees on interbank loans. The UK, continental Jean Dermine - INSEAD KnowledgeEU countries, the US and Switzerland, have injected new capital into their home banks, increasing capital ratios. Political leaders are now calling an international conference for a new international financial order to discuss the creation of a supranational supervisory body, Bretton Woods II.

Economics & Finance

Political change in China is ‘almost inevitable’ but Beijing has ‘nothing to fear’: Anson Chan

Asian pro-democracy advocate Anson Chan says China has ‘nothing to fear’ in allowing Hong Kong full democracy.

Economics & Finance

Australian banks well positioned to weather the financial crisis

In comparison to the battered banks elsewhere, Australia’s ‘big four’ banks have been “holding up very well” relative to their counterparts in the US and Europe, which have either filed for bankruptcy or have sought government bailouts, says John Schubert, chairman of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s biggest lender by market capitalisation.

Economics & Finance

Leveraging the India connection

The UK beer market is one of the most competitive in the world but that did not deter Karan Bilimoria, an expat Indian with no prior experience, from taking it on.

Economics & Finance

Is India a safe haven?

A ‘helicopter view’ from INSEAD alumna Helen Alexander (‘84), Vice President, Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Economics & Finance

Banks in Asia may weather global financial crisis

Banks operating in Asia should come out of the global financial crisis relatively unscathed compared to their counterparts in the US and Europe, given their more conservative lending activities and stronger balance sheets, bankers and financial experts said at a recent Bloomberg Leadership Forum held in Singapore.

Economics & Finance

Can China help power the global economy out of a crisis?

After five years of double-digit expansion, the world’s fastest-growing economy has succumbed to the economic chill wind sweeping across the globe. China’s economy slowed to an annual growth clip of 9 per cent in the third quarter from 10.1 per cent in the previous quarter ­– well below the consensus forecast of 9.7 per cent.

Economics & Finance

Living with uncertainty

The authorities in the US and Europe have the right policies in place to tackle the financial crisis, but it will take time to restore confidence in the markets, according to speakers at the World Knowledge Forum.
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Economics & Finance

Steering a new course in unchartered waters

With credit getting tighter, companies are going to have to change the way they do business and manage their cash. Laurence Danon, executive board member of Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance in France, says we are likely to see companies implementing huge cost-savings plans, probably with significant layoffs and dramatic changes to capital expenditure and development programmes.

Economics & Finance

Rethinking global financial systems

The consensus is loud and clear: in the wake of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, a fundamental rethink of the structure of the global financial markets and greater cooperation of the major regulatory bodies are paramount, said the heads of major financial institutions at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul.

Economics & Finance

Heed the lessons of the collapse of the ‘golden age’

It seemed like it was never going to end – the rise of the economy, the increased prosperity, the bull stock market. Forbes magazine said it would be ‘recognized as a golden age of American industry.” This was in the summer of 1929, but then the US economy collapsed. From growth rates of between three and 10 per cent in per capita terms, the US economy imploded: contracting 11 per cent in 1930, another 9.5 per cent the following year, and then shrinking a further 15 per cent in 1932. Who would have thought that the Roaring Twenties would transform into the worst economic disaster of all time?
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Economics & Finance

The China Syndrome: understanding the Chinese economy

China’s economy is booming and many multinational companies are looking to tap the Asian giant’s potential. However, according to Peter Bowie, CEO of Deloitte China, foreigners wanting to do business with the Chinese appear to be ill prepared because their pre-conceived notions about China are simply outdated.

Economics & Finance

US may plunge into depression if bailout fails

The US economy may plunge into a depression if the $700 billion rescue package fails to revive the ailing banking sector, says Ilian Mihov, INSEAD Professor of Economics.

Economics & Finance

The future of Chinese capitalism

China's emerging economy is an enormous success story and it’s remarkable, say two INSEAD academics, because it's really one big experiment.

Economics & Finance

The unreal estate

For many people around the world, property rights are not well defined, enforced or monitored; resulting in over half of the world’s population living and working on ‘unreal estate’, that is, without the security of property ownership.

Economics & Finance

Crisis communications: The emergence of stakeholder media

When Le Monde exclaimed in a front-page headline: “Danone prepares to shed 3,000 jobs in Europe, including 1,700 in France”, on January 10, 2001, Danone -- France’s national ‘champion’ and one of Europe’s biggest food and beverage firms -- faced a major crisis.

