Business Vision Spring 2018

.W O R L D Financing the Future Interconnected World

Gene therapy: brave new world of hope and investor potential Spring 2018

Also in this issue...

Enemy in the office: who are you dealing with?

GBP 9.95 | EUR 14.95 | USD 15.95

GibFin conference report

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Petro-yuan vs petro-dollar

The art of making money

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Photos: Cuba

B RE IT L ING . C O M

Letter from the editor HOLY hell. Jamie Oliver's restaurants are shutting like rat traps, Mark Zuckerberg has managed to lose $9 billion in personal wealth in less time than it takes most people to earn the minimum wage, all-American gun manufacturer Remington has walked into a bankruptcy bullet – partly because of its successful brand identity – and billionaire IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad shrugged off this mortal coil (in a flat-pack coffin, quoth the cruel internet jokers).

Things are tough all round, but it isn't all gloom; it never is. Those are just some of the stories in this Spring issue of BV. Grab a coffee, put your feet up and lighten up a little with some of our other features.

It's hard not to be affected by the sudden and ebullient agglomeration of talent and optimism in Gibraltar for the recent Gibfin fintech conference.

Read the tales of derring-do and drive, start-ups and fledgling operations doing whatever it takes to carve out some territory in the claw-and-scrabble cryptocurrency world.

There's evidence of innovation and adaptation throughout BV: smart people – often very young smart people – navigating the treacherous waters of the business world with little more than optimism for an oar. We touch bedrock too, with an oldschool (pun intended) education icon, the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MBA programme director Maura Herson guest-writes a piece for BV on the challenges and rewards faced by international students heading to the US. Richard Thomas focuses on emerging gene technology. (He leaves a trail of NASDAQ reference breadcrumbs for forward-thinking investors to follow.) BV also digs a little deeper into the human psyche; Naomi Snelling looks at toxic workplace relationships, and what to do about them. Our very own personal trainer, Nathan DeMetz, goads us into adhering to tipsy New Year's vows to get in shape, while Tony Lennox looks at art as an investment.

I snared an interview with US business

intelligence expert (also former whistleblower and US Senate candidate) Everett Stern. He makes some damning claims about the links between money laundering, arms deals and big banks.

Fancy a spot of daydreaming? Two members of the BV team have taken exotic holidays so you don't have to. Jason Agnew discovers the delights of modern Mumbai, and comes back with his wallet surprisingly full. George Short embarks on a trip of cultural enlightenment to old Havana, an epic voyage involving rum, cigars and V-8s. He seems basically OK. Heather Smith gets her teeth into the story of the emerging petro-yuan, which seems to be lubricating trade between China and Russia.

BV made it to the Geneva Motor Show, of course, and – amid the sound and the fury – our man-on-the-spot met a Spanish car manufacturer taking a punt on a brand-within-a-brand in a bid to snare young and cool customers.

There's more, there's more: even a look-in at the world of the Flat-Earthers. No kidding. When you're done, send us your letters and comments: they're always welcome. Enjoy.

HAL WILLIAMS hw@bv.world

Correspondence Litecoin saga

Colombian coffee

I was very interested to read about all the hoops you had to jump through to buy some Litecoin (Winter 2017-18 issue).

But what we all want to know is how your investment is performing.

As far as I can tell, based on its performance to date, the answer is: Not very well!

As a Colombian who lived and worked in London, I read with interest and admiration your article on coffee grounds being used to fuel the buses of London.

In my English lessons here in Barranquilla I was taught that the English preferred tea, but I was amazed when I arrived in London by how many coffee shops there were and how much coffee was consumed.

We are a major coffee-producing country and the drink here is much cheaper (and better). When I visit Bogotá, I am shocked by how bad the pollution is and ask myself if this technology could be employed here as well That will depend very much on our politicians. There have been many attempts in our capital to improve the environment with cycleways and traffic controls, but I believe that using this initiative would contribute to our well-being and our economy.

I hope biobean is planning to export their technology to countries like ours.

Linda Chapman Christchurch, New Zealand Richard Thomas, BV’s currency investment expert replies: Thank you for your interest Linda. Sadly, I can confirm that we bought almost exactly at the top of the market, and that our 100€ investment is now worth the princely sum of 41€. But we feel that it is important to have “skin in the game” in these matters.

Which is why we are trying to persuade the editor to undergo a gene therapy experiment to go with this issue’s article on page 26.

Bernardo Ibáñez Otero Barranquilla, Colombia

Girl power

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I'm half-way through your latest edition; interesting.

Enjoyed your gender agenda message, I'm seeing an increase in female bias mentoring, an extrapolation of girl power, I suppose.

There's an obvious follow-up on the cannabis piece re the route map of legitimising the industry, an as-yet uncharted issue: growers can't bank their proceeds because federal laws prohibit this for those involved in pot-based activities.

A friend of mine is looking at putting ATMs in place to address the issue. I could probably arrange an interview if you're interested?

I like what you've put together.

Brett Smart London The editor replies: Thank you, Brett, glad to hear you enjoyed our Winter issue. John Starr's piece on Davos has sparked quite a bit of comment, as has our feature on the legal cannabis industry in America. We covered the banking problems facing the industry, but would be interested to hear more about the ATM initiative. Our editorial team will study the leads you give us and report back.

HW

FinTech in Gibraltar Thank you for your article on the GinFin conference in Gibraltar (on the BV website and on page 88 of this ssue).

As Gibraltar's largest law firm (Hassans), we were also in attendance, which is why we loved reading it. Not only is it a perfect primer for those interested in Gibraltar's growing FinTech industry, it's also a genuinely entertaining read which captured the spirit of the event perfectly.

Delighted to hear the bad weather didn't dampen your reporter's spirits - normally it's much sunnier here on the Rock!

Damian Grace Gibraltar

Editor Hal Williams Assitant Editor Janet Newbury Executive Editor Susan Shaw Pictures Editor and Layout Richard Thomas

.W O R L D

Editorial Jason Agnew Heather Leah Smith Naomi Snelling Tony Lennox Nathan DeMetz George Short Hamish Muress Bjorn Hauge Susie Allen

Business Vision

Art department Alejandro Lampre Velรกzquez Distribution Manager Thomas Terrell Subscriptions Max Pragnell Commercial Director Graham Church Publisher David Eyres Business Vision The Lansdowne Building 2 Lansdowne Rd Croydon CR9 2ER United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)203 745 7671 Fax: +44 (0)203 745 7674 Email: info@bv.world Web: www.bv.world Printed in the UK. All rights reserved.

In this issue...

