Abstract
The first two developments in this Initiatives column – the Open Access movement and the British Library Business & IP Centre’s new partnership agreement – at first glance have no particular connection. Yet they are especially encouraging as they are both born from an open, collaborative agenda, with organizations working together to make knowledge more accessible and to fuel economic growth.
Open access
We covered the very important issue of ‘open access’ to research knowledge in the last edition of Initiatives through a feature on the Finch Report published in June 2012. The first major step along this road was a decade ago with the establishment of the so called Budapest Open Access Initiative. On its 10th anniversary, an important set of guidelines have been issued by SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), one of the most prominent international organizations that have been working so hard to advance this issue in academic, publishing and governmental circles.
Diverse OA Coalition issues new guidelines to make research freely available
In response to the growing demand to make research free and available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection, a diverse coalition has issued new guidelines that could usher in major advances in the sciences, medicine, and health. The recommendations were developed by leaders of the open access (OA) movement which has worked for the past decade to provide the public with unrestricted, free access to scholarly research, much of which is publicly funded.
Making the research publicly available to everyone – free of charge and without most copyright and licensing restrictions – will accelerate scientific research efforts and allow authors to reach a larger number of readers. ‘The reasons to remove restrictions as far as possible are to share knowledge and accelerate research. Knowledge has always been a public good in a theoretical sense. Open Access makes it a public good in practice,’ said Professor Peter Suber, director of the Open Access Project at Harvard University and a senior researcher at SPARC.
The OA recommendations include the development of OA policies in institutions of higher education and in funding agencies, the open licensing of scholarly works, the development of infrastructure such as OA repositories and creating standards of professional conduct for OA publishing. The recommendations also establish a new goal of achieving OA as the default method for distributing new peer-reviewed research in every field and in every country within ten years’ time.
Today, Open access is increasingly recognized as a right rather than an abstract ideal. The case for rapid implementation of open access continues to grow. Open access benefits research and researchers; increases the return to taxpayers on their investment in research; and amplifies the social value of research, funding agencies, and research institutions.
The OA recommendations are the result of a meeting hosted earlier this year by the Open Society Foundations, on the 10th anniversary of the landmark Budapest Open Access Initiative which first defined OA. SPARC, with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational, and publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research.
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local communities in more than 100 countries, the Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education.
Further information from: www.arl.org/sparc
Meanwhile, the UK Government has made its own response to the Finch Report with a commitment to make a major investment to help to implement some of the recommendations.
UK Government invests £10 million to help universities move to open access
A £10 million investment has been announced by the UK Government’s Universities and Science Minister David Willetts to help universities with the transition to open access to publicly-funded research findings. The investment will enable a number of research-intensive UK institutions to kick-start the process of developing policies and setting up funds to meet the costs of article processing charges (APCs). This is in line with the recommendations of the Finch report.
David Willetts said:
Removing paywalls surrounding publicly-funded research findings is a key commitment for this Government and will have real economic and social benefits. This extra £10 million investment will help some of our universities move across to the open access model. This will usher in a new era of academic discovery and keep the UK at the forefront of research to drive innovation and growth.
The investment will be made to 30 institutions receiving funding through Research Councils and UK higher education funding councils. It is in addition to the contribution RCUK will be making to institutions to support payment of APCs associated with open access through block funding grants from 1 April 2013 onwards. The UK Funding Councils launched a consultation in the autumn of 2012 on implementing a requirement that research outputs submitted to any future Research Excellence Framework (REF) should be as widely accessible as possible.
Professor Douglas Kell, RCUK Champion for Research and Information Management, welcomed the announcement, commenting:
We are delighted that BIS is providing additional funding to a number of universities to assist in their transition to full open access, helping them to set up and manage their funds for research publications. This underpins the work of RCUK and other research funders in providing full access to ground-breaking research that can contribute to both the economic growth and the social well-being of the UK and beyond.
David Sweeney, Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), said:
We welcome this allocation, which will help establish funds to support freely accessible research publications, and which underlines the principle of open access publication upon which our forthcoming consultation is based. We are delighted to be working with the Research Councils and other funders in this work to support research findings being more widely disseminated.
The Government has already formally responded to the Finch report on open access and accepted the main recommendations. The details of how the measures detailed in the report should be developed are being worked on by funders in consultation with universities, research institutions, authors and publishers.
Further information from:
The Department for Business Innovation & Skills: news.bis.gov.uk
The Finch Report: www.researchinfonet.org/publish/finch/.
The UK Government’s response to the Report: http://tinyurl.com/cj2sv4t
Public information services for Business Development & Innovation
The British Library’s Business & IP Centre is an outstanding example of the way library and information services can help to generate economic and business development and has featured frequently in Initiatives over the past few years. With the help of London Development Agency funding it was established in March 2006. Since then, it has welcomed over 250,000 people through the doors and has an excellent track record in helping people from all walks of life to commercialize and exploit their ideas. The Centre provides free access to an unparalleled resource of business and intellectual property information (over £5 million worth), supplemented by one-to-one advice clinics, practical workshops and networking events featuring role model entrepreneurs. In a most interesting development, it is now to become more influential across the whole UK.
The British Library partners with six city libraries to share its business services across the UK
The British Library, the Intellectual Property Office and six major UK city libraries have signed an agreement stating their joint intention to establish a national network of services for small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country, modelled on the services offered by the Library’s Business & IP Centre.
This agreement is an outcome of funding granted to the British Library earlier this year by the Intellectual Property Office, supporting a feasibility study looking at how the success of its Business & IP Centre in supporting SMEs, start-ups, inventors and entrepreneurs could be shared nationally. While the project remains in the blueprint stage, this agreement is an important step towards establishing a national network of business and innovation advice centres across the UK, modelled on the flagship Business & IP Centre at the British Library in St Pancras, London.
All of the participating libraries in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield are part of the PATLIB network, and have the core intellectual property and business collections and expertise which are crucial to the success of the proposed partnership. Building on these foundations, the project aims to share knowledge and expertise in order to help each city library to integrate the ‘one-stop-shop’ information service which the British Library’s Business & IP Centre specializes in. It also aims to strengthen knowledge exchange between business and libraries, and establish a network of best practice and resources-sharing across the seven cities.
Since the IPO funding was awarded in March 2012, considerable support work has been done with focus groups in each of the local communities to assess their unique needs. After this recent agreement, the project will move forward to deliver on plans to share the British Library’s Business & IP information resources across the PATLIB network and to work together to strengthen services for small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country.
The idea for the network has been piloted in Newcastle Library over the past year, and they hope to be fully operational in Spring 2013, with the remaining city libraries planning to pilot the services throughout 2013 and 2014. After this point the libraries will be looking to secure support and funding in each local area, in order to make the piloted schemes a permanent fixture.
