Category: News Desk

Infographic: Can Intuition Replace Market Research For Management Decisions?


According to a 2011 survey by the MIT Sloan School of Business, nearly 80 percent of all brand and market management decisions made by top-performing companies were primarily based on their CEO’s intuition, rather than any form of market research.

Some of the most innovative and well-known CEOs, such as ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs, have also been known to eschew research in favour of their “gut feeling” of what the market would want.

Greek Delegation Heads To EU Summit On Economy Class Flight


Ministers from the newly elected Greek coalition government will be flying to the European Union Summit in Brussels this week on economy class seats, reported Reuters on Wednesday, after President Karolos Papoulias had insisted on a show of frugality to “set an example” for the country.

Papoulias, 83, is leading the delegation to the summit, as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, 22 years his junior, had been hospitalised and is recovering from eye surgery.

Infographic: Why Is It So Expensive To Die?


Although it may seem unnecessarily morbid at first, the cost of dying has been increasing over the years. Few people like to think about their death and certainly do like to plan for their death, but this eventuality is just as important as any other long-term financial planning.

While there has been a gradual acceptance and openness in talking about death, few have truly given much thought to their end-of-life plans, leaving such matters to their families or the state, or no one at all. With the rising cost of dying, consider this: Can you afford to die? 

No Eurobonds, “Not as Long as I Live”: Merkel


Eurobonds will be back on the agenda as European leaders gather for a crisis summit later this week, but Germany, who has always been critical of the proposal, has once again taken the hard-line stance with Chancellor Angela Merkel declaring that Europe would not share total debt liability “as long as I live”.

World’s Oldest Bank Receives Second Bailout In Three Years


The Italian government has agreed to cough up 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in order to bail out Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world’s oldest bank and the nation’s third largest bank by assets, reported Reuters on Tuesday, with the bank believed to be holding on to some 25 billion euros in government bonds.

Nigerian Oil Thieves Steal 150,000 Barrels Of Oil Daily


Criminal networks in Nigeria have been siphoning nearly 150,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from state and oil companies, said the Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria on Tuesday, as the government prepares to set up a taskforce that will look into mismanagement and fraud in the energy sector.

According to Mr Mutiu Sumonu, Nigeria was losing 5 billion dollars annually to oil theft and the time had come for “every tier of government” to “be involved in the fight against illegal oil bunkering.”

Eurozone Could Cede Sovereignty on National Budgets to EU


If the European Union had its way, it could soon have the legal authority to rewrite the national budgets of its 27 sovereign member states, particularly for eurozone countries that fail to meet its stipulated debt and deficit targets.

European leaders will meet later this week for a two-day summit to try to resolve a crisis that has spread across the Europe since early 2010.

China Confident of 10% Export Growth This Year


Despite the economic slowdown in China and its key trading markets such as the eurozone and the United States, China’s trade ministry says it has seen some “satisfying” indications of a trade rebound, after it posted a massive $31.5 billion trade deficit in February.

At a press briefing in Beijing today, spokesman for the Commerce Ministry Shen Danyang said preliminary trade data for June was “pretty good” and has “kept the pace seen in May” when trade shipments were more than double what analysts had forecasted.

Chinese Officials Forced To Auction Off Luxury Cars To Pay Off Debt


Government officials across China have been selling off their luxury cars in order to boost their local revenues, reported the Financial Times on Monday, as the nation’s economic slowdown continues to affect the municipal-level budgets of local authorities.

According to FT, the trend began sometime last year when cities such as Changzhou and Nanchang began auctioning off their Audis and BMWs in exchange for locally produced cars.

EU Steps Up Efforts To Tackle $1 Trillion In Annual Tax Evasion


Tax evasion is costing the European Union around 1 trillion euros ($1.25 trillion) every year, claimed a draft statement from the European Commission that was obtained by Reuters on Monday, with regulators set to introduce multiple steps designed to curb rampant tax fraud across the region.