58 16

38

14

88

16 Drugs, weapons, banks and the dollar

47 Film Review: Real Value

20 Petro-yuan challenges petro-dollar

48 Ten People: Mark Zuckerberg

23 Kellogg: Cryptocurrency's solid base

49 Ten People: Christian Lange

26 Sweet gene victory around the corner?

50 The art of making money

30 Multi-billion dollar gene therapy merger

54 Stagg parties and death in the Andes

32 Innovative travel sector technology

56 Steeling fashion's limelight

34 SME funding crucial part of growth

57 Ten People: Colm Curneen

38 Do you know who you are dealing with?

58 Fitness: Getting ‘in-shape' is never easy

41 Spain hosts debate on sustainability

60 Old Bombay is alive and well

42 Fair play rules for banking behemoths

64 Is India the ‘new Europe' for Britain?

44 Members only: recipe for happy holidays

65 From software ‘player' to leader

46 All change for fast food industry

66 Fractional jet ownership

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20

78

68 Ten People: DJ Gramatik

92 Kasotsuka Shojo

70 Remington files for bankruptcy

93 William Hill write-down

72 International students flock to MIT

94 Bankers' Bitcoin block

74 Keeping the roads safe and open

96 Staying ahead of the game

76 Flat Earth niche market is global

98 Ten People: Elon Musk

78 Cuba's antiquated cars: history & class

99 Ten People: Jamie Oliver

81 Ten People: Ingvar Kamprad

100 Kellogg: Making sense of analytics

82 Many flavours of change

103 Ten People: Kim Williamson

84 Shopping woes of Spain

104 Upload your brain to the cloud

86 Tokes platform partnership

106 New Cupra brand launched in Geneva

87 Ten People: Craig Wright

108 Ten People: Malcolm Duncan

88 Gib muscles-up for new ‘ecosystem' role

110 Award Highlights

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

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Drug cartels, weapons, big banks and the Greenback Major banks are unwittingly laundering drug money and the illicit arms trade continues, a former whistleblower tells BV editor HAL WILLIAMS US BUSINESS intelligence expert and former Senate candidate Everett Stern says United States government institutions are complicit in the arms trade and continue to abet the laundering of drug money to fund weapons deals through major international banks.

Moreover, he says the US government refuses to sanction the banks concerned because of fears for the national economy.

“Our own banking system and money is being used against us,”

says Stern, who says he has firsthand experience of arms dealing and shows an understanding of the undercover power struggles and financial machinations that fuel and fund the weapons trade. The Philadelphia-based former HSBC employee says he has witnessed terrorist financing for Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, knows of many arms dealers, and understands how they operate.

“And I know why they are selling arms to specific countries,” he says.

Stern, born in New York City in 1984, joined HSBC Bank in 2012 after being rejected for a role with the CIA's clandestine service. He was hired by the bank as an AntiMoney Laundering Compliance Officer.

At HSBC, Stern was assigned to monitor Middle East transactions in Delaware. The Delaware office was mostly empty and Stern and co-workers had little to do. Partly out of boredom, Stern started to work through some of the backlogged alerts.

Yemeni militia at a checkpoint in Hadramaut Valley: is a proxy war being fought?

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He found a series of troubling transactions.

An exchange company was wiring large sums of money to untraceable Middle East destinations.

A Saudi fruit company was sending millions to a highranking figure in the Yemeni wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

HSBC was allowing millions of dollars to be moved from an African supermarket chain to a firm the Treasury Department had identified as major Hezbollah financiers.

No one seemed to care. The complaint against HSBC was not that it had allowed transactions using terrorist or drug money, but that it had allowed suspicious accounts to pile-up.

He quickly discovered that HSBC was – wittingly or unwittingly – facilitating the international transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars by terrorist organizations in direct violation of US law.

After reporting his findings to the bank, his managers directed him to call-off his investigation and “clear” any suspicious transactions.

Due to what he saw as “the national security threat to the United States posed by HSBC Bank's intentional terrorist financing activities”, Stern began providing information to the CIA, and later presented an intelligence report to the FBI. He left HSBC Bank and filed a whistleblower claim with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A July 2012 report from the US Congress confirmed that HSBC “exposed

‘The enemy is not always a terrorist living in a cave’ Bullets, tanks and bombs all cost money. The US dollar is the world's currency and even our enemies need access to US currency to facilitate arms deals.

“Our own banking system and money is being used against us.”

The sad part, says Stern, is that Washington is not willing to risk shutting down a bank such as (*name deleted for legal reasons – ed), “which I know is still laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists, because they believe it will cause a financial panic”.

To give a current example of the trade, Stern refers to the militant Lebanese Sh'ia organisation Hezbollah, which he says is dealing arms to Yemen rebels “for the ultimate use against Saudi Arabia”.

An independent arms dealer is someone, or a company, that provides weapons without being connected or tied to a country.

“Their role is to broker deals between two parties. For example, between the Russians and Hezbollah.

“Independent arms dealers play an important role for intelligence agencies when they want to arm a terrorist organization or militia without having it traced back to the home country.”

Let's take a quick look at the Yemen situation: The country is divided between the southern region, controlled by a Saudiled coalition, and the northern region, ruled by the Houthis.

(This roughly equates with the former territories of North and South Yemen.)

Hezbollah follows the Islamic Shi'a theology developed by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But what is Hezbollah – a Lebanese Shiite militia dedicated to fighting Israel – doing in Yemen? And what has it got to do with ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia? “(Hezbollah) is backed by Iran and there is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia right now which is driving most of the arms dealing in the Middle East,” says Stern.

While Iran has not officially joined the war, its support of the Houthi includes the supply of weapons, the dispatch of military advisers and auxiliary troops, and generous financial support, Stern told BV. Its involvement, he believes, has transformed the Yemeni civil war into a major struggle with Saudi Arabia over the future of the Middle East.

Israel's Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies corroborates many of Stern's observations. On its website, the Centre quotes Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel Jubair as saying that “Lebanon has declared war” on his country.

That accusation was made after

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Everett Stern

the US financial system to a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing risks”.

In December 2012, HSBC paid a record $1.92 billion fine in exchange for a deferment of criminal prosecution for five years.

Nobody from the bank went to jail or paid individual fines; Stern says he hasn't lost faith in the System.

But the trend – and the trade – continue unabated in 2018, he claims. “The enemy is not always the terrorist living in a cave with his hand on the trigger.

Sometimes it is the high-ranking CEO in a business suit.”

Stern remains convinced that major financial institutions around the world, by intention or omission, facilitate international arms deals. “Wars cost money.

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the launch of a ballistic missile from Yemen towards Riyadh International Airport (the missile was shot down by Saudi Arabia's Patriot defence system). “This was an Iranian missile … launched

by Hezbollah,” Jubair said. “We regard the Lebanese government as a government that has declared war on us.”

The type of arms changing hands depends on the countries and parties involved. Arms dealings between countries will include major weapons such as tanks, missiles, even jets.

“The US regularly arms Israel with the latest jets,” says Stern.

“In the arming of rebels, militias, and terrorists, the weapons will be small in size, because they have to be smuggled, sometimes, in multiple shipments to avoid detection.

“Most arms dealings boil down to the world's intelligence agencies, and the name of the game in intelligence is secrecy

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Intelligence agencies ‘are the ones that make arms deals happen’ and not getting caught facilitating the deal.”

Defence contracting firms play a crucial role in making and suppling the arms, but the intelligence agencies, Stern believes, are the ones that make the deal happen.

“A defence contracting firm, at least in the US, will not go rogue and arm a militia in, let's say, Africa without a green light from the intelligence agencies involved.”

Stern knows about banking

shortcomings and the arms trade; but he knows about the media spotlight too. After his whistleblowing episode, he gave an interview with Rolling Stone magazine which turned him into something of a household name in the States.

He is also featured in a 2018 Netflix True Crime series – directed by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney – investigating HSBC Bank's money laundering.

After leaving HSBC in 2012, he founded Tactical Rabbit, a private intelligence firm that provides clients with business intelligence.

“Tactical Rabbit intelligence officers are operating in over 10 countries,” says Stern. “Tactical Rabbit intelligence officers are always operating in the field.”

In 2016 Stern was a candidate for a US Senate primary on a Republican ticket, challenging incumbent Senator Pat Toomey.