Economics & Finance

The road to nationhood

Building a nation-state “out of the ashes of destruction is not easy,” but the President of Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor), José Ramos-Horta, says his country will seek to become a viable nation by eliminating unemployment in the next two to three years by creating new jobs from its investments in infrastructure projects.

Responsibility

Sustainability: a business opportunity

By the year 2040, only 15 per cent of the world’s population will be living in what are now called developed countries. It’s therefore essential for today’s business planners to start focusing on the rest of the planet. Fortunately a strategy centred on emerging markets can be both financially profitable and socially responsible, says Barbara Kux of the Dutch multinational Royal Philips Electronics.

Economics & Finance

The Nigerian Paradox : Is it fading away?

INSEAD Knowledge

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) referred in 2007 to the Nigerian Paradox: catastrophic poverty in a country brimming with natural and human resources.

Economics & Finance

Targetting Africa: The case for investment

Africa is so diverse, with its variety of countries and resources, that almost any type of business in the world could take advantage of the continent’s economic growth. That was the view of panellists at the INSEAD Leadership Summit 2008.

Strategy

Engaging with Africa

After years of stagnation, Africa is finally experiencing economic growth. Are there opportunities in Africa which are not being recognised by the business community outside of Africa?

Strategy

Mergers and acquisitions: Reducing the private firm discount

Owners of private companies normally sell their shares at a 20-30 per cent discount during mergers and acquisitions. The ‘private firm discount’ is one reason the stock market reacts more favourably when companies announce a private acquisition than when the target is a publicly-listed firm.

Leadership & Organisations

Women and Money

Are men or women better at investing? “This is not only a fun question but it is of great practical value,” says INSEAD Assistant Professor of Finance, Lily Fang, who hosted a Women and Money forum at INSEAD recently.

Responsibility

Muhammad Yunus: Helping the less privileged unleash their entrepreneurial skills

Some thirty years ago, economics professor Muhammad Yunus made his first loan of $27 to a group of 42 women so they could expand their bamboo furniture making business.

Responsibility

Islamic microfinance gains popularity in war-torn Afghanistan

After spending several years in Iran as a refugee struggling to make a living working in a beauty parlour, Shooperi Sharif never imagined that one day she would have a business of her very own.

Responsibility

Counting the cost

'Rogue traders' are not exactly a new phenomenon, but when their activities eventually come to be uncovered by their bosses, they may have already run up hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in losses.

Entrepreneurship

Winning with value

Too many companies focus on just the cost of software systems, rather than look at the business value they generate. That may not be surprising given the complexities of trying to assess the value of software assets, but according to a new study by INSEAD professor Soumitra Dutta, companies who do this are taking the easy way out.

Leadership & Organisations

The value creation imperative

It's been just over 400 years since a Dutch company became the first organisation to sell shares and became publicly traded. By 2007, more than one billion people owned a stake in the world's companies worth more than $75 trillion.

Economics & Finance

Identifying, assessing and mitigating political risk

Businesses try to avoid investing in countries or areas of an economy where they face a high probability that their investment returns will be reduced or even eliminated completely by political developments. Yet while investors the world over are willing to spend considerable time and money employing lawyers and accountants to carry out ‘due diligence’ on planned investments, particularly those in foreign jurisdictions, very few resources - if any - are allocated to examining the political factors that may influence the success of the venture.

Economics & Finance

A world in crisis?

The US Federal Reserve took the unusual step of cutting rates twice in January by a combined 125 basis points to stave off a recession. First, it reduced rates by an unscheduled 75 basis points on January 22, its biggest single-day move for more than 20 years. Then, at the end of the month, it cut the Federal Funds rate by a further 50 basis points to 3 per cent.

Economics & Finance

Al Jazeera: Turning up the heat

After celebrating its first year on air, the English service of Qatar-based TV station Al Jazeera − memorably denounced by former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as ‘terror TV’ − is aiming to turn up the heat on its rivals in the global 24-hour news broadcasting industry.

Strategy

Banyan Tree: The brand imperative

“There are only two advantages in life which are proprietary: technology and branding. Since I’m not a technologist, I decided that whatever business I was going to do next had to have a strong brand.”

