...9-701-017 REV: NOVEMBER 29, 2004 PANKAJ GHEMAWAT The Globalization of CEMEX Geographic diversification enables us to operate in multiple regions with different business cycles. For the long term, we are trying to ensure that no one market accounts for more than one third of our business. Yet we do not diversify simply to balance cyclic downturns and upswings. We do not see volatility as an occasional, random element added to the cost of doing business in an interconnected global marketplace. We plan for volatility. We prepare for it. We have learned how to profit from it. Lorenzo Zambrano, CEO of CEMEX.1 In 1990, Cementos Mexicanos was a Mexican cement company that faced trade sanctions in its major export market, the United States. By the end of 1999, CEMEX operated cement plants in 15 countries, owned production or distribution facilities in a total of 30, and traded cement in more than 60. Non-Mexican operations accounted for nearly 60% of assets, slightly over 50% of revenues and 40% of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) that year. CEMEX’s sales revenues had increased from less than $1 billion in 1989 to nearly $5 billion in 1999, and it had become the third largest cement company in the world in terms of capacity, as well as the largest international trader. Growth had been achieved without compromising profitability: in the late 1990s, its ratio of EBITDA to sales ranged between 30% and 40%—ten to fifteen percentage...
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...Innovation * TEHRAN: An Iranian schoolteacher has innovated an amusing way of encouraging young children to say their daily prayers — robotics. * LOS ANGELES: Disney is launching a digital movies app that allows fans to store movie purchases online and play them back over Apple devices and computers. * TOKYO: A tiny personal computer that is worn on the ear and can be controlled with the blink of an eye or the click of a tongue is being tested in Japan. The 17-gram (0.59-ounce) wireless device has bluetooth capability and is equipped with a GPS, compass, gyro-sensor, battery, barometer, speaker and microphone. Wearable computing is thought by many commentators to be the next big thing in technology, with products such as Google Glass at the forefront. The device, known at the moment as the "Earclip-type Wearable PC" has a microchip and data storage, enabling users to load software, said engineer Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Hiroshima City University. Its designs are based on traditional "ikebana" flower arrangements. "We have made this with the basic idea that people will wear it in the same way they wear earrings," Taniguchi told AFP in a recent interview as he showcased a black prototype. The system, which developers are hoping to have ready for Christmas 2015, can be connected to an iPod or other gadget and would allow the user to navigate through software programmes using facial expressions, such as a raised eyebrow, a stuck-out tongue, a wiggle of the nose or...
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...In 2009, daily deals firms sprouted up on the digital landscape like eager-to-bloom crocus flowers often seen at this time of year. But more recently a late winter freeze has buzz sawed through one flowery bulb after another, as hundreds of daily deals upstarts have fallen by the wayside because they couldn’t develop in the harshly competitive climate. Could a big one—LivingSocial—actually be the next to wither away? Sources familiar with the company say they wouldn’t be surprised if the industry’s No. 2 player, trailing only Groupon, was sold to a larger company or liquidated piece by piece by spring 2014. They say LivingSocial has lacked the speed to adjust to a space that’s increasingly becoming more complex. Even worse for this nascent field, the marketplace has gotten a lot more crowded. Dozens of outfits from Yelp to marketing giants such as American Express and Bank of America—to even companies that enable retailers to set up their own offers—now provide innovative ways to link customers with local merchants. Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali says neither LivingSocial nor Groupon are too big to fail—even if the latter still has cash reserves in the billions from its 2011 initial public offering. “The daily deals space is saturated,” she says, “and it never provided tremendous value to merchants. And that was the fundamental flaw in the business model. They’ve survived over the last few years even when these truths were obvious because they’ve reduced...
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...1) Reliance Communications Limited 2) Bharti Airtel Limited 3) BSNL 4) MTNL 5) Vodafone Essar 6) Ericsson 7) Nokia 8) Siemens Communications 9) Idea Cellular Limited 10) Tata Teleservices Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985 ------------------------------------------------- Name The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones".[10] ------------------------------------------------- [edit]History The evolution of 'Vodafone' brand starts in 1982 with the establishment of 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd' subsidiary of Racal Electronics plc - UK's largest maker of military radio technology. The same year, Racal Strategic Radio Ltd forms a joint venture with Millicom called 'Racal Vodafone', which would later evolve into the present day Vodafone Key market review Revenue trends continue to improve * Group organic service revenue growth improved during the year, with a strong result from emerging markets and encouraging signs of renetheyd growth in some parts of Europe. * In Europe service revenue was down 0.4%(*)during the year; hotheyver, this was significantly better than last year’s decline of 3.8%(*). They are seeing positive revenue trends in the more stable economies of northern Europe such as Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, while our remaining mature markets in Europe, particularly those impacted by government austerity measures, have seen declining...
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...SCENARIO PLANNING Scenario planning, also called scenario thinking or scenario analysis, is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence. The original method was that a group of analysts would generate simulation games for policy makers. The games combine known facts about the future, such as demographics, geography, military,political, industrial information, and mineral reserves, with plausible alternative social, technical, economic, environmental, educational, political and aesthetic (STEEEPA) trends which are key driving forces. In business applications, the emphasis on gaming the behavior of opponents was reduced (shifting more toward a game against nature). At Royal Dutch/Shell for example, scenario planning was viewed as changing mindsets about the exogenous part of the world, prior to formulating specific strategies. Scenario planning may involve aspects of Systems thinking, specifically the recognition that many factors may combine in complex ways to create sometime surprising futures (due to non-linear feedback loops). The method also allows the inclusion of factors that are difficult to formalize, such as novel insights about the future, deep shifts in values, unprecedented regulations or inventions. Systems thinking used in conjunction with scenario planning leads to plausible scenario story lines because the causal...
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