After the primary, he continued to run as an Independent.

In 2017, drawing on the success of Tactical Rabbit's business intelligence predictions involving publicly traded companies, he founded hedge fund Rabbit Alpha.

His whistebowing action resulted in Stern “losing everything”.

“I was reduced to working as a waiter. I went from working at a Chinese Bank to working at a Chinese restaurant. My MBA education was worth $2.15 an hour plus tips.”

Stern felt that treason was being committed against the United States, but nobody would listen to him. “This was the driving force that led me to form Tactical Rabbit.”

Arms dealing, of course, continues unabated. But where do the weapons come from?

“Russia is the primary source of providing weapons to arms dealers,” says Stern. “Russia is directly responsible for arming the countries that are the enemies of the United States such as Iran, but more importantly Russian intelligence provides ‘sponsored' arms dealers with Russian weapons

to arm terrorist organizations and groups working against American interests.

“The evidence of this is seen by the widespread use of the enemy possessing the Russian made AK47 (rifles).”

However, there are so many AK-47 assault rifles in circulation that many believe there is no longer any direct link between the brand and the country of origin.

An estimated 75 million AK-47s exist, spread around the world.

KALASHNIKOV While the AK-47 was invented

by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the former Soviet Union in 1947, its durability and reliability has made it the most popular assault rifle in the world. The rifles are manufactured all over the world.

Stern begs to differ about absence of a link between the smoke and the fire. “The Russian intelligence agencies FSB and GRU facilitate the arms deals along with providing missile and nuclear technologies,” he says.

“The Cold War is far from over.”

But Stern admits the US plays an important role in international arms dealing. “The United

States is the main arms dealer for Saudi Arabia, a sworn enemy of Iran, which is backed by Russia.

“The US supplies tanks, guns, ammunition, including missile defence systems — which we have seen play a critical role in protecting Saudi Arabia from the missile attacks from a terrorist group, the Houthi militia, based in Yemen, which is being armed by Hezbollah,” he says. “The Houthi militia does not have the capability to develop the missiles launched on their own. Hezbollah, hence Iran, is attacking Saudi Arabia indirectly through a proxy war, with Yemen as the battleground.”

The Central Intelligence Agency is “largely responsible for arming groups that act in the interest of the United States, such as the Kurds in Iraq or the Rebels in Syria”.

“Russian Intelligence (FSB / GRU) is arming our enemies and the CIA is arming our friends,” Stern Says. The scale of this uninterrupted international trade runs into “billions upon billions of dollars”, says Stern.

“Wars are expensive. Especially the secret ones.”

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Smoking gun? Some say the AK-47 is evidence of Russian involvement in the global arms trade

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Petro-yuan challenges petrodollar: a market battle for crude oil futures in the offing Does the emergence of the petro-yuan signal doomsday for the dollar’s long rule as the world’s reserve currency? HEATHER LEAH SMITH investigates for BV. IS THE emergence of a new world currency, the petro-yuan, a result of short-sighted, heavy-handed US foreign policies?

After decades of strict sanctions and tense relations with competitors, global superpowers Russia and China are set to change the financial game with the realisation of the longtouted petro-yuan. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange conducted a successful trial drill in December and opened the market this March with a tempting offer of petro-yuan oil futures.

Investors were keen to get in on the action.

The petro-yuan, officially launched on the Shanghai

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International Energy Exchange late March, will purchase crude oil futures in the local currency, yuan, or Chinese renminbi. Crude oil futures allow investors to lock in prices of crude oil for future delivery. The yuan-denominated oil futures represent a historic

first for China, allowing foreign investors to access a Chinese commodity market. According to The South China Morning Post, first day trading opened with oil futures contracts for September delivery at 440.20 yuan ($69.70) per barrel, and prices increased 3.92 percent by the end of the brief trading session.

Suwichai Songwanich, CEO of Bangkok Bank, calls the petroyuan's debut “hugely successful,” citing the first day's trading of 15.4 million barrels of crude oil, about $4 billion in total. However, subsequent trading sessions have been less sure as prices have dropped and the market has become more volatile.

consumption due to its booming auto industry. The Saudi-led OPEC oligopoly agreed to the pact, assuring that all oil futures contracts were denominated in dollars in exchange for American weapons, and protection of its oil fields.

Since then, the level of the playing field has tilted. At the time,

the Saudis agreed to the contract because the US held all the cards.

It was by far the largest consumer of crude oil and had a massive military budget, which was often used to protect its foreign oil interests. Such a restriction on oil trading increased worldwide trade in the greenback and bolstered its reputation – despite its new floating status, no longer backed by gold.

China has since surpassed the

US in crude oil consumption, weakening the power of the SaudiAmerican agreement. China has a diversified oil import system, with Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Angola as its main suppliers. As a preemptive play before the launch of its petro-yuan, China has been steadily reducing its Saudi oil imports while upping Russian orders — a difference of about 10 percent over the past decade — sending Saudi officials a clear message: get rid of the dollar deals or suffer the consequences.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist and managing director at High Frequency Economics, predicted the imminent yuanpricing of oil and insisted that “as soon as the Saudis move to accept it — as the Chinese will compel them to do — then the rest of the oil market will move along with them”.

To sweeten the pot, China is courting Saudi Arabia with the prospect of opening its markets to the Saudi national oil company, Aramco, which has thus far been unable to find listing on other international markets.

While news of the petroyuan has been circulating on the rumour mill since the

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

The machinery to officially launch the petro-yuan has been in motion for some time. Oil is one of the world's most traded commodities, with trading at about $14 trillion per year and transactions primarily conducted in American dollars. It chafes China, the largest importer of crude oil worldwide, to pay its debts in a major rival's currency.

The Asian superpower had already established agreements with Russia and Angola to supply crude oil for yuan, but now it hopes to entice other countries rich in natural resources – particularly Iran and Venezuela – to follow suit.

China buys around nine million barrels of oil per day.

With the purchasing clout that it has, it is beginning to put pressure on Saudi Arabia — the world's largest supplier of crude oil — to break its long-standing pledge to only accept petrol payments in US dollars.

An agreement signed in 1974 by the US Treasury and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency has allowed the US to dominate the world currency game. At the time of the agreement, the US was the undisputed king of petrol

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beginning of the 21st Century, trading opened with a bang on the Shanghai stock exchange in March. After its successful trial run last December, and with an open invitation to foreign investors on March 26, the market was swollen with petro-yuan activity, totalling 62,500 futures contracts in its first official launch day.

Due in part to their mutual distaste of Uncle Sam and his heavy-handed ways, Russia and China have developed a cosy trade alliance, with Russian oil and Chinese goods bought and sold in rubles and yuan. The two superpowers have resolved their past issues and are looking forward to a prosperous future, free from the machinations of the US. The assault on the dollar is a multi-front attack, as countries eager to escape punitive sanctions test the economic market with new strategies.

Russia — renowned for its low national debt — shocked international markets by selling off about $1 billion of its national debt to China – conveniently priced, of course, in yuan.

The Centre for Research on Globalisation warns that while the amount may be nominal — in comparison with the trillions of dollars of US debt held by

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the Peoples' Bank of China — it is a significant “test run by both governments of the potential for state financing of infrastructure and other projects independent of dollar risk from such events as US Treasury financial sanctions”.

Does this mean the goldbacked petro-yuan will soon dethrone the greenback and upset the economic world order?

Perhaps.

