Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines – Week 254

Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 254 | July 22-28, 2022

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Shaping Section : Ideas and forces shaping economies and industries

Emerging-market crises have become harder to resolve

The Economist | July 21, 2022

Whenever America’s Federal Reserve raises interest rates, investors reflexively worry about a crisis in emerging markets. Today it might appear the usual pattern is playing out. On July 27th the Fed is expected to raise rates by another three-quarters of a percentage point. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has run out of foreign exchange, Argentina faces another default and many poor countries are in trouble. Look more closely, however, and the world economy has been transformed in ways that mean the nature and consequences of emerging-market turmoil have changed.

A decade or so ago there was a faint echo of 1997-98 when the Fed signalled it would tighten policy, triggering a sell-off in emerging markets.  Yet today much has changed. Emerging economies’ share of global GDP at market prices has risen from 21% to 43%. Asia’s share of emerging-market output has doubled, to 60%, led by China and India, which are more self-contained financially, with state-led banking sectors and bond markets that are largely closed to foreigners. The weight of many crisis-prone places is small: Latin America represents 5% of world GDP and 1.4% of stock market value.

Another change is that many emerging markets have moved away from currency pegs, dollar debt and foreign borrowing. Today only 16% of their debts are in foreign currencies. Governments increasingly rely on local banks. Instead of sudden crises that spill back across borders and to Wall Street, many places face slower-burn and home-grown dangers: inflationary spirals or zombie banks.  The final change is that even where foreign creditors are important, their profile is different. For example, the “Paris Club” of creditors, which is composed mostly of rich countries and multilateral institutions such as the IMF, accounts for less than 60% of the poorest countries’ debts, down from more than 80% in 2006. China accounts for about a fifth.

The good news is that panics in emerging markets seem less likely to inflict serious damage on the rest of the world.  The bad news is that these places have 1.4bn people, or 18% of the global population, and face a huge humanitarian challenge with higher inflation, debt loads, interest rates and expensive oil and food.  Furthermore, the new distribution of their debts means it is harder to strike deals to provide them with debt relief.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Whenever America’s Federal Reserve raises interest rates, investors reflexively worry about a crisis in emerging markets. Today it might appear the usual pattern is playing out. 
2. On July 27th the Fed is expected to raise rates by another three-quarters of a percentage point. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has run out of foreign exchange e.g.  Look more closely, however, and the world economy has been transformed in ways that mean the nature and consequences of emerging-market turmoil have changed.
3. The good news is that panics in emerging markets seem less likely to inflict serious damage on the rest of the world.  The bad news is that these places have 1.4bn people, or 18% of the global population, and face a huge humanitarian challenge with higher inflation, debt loads, interest rates and expensive oil and food.

Full Article

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Topics:  Global Economy, Debt, Emerging Markets, Poverty

MBS’s $500 Billion Desert Dream Just Keeps Getting Weirder

By Vivian Nereim | Bloomberg Businessweek | July 14, 2022

Muhammad Bin Salman is in the early stages of one of the largest and most difficult construction projects in history, which involves turning an expanse of desert the size of Belgium into a high-tech city-region called Neom. Starting with a budget of $500 billion, MBS bills Neom as a showpiece that will transform Saudi Arabia’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionize daily life.

Yet five years into its development, bringing Neom out of the realm of science fiction is proving a formidable challenge, even for a near-absolute ruler with access to a $620 billion sovereign wealth fund. According to more than 25 current and former employees interviewed for this story, as well as 2,700 pages of internal documents, the project has been plagued by setbacks, many stemming from the difficulty of implementing MBS’s grandiose, ever-changing ideas—and of telling a prince who’s overseen the imprisonment of many of his own family members that his desires can’t be met.

Efforts to relocate the indigenous residents of the Neom site, who’ve lived there for generations, have been turbulent, devolving on one occasion into a gun battle. Dozens of key staff have quit, complaining of a toxic work environment and a culture of wild overspending with few results. And along the way, Neom has become something of a full-employment guarantee for international architects, futurists, and even Hollywood production designers, each taking a cut of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum riches in exchange for work that some strongly suspect will never be used. Few are willing to speak on the record, citing nondisclosure agreements or fear of retribution.