Isabel Oswell, Head of Business Marketing at the British Library, says:
Since opening in 2006, the Business & IP Centre in St Pancras has helped to create over 2500 businesses and over 3000 additional jobs, and has provided information, inspiration and practical support to over 30,000 people. We are thrilled to be working with these city libraries on this project and look forward to our business and innovation support service being shared with thousands more people across the UK.
Tony Durcan, Director of Culture for Newcastle City Council, says:
Working in partnership with the British Library and the other city libraries has been hugely beneficial for us. Newcastle Libraries has already reached over 2000 entrepreneurs in the North-East through our pilot Centre, and we look forward to seeing more of the benefits of the network emerge as our plans develop and we launch fully in Spring 2013.
Rosa Wilkinson, Director of Innovation at the Intellectual Property Office, says:
The UK has a rich pool of creative and innovative businesses, but making sure those businesses can find the help and advice needed to help them turn their great ideas into commercial success has never been more important. Developing tailored Business & IP Centre services through the PATLIB network, geared to the needs of the local business community, will help unleash their real growth potential.
A copy of the Centre’s recent evaluation, which demonstrates how it has contributed towards London’s economy, can be found at www.bl.uk/bipc/pdfs/evaluation.pdf
Further information from: www.bl.uk/bipc
Digital information skills, use and abuse
In this global digital world, how is the process of modernization and rapid change to be judged at a national level? Taking the UK as an example, how is the national digital agenda to be advanced and a fatal dichotomy avoided between those who can use technology to their advantage and the information poor who cannot? How can a Government harness these technologies to effect savings and provide better services to its nationals? Another major issue which impacts on all of us is the legal position of content in a ‘cut & paste’ and ‘download everything for free’ world.
16m people in UK lack basic online skills: Report
According to a survey conducted by consultants Booz & Co, the UK economy as a whole could have been £63bn better off if the country had achieved global digital leadership in skills and commerce. The evidence suggests that about 16 million people in the UK lack basic online skills, only one in three companies currently have a digital presence and just 14 per cent sell their products online. The report found small and medium businesses in the UK are losing £18.8bn annually as they do not have websites to sell their products online.
The report was launched by the UK digital champion Martha Lane Fox, who currently chairs a charity called Go On UK which intends to improve digital literacy in the country. The charity is working with businesses that include Lloyds Bank, EE, energy group E.On, the Post Office and the BBC, Age UK and the Big Lottery Fund to train its employees in the four basic skills identified by the report.
Lane Fox said:
We read every day of the huge challenges that the UK faces both economically and socially. We need to make the country fit for purpose through the next decade and ensure everyone and every organization has basic digital literacy.
On the launch of the report, the BBC cited latest figures from the Office of National Statistics which say 7.82 million adults (16%) in the UK have never used the internet in 2012, 10 per cent lower than in 2011.
So there is a real doubt that the UK is fully exploiting the potential offered by digitization to support and promote its economic and societal well-being. Yet by all measures, the UK is a leading digital nation. It is ranked 12 out of 150 on the Booz & Company Digitization Index which compares the state of progress for nations around the world. In its digital foundations – the confluence of an affordable, fast, and robust broadband network of infrastructure, public- and private-sector digital services, and residents with a high level of education – analysis shows that the UK has a very strong platform for future development.
The World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranks the UK 10th, on the basis of the impact of technology on international competitiveness.
The Web Index (TWI), produced by the World Wide Web Foundation (a group that Sir Tim Berners Lee founded), ranks the UK third, on the basis of a broad suite of measures representing the social and economic value of the Web.
But the United Kingdom’s current digital status may not be enough to remain competitive in a highly turbulent global economy. The challenge for the UK is to further enhance its position at the leading edge of digital advancement, utilizing the full range of transformative technologies to deliver economic and social benefits to all of society.
The Report says:
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, near-universal electrification transformed the lives of everyone, profoundly improving the lot of the most vulnerable. Digitization could have a similar impact. However, its benefits are not unlocked just by flicking a switch. Realizing the full digital potential of the United Kingdom will require a holistic approach from government, businesses, and members of the community, working together to connect with the individuals and organizations now missing out on the benefits of being online.
The authors of the report propose a three-pronged strategy to unlock this potential fully:
The UK needs to continue investing in the digital foundations to improve the digital infrastructure, develop more and better online services, and bolster human capital.
Internet usage must be promoted. This means reaching out to individuals and organizations that are not online to ensure they have easy access to digital technologies, are aware of the benefits of being online, and have the basic digital literacy skills needed to engage with the digital world.
The innovations and entrepreneurship of the private and not-for-profit sectors needs to be encouraged. As digital platforms expand through the UK, companies and organizations will create new forms of value-adding enterprise. This needs to be encouraged and abetted.
The report argues that universal digitization has the potential to unlock substantial economic and social benefits for four sectors in particular: individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), charities, and government.
Improving education outcomes; Web-based learning can increase levels of engagement and attainment Improving employability; digitization promotes more effective job-hunting and flexible working arrangements Improving health and well-being; studies show digitization can raise the quality of diagnosis and care, through remote monitoring and other innovations Reducing isolation; access to the Internet can help elderly users stay connected to friends and family.
Supercharging revenue growth; digital technology can enable SMEs to unlock as much as £18.8 billion in incremental revenue Streamlining the cost base; digitization can help channel scarce resources and help businesses expand more effectively Boosting the service sectors; as they invest in digitizing their offerings SMEs could improve customer satisfaction and retention.
Significantly enhancing fund-raising potential; digital technologies can more effectively link donors with worthy causes Transforming operations; the right technologies can lower operating costs and enhance the reach of not-for-profit organizations.
Cost savings; central and local governments can potentially recoup £5.1 billion annually with the digital delivery of services Meeting environmental challenges; governments can make use of digitization to reduce CO2 emissions.
Research suggests that countries that lead the world in promoting affordable access to the Web, and that successfully adopt new digital models of public- and private-service delivery on a large scale, can unlock new economic growth opportunities.
‘This Is for Everyone’: the case for universal digitization. Booz & Co., 2012.
Further information from: www.go-on.co.uk
UK Government’s Digital Strategy
The UK Government’s plan to save money and make services easier by making them accessible online has been pushed forward with the release of the Governmental Digital Strategy & the Digital Efficiency report by Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet office. The Digital Strategy outlines how the government can save up to £1.2bn by 2015 by making everyday transactions digital.
‘Digital services are much more convenient because they can be accessed whenever you want them,’ said Maude. ‘They are also much more efficient, saving taxpayers’ money and the user’s time. Online transactions can be 20 times cheaper than by phone, 30 times cheaper than face-to-face, and up to 50 times cheaper than by post.’