STOCKPILING But Russia and China have been stockpiling gold for years, and together have amassed just over 20 percent of worldwide reserves. According to the World Gold Council, the US still holds the largest gold reserves — more than 75 percent of the world's supply.

If China truly backs the petro-yuan with gold, what's to stop international investors from trading yuan for gold, and draining limited Chinese gold reserves? The 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement pegged the US dollar value to the gold standard, providing a sense of stability to international transactions.

However, years of expensive military campaigns and domestic policies, paired with massive foreign withdrawals of American gold reserves, pushed Nixon to

pull out of the Bretton Woods Agreement and abandon the goldbacked dollar for a more easily manipulated floating currency.

Currency manipulation is one of the great challenges the petro-yuan faces, and foreign investors are still hesitant to trust the Chinese government in this regard, considering its long track record of devaluing its currency in order to influence world markets.

China's efforts to internationalise its currency have thus far been inconsistent. It hasn't been able to resist the temptation to manipulate currency value to benefit Chinese exportations.

After years of speculation and anticipation, the petro-yuan is finally here; but do we really need it? As businesses and governments worldwide become more environmentally conscious, most countries are aiming to become less dependent on fossil fuels as an energy source.

The future of the petro-yuan is promising yet uncertain. On the one hand, big players like Glencore, Trafigura, Freepoint Commodities are taking part in initial offerings of petro-yuan oil futures.

Most experts are watching the market from the sidelines and waiting on the verdict.

Blockchain forms solid base at heart of cryptocurrency Based on insights from SARIT MARKOVICH, clinical associate professor of strategy at the Kellogg School central governments.

But is that the direction blockchain is heading?

Not necessarily, according to Sarit Markovich, a clinical associate professor of strategy at the Kellogg School and an expert on fintech innovation.

“There are certainly huge advantages to blockchain technology, especially when it comes to cross-border transactions,” Markovich says.

“But I doubt we're going to reach the point where decentralised cryptocurrencies replace cash or distributed ledgers replace central banks.

“There's too much room for manipulation. Instead, it looks like the real innovation will occur within large institutions, which is

not exactly democratization.”

The appeal of decentralised cryptocurrencies is that they are run by individuals in a transparent marketplace, with no central bank to print money (or manipulate rates), and no financial institution to collect its cut in fees. Ideally, this lowers access barriers and helps rid the financial system of corrupt or monopolizing forces.

But the evolution of cryptocurrencies has shown that these digital networks are vulnerable to some of the same problems all financial markets face, including price manipulation, insider trading, and lack of trust in the system.

Consider the case of Bitcoin.

At first, anyone who joined the network could “mine” for bitcoins

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

RECENTLY there has been an explosion of global interest in blockchain, the distributed ledger technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Proponents see blockchain's impact eventually stretching beyond Bitcoin to real estate and supply chains. But most of the current hype is in finance and banking, with some predicting this new method of transferring and recording assets will “democratise” the industry.

And theoretically, it could. The public ledger system pioneered by cryptocurrencies – decentralised, transparent, and accessible to anyone – is designed to empower individuals who would otherwise be at the mercy of large banks and

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by using software to solve complex mathematical puzzles.

Solving these puzzles created “coins” (the Bitcoin network's equivalent of printing paper money), which the miner could keep or sell. Initially, the reward for solving one of these puzzles was 50 bitcoins; it is now 12.5 (the reward was designed to be cut in half after every 210,000 blocks mined and, eventually, be reduced to zero after 64 halving events).

But over time, groups of miners combined their processing power and began to dominate the network.

These “mining pools” have tended to crop up in places where cheap energy and hardware makes it possible to run mining software on hundreds of machines in large warehouses, greatly improving the odds of success—as of September 2017, more than two-thirds of bitcoins were mined in China.

That meant bitcoins were being mined more quickly than expected, and in a way that concentrated power in the hands of a few early movers.

In addition to “mining pools,” there is also the problem of “whales”: roughly 1,000 people own around 40 percent of all bitcoins.

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Investors in fear of hacking As the market continues to rise, there is a risk that some may be in a position to manipulate the market. For example, they could collude in an effort to drive the price of Bitcoin up, then cash out all at once—and perhaps even bet against the futures market.

“Essentially, you would have something that looks a lot like insider trading,” Markovich says.

“And there's no regulation to stop it.”

One other issue is that under the current system, Bitcoin users can get priority on the network by adding a fee to their transactions, thereby incentivising miners to add their transactions to the blockchain before any others.

And since the number of bitcoins was always meant to be capped at 21 million—a cap observers think the network may reach sooner than expected—the network will eventually move to a fee-based model.

This could threaten the blockchain's security, because,

with so many miners, fees would be low, and many would probably exit the market, resulting in congestion until the mining fees increased enough to attract those miners back to the network. Such cycles of excess supply or demand make Bitcoin an unreliable, unattractive payment system.

These kinks in the system point towards what is perhaps a more fundamental problem with using a public ledger: without a central authority, it can be difficult to settle disputes.

The Bitcoin community never completely agreed on how to scale its network, and eventually, this disagreement led to what is known as a “hard fork” in the blockchain.

In August, one group – worried that Bitcoin transactions had become too expensive and too slow – branched off and created a separate cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash.

“The only way to regulate a democratised currency is to reach agreement among the community,” Markovich says, “but there's not really a mechanism to do that, so it's not exactly democratic, or not sustainably so.

“If enough people want to make a change, they just fork the chain or introduce a new currency.”

So although the idea behind democratised cryptocurrencies is to decentralise power and make transactions more secure, the case of Bitcoin suggests that there will always be some on the network who (thanks to expertise, higher capacity, or strong incentives to maximise their returns) can accumulate power and manipulate the system in their favour.

Bitcoin, of course, is only one example of how blockchain can work, and few are predicting that it will become the currency of the future. But the spread of cryptocurrencies does raise the question of blockchain's stability.

As a distributed ledger that keeps an automatic, immutable record, it is theoretically a secure method for tracking assets. But the system is not without its sceptics.

consider the technology as a tool for criminals on the dark web; others see it as the next Internet.

But even if most countries decided to ban certain uses of blockchain technology, there is no guarantee that a popular network would not continue to spread. BitFlyer, a Japanese exchange, appears to have been a major source of the recent price surge.

“As long as one regulatory body allows it, it's potentially open to everyone,” Markovich says.

So if cryptocurrencies are too decentralised to be effectively regulated, at least for the time being, where might this distributed ledger technology have the biggest impact?

AUTHENTICATION Markovich says we are more likely to see the rise of private blockchains within large organizations—systems that might be analogous to a company-wide intranet.

Maersk is using blockchain technology to manage its shipments, Airbnb is using it to authenticate the identity of its members, and IBM is experimenting with the use of digital currency for global money transfers.

But the greatest commitment is coming from banks. JPMorgan Chase has created its own private blockchain platform, known as Quorum, and a number of blockchain start-ups are building platforms designed to help banks conduct transactions on a distributed ledger.

Relying on this common ledger instead of a third party

saves both sides time and money.

“We're seeing an interest from big banks, as well as supply chain and real estate companies, because the real value of a distributed ledger is the efficient, trustworthy record of transactions between counterparts,” Markovich says.

One of the most competitive fields is that of cross-border payments.

Ripple, founded in 2012, is just one of a growing number of firms helping businesses transfer money globally at low cost using its own cryptocurrency, XRP. (In late 2017, XRP rose to become the second most popular cryptocurrency by market cap.)