It would be unfair to entirely dismiss Neom as an autocrat’s folly.  Since he became Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in 2017, MBS has demonstrated a talent for imposing dramatic change, doing away with large swaths of the religious restrictions that used to bind every aspect of daily life.  Nonetheless, the chaotic trajectory of Neom so far suggests that MBS’s urban dream may never be delivered. The same is true of his broader plans for economic transformation. In the crown prince’s telling, Saudi Arabia will soon be a center of innovation and entrepreneurship, free of the corruption and religious extremism that have long held it back. But to his critics, this promised future is a veneer, a layer of technological gloss over a core of repression, kleptocracy, and—above all—indefinite one-man rule.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Muhammad Bin Salman is in the early stages of one of the largest and most difficult construction projects in history, which involves turning an expanse of desert the size of Belgium into a high-tech city-region called Neom. 
2. Starting with a budget of $500 billion, MBS bills Neom as a showpiece that will transform Saudi Arabia’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionize daily life.
3. Yet five years into its development, bringing Neom out of the realm of science fiction is proving a formidable challenge.  The project has been plagued by setbacks, many stemming from the difficulty of implementing MBS’s grandiose, ever-changing ideas, a toxic work environment and a culture of wild overspending with few results.

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Topics:  Saudi Arabia, Future Cities, Urbanization, Technology

The IMF is officially ‘gloomy’ as it slashes its outlook with the global economy ‘teetering on the edge’ of a return to the stagflationary 1970s 

By Alena Botros | Fortune Magazine | July 26, 2022

As if the economic outlook wasn’t gloomy enough already, the International Monetary Fund just titled its World Economic Outlook, “Gloomy and More Uncertain.” In early July, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said a global recession could not be ruled out. The IMF subsequently said that the U.S. avoiding a recession was becoming increasingly challenging. On Tuesday, the IMF cut its global forecast, projecting real GDP to grow 3.2% this year and 2.9% in 2023, with a prediction of stalling growth in the U.S., China, and Europe—the world’s three largest economies. The initial forecast in April predicted 3.6% growth for both 2022 and 2023.

While stressing that it’s not the baseline scenario, the IMF said it’s worried about a return to conditions similar to 1970s’ “stagflation,” a brutal combination of high inflation and stagnant growth. Supply-related shocks to food and energy prices from the war in Ukraine could continue to escalate inflation, it said, in turn triggering tighter monetary policies that could be severe enough to push the global economy into a recession.  Stalling growth is due to the U.S.’ reduced household purchasing power and tighter monetary policy, China’s lockdowns and real-estate crisis, and Europe’s tighter monetary policy caused by the war in Ukraine.   

Although the IMF said 2021 hinted at a tentative global recovery, it stressed the storm clouds that gathered quickly afterward. High inflation and negative spillovers from the war, compounded by an already weakened economy post pandemic, could be triggering a recession, the economists found. 

Global inflation is expected to reach 6.6% in advanced economies and 9.5% in emerging market and developing economies this year because of increasing food and energy prices and lingering supply-demand imbalances—this triggers tighter financial conditions further shocking the economy. 

These risks could push the economy over the edge, and again force the IMF to revise its predictions. In an alternative scenario, the IMF said, inflation could rise further and global growth could decline to 2.6% in 2022 and 2% in 2023, putting growth in the bottom 10% of outcomes since the 1970s. These risks include a halt of European gas flow from Russia, more COVID outbreaks and shutdowns in China, and rising food and energy prices, to say a few.  Still, the IMF says taming inflation should be the number one priority for policymakers. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. As if the economic outlook wasn’t gloomy enough already, the International Monetary Fund just titled its World Economic Outlook, “Gloomy and More Uncertain.” 
2. In early July, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said a global recession could not be ruled out. The IMF subsequently said that the U.S. avoiding a recession was becoming increasingly challenging. On Tuesday, the IMF cut its global forecast, projecting real GDP to grow 3.2% this year and 2.9% in 2023, with a prediction of stalling growth in the U.S., China, and Europe—the world’s three largest economies.
3. Global inflation is expected to reach 6.6% in advanced economies and 9.5% in emerging market and developing economies this year because of increasing food and energy prices and lingering supply-demand imbalances—this triggers tighter financial conditions further shocking the economy. 