Over one billion transactions are handled every year by the government through 650 different services. Many of these services offer no digital options or are underused. The Government’s strategy wants to make its digital services attractive, so accessing them online will be the preferred option.
‘Britain is in a global race and that’s why we need to have modern, efficient, digital-by-default public services that are fit for the 21st century,’ said Maude. ‘Building world-class government digital services will take time but the publication of this strategy just a fortnight after the launch of gov.uk is an important milestone,’ he added. ‘I’d like to pay tribute to the work of civil servants in the Government Digital Service and beyond who have shown how Whitehall can improve and adapt by embracing new ways of working.’
All civil service departments will soon be required to have a digital leader on their executive boards. By the end of 2012, the seven Whitehall departments will point out three important services, with over 100,000 transactions per year, which will receive a digital overhaul.
‘This is the first time that the Government has produced a strategy in this way, a truly digital document which reflects our ambitions and signals a clear roadmap for working with departments to help them achieve the goals set out in this strategy,’ said Mike Bracken, executive director for Government Digital Service. The publication of the digital strategy follows the launch of GOV.UK last month to make accessing government information clearer and easier.
Further information from: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Ofcom: Half of internet users unsure if content is legal
According to a UK Office of Communications survey, nearly half of all internet users are unsure whether the content they are accessing online is legal. However, one in six people online believed they downloaded or accessed content illegally over a three-month period this year.
The findings come from the first wave of a large-scale consumer study into the extent of online copyright infringement among internet users aged 12 and above. This ongoing research will identify trends over time, examining infringement of copyright on music, films, TV programmes, software, books and video games.
According to the report, 47 per cent of users cannot confidently identify whether the online content they download, stream or share is legal or not – highlighting the importance of increased efforts to educate and inform consumers.
In June 2012, Ofcom published a draft Code that would require large fixed internet service providers (ISPs) to inform customers of allegations that their internet connection has been used to infringe copyright, and to explain where they can find licensed content on the internet. Under the amended Communications Act 2003, Ofcom will report to the Government on efforts made by content owners to invest in awareness campaigns to help educate consumers about the impact of copyright infringement.
The consumer study also found that:
One in six (16%) internet users aged 12+ downloaded or accessed online content illegally during the three month period from May to July 2012;
Reported levels of infringement varied considerably by content type: 8 per cent of internet users consumed some music illegally in the three months, but just 2 per cent did so for games and software;
The most common reasons cited for accessing content illegally were because it is free (54%), convenient (48%) and quick (44%). Around a quarter (26%) of infringers said it allows them to try before they buy;
Infringers said they would be encouraged to stop doing so if cheaper legal services were available (39%), everything they wanted was available from a legal source (32%) or it was more clear what content was legal (26%). One in six said they would stop if they received one notifying letter from their ISP;
Those who consumed a mixture of legal and illegal online content in the form of music, films and TV programmes reported spending more on legal content in these categories over the three-month period than those who consumed entirely legal or illegal content.
The research follows a recommendation in the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth that Ofcom should start gathering independent data and establishing trends in the area of online copyright before its formal reporting duties begin, under the Digital Economy Act 2010, when the Code comes into force.
Consumer research is only one perspective on levels of online copyright infringement. For a more complete picture, it should be considered alongside direct measurement of behaviour on file-sharing websites and wider industry data. Ofcom expects to consider all these data sources as part of its statutory reporting duties in the near future.
The full report, the OCI Tracker Benchmark Study, is freely available. It was funded by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), and carried out by Kantar Media on behalf of Ofcom. The report contains details about the methodology used, and the underlying data (PDF) is also being made available for further analysis.
Further information from: media.ofcom.org.uk
New product and service development
This miscellany represents so many of the major threads and directions in the business information industry. We include news of two exciting apps, one by an industry giant (Bloomberg), the other by a precocious 17 year old Wunderkind, a fascinating juxtaposition that sums up the territory. A corporate governance tool for board-level use has been developed by Thomson Reuters. The significance of Middle Eastern & Asian financial markets are emphasized by new products on Islamic finance & Asian financial markets. Major publisher Wiley has developed a comprehensive statistics website bringing together disparate material. The increasing provision of video content for management development is illustrated by the Harvard Business Review. Green issues are covered in Thomson Reuters’ Sustainability website and the ever increasing important function of compliance is assisted by a new D&B product.
Bloomberg’s Enterprise App Portal to Financial Markets
Bloomberg has launched the Bloomberg App Portal, a new platform that gives Bloomberg subscribers access to a range of speciality applications powered by data and news from the Bloomberg Professional service.
Applications on the Bloomberg App Portal are developed by software companies, financial institutions, academics and other third parties. The Bloomberg App Portal enables Bloomberg subscribers to enhance their user experience by adding speciality features and tools that complement those available on the Bloomberg Professional service.
It is this characteristic that makes this development particularly interesting. Some industry watchers have described the App as an iTunes-style portal for applications to allow clients and outside developers to incorporate their own software into the group’s financial data terminals and sell it to Bloomberg’s roughly 315,000 subscribers.
Currently, there are more than 45 applications available on the Bloomberg App Portal across a variety of categories including data analysis, news and research, portfolio management and risk analysis, valuation and pricing, data visualization and technical analysis. Institutional clients can also use the Bloomberg App Portal to deploy proprietary software tools to their own employees and clients.
‘Cultivating the third-party developer community is critical to enhancing the user experience and growing the value of the Bloomberg Professional service,’ said Tom Secunda, co-founder and Global Head of Bloomberg’s Financial Products and Services group. ‘The Bloomberg App Portal extends our commitment to embrace innovation and fuel creativity in the financial marketplace.’ Given the reputation of the Company for proprietary systems, this App is a notable change. Secunda added ‘I know a lot of people thought of us as sort of a closed system. Maybe this will make people look at us a bit differently.’
‘Software developers with a great idea, but limited global reach, can work with Bloomberg to get in front of financial professionals around the world virtually overnight,’ said Stanley Young, chief executive officer of Bloomberg’s Enterprise Products and Solutions business. ‘Our intention is to complement Bloomberg’s existing functionality with third-party applications that enable our clients to achieve success.’
Like Apple’s iTunes store, Bloomberg will keep 30 per cent of all sales over the app portal, but it is believed that this was unlikely to represent significant revenue in the context of Bloomberg’s size. It does not release financial details but its revenues have been estimated by industry analysts at more than $7bn.
A division of Bloomberg’s Enterprise Products and Solutions business, the Bloomberg App Portal team, led by Claudio Storelli, follows a formal application review and selection protocol. Once selected, application developers receive technical and business support from the Bloomberg team as part of an on-boarding and software quality assurance process.