Among Ripple's many customers are Standard Chartered and Bank of America.

Interest is also spreading quickly in capital markets around the world. Australia's primary stock exchange is already experimenting with blockchain technology, and late last year the central banks of Hong Kong and Singapore announced plans to incorporate blockchain into trading platforms – to reduce fraud, errors, and costs.

But even if blockchain becomes the new standard for all financial exchange, it seems unlikely to be “democratic.”

“It's certainly going to add value, but it won't be the answer to everything.” * This article first appeared on Kellogg Insight: https://insight. kellogg.northwestern.edu

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a U.S. government body, warned about blockchain technologies in its 2016 annual report, citing the potential for fraud and the challenge of dealing with multiple regulatory jurisdictions.

In September 2017, China announced that it was banning initial coin offerings (ICOs), a popular fundraising method for start-ups using digital currency.

The sharp rise in Bitcoin's price – from $1,000 in January to nearly $20,000 in mid-December – has fuelled regulators' concerns.

And with so much money now at stake, investors fear the blockchain could be vulnerable to hacks.

Markovich does not view hacking as the primary issue – any open-access software is vulnerable to hacks. The real issue, as she sees it, is containing the network's damage if things start to go wrong.

“We saw how difficult it was to contain the global crisis in 2008,” she says. “This could also be a problem for blockchain, in the sense that one can't limit it to a single geographic area.”

Adding to the challenge is the fact that attitudes towards cryptocurrencies vary according to people's trust in centralised institutions.

“Someone in the US might think such currencies are too volatile, whereas someone in a different part of the world might say, ‘Well, it's less volatile than my own national currency, and I don't trust my central bank'.”

Regulators, too, might view the threat differently, depending on the region or nation. Some still

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Sweet gene victory around the corner? Therapeutic advances come rolling in Just days after the UK Government opens its new ‘Catapult’ centre devoted to gene therapy manufacturing, could 2018 be the year of its mainstream commercialisation?

BV’s RICHARD THOMAS investigates.

FOR many, the concept of gene therapy is something new, even futuristic – but the idea itself goes back to 1972, and the techniques in use today were developed in the biotechnology boom of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

New gene therapies are being constantly developed; some are at the research stage, some in clinical trials, and one is already in use and actively being marketed. Britain's new Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult has been backed by more than £60m in government funding, with 160 of its own in-house experts.

Progress comes via successful experiments, not hype – and

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with developments such as Catapult, the reality may finally be catching up with the promise. UK company Amryt Pharma recently announced it had licenced a gene therapy for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a serious skin condition.

Children with the disease are known as “Butterfly Children” due to the fragility of their skin.

The therapy was developed by scientists at University College Dublin and Amryt's role is to take the therapy through the clinical trial process.

Amryt (LON: AMYT) has a conventional therapy for EB in development, but CEO Joe Wiley is more enthusiastic about gene

therapy, labelling it “one of the most exciting and potentially transformative areas of medicine today”.

At the current stage of development, gene therapy is used to treat diseases caused by a single genetic mutation.

At their most basic level, genes are “instructions” which tell an organism (plant or animal) how to create a protein. Proteins themselves have many functions.

They include enzymes, which facilitate chemical reactions essential to life, structural proteins, which control the size and shape of cells, and visual pigments in the retina, which enable vision.

New gene therapies are being developed all the time

A single mutation in one of these genes can mean that a vital protein can't be made, and a function is disabled. This can lead to diseases such as haemophilia, sickle-cell anaemia and various forms of blindness.

All current treatments are for single gene mutations. The specific techniques vary according to the disease, but the most common replaces a faulty gene with a healthy copy. This is introduced into the patient via a “vector” — most frequently a benign virus. In some cases, the treatment must be regularly repeated to vanquish or control a chronic disease; in others, the treatment is a onetime, permanent cure.

There have been, and still are, hurdles to overcome. A patient's immune response can reject the treatment by attacking the vector.

Some genetic diseases are caused by multiple mutations, which require more complex treatment.

And, as with any novel treatment, there is a high financial cost, reflecting the cost of research, clinical trials and the

development of all the candidate treatments – some of which would have been unsuccessful.

The first gene therapy to be approved was a cancer treatment, Gendicine, which was approved in China in 2003. This was followed in 2011 by a treatment for peripheral artery disease, which

Each treatment is personalised to suit the patient was approved for use in Russia.

The West had to wait until 2012, when Glybera was approved in the European Union.

Glybera, made by Uniquire (Nasdaq: QURE), was a treatment for a rare inherited disease that causes severe pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas.

But the manufacturer dropped

plans to seek approval in the US and announced that it would not be seeking renewal of the EU approval after it expired in 2017. There has only been one documented use of the therapy.

Although the patient was said to be completely cured, the disease is extremely rare and the cost of treatment high – in the region of $1m.

In 2016 came another “miraculous” cure, Strimvelis, for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), a group of diseases stemming from the faulty development of white blood cells (T and B cells).

Children suffering from SCID can't develop a healthy immune system. The disease is often fatal during the first year of life.

Each treatment is personalised.

Stem cells that would become blood cells are taken from the patient, purified and cultured.

Then a virus, containing the working gene, is introduced. The modified cells are then infused to the patient, where they take root in the bone marrow (the site of

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Some therapies must be regularly repeated for the treatment of a chronic disease

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human blood cell production).

From this point, at least in successful cases, the patient produces white blood cells that function correctly.

Developed by one of the biggest players in pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline (Nasdaq: GSK), Strimvelis became the second gene therapy approved for use in the EU. Other developments in 2016 included improved therapies for haemophilia and some forms of blindness, breakthroughs in research using CRISPR – the system that allows precise editing of faulty genes – and the programming of white blood cells to fight certain types of cancer.

Certainly, then, gene therapy's most promising year to date.

And 2017 lived up to, and exceeded, its billing as the year of gene therapy breakthroughs.

Possibly the most dramatic of these was a cure for sickle-cell anaemia developed by Bluebird Bio (Nasdaq: BLUE). The mechanism for this is very similar to the therapy for ADA-SCID, but the replaced gene is responsible for the structural integrity of haemoglobin (the protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen

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around the body).

The FDA approved two treatments that modify the patient's T-cells (white blood cells) to attack cancers. Currently, these treatments are just aimed at one type of bone marrow cancer and a lymphoma, and are only used when other treatments, such as chemotherapy, have failed.

The first US approval for a gene therapy targeting an

Luxturna is injected into the retina by a surgeon inherited disease came in December 2017. Luxturna, from Spark Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ONCE), corrects a gene mutation that is responsible for a range of diseases of the eye which cause progressive blindness. A mutation in the gene RPE65 means that the body cannot produce a protein essential for the working of the

photoreceptors in the retina.

Luxturna is injected into the retina by an ophthalmic surgeon, which – along with the cost of development – helps to explain the almost $1m price tag ($475k per eye). It is not a cure, but substantially improves vision in patients who would otherwise develop night blindness and a loss of peripheral, then central, vision.

In 2018, we find ourselves on the threshold of an explosion in the world of gene therapy. It seems that suddenly, there are many new gene therapies about to come into commercial therapeutic use.

Haemophilia is a genetic disorder: a single gene mutation means an inability to produce one of the proteins necessary for blood to clot. There are at least two companies (Biomarin and Spark Therapeutics) that are bringing to market gene therapies to cure either Haemophilia A or B (which differ in the gene affected).