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Topics:  Global Economy, Inflation, Stagflation, Recession

Strategy & Business Model Section

How Companies Are Building Data Partnerships With Telcos

Pedro Uria Recio | Forbes Magazine | July 26, 2022

For over 20 years, cookies have been central to the performance marketing industry to track and target the right customer segments. Due to data privacy regulations and big tech companies’ evolving strategies, cookies are scheduled to be phased out by 2023. Marketers are already starting to collect and use customer data as an alternative to cookies. Many businesses are building partnerships with other companies and ecosystems to leverage users’ data in privacy-compliant ways. One of the exciting choices is collaborating with telcos.

Telcos handle an immense amount of data from millions of subscribers. Some of this data comes from voice calls or the browsing history of websites and apps on their networks. Moreover, telcos also manage location and mobility data at a very granular level since mobile phones are connected to telecom towers. Telcos also handle payments for phone bills and top-ups that identify delinquency and spending behavior. Finally, many telcos also own digital services such as video streaming, e-wallets or even advertising businesses whose data helps telcos get a complete user profile.

With this vast amount of data, many telcos have created an extremely granular 360-view of their customers. Some already provide insightful data-driven solutions to enterprise clients as an alternative to cookies, particularly in emerging markets where telcos reach the whole population even banks cannot reach.  More precisely Telcos provide a hyper-targeted marketing reach via high-engagement channels.  Telcos can create customer scores for financial institutions.  Telcos can conduct footfall and mobility analyses.  And Telcos offer accurate competitor intelligence to online businesses.  This can be expected that Telco data is an insightful and privacy-respectful option in the post-cookie world.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. For over 20 years, cookies have been central to the performance marketing industry to track and target the right customer segments. Due to data privacy regulations and big tech companies’ evolving strategies, cookies are scheduled to be phased out by 2023. 
2. Marketers are already starting to collect and use customer data as an alternative to cookies. Many businesses are building partnerships with other companies and ecosystems to leverage users’ data in privacy-compliant ways. One of the exciting choices is collaborating with telcos.
3. Thanks to telcos’ vast amount of data and high-engagement channels, they can roll out cookie-free and privacy-friendly data-driven solutions for advertising, credit risk, and intelligence.

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Topics:  Marketing, Technology, Telecommunication

Leading & Managing Section

As the World Shifts, So Should Leaders

By Nitin Nohria | Harvard Business Review Magazine | From the Magazine (July–August 2022)

More than 20 years ago the author and his colleague Anthony Mayo launched the most ambitious research project they have ever undertaken. They started with a question: What are the defining characteristics of extraordinary business leaders? To answer it, they created a list of 1,000 outstanding 20th-century American business leaders and studied each in depth.

What thye found is: Great leaders were defined less by enduring traits and more by their ability to recognize and adapt to the opportunities created by a particular moment. They could sense the zeitgeist—the spirit, mood, ideas, and beliefs that define a period—and seize it.  Effective leadership, in other words, is largely context-specific: The same person who succeeds in one era might fail miserably in another. The zeitgeist, according to research the authors first published in HBR in 2005, is shaped by six factors: global events, government intervention, labor relations, demographics, social mores, and the technology landscape. Individuals who can recognize shifts in those factors and exploit them have what they call “contextual intelligence.”

What Kind of Leaders Do We Need Now?  The new zeitgeist will require executives with the instincts to deal with shifting external forces, the ability to sense fresh economic opportunities, and the skills to lead and manage in a different age.  For entrepreneurs, the time is ripe to identify and develop innovations—not only in the new technologies but keep their firm presence in existing ones. For instance, we can expect the creation of new tools to support activities that blossomed during the pandemic, such as work from anywhere, entertainment streaming, and telehealth. For managers who excel at leveraging economies of scale and scope and consolidating industries with too many players, there may be opportunities in maturing fields such as cloud computing, software as a service, and cybersecurity. Finally, sectors that are showing signs of decline—including brick-and-mortar retailing, branch banking, manufacturing, and distribution—will require leaders who are adept at restructuring and reinvention.