License fees for applications on the Bloomberg App Portal are separate from the Bloomberg professional service subscription and vary by application and package. Users can currently download and review virtually all applications for a preview period before purchase is required.
Further information from: www.bloomberglp.com/app-portal
Summly news app from young tyro entrepreneur
Hopefully, the British Library Business & IP Centre and network partners can encourage and inspire young entrepreneurs such as Nick D’Aloisio. But even without that help the 17 year old British-Australian computer programmer is doing very well and has attracted a great deal of media attention for his precocious software development achievements. D’Aloisio has been recognized as the youngest person to receive a round of venture capital in technology at just 15 years of age!
He has now launched a clever iOS app called Summly which uses an algorithm to summarize full news stories into bite-sized sentences to fit within a mobile device’s screen. The new app allows users to browse and read condensed summaries from their favourite news outlets, as well as being able to discover new stories from hundreds of sources.
Summly allows users to customize news to the topics, keywords and news sources as well as share summaries with friends via social channels, SMS, and email.
D’Aloisio said:
I designed Summly because I felt that my generation wasn’t consuming traditional news any more. In designing for the mobile generation, I believe we’ve created an app that will benefit anyone who loves reading news on the go. We’ve been able to build an industry-leading app that performs even better than human summaries in our tests. We think this is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be done with summarization technology.
D’Aloisio said he partnered with several experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and design to build the new app. The app received over $1m in funding from investors and backed by several investors, including Horizons Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Betaworks, Brian Chesky, Hosain Rahman, Joanna Shields, Josh Kushner, Mark Pincus, Matt Mullenweg, Stephen Fry, Troy Carter, Yoko Ono and others.
Further information from: http://summly.com
Thomson Reuters’ BoardLink for corporate governance workflow
Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced further strategic enhancements to its BoardLink service, a secure board workflow solution designed to serve companies as they operate across borders and involve increasingly mobile, global boards.
Thomson Reuters BoardLink has enhanced and adapted its functionality to include strategic business insight for directors, new corporate governance features like online voting and a sharply enhanced user experience. These key developments, shaped in conjunction with Thomson Reuters board clients, continue to take the solution beyond a board portal to a secure corporate governance solution that helps better inform and equip boards in an environment of increased scrutiny from investors, regulators and the media.
Now available via the BoardLink iPad application are new best practice corporate governance features, such as online voting capabilities, that allow board members to vote on important activities and agenda items for discussion. These further streamline workflow process, allowing time-pressed boards to accomplish more within a single, secure online environment. A sharper, more intuitive iPad user experience provides greater power and ease of use to increasingly mobile directors and enhances sign-in process, workflow functionality and navigation.
BoardLink now includes a new layer of strategic business insight, filtered by industry and company, which will help directors’ preparedness and decision making; this will benefit both executive and non-executive members of boards. New availability of analyst reports on BoardLink provides board members with strategic business intelligence on investor perceptions about their own organization as well as their peers. Additionally, filtered news feeds relevant to the specific organization, peers and industry can now be delivered via BoardLink and shared amongst board members.
Thomson Reuters BoardLink has received SysTrust and SSAE 16 Audit Report certification which analyzes a service organization’s controls over its system relating to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, or privacy. This certification process provides transparency for customers by providing unbiased third-party independent verification of the controls and operations of the solution.
‘These latest updates mark BoardLink’s transformation from a board meeting tool to a board governance solution,’ said Kevin Ritchey, senior vice president, Governance, Transactions & Legal Risk, Thomson Reuters. ‘Board members and executive management should see their governance enhanced through strategic business insight on their industry and company, and new workflow tools that will complement their existing ability to remotely access critical internal information.’
Thomson Reuters BoardLink iPad app is a powerful tool to support increasingly mobile board members, along with a secure, Web-based board portal for Corporate and Company Secretaries to manage Board workflow. This enables users to communicate and share documents, create topic-specific workspaces, compile and share board books, and have access to critical business intelligence and board committee documents.
BoardLink is available as part of the Thomson Reuters Accelus suite of products
Financial Times launches MandateWire Asia
The Financial Times has launched MandateWire Asia, a new service that provides money managers with business intelligence on institutional asset flows and sales leads.
Already well known in the global investment community in Europe and the US, MandateWire has seen significant growth in Europe and the US over the past few years and its expansion into Asia further highlights the need for high quality information for asset managers worldwide. It also forms part of the FT’s strategy of taking its leading publications to a global audience.
MandateWire Asia acts as a platform for money managers to engage with Asian investors and has a dedicated team of reporters based in Hong Kong. It initially focuses on the top 300 funds in the region, with general coverage of the rest of the market. Countries of focus will include Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
Acquired by the Financial Times in August 2009, MandateWire is recognized as a major source institutional asset management intelligence and monitors the investment activities of over 5,000 institutional investors. In June 2010, the brand extended its offering with a US edition and MandateWire Asia is the third part of its portfolio.
Further information from: www.ft.com
Wiley launches StatisticsViews.com
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has announced the launch of StatisticsViews.com, a new website created for professional statisticians, analysts, students, and any user of statistics in interdisciplinary subjects as a major source for any information related to statistical research.
StatisticsViews.com provides users of statistics with access to Wiley’s statistics information delivering a new service and ‘one-stop shop’ for the statistics community.
Covering biostatistics, business and economics, engineering, environmental statistics, social science, tools, methods, and resources, the website allows users to search exhaustively in their area of interest, bringing statistics together in one accessible site. To aid easy navigation, StatisticsViews.com is split into areas of statistical application.
Feature articles are exclusively published on StatisticsViews.com. Additionally, news items, events, early view articles, books, videos, tutorials, interviews with leading as well as up-and-coming statisticians, career development information, jobs, webinars, and society details can all be viewed on one page, delivering aggregated content in a meaningful way for statisticians.
‘Wiley is the world’s leading statistics publisher, and we are proud to launch StatisticsViews.com,’ said Jon Walmsley, VP & Managing Director, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Wiley. ‘By providing access to the latest statistics news, research, and training materials, the new site aims to support members of the subject community at every stage in their career.’
New items are added every day, including exclusive interviews with leading practitioners and reports from key events. A recent news article and feature articles include:
International Year of Statistics committee announces video contest
Feature on publication of special issue marking the centennial of the birth of statistician Jerome Cornfield
Feature interview with a leading LSE professor on the statistical significance of the speeches of US Presidents from Wilson to Obama.