Biomarin (Nasdaq: BMRN) has licenced a treatment for haemophilia A from the commercial arm of University College, London, which is in the process of bringing it to market.

In March, Amryt Pharma made its announcement on

Adeno-associated viruses are used as vectors to introduce many gene therapies into the body

Queen Victoria carried a genetic defect which leads to haemophilia because Parkinson's isn't caused by a single genetic mutation.

There is a drug, levodopa, which treats the symptoms of Parkinson's once it is processed into dopamine by a certain type of neuron. But the efficacy of this drug is reduced over time, as these neurons lose the ability to process it.

The mechanism of the gene therapy treatment is to deliver the gene that confers the ability to process levodopa directly to the neurons that need the dopamine.

In other promising research, the University of Florida is working on gene therapy that could fight a rapidly progressing form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

The research is at an early stage, but initial trials on mice with autoimmune encephalomyelitis (a condition of the spinal cord similar to MS, and used in early trials) look promising.

Doctor Brad E. Hoffman of the University of Florida said, “a realistic time for initial Phase I trials would be two-plus years”.

Another new development for 2018 is the rise of ancillary industries around gene therapy.

These include companies that are gearing up to create the virus vectors needed by the companies making the therapies. In February, two collaborating UK companies, Cobra Biologics and Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services, were awarded a government grant to develop capabilities for clinical and commercial production of gene and immunotherapy vectors.

Bioverativ plans to license technology from Oxford BioMedica (LON: OXB) to manufacture viral vectors to treat haemophilia. US firm VGXI (a subsidiary of GeneOne Life Science of South Korea) announced in February a planned 70 percent expansion of its Texas manufacturing space.

Specialist companies in the conventional pharmaceutical industry are also getting involved.

World Courier, a subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (Nasdaq: ABC), is a global logistics firm which specialises in the transport of biological materials.

The gene therapy market – worth $584m globally in 2016 – is estimated to reach $4.4bn by 2023.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

epidermolysis bullosa from University College Dublin.

It already has a conventional therapy in the pipeline for EB and sees the two approaches working in tandem. The conventional treatment, if approved, will treat patients' wounds and manage pain, itch and infection.

The gene therapy, on the other hand, is designed to alter the underlying cause of the disease and offers the potential for long-term curative treatment in a specific subtype of the disease, recessive dystrophic EB. This therapy is unusual in that it doesn't use a viral vector.

Instead, it has a delivery system that enables it to be topically administered via a tube and broadly applied over all the skin.

POTENTIAL PLATFORM Amryt CEO Wiley said this gave the company “a potential platform technology, with an initial topical application in EB, that does not rely on the use of viral vectors” for the delivery of gene therapy.

“If successful, this platform has the potential to be broadly applicable in other dermatological conditions, and possibly beyond,” he said.

There are several companies working on gene therapies for haemophilia and various rare eye diseases, and gene therapy treatments in clinical trials for about 50 diseases.

Voyager Therapeutics (Nasdaq: VYGR) is a company that specialises in gene therapy, as well as other biotechnology techniques, to treat neurological diseases. Since the Central Nervous System (CNS) is made of cells (neurons) that are long-lived and don't age or divide, therapies that would be temporary fixes in other parts of the body can in these cases be long-term or even permanent cures.

In the pipeline are treatments for Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's, amongst others. The Parkinson's treatment is most advanced, although still at the Phase 1b trial stage. It doesn't claim to be a cure, principally

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Multi-billion dollar merger brings gene therapy aid for infants closer to production America’s FDA approves ‘breakthrough’ designation for promising treatment NOVARTIS has announced a multi-billion dollar agreement and plan of merger with AveXis to acquire the US-based NASDAQlisted clinical stage gene therapy company.

The acquisition is priced at $218 per share, for a total of $8.7 billion in cash. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.

AveXis has several ongoing clinical studies for the treatment of SMA, an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a defect in a single gene, the survival motor neuron (SMN1). The lead AveXis gene therapy candidate, AVXS-101, has compelling clinical data in treating SMA Type 1, the number one genetic cause of death in infants – where nine out of 10 infants do not live to their second birthday or are permanently ventilator dependent.

Estimates say one out of every 6,000-10,000 newborn babies is affected by some form of SMA. Vasant “Vas” Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, said the proposed acquisition of AveXis offers “an extraordinary opportunity to

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transform the care of SMA”.

“We believe AVXS-101 could create a lifetime of possibilities for the children and families impacted by this devastating condition,” he said. “The acquisition would also accelerate our strategy to pursue high-efficacy, first-inclass therapies and broaden our leadership in neuroscience.”

Narasimhan said the merger would advance the company's CAR-T platform for cancer and advance a growing pipeline of gene therapies.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted AVXS-101 Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of SMA as well as “Breakthrough Therapy” designation for SMA Type 1. A BLA (Biologics Filing Application) with the FDA for AVXS-101 is expected later this year. Approval and launch in the US is expected in 2019.

PRIME (Priority Medicines) and Sakigake designations have been secured in Europe and Japan, respectively. (The Sakigake designation system is a core policy of the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry aimed at early introduction of innovative medicines initially developed in Japan.)

If approved, AVXS-101 would be a first-inclass one-time

therapy that addresses the root genetic cause of SMA by effectively replacing the defective SMN1 gene. In a clinical study, AVXS101 showed life-saving efficacy, with all 15 infants treated eventfree at 20 months – compared with an event-free survival rate of eight percent in a historical cohort (NEJM, November 2017).

AveXis also offers state of the art AAV9 gene therapy manufacturing capabilities and valuable R&D capabilities, which in addition to AVXS-101, includes other pipeline products for Rett Syndrome (RTT) and a genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Assuming mid 2018 completion, the acquisition impact would be slightly negative to Core Operating Income in 2018 and 2019, mainly due to R&D investments. As of 2020, Novartis would expect the acquisition impact to strongly contribute to Core Operating Income and Core EPS accretion driven by a significant increase in sales.

The transaction is expected to close in mid 2018, pending the successful fulfilment of the tender offer and all other closing conditions.

On completion, Novartis plans a smooth transition of operations and the integration of AveXis' talented and dedicated employees to continue the mission of bringing AVXS-101 to patients around the world.

Revolutionising the travel sector through use of innovative technology eDreams ODIGEO offers a collaborative, fast-paced and dynamic place to work TRAVEL is about journeys, and the eDreams ODIGEO journey began 19 years ago as a true technology disruptor in the industry.

Now eDreams ODIGEO is Europe's largest online travel company, serving more than 18 million customers a year across 43 countries. But the business is fully aware that future success is dependent on a relentless drive for innovation.

Over the past three years, the internal focus has been on reigniting that original disruptor spirit – challenging its staff every day to develop and implement the best technology to be an even stronger customer-centric business.

The aim is to inspire the team to not just deliver the latest innovations but to focus on redefining and expanding the boundaries of what is possible.

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CEO Dana Dunne: “Delivering a personalised and efficient experience for consumers through technology has become the key to success in our industry.”

Success is all about the brains behind the technology, and eDreams ODIGEO has to

The brains behind the technology

compete against every other leading technology company, not just other online travel agents, to attract the top talent.

That's why the group is intent on creating a great place to work.

To date, this has been achieved in several ways.

The first step is co-operation.

Staff work together to achieve a shared vision – becoming a onestop shop for travel – and this helps guide employees in their work every day at eDreams ODIGEO. This goal is pursued by harnessing the latest technology to deliver more options, greater value and better service for customers and to improve every aspect of the business.