This new era also calls for executives with a knack for perceiving how politics and public opinion play a role in decision-making, because the costs of miscalculations are rising. Avoiding land mines starts with anticipating how different stakeholders will react to events unfolding inside and outside the company. And that requires leaders to first broaden their thinking about what’s relevant to their business.  The new zeitgeist will also require a greater emphasis on crisis management skills. Leaders can no longer assume that trouble may strike once every three or four years and be managed by outside crisis consultants. 

A range of other talents will be necessary for business leaders. They include using social media adroitly, motivating employees who seek purpose and meaning from their companies, satisfying all stakeholders instead of just shareholders, and driving digital transformation.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. What are the defining characteristics of extraordinary business leaders? 
2. A study involving 1,000 outstanding 20th-century American business leaders who were studied in depth in last ten years found that great leaders were defined less by enduring traits and more by their ability to recognize and adapt to the opportunities created by a particular moment. They could sense the zeitgeist—the spirit, mood, ideas, and beliefs that define a period—and seize it.  Effective leadership, in other words, is largely context-specific: The same person who succeeds in one era might fail miserably in another. 
3. The zeitgeist is shaped by six factors: global events, government intervention, labor relations, demographics, social mores, and the technology landscape. Individuals who can recognize shifts in those factors and exploit them have what could be called as “contextual intelligence.”

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(Copyright)Topics: Leadership, Environment, Decision-making, Change Management

Five ways to increase your board’s long-term impact

By  Celia Huber et al., | McKinsey & Company | July 15, 2022 

In its newest McKinsey Global Survey on boards, directors report both a growing number of days spent on board work and that they expect to devote even more time to board work this year than they did in 2021.  Yet despite that additional time spent, many directors do not report a corresponding increase in their boards’ overall impact on value creation.  Directors’ awareness that they need to invest more time in their work raises the question: How can they spend that additional time most effectively to secure their organizations’ long-term prosperity?  Based on the survey, the study recommends the following five changes to make changes to boards’ operating models—and to do so effectively.

1. Seek company information more proactively.  The survey results suggest that 83 percent now say their board members seek relevant information beyond what management provides, compared with 63 percent on other boards. This practice enhances a board’s potential impact by increasing board members’ familiarity with the organization’s overall context and the particular situation at hand, and also signals to the management team that the directors are making the effort to learn and contribute as much as possible.
2. Invest time in onboarding. Regardless of a new board member’s background, learning curves tend to be steep at the beginning of one’s tenure. It takes time to learn an organization’s strategy, culture, and overall ways of working—including how the board itself operates. Thorough, focused onboarding processes help board members learn quickly, so they can make effective contributions sooner rather than later.
3. Increase the cadence of board evaluations.  According to the survey, the highest-impact boards are more likely than other boards to regularly examine their performance and have increasingly engaged in formal evaluations since 2019. It’s best if boards conduct a more in-depth evaluation of their overall team performance at least once per year—for example, through interviews with all directors—and complement this effort with regular feedback sessions after every meeting.
4. Create space for nonexecutive voices. Giving independent directors the opportunity to discuss board topics among themselves increases accountability for both the board and the organization as a whole. If, at every board meeting, independent directors are given time to talk only to one another—with no company executives in the room—they can have more candid discussions about topics that would be difficult to address otherwise.
5. Appoint a chair who can facilitate effectively.  The board chair plays a critical role in ensuring that meetings are both efficient and effective. To do so, the chair must create a clear agenda that balances fiduciary and strategic topics, encourage all board directors to voice their opinions, and effectively synthesize and summarize different perspectives to form a good basis for decision making.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. In its newest McKinsey Global Survey on boards, directors report both a growing number of days spent on board work and that they expect to devote even more time to board work this year than they did in 2021.  Yet despite that additional time spent, many directors do not report a corresponding increase in their boards’ overall impact on value creation.  
2. Directors’ awareness that they need to invest more time in their work raises the question: How can they spend that additional time most effectively to secure their organizations’ long-term prosperity?  
3. Based on the survey, the study recommends the following to make changes to boards’ operating models—and to do so effectively: seek company information more proactively, invest time in onboarding, increase the cadence of board evaluations, create space for nonexecutive voices, and appoint a chair who can facilitate effectively.