‘Wiley aims to maintain the highest level of editorial integrity for StatisticsViews.com and ensure that we continually publish quality content of relevance and interest to the entire statistics community,’ said Publications Manager and Editor for StatisticsViews.com, Alison Oliver. ‘We are very excited about StatisticsViews.com which we hope will grow and expand in delivering new products and services in response to the changing needs of the community.’
Wiley is keen to encourage societies, statistical software providers, conference hosts, and training providers to contribute to StatisticsViews.com, which strives to serve the statistics community by featuring their activities.
Wiley offers other news and information sites, including ChemistryViews.com, designed for chemists and other scientists to deliver news on the latest research in the chemical industry, as well as MaterialsViews.com, covering the cutting edge of research in materials science news and jobs.
Further information from: www.statisticsviews.com
HBR’s video channel offerings
‘Initiatives’ has regularly covered the increasing output of video material for business available via the web. We have also previously referred to the Harvard Business Review video channel launch. With regular material being added we felt that it was worth taking another look.
Harvard Business Publishing is offering an innovative approach to leadership development, with hundreds of ‘short bite’ videos on tackling business challenges, providing learning opportunities for busy managers. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) Channel videos, which range in length from two to five minutes, feature thought leaders, consultants, and executives sharing ideas, personal stories, tips, best practices, and lessons learned on a number of critical business topics.
Recent additions are typical of the output and are worth looking at:
Innovate by looking for problem patterns: Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School Professor, explains how to approach innovation creatively by studying the problem you are trying to solve and how it was resolved by other industries.
Hire for personality: Robert Chavez, CEO of Hermes US, argues companies must foster open communication to build a collaborative working environment.
Do not be afraid to rethink your services: Kamalini Ramdas, London Business School professor, suggests four ways companies can become more efficient.
The healthy fear that drives growth: Jessica Herrin, founder and CEO of Stella + Dot, recommends a scrappy, entrepreneurial approach to budgeting – for business of all sizes.
Defuse difficult people: Nina Godiwalla, CEO of Mindworks, outlines how to change your reaction to a disagreement in order to create a better situation.
Leading like a swan: Gill Rider, president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says teams perform best when managers are calm and authentic.
Getting strategy execution right: Michael Jarrett, INSEAD professor, on the most important imperative for your business.
Sometimes, you cannot juggle priorities: Eric Sinoway, author of the HBR article ‘No, you can’t have it all’ and the book ‘Howard’s Gift: Uncommon wisdom to inspire your life’s work,’ on the limits of perfectionism when faced with a crisis.
Evaluate M&As the right way: Laurence Capron, professor at INSEAD, explains why companies need to balance mergers and acquisitions with organic growth.
The art of career development: Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor at INSEAD, explains what we can all learn from artists.
Catalyzing innovation in your team: Frank Barrett, author of ‘Yes to the mess,’ describes why being uncomfortable spurs creative thinking.
Customer service in a crisis: René Carayol of Cass Business School explains how First Direct’s commitment to customer service saved a life on 9/11.
Further information from: hbr.org/multimedia/video
Thomson Reuters launches sustainability website
Thomson Reuters has launched a new website called Sustainability. The site brings together resources from across Thomson Reuters, combined with relevant partner content, into a single space. The website enables dialogue and is intended to support customers and engaged citizens in their efforts to find a more sustainable pathway for their businesses and communities.
‘Focusing on sustainability – for ourselves and for our customers – is good business,’ said James C. Smith, chief executive officer, Thomson Reuters. ‘This new Thomson Reuters website encompasses a broad range of issues, products and practices concerning the environment, economies, corporate citizenship and risk management. It is intended to serve and encourage sustainability initiatives across the global community of professionals.’
Sustainability provides multiple perspectives on energy and environmental issues, including on-topic news, analysis, and opinion from Reuters news; content and analysis for professionals from Thomson Reuters businesses; insight from outside experts working in specialist fields such as climate, energy, health, law, and corporate governance; reporting on the efforts of The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the company’s own corporate responsibility initiatives; and aggregated news content from other sources. Future plans for the site include tools and unique resources, which will be introduced as they become available.
Thomson Reuters has a number of products to support customers in their efforts to comply with regulations and grow their businesses in a sustainable and responsible manner, including BoardLink, Asset4, Accelus, World-Check, Point Carbon, and Lanworth.
According to Ryan Sheppard, vice president of Trademark Assets and a leading member of the development team for the site,
Sustainability is a huge and growing issue for all of us. We must all think in new ways about a world of finite resources and vulnerable systems to ensure a sustainable future and begin conversations that include individuals and corporations, citizens and societies. Sustainability will provide news and other resources to provide context for this new thinking.
Further information from: www.thomsonreuters.com
D&B product to uncover potential risk from customers and suppliers
D&B has announced the launch of D&B Compliance Check, a data product providing organizations advanced screening and monitoring of customer and supplier business practices to ensure global regulatory compliance with a growing range of global anti-fraud and corruption regulations. The new product will help companies identify banned or suspect entities and individuals, strengthen fraud protection, ensure regulatory compliance, manage supply and distribution risk, and protect their brand.
‘Companies moving into global markets can have limited visibility into new supplier/partner processes and regional business practices. They can easily be at risk for violating a broad range of regulations that are proliferating worldwide,’ said Josh Peirez, President, Global Product, Marketing and Innovation at D&B. ‘With our new compliance solution, companies now have the expertise, intelligence, technology, tools and resources to ensure compliance across the entire supply chain, safeguarding their revenue and brand credibility.’
This new product enables organizations to access D&B data and insight on more than 210 million companies, 100 million people, 900 industries and three million corporate family trees, along with integrated social data from influential social platforms. Utilizing multiple databases, including global watch lists, regulatory authority actions, law enforcement sources, and global news sources, updated daily, businesses have comprehensive and broad-reaching compliance assistance.
Key intended benefits of D&B Compliance Check include:
Uncover hidden risk: Mitigate risk throughout the value chain by assessing the complete risk in the corporate family, including individuals, not just a single entity.
Improve efficiency: Save time and money by using D&B’s technologies to gain a broad and complete screen while at the same time reducing and/or eliminating false-positives of data points. Returns only the alerts that matter to a unique business based on risk event code, event stage, age of alert, entity type and match score.
Objective, fact-based guidance: Using source data from more than 10,000 media organizations to stay abreast of global adverse events, including information on the organization, owners and executive management within a network of suppliers, partners and customers.
D&B Compliance Check is the first in a suite of products designed to help businesses better manage risk and compliance. This will help regulatory compliance, fraud avoidance, diversity and corporate social responsibility objectives, supplier certification/due diligence and reputational/ethics risk. D&B plans to roll out additional products and services in 2013.