To keep the motivation flowing, a significant investment has been made in the in-house technology team. This is now the largest of any

further and faster than anywhere else online. The process compares millions of options in seconds to produce personalised results.

This means: Customers save money thanks to a combination of flights which cannot be booked on any single airline website Customers get the best choice, with up to 3,000 travel plans created in 10 seconds – less time than it takes to tie your shoelaces Easier to use – less than 100 seconds for users to book a direct flight Better care – 24/7 customer service across all major markets.

In addition to creating thriving and growing technology capabilities across the business, investing in specialist teams (focused on user experience or machine-based learning, for example) has helped the eDreams ODIGEO team to build further expertise.

The resulting technology helps customers to quickly access combinations of millions of flight, hotel and car options across 245 platforms.

This enables eDreams ODIGEO to provide a personalised service to its customers and maintain its focus as a true travel company.

• • • •

Staff work together to achieve a shared vision personal development and special creative projects.

To encourage team members to pursue their own ideas, internal awards are held to recognise individual creative achievements.

The programme has led to some impressive industry innovations.

In recent years, the online travel company has created 50 teams working on different products, divided into features and functionalities.

Developers use the latest technological expertise to provide increasingly “digitally savvy” consumers with the tools to search

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

airline or online travel agency in Europe.

No two customers are the same, so ideally no two booking experiences or travel packages should be the same. Machine-based learning (MBL) specialists make it quicker and easier than ever for customers to access personalised, on-demand products and services.

Technology creates unique offers for customers by analysing aggregated and anonymised data – making over two billion personalised predictions per day. MBL has revolutionised the booking process for mobile phone users, and the eDreams travel app is rated number one in the market.

As Barcelona becomes increasingly popular with technology companies, eDreams ODIGEO is working to build a reputation for creativity to attract and retain experts coming to the city.

A fundamental factor in ensuring success within the company's User Experience (UX) team is freeing up enough time to identify, create, explore, and investigate new ideas.

This is encouraged as a core part of the travel group's everyday culture, with the decision to introduce a utilisation model to ensure every UX team member can use 20 percent of their time for

Fill these chairs: a collaborative and fast-paced place to work

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SME funding forms a crucial part of economic growth JASON AGNEW delves into the world of financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the strategies for continued success IT WOULD be foolish to underestimate the vital role that small and medium-sized enterprises play in the most developed economies.

Smaller businesses are an integral part of the economy, contributing almost half of private sector turnover and over 60 percent of private sector employment.

While the cost of borrowing from banks has been falling slowly, at least for SMEs, it is clear that the “quantitative easing” flooding banks with capital has not been sufficiently passed-on to the companies that provide economic growth.

In Germany, a country

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geared towards manufacturing, the so-called “mittelstand” — the medium-sized companies in a country, viewed as an economic unit, an engine room of about 3,600,000 companies — according to The Daily Telegraph employs the majority of the country's workforce, which enjoys robust growth and staff loyalty.

Germany has an SME-funding vehicle — the KfW Development Bank (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, or Reconstruction Credit Institute), which was launched as part of the postWorld War II Marshall Plan — and is able to fix borrowing costs for far longer than a commercial UK bank, and can therefore plan

“We are here”

further ahead.

So, if banks have not been stepping up to the plate, who can growth-seeking firms turn to? For small companies, crowdfunding has provided a new source of funding. By the third quarter of 2015, peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Circle was third behind RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) and Lloyds for the amount of money lent to small companies.

For medium-sized companies, private equity is often a more attractive source of funding.

According to Acuity magazine, “private equity funding can be a better option as it may also bring skills and expertise”. The

companies that use several investment strategies, including leveraged capital, venture capital and growth capital. They raise the necessary capital and usually seek a controlling or substantial minority position, often bringing management expertise — and invariably charging a fee.

These are medium- to longterm investments with a 5-10-year lock-in, which look for a return on the investment through different types of exit: an IPO, mergers and acquisitions, or recapitalisation.

CONTROVERSIAL Some of the larger players include the Carlyle Group, AIG Investments, Pantheon Ventures and KKR (whose controversial 1980s takeover of RJR Nabisco was chronicled in the book Barbarians At The Gate).

The IFC (International Finance Corporation), as the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, provides investment, advisory and asset management services directly and through intermediary companies in order to promote development in emerging and frontier nations.

The IFC explains on its website that private equity investments in

developing markets differ from those in evolved markets. Instead of concentrating on highlyleveraged transactions (HLT) such as M&As and LBOs, it tends to focus primarily on providing growth capital, corporate governance and job creation.

The IFC is governed by its Board of Governors, which meets annually and consists of one governor per member-country (most often the country's finance minister or treasury secretary).

The new CEO of the IFC, Philippe Le Houérou, from France, is steering the organisation ever more in the direction of impact development. That is, where every dollar invested meets the 3P test — People, Planet, Profit — either reducing poverty or improving the environment (or preferably both), while making a profit.

As Le Houérou puts it, “I want the IFC to be more proactive in creating markets by decisively moving into fragile and poor countries, places where private capital dares not tread, and sniff out opportunities.”

The rationale is that these places are poor, certainly – and not because of a lack of

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

downside is that this type of investor often demands a majority share of the business — which inevitably leads to a loss of control on the part of the creator.

In countries such as India, private equity as an asset class has evolved significantly over the past two decades.

From the late 1990s, private equity provided an alternative source of financing for cashstarved local businesses which had been accustomed to limited credit options from banks, or to turning to public equity markets to underwrite their growth ambitions.

In its June 2015 report, Indian Private Equity: Route to Resurgence, McKinsey — the worldwide management consulting firm — estimated that “between 2001 and 2014, the private equity industry invested more than $103bn into the country, establishing itself as a stable source of equity capital across several business cycles”, investing in more than 3,000 companies, across all sectors.

Private equity firms (sometimes known as private equity houses) are investment management

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entrepreneurial spirit but because of the dearth of risk capital that asset managers have traditionally allocated to such areas.

About 65 percent of the companies they have supported have been SMEs, many of which employ significant numbers of women.

In their report, Investing In Women: Evidence For The New Business Case (March 2017), Mary Porter Peschka, director of Advisory Services at the ICF, specifies: “Over the last two decades, the gap between male and female employment rates has closed by only 0.6 percentage points.”

She argues that not only is there a clear social need to close gaps between men and women in the private sector, there is a strong business case for doing so.

“Gender-smart solutions can deliver benefits ranging from a better talent pipeline to a positive investment climate that creates markets for all.”

The IFC works with on-theground partners such as Capital First Ltd in Mumbai, an Indian financial institution with a good track record of allocating funds

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Solidifying financing for female entrepreneurs where they are most needed. It invests over 90 percent in MSMEs (micro, small and mediumsized enterprises) and consumer financing.

In May 2017, the ICF approved a loan of just over $50,000,000 which will be used for financing the growth of CFL's lending portfolio to women-owned small and medium enterprises (WSMEs).

STRONG PRESENCE CFL also has a strong presence in poorer states – and a strong interest in financing womenowned businesses.

This investment will be IFC's first Banking On Women project to be undertaken with an NBFC, solidifying female entrepreneurfinancing as a sustainable and attractive proposition for financial institutions.

The initiative is expected to provide a demonstration effect

for other NBFCs in India and elsewhere throughout emerging markets.