Strategy

New media: The online evolution of newspapers

In September, the New York Times did an about-face of sorts. It ended its paid-for online subscription model, under which it had been charging for access to premium content by columnists and commentators such as economist Paul Krugman and writer Thomas Friedman.

Economics & Finance

Leadership: A Chinese puzzle

China’s economy is booming, but one of the major challenges facing the country will be leadership – or the lack of it – in political or business spheres.

Economics & Finance

Is China friend or foe? ‘Neither,’ says Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew

INSEAD Knowledge

In a keynote session at the INSEAD Leadership Summit in Asia, the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, revealed that during a meeting with Washington aides to presidential candidates, he was asked whether the US should regard China as a friend or foe.

Marketing

How content affects the buying and selling of ad links

The internet has become an important medium for doing business internationally. The opportunities are enormous, yet there are still many practical questions that managers of commercial websites need answering. Zsolt Katona, an INSEAD PhD candidate in marketing, addresses some of these questions in his doctoral thesis on advertising on the World Wide Web. “The www is the largest network in the world - there are more pages on the www than the population of the world, and online advertising expenditure is growing at a rate of 18 per cent,” Katona says.

Strategy

In search of blue oceans: The Starwood experience

Are companies using Blue Ocean Strategy to search for ‘uncontested market space’ and, if so, how? One group which has been exploring blue ocean thinking for the past three years is Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Family Business

Family business on the couch

In August, the Bancroft family gave up control of Dow Jones, the publishing group it had owned for some 105 years. The group, which includes the Wall Street Journal, had been taken over by another family-controlled business, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, for US$5 billion.

Marketing

Writing books at the push of a button

INSEAD professor Phil Parker has been granted a US patent for his software programme that writes books. It took him seven years to get the patent, and while the registered patent name is decidedly scholastic: Method and Apparatus for Automated Authoring and Marketing, the implications for the information age are not. It’s not 'creative intelligence.' It’s 'reverse engineering' – deconstructing books into 'genres' and then writing software programmes to fit those genres.

Economics & Finance

Credit crunch: Did the Fed do the right thing?

INSEAD Knowledge

The US Federal Reserve cut short-term interest rates half a percentage point in mid-September to make it cheaper for banks to provide loans and keep the crisis in the subprime mortgage market from spreading to other sectors of the economy.

Economics & Finance

Reining in the biggest game in town

When New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group netted its co-founders more than US$2.4 billion in its initial public offering in June and then in early July Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) filed a planned US$1.25 billion listing, private equity (PE) suddenly began attracting unwanted attention. While KKR has been hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, politicians have been homing in on the mega-profits being made by these investment firms which raise money from private sources rather than by using the stock market.

Economics & Finance

How can Europe kick-start growth?

An INSEAD roundtable discussion with: Bernard Liautaud, Founder and Chairman of Business Objects; Ernest-Antoine Seillière, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of WENDEL, and President of BUSINESSEUROPE

Economics & Finance

Europe 2020: Views from the outside world

A roundtable discussion with: - Kan Trakulhoon, President and CEO of The Siam Cement Group - Kevin Ryan, CEO and Co-founder ShopWiki

Economics & Finance

The changing face of global risk

The magnitude and complexity of risk in the world today are increasing and scrutiny is ‘going through the roof’. Aon Corporation CEO Greg Case made these observations in a keynote address at the start of the Leadership Summit.

Economics & Finance

Is Europe still relevant?

INSEAD has just held its first Leadership Summit at the Europe campus in Fontainebleau. The question posed at the school’s new annual flagship event was ‘Is Europe still relevant?’, a provocative topic for the one-day session.

Economics & Finance

Innovative and responsible leadership: Taking a long-term view

Moderator: Luk Van Wassenhove, INSEAD Professor of Operations Management Speakers: André Hoffmann (MBA ’90), Vice Chairman, Roche Holding; Ulysses Kyriacopoulos (MBA ’77), Chairman, S&B Minerals; Simon Zadek, Chief Executive of AccountAbility

Economics & Finance

The energy ‘battlefield’ in Europe

Moderator: Michael Williams, Global Energy Editor, Wall Street Journal - Speakers: Lord Simon (MBA ’66), former Chairman of BP; Gerd Leipold, International Executive Director, Greenpeace International; Kris Sliger, Executive Vice President, TNK-BP

Economics & Finance

Europe as a power

An INSEAD roundtable discussion with: Thomas Barrett (MBA ’78), director of the European Investment Bank; Jean-Paul Betbèze, chief economist of Crédit Agricole and member of the French Prime Minister’s Economic Analysis Council; Alice Rivlin, director of the Greater Washington Research Program at The Brookings Institution.