Further information from: www.dnb.com
Bloomberg launches new corporate sukuk index for Islamic finance
Bloomberg has announced further commitment to the Islamic finance market with the launch of a Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) corporate sukuk index, developed with the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) and Bursa Malaysia. The Bloomberg AIBIM Bursa Malaysia Corporate Sukuk Index will serve as a benchmark for investors of ringgit-denominated Islamic bonds in Malaysia, the world’s biggest sukuk market.
Global demand for corporate and sovereign sukuk has grown over the last decade and in Malaysia, as low borrowing costs continue to drive issuance. Malaysia is having a record year for sales of corporate sukuk, with potentially about 20 billion ringgit of Shariah-compliant debt in the pipeline, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The new corporate sukuk index will track and measure the performance of the most liquid and credit-worthy Islamic corporate bonds in Malaysia. Bloomberg will calculate the Index daily, with rates and prices contributed by member banks of AIBIM.
‘Bloomberg has been investing in Islamic finance globally and this announcement reaffirms our commitment to Malaysia’s development as a global Islamic financial centre,’ said Kamel Hajri, Bloomberg’s Business Manager for Islamic Finance.
This collaboration means we now have a complete portfolio of Islamic finance indices and tools for Malaysia. We look forward to expanding our joint efforts with key industry players to further enhance market transparency and liquidity, with the goal of fulfilling investor demand for more robust Shariah-compliant solutions.
Dato’ Mohd Redza Shah Abdul Wahid, President of AIBIM, said,
With the diversification of the Islamic finance market, there is a growing need for access to accurate, timely and comprehensive data. Strategic collaboration to develop localized financial products will help stimulate the long-term growth, competitiveness and sustainability of Islamic finance services.
‘As a top global sukuk underwriter, we see domestic and foreign issuers actively tapping the Malaysian sukuk market,’ said Dato’ Mohamad Zabidi Ahmad, CIMB Malaysia’s Head of Islamic Treasury. ‘By providing accurate pricing and benchmarking, this index will improve portfolio management and contribute to a more robust bond market.’
Deputy Governor Muhammad Ibrahim said,
Malaysia continues to develop and strengthen Islamic finance with increasingly sophisticated products and supportive infrastructure. The launch of the Bloomberg AIBIM Bursa Malaysia Corporate Sukuk Index is timely as it will contribute to better price transparency that enables investors to make informed investment decisions.
This is the third sukuk index Bloomberg, in collaboration with Bank Negara, AIBIM and Bursa Malaysia, has developed for the Malaysian market. In 2011, Bloomberg launched the AIBIM Bursa Malaysia Sovereign Index (BMSSITR) and the Malaysia Sukuk Ex-MYR Index (BMSSUTR), as part of its Islamic Finance Platform (ISLM), a broad set of data, analytics and news dedicated to Shariah- compliant products and services.
Further information from: www.bloomberg.com/professional
Social media
Which type of communicator are you?
New analysis of the UK’s communication habits has found that people can be categorized into five different groups of communicators, ranging from the ‘always on’ to the ‘detached’. Earlier in 2012, Ofcom’s Communication Market Report revealed that the UK is now texting more that talking. Further more, recent analysis of the research looks at the methods and frequency of communication, as well as people’s attitudes towards it.
The study classifies adults into one of five groups, divided by the ways they choose to communicate and how often:
‘Always on’ (22% of adults). The youngest group, with half (50%) aged under 35, they communicate a lot, especially with their friends and family. They are almost twice as likely to use services such as Twitter (28%) than the national average (16%). More likely to own a mobile phone and have access to a computer than average – always on communicators use new technology to keep in touch. They use their mobile phones especially for texting (90%) and calls (88%) and are more comfortable about sharing information online.
‘Enlightened’ (19% of adults). A younger group, with 44 per cent aged under 35, enlightened communicators like to keep up to date with the latest technology. They are more likely to say they are knowledgeable about the internet and are careful about sharing personal information online. Enlightened communicators use text and email to keep in touch with friends and family, and around a third say their use of email has increased in the past two years.
‘Middle-of-the-road’ (22% of adults). Generally aged 35–54, their levels of communication are much more in line with the general population. Middle-of-the-road communicators tend to use a range of methods to keep in touch, with face to face (78%) their favourite. They are most likely to be hesitant about sharing personal opinions on social media and will tend to let others try out new services first before they give them a go themselves (11% say they are the first to try new products and services compared to 21% overall).
‘Conventional’ (21% of adults). The oldest group, with almost half (47%) aged over 65, conventional communicators tend to be retired and live on their own. Conventional communicators are more likely to have a landline phone (81%), rather than a computer (39%) or mobile phone (73%). Their top preferred methods of keeping in touch with friends and family are meeting face to face (75% compared to 67% nationally) or calling them on their home phone (16% compared to 10% nationally). On special occasions such as birthdays, they are more likely to send their friends or family a card or present in the post (69%) than the overall population (58%).
‘Detached’ (16% of adults). More likely to be men across a wide range of ages, communication is not a priority for them. They are least likely to choose to meet someone face to face, with only 42 per cent saying it is their top preferred method of communicating with friends and family compared to 67 per cent nationally. They are more likely to use newer quick form text methods of communication, such as Twitter than the overall population (19% v 16%).
The research asked respondents the extent to which they agreed with a number of statements. This highlights the varied attitudes among the five groups towards different methods of communication relative to the national average.
Information & Knowledge Management
There is so much talk these days about ‘spreading good practice’ in professional and managerial terms. Also ‘using exemplars’ from success in other organizations (or within our own) to show the rest of us mortals the best way forward. This is conventional good sense, of course, but in my senior management career I have always thought that there is far too little consideration of learning from failure. There are a number of reasons for this, most obviously the unwillingness of professionals to disclose their mistakes and to expose their frailties to close scrutiny by the rest of the world.
EIU report on learning from failure in successful innovation
So I was heartened to discover a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (sponsored by Oracle) which discovered that the world’s most innovative companies not only permit failure, but welcome and harness it to craft more successful ideas. Disappointingly though, according to the report ‘Cultivating business-led innovation’, nearly half of respondents to this EIU global survey say their companies have no system in place that helps them learn from failures. Surely, this is an opportunity for a KM approach to sharing knowledge? Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably given the interests of the report sponsor, the researchers refer to the great potential of IT in this process but does not specifically mention information/knowledge management.
The ‘Cultivating business-led innovation’ report explores how senior executives can promote a culture of innovation by empowering different business units. Most companies struggle with innovation. It is difficult to come up with new ideas continually, particularly ones that people will pay for. To promote innovation, many researchers suggest executives cultivate a specific mindset: one that is more open, nimble and resilient – as well as willing to fail. Otherwise, they risk what the Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck calls ‘CEO disease’, or the peril of the fixed mindset. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she notes that the power that CEOs wield allows them to ‘surround themselves only with the good news of their perfection and the company’s success, no matter what the warning signs may be.’