Le Houérou is also keen for the IFC to be involved in jurisdictions that most investors would normally avoid.

Initiatives such as ConflictAffected States in Africa (CASA) direct investments into areas devastated by war, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

It does this by working with public and private sectors to set up special economic zones in safer areas and helping the government to introduce regulatory reform to facilitate the setting-up of businesses.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has a similar modus operandi, although — as the EU member-countries' bank — it often has larger sums with which to lend or buy equity.

On November 2, 2017, it signed its first deal with the Republic of Argentina in over 20 years, with a loan of $71 million (€60 million).

The funds will be managed by the Bank of Investment and Foreign Trade (BICE) which will distribute it to SMEs and entrepreneurs.

From the IFC's website: gender equality ‘imperative'

The South American country´s Finance Minister, Luis Caputo, stressed that the new centreright government was intent on recovering the world´s trust after the Kirchner years.

Caputo said this move towards international acceptance and recognition would make it “possible for us to obtain good financing terms for SMEs and entrepreneurs”.

The EU is Latin America´s biggest development partner, perhaps unsurprisingly given the historical and linguistic ties and the legacy of colonialism.

The European Union offers loans to promote long-term investment on favourable terms, with the aim of delivering the EU´s social, economic and environmental goals.

Despite these concerted efforts, two-thirds of SMEs in the developing world claim not to

companies toward gender inclusion. Such support is a means to achieving greater gender equality, a key pathway to lasting poverty reduction, security and shared prosperity.

The IFC is also exploring how to tap into the power of evolving technologies and business models to create opportunities for all.

have sufficient access to funds compared with only a sixth in the developed world, according to the IFC. While commercial banks provide 58 percent of funding to midcaps in those countries, they are often reluctant to release more.

It normally takes time for a company to build its customer base or, in the case of agriculture, for the product to materialise.

Banks are notorious for “shorttermism” and reticence in followup lending is not a good fit for many of those businesses.

HAPPY MEDIUM This is where such agencies as the IFC and the EIB can really make a difference and help create a happy medium for evolving economies.

Also helping to fill the “missing middle” are specialist lenders or development financiers such as

GroFin, which offers mediumterm capital to growing firms across Africa and the Middle East as well as “value-added business support”.

They combine patient capital with the specialised support — for example, mentoring and coaching in operations, HR and ESG best practices — to help emerging market enterprises grow.

With all these partners contributing to building a sound financial ecosystem, often looking to KfW as a role model, there are many reasons to be confident about the future.

Whether governments and multinational companies help or hinder this progress might prove to be the elephant in the room. * For the purposes of this article, an SME is defined as a company employing between 10 and 250 workers.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

GENDER equality is not only a social and moral imperative, but also an economic need.

Women represent nearly 50 percent of the world's population, yet they account for only about 41 percent of the formal workforce. IFC has long recognized the importance of greater participation of women in economic activities.

The IFC's commitment to advancing gender equality is anchored in a strong business case and in client demand for gender-smart solutions, which has significantly grown over the past five years. In response, the organisation is working with clients to reduce the gap between men and women as entrepreneurs, employees, corporate leaders, suppliers, consumers, and community stakeholders.

The IFC supports companies with genderspecific advice and investment. It helps to provide access to credit, markets, housing, savings and insurance products, information, technology and supply chains. It works with companies on recruiting and retaining diverse talent from a gender perspective.

The new World Bank Group Gender Strategy outlines the support that the entire group, including IFC, will provide to client countries and

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Enemy in the Office: is it him, is it her‌or could it even be you?

Ever worked for the kind of boss who induces eye-rolling at every turn? Stymied by bickering bean-counters and bitchy co-workers? BV’s NAOMI SNELLING meets some experts in solving personal disputes in the workplace.

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with low-level irritations or a more deep-rooted battle of the egos, there is plenty that can be done.

Dave Morris, co-director of management and leadership consultancy Zentano, says that the way people are managed has a bearing on the quality of their

work – and potentially determines their eventual decision to quit.

“We believe that although organisations can do quite well at spotting extreme and obvious bullying behaviours, sometimes more subtle manifestations of this are harder to spot but can still have hidden, costly effects,” says Morris.

“We believe that many people feel frustrated by the way they are managed.” The well-meaning manager who doesn't delegate because of personal trust issues, or who is too quick to prove themselves to be the expert with advice or solutions, can cause real frustration.

“The hidden cost is that people eventually get fed-up and just leave,” says Morris. “The behaviour is not extreme enough to warrant a grievance procedure, and they don't have the language and framework or support to challenge such behaviour.”

Because so much of this antagonism goes on below the surface, Morris points out that it will continue unchecked unless organisations are prepared to work at the deeper mind-set level with their leaders and managers, and challenge them.

“Leaders and managers

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

VAST numbers of people have worked (or still work) in an environment where workplace politics require the negotiation skills of a top-ranking diplomat.

So, how do you spot the Enemy in the Office... and – quelle horreur – can they sometimes be found staring back at you in the mirror?

We've all met them: Mr/ Ms “I-Know-Best”; the goalpost movers; the over-explainers, who drone on for so long they make you want to start eating your own fingers; the prophets of doom, for whom everything is a potential disaster.

Then there are the overexcitable enthusiasts who quickly crash and burn, leaving their colleagues to pick up the pieces.

Oh, and let's not forget the office gossip, Mr/Ms Smug, the office scatterbrain and your very own Moaning Myrtle, complete with tales of woe.

Given the complex fabric of personalities that make up a workforce, it's hardly surprising that tensions arise. The good news is that whether you're dealing

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cannot change what they are not aware of, unless they are given the psychological tools to do that,” he says. “Often organisations are not equipped to support and challenge their leaders and managers in that space.

“Most often this is because they themselves don't have the language, models or tools to have the difficult conversations.”

Randall Petersen, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School, recalls a difficult conversation he had with a highly ambitious boss who was unaware of his own intimidating demeanour.

“He was in a senior role at a well-known business school,” recalls Petersen. “I told him he was perceived as threatening and intimidating to a number of people.

“His response was typical incredulity: ‘I've never hit anyone, what are they worried about?' I had to explain that he was a tall, large man with a temper, and that perception is reality when it comes to these sorts of things.

“He's doing extremely well in his career, and he's grateful that as a colleague I was brave enough to actually say something to him. I did it because he was somebody I respected, and I felt he deserved to know what some people thought. There was risk involved, but it actually strengthened our

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friendship in the end.”

Petersen points out one of the duties of a boss is to help resolve conflict. “We can find leadership and inspiration and training in lots of places, but when things blow up, too many bosses forget their key role and they run away from the conflict.

“It's a dereliction of duty; when you have an enemy in the workplace you should be able to hope that your boss is going to engage and help to resolve it.”

And what exactly is an “enemy” anyway? “Enemies take the form of people who oppose what you would like to see happen,” says Petersen. “Sometimes you can be

your own greatest enemy.

“An enemy can be a boss or a colleague. If it's about outcomes, you can often go back to basics and work out where you have some agreement and then reconstruct.

“And the actual solution might be something that neither of you has focused on. If you escalate, and they escalate, in the end nobody wins.

“The best advice is to try to avoid it becoming a win-at-all-costs scenario, because that always ends up being dysfunctional, where you sell your soul to win a war.”

Morris and Petersen point out that self-awareness and emotional intelligence are the key marks of strong leaders.

“A key indicator of longterm success in leadership and management roles is the ability to seek out feedback, particularly the negative stuff