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Topics:  Organizational Governance, Boards’ Effectiveness, Organizational Performance

Employer Branding Is the New Marketing Imperative

By Dipanjan Chatterjee et al., | MIT Sloan Management Review | July 21, 2022

Conventional wisdom has it that the increasing number of consumers motivated by social values is goading brands to support the greater social good. While there is some merit to that claim, there is arguably another equally powerful vector of change: the employee.  Employees are not only empowered and agitated; they are restless.  Building a brand that attracts and retains talent — employer branding — is at the top of the C-suite agenda and is the most critical priority among CMOs, according to a 2022 Forrester CMO Pulse Survey.

The evolution from traditional customer-oriented branding to employer branding is a natural one, for three primary reasons: the marketers have the right mindset, the right skills honed over years of experience, and can build the right narratives.  Based on their research the authors distilled these three best practices to help navigate employer branding.

1. Elevate marketing beyond its traditional mandate. For marketing to shape employer branding, the discipline must transcend its traditional customer-only orientation and embrace a broader role in the business. This emboldened marketer must view the brand as a thread that runs through the business, from candidate, employee, and customer experiences all the way to brand perception. When deciding the best use of budget, for example, this emboldened marketer must consider brand investments in talent acquisition and retention as much as their spending on traditional awareness and advertising programs.
2. Nurture the marketing-HR symbiosis. Every success story in employer branding recounted to the authors’ featured dual protagonists. Marketing brought an outside-in perspective and a distinct skill set that traditional HR functions lacked. The HR team brought a unique insight into employee motivators to inform the front-end strategy, and also the ability to implement the strategy through the employee life cycle. Marketing and HR are better together — a symbiotic relationship built on unique and complementary skills.
3. Amplify authenticity. The idea of authenticity has gained traction in traditional consumer branding, but authentically representing the brand is even more important in employer branding. Manufactured messages ring hollow with employees who have a front-row seat to the goings-on within a company, and they also lack credibility among job candidates. Successfully hiring and retaining talent requires an ongoing conversation through programs and campaigns that express the brand in an honest, transparent, and relatable manner, creating appeal for candidates and fostering loyalty among employees.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Conventional wisdom has it that the increasing number of consumers motivated by social values is goading brands to support the greater social good. While there is some merit to that claim, there is arguably another equally powerful vector of change: the employee.  
2. Employees are not only empowered and agitated; they are restless.  Building a brand that attracts and retains talent — employer branding — is at the top of the C-suite agenda and is the most critical priority among CMOs, according to a 2022 Forrester CMO Pulse Survey.
3. Based on their research the authors distilled these three best practices to help navigate employer branding: elevate marketing beyond its traditional mandate, nurture the marketing-HR symbiosis, and amplify authenticity.

Full Article

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Topics:  Marketing, Branding, Employment

Enterpreneurship Section

New Google Study of 900 Founders: All Effective Leaders Do These 7 Things

By Jessica Stillman | Inc Magazine | June 21, 20222

Google is famous for its love of data, not just when it comes to designing its products, but also when it comes to designing its business. The company has conducted much-discussed internal research into what makes for a successful manager e.g.  Now Google for Startups, the arm of the search behemoth dedicated to supporting high-growth startups, has turned its attention to founders. Given that more than half of startups fail because of people problems, Google wanted to know what makes for an effective startup leader. To figure this out the company’s researchers talked to more than 900 startup leaders in more than 40 countries.  The essential takeaway from this report are all successful startup leaders share the following seven essential traits:

1. They treat people like volunteers.  If you want to attract and retain the best talent, rely on mission rather than compensation or perks alone, the report suggests.
2. They protect the team from distractions.  Is finding your focus easy in the wide open, rapidly changing world of startups? Absolutely not, but Google insists that if leaders want to be effective, it’s a skill they have to learn.  Set clear goals and priorities to build momentum for your team. This in turn fuels better performance and morale.
3. They minimize unnecessary micromanagement.  Recognize which teammates need to be closely supervised, and which you can empower to make good decisions and operate independently.
4. They invite disagreement.  Disagreement among diverse teams actually leads to more effective outcomes.
5. They preserve interpersonal equity.  Successful co-founder relationships, like successful marriages, are built on open, clear communication, so make sure you discuss expectations in advance with your co-founders and stick to whatever you’ve agreed on. 
6. They keep pace with expertise.  People skills are essential for success, but don’t be lulled into thinking technical chops don’t matter. Google found they do. A lot. “Ninety-three percent of the most effective founders have the technical expertise to effectively manage the work, and make time to stay ahead of their industry,” the research found. 
7. They overcome discouragement.  Good news for aspiring founders who fear they don’t have the self-confidence to make it in the startup game: The most successful founders feel the exact same way. Everyone (who is not delusional or wildly misinformed) struggles with self-doubt. The best founders just use their self-doubt as a prompt to learn and try more. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Google is famous for its love of data, not just when it comes to designing its products, but also when it comes to designing its business. Now Google for Startups, the arm of the search behemoth dedicated to supporting high-growth startups, has turned its attention to founders. 
2. Given that more than half of startups fail because of people problems, Google wanted to know what makes for an effective startup leader. To figure this out the company’s researchers talked to more than 900 startup leaders in more than 40 countries.  
3. The essential takeaway from this report are all successful startup leaders share the following seven essential traits:  they treat people like volunteers, they protect the team from distractions, they minimize unnecessary micromanagement, they invite disagreement, they preserve interpersonal equity, they keep pace with expertise, and they overcome discouragement.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, Startups, Leadership

How To Use Entrepreneurial Creativity For Innovation

By Gurpreet Kaur | Entrepreneur Magazine | July 27, 2022

Entrepreneurial creativity is the ability to see into the future and generate ideas, solutions and innovations before they are needed. It is the ability to solve your customer’s or client’s problems before they even realize the problem exists.  Entrepreneurial innovation is the ability to turn an idea into reality. Entrepreneurial innovation is about creating new products or services, improving processes or finding new markets for existing products or services.  A few key things that you can do to develop your entrepreneurial creativity are: 

1. Have a growth mindset. A belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, good teaching and learning from mistakes. This belief leads to a love of learning and a willingness to take risks.
2. Be open to new ideas. Be willing to experiment and try new things.
3. Practice creative thinking. You need to be able to see things in new ways and make connections between seemingly disparate things. 
4. Take risks. Yes, but don’t forget the importance of planning. A plan gives you a roadmap to follow and helps ensure you take the proper steps to reach your goals.
5. Be passionate about what you do. It shows in your work when you are passionate about what you do. In addition, passion helps you think creatively and outside the box, two main components of being an innovative entrepreneur.
6. Be willing to experiment. Try new things and see what works. Don’t be afraid of failing. Failure is a part of the creative process and can lead to new and better ideas.
7. Practice freestyle writing regularly. Writing is a right-brain activity, especially creative writing. It helps you access the information that your left brain cannot.
8. Engage in right-brain activities regularly. These activities include but are not limited to drawing, painting, playing music, creating music, reading, singing, games that require imagination, etc. These activities help you use your right brain, making you more creative as you do these things often.
9. Surround yourself with other creative and innovative people. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Entrepreneurial creativity is the ability to see into the future and generate ideas, solutions and innovations before they are needed. It is the ability to solve your customer’s or client’s problems before they even realize the problem exists.  
2. Entrepreneurial innovation is the ability to turn an idea into reality. Entrepreneurial innovation is about creating new products or services, improving processes or finding new markets for existing products or services.  
3. A few key things that you can do to develop your entrepreneurial creativity are: have a growth mindset, be open to new ideas, be passionate about what you do, be willing to experiment, practice freestyle writing regularly, engage in right-brain activities regularly, and surround yourself with other creative and innovative people.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Innovation