As the basis for the research, the EIU in April 2012 conducted a global survey of 226 senior executives. The respondents were based primarily in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region (27% for each), with the rest from the Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Of the total number of respondents, 27 per cent were from the US, 10 per cent from India, and 8 per cent each from the UK and Canada. In terms of seniority, 24 per cent were at the CEO level, 15 per cent at the managerial level, and 13 per cent at the director level. With respect to organization size, 56 per cent were from companies with revenue of US$500m or more annually, with 17 per cent of those with revenue of US$10bn or more. Respondents represented a wide variety of industries, in particular manufacturing (13%), healthcare (12%), IT and technology (10%) and professional services (10%). Functionally, respondents identified their primary roles as management, business development, finance and marketing/sales.
The survey enquired into experiences in a range of industries, geographies and company sizes, with a view to identifying some fundamental strategies and procedures that can help promote business-led innovation.
Highly innovative companies also actively gather feedback and ideas from everywhere they can. Fifty-four per cent of the top innovators we surveyed said they pore over customer comments, whether gathered in direct interviews or on social networks, and scrutinize customer data for clues to effective future innovations. They recognize that collecting many ideas is the first step to identifying the great ones.
Companies furthest along the innovation path utilize customer data and customer participation in their product and service improvements. Fifty-four per cent of the top innovators surveyed said they pore over customer comments whether gathered in direct interviews or on social networks, and scrutinize customer data for clues to effective future innovations. They recognize that collecting many ideas is the first step to identifying the great ones.
Companies with US$500m or less in annual revenue are more likely to incorporate customer feedback in product design and testing by means of direct interviews. Large companies, those with annual revenue of US$1bn and above, also utilize customer feedback, but are more likely than smaller companies to tap into social networking and sentiment analysis in search of customer focused innovations.
Other key findings include:
Many companies are not effectively capitalizing on internal resources that might foster innovation. Successful innovators welcome ideas from employees in every department. But creating this kind of openness is a major challenge for many companies, especially larger firms, which are more likely to silo their innovation than smaller firms. IT departments, in particular, tend to be underutilized; more than half of survey respondents (51%) said the primary responsibility of their IT department is to implement innovations. Yet the IT function has the potential to generate innovations of its own, educate staff about key new technologies and scout for innovators inside the company.
Leading companies take advantage of disruptive new technologies. Big data and social media were identified in the survey as offering the most opportunities for companies seeking to innovate effectively. Big data are seen as best suited for developing new pricing models, while social media are seen as strongest for improving customer experience and developing new ways of selling. However, concerns around perceived security risks, lack of talent to implement or lack of understanding of the benefits of these technologies persist. Only a handful of executives in our survey (15%) said they are unhindered in embracing these technology trends.
Many companies have no plan for learning from failed ideas. Nearly half (49%) of respondents said their company had no system to deal positively with failure. Among companies that do have such a system (38%), redeploying employees involved in a failed innovation from one business unit to another has been a successful strategy. It has proven a good way of maximizing learning and promoting greater success in subsequent innovation initiatives.
Further information from: www.managementthinking.eiu.com
When employees leave so does your data!
One in three (32%) employees have taken or forwarded confidential information out of the office on more than one occasion, according to a recent survey commissioned by information management company Iron Mountain. When people change jobs, highly sensitive information is particularly vulnerable. The study showed that many employees have no qualms about taking highly confidential or sensitive documents with them when they leave – and most believe they are doing nothing wrong. The survey discovered that half (51%) of European office workers who take information from their current employer when they switch jobs – 44 per cent of those in the UK – are helping themselves to confidential customer databases, despite data protection laws and records management policies forbidding them to do so.
Along with databases, employees who take information are walking out the door armed with presentations (46%), company proposals (21%), strategic plans (18%) and product/service roadmaps (18%) – all of which represent highly sensitive and valuable information, critical to a company’s competitive advantage, brand reputation and customer trust.
The study found that employees who resign do not generally take information out of malice; they do so because they feel a sense of ownership or believe it will be useful in their next role. Two-thirds said they had taken or would take information they had been involved in creating, and 72 per cent said they believed the information would be helpful in their new job.
The picture changes, however, when employees lose their job. The study revealed that as many as one in three office workers (31%) would deliberately remove and share confidential information if they were fired.
‘As businesses across Europe rush to tighten up their data protection policies in advance of new EU legislation, it is extremely worrying to see that employees are leaving jobs with highly sensitive information,’ said Patrick Keddy, Senior Vice President at Iron Mountain. ‘Companies concerned about information security tend to focus on building a fortress around their digital data and then forget about the paper and the people.’
This study provides a fascinating insight into what people feel they have ownership of and why. The findings highlight the need for information management policies to be developed closely with Human Resources as part of a Corporate Information Responsibility programme. Firms of all sizes, across all business sectors, need to ensure that employee-exit procedures are robust and compassionate, and that guidelines recognize that how people feel directly influences their behaviour and actions.
The study suggested that a lack of appropriate information management policies or their ineffective implementation could be a powerful factor in information loss. Only around half (57%) of respondents said it was always clear when information was confidential, and a third (34.4%) said they were not aware of any company guidelines regarding what information could or could not be removed from the office.
The Iron Mountain study surveyed some 2000 office workers of all ages and across all business sectors in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.
Further information from: www.ironmountain.co.uk
Big data
There is much hype about the phenomenon of so called ‘big data’ and we covered some of the issues raised by the data deluge in the last Initiatives column. But the scale of corporate deployment is clearly substantial and the potential pay-offs for those able to harness and control the data for improved efficiency and effectiveness is a huge attraction. Gartner’s recent study underlines some of the IT spending issues here.
Gartner Big Data will drive $28 Billion of IT spending in 2012
According to Gartner Inc, ‘Big Data’ will drive $28 billion of worldwide IT spending in 2012. In 2013, big data is forecast to drive $34 billion of IT spending.
Most of the current spending is used in adapting traditional products and services to the big data demands – machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on – and only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012.
Big data currently has the most significant impact in social network analysis and content analytics with 45 per cent of new spending each year. In traditional IT supplier markets, application infrastructure and middleware is most affected (10% of new spending each year is influenced by big data in some way) when compared with storage software, database management system, data integration/quality, business intelligence or supply chain management (SCM).
‘Despite the hype, big data is not a distinct, stand-alone market, but it represents an industry-wide market force which must be addressed in products, practices and solution delivery,’ said Mark Beyer, research vice president at Gartner. ‘In 2011, big data formed a new driver in almost every category of IT spending. However, through 2018, big data requirements will gradually evolve from differentiation to “table stakes” in information management practices and technology. By 2020, big data features and functionality will be non-differentiating and routinely expected from traditional enterprise vendors and part of their product offerings.’