Economics & Finance

India retail: Foreign chains eye the potential, but will they succeed?

Many of the world’s top retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco are currently eyeing the Indian retail sector. With a population of about a billion people and a burgeoning middle class, India holds out plenty of promise. But INSEAD Professor of Marketing Paddy Padmanabhan says India is a unique market and foreign players will face a number of challenges.

Strategy

Cost innovation and the dragons

‘Cost innovation’ sounds like an oxymoron. Most of us associate innovation with greater functionality and sophistication. Mainland Chinese companies, however, are turning conventional business models on their heads and these ‘dragons’ are making inroads into markets in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

Responsibility

Social enterprise: Using microcredit to help to lift the poor out of poverty

Many institutions around the world are turning to microfinance both as a strategy to help lift the poor out of the poverty trap and to make a decent return on investment. While the business gains from lending money to those who earn only about one or two dollars a day may seem limited, some of the major international banks are now turning their attention to this sector.

Economics & Finance

Distressed German companies: Opportunities for Asian investors?

Germany’s merger and acquisition market has been booming. In 2006 there were more than 600 billion euros worth of M&A deals and the ‘frenzy’ has continued into this year. While the media have focused on takeovers involving private equity and venture capitalists, some 70 per cent of all takeovers are undertaken by strategic investors.

Strategy

Knowledge transfer: Use templates

INSEAD Knowledge

As corporations look to expand overseas – through franchising, outsourcing or setting up plants and offices elsewhere – they transfer best practices to maintain their competitive edge. But what’s the best way of doing that and how should they adapt these operational practices to local conditions?

Economics & Finance

Risk assessment: Keep it simple

The ability to assess risk and uncertainty is critical for investment banks and businesses. While some may advocate the use of complex models, INSEAD Dean of Faculty and Professor of Decision Sciences, Anil Gaba, believes that if you’re looking to forecast risk, you’d do well to keep it simple.

Economics & Finance

Asia and the financial crisis

Ten years ago, back in July 1997, the Asian financial crisis ravaged country after country in the region. Starting in Thailand, it spread to Indonesia. Short-term capital pulled out and currencies went into freefall, despite the efforts of central banks. Korea was also badly hit as foreign banks called in loans.

Economics & Finance

Japanese business: Time to take the brake off?

The Japanese economy may be the second largest in the world, but it struggled in the 1990s and early 2000s. And while economic pain might have resulted in structural reforms elsewhere, that has not happened in Japan.

Entrepreneurship

The China market: Windows of opportunity

Foreign firms have been eyeing the Chinese market ever since the country began opening up in the 1980s. And given that China has a population of about 1.2 billion people, it’s a market that has plenty of promise. However, former INSEAD Assistant Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management, Steven White, believes that foreign firms may find it difficult to compete with their Chinese counterparts. He points to the way mainland mobile phone companies quickly overtook multinationals such as Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson within just a few years.

Economics & Finance

Entrepreneurship: Riding growth in India and China

With the rest of the world beating a path to India and China to cash in on the rapid economic growth in those countries and tap low-cost manufacturing (China) and services (India), countless business opportunities have opened up.

Economics & Finance

IPOs: Evaluating failure risk

To what extent can we predict whether a new stock exchange listing or initial public offering (IPO) is going to fail? This is a question of major significance for investors and the firm’s employees alike as the rate of delistings has increased dramatically over the years, with the probability of a new listing surviving in its first ten years falling sharply to 37 per cent by the 90s from 61 per cent in the early 70s.

Responsibility

The Impact of Ageing

“Ageing of populations is often viewed very negatively. Yet we need to constantly keep in mind that it is a sign of success,” says Gavin Jones, co-editor of a new book called ‘The Impact of Ageing - A Common Challenge for Europe and Asia’. That’s because ageing populations in Europe and East Asia represent success in terms of lowering unsustainably high birth rates to replacement level, and prolonging life expectancy, he says.