Big data opportunities emerged when several advances in different IT categories aligned in a short period at the end of the last decade, creating a dramatic increase in computing technology capacity. This new capacity, coupled with latent demands for analysis of ‘dark data’, social networks data and operational technology (or machine data), created an environment highly conducive to rapid innovation.
Starting near the end of 2015, Gartner expects leading organizations to begin to use their big data experience in an almost embedded form in their architectures and practices. Beginning in 2018, big data solutions will be offering increasingly less of a distinct advantage over traditional solutions that have incorporated new features and functions to support greater agility when addressing volume, variety and velocity. However, the skills, practices and tools currently viewed as big data solutions will persist as leading organizations will have incorporated the design principles and acquired the skills necessary to address big data concerns as routine flexibility.
‘Because big data’s effects are pervasive, big data will evolve to become a standardized requirement in leading information architectural practices, forcing older practices and technology into early obsolescence,’ said Mr Beyer. ‘As a result, big data will once again become “just data” by 2020 and architectural approaches, infrastructure and hardware/software that does not adapt to this “new normal” will be retired. Organizations resisting this change will suffer severe economic impacts.’
Additional detail is available in the report ‘Big Data Drives Rapid Changes in Infrastructure and $232 Billion in IT Spending Through 2016’. Further information from: www.gartner.com
Business books
FT & Goldman Sachs Business Book of 2012 Award: Shortlist & winner
Steve Coll has won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012 for
The award, which recognizes the book that provides ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues’, was presented to Steve Coll in New York by Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and chair of the panel of judges, and Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and chief executive officer, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Steve Coll saw off strong competition to win the £30,000 prize. Each of the five runners-up received a cheque for £10,000.
Lionel Barber said, ‘Private Empire is forensic, nuanced and extremely well written. It is the story of ExxonMobil, one of the world’s most powerful companies. Through a series of compelling narratives, it covers Exxon’s huge geopolitical footprint and its influence. No other book on this year’s shortlist exposes so much information that we did not know.’
Lloyd C. Blankfein commented, ‘Steve Coll’s meticulous reporting led to a compelling work on one of the world’s most important and impressive companies. We congratulate him for his effort.’
Other shortlisted titles were:
Answers the question that has stumped experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather or geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Rather, the authors Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it).
The laws of financial boom and bust, it turns out, have more than a little to do with male hormones. In a series of ground breaking experiments, successful Wall Street trader turned Cambridge neuroscientist Dr. John Coates identified a feedback loop between testosterone and success that dramatically lowers the fear of risk in men, especially younger men. Significantly, the fear of risk is not reduced in women. Similarly, intense failure leads to a rise in levels of cortisol, the antitestosterone hormone that lowers the appetite for risk across an entire spectrum of decisions.
Drawn from more than forty exclusive interviews that Isaacson conducted with Jobs over the course of two years – as well as with family members, colleagues, rivals, friends, and adversaries – Steve Jobs is the definitive portrait of our era’s most creative and innovative business leader. Isaacson’s book spans his entire life, the private and the public, covering exclusive details on his childhood, early influences of Buddhism, tales from inside his design studio, vision at Pixar, and innovative spirit at Apple.
Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we allow corporations to pay for the right to pollute the atmosphere? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars? Auctioning admission to elite universities? Selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?
Michael J. Sandel takes on one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they do not belong? What are the moral limits of markets?
Over the course of nearly half a century, five American presidents – three Democrats and two Republicans – have relied on the financial acumen and the integrity of Paul A. Volcker. During his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, when he battled the Great Inflation of the 1970s, Volcker did nothing less than restore the reputation of an American financial system on the verge of collapse. After the 2008 financial meltdown, the nation turned again to Volcker to restore trust in a shaky financial system; President Obama would name his centrepiece Wall Street regulation the ‘Volcker Rule’. Volcker’s career demonstrated that a determined central banker can prevail over economic turmoil – so long as he can resist relentless political pressure.
Further information from: www.ft.com/bookaward
Information industry
Credit & Financial Information 2012 Market Size, Share, Forecast, and Trend Report
This Outsell report by analyst
An overview of the Credit & Financial Information market performance and forecast, including size and growth data from 2007–2015;
The Credit & Financial Information market value chain;
Merger, acquisition, and divestiture activity;
Segment composition, global coverage, and business model analysis;
Competitive concentration and market leader performance analysis;
Emerging disruptors and Outsell’s 10 to Watch;
Revenue performance of the top 100 companies in this segment;
Essential actions for publishers and information providers to succeed in this market.
Additionally, Outsell’s 10 to Watch section casts light on some established companies in this segment and some critical up and coming companies and the disruptive forces they embody. Companies covered in the report are: Bloomberg (Professional Division), CoreLogic, Equifax Inc., Experian plc, Fair Isaac Corporation, Fidessa Group plc, Fitch Group, FTSE Group, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Moody’s Corporation, Morningstar Inc., MSCI Inc., NYSE Euronext, The D&B Corporation, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., Thomson Reuters, TransUnion LLC, Verisk Analytics Inc.
FT reaches Europe’s business elite
The Financial Times attracts more senior business executives across Europe’s largest companies than any other international media brand, according to the latest Business Elite Europe survey from Ipsos MORI which for the first time measures readership on mobile and tablet devices.
Named ‘most important business read’ by the BE:Europe universe, the FT in print, online and through mobile devices combined reach more than 23 per cent of the 444,000 business executives surveyed. This C-suite audience together control €1 trillion (31%) of the total available advertising expenditure in Europe, giving the FT a total brand reach bigger than at any point over BE:Europe’s 39 year history.
Anita Hague, global research director at the Financial Times, said:
With an audience responsible for almost a third of all business spend, the BE:Europe results show that the FT is the most effective international media brand for reaching high income earners. The survey confirms that 51 per cent of our European readers use two or more channels throughout the day, something we responded to by developing a global multi-channel audience measurement, ADGA, in 2009.
While 40.7 per cent of respondents continue to see newspapers as the most reliable source of business news, there has been a sharp increase in those who prefer the internet for trusted news generally. Media consumption remains high among the business elite with international dailies reaching 40 per cent of the total audience. In addition 42 per cent of executives own a tablet and 77 per cent own a smartphone.
The BE:Europe survey, which in 2012 tracks social media brands as well as mobile and tablet devices for the first time, is a multi media survey supported by some of the biggest international media and advertising brands.
Further information from: www.ipsos-mori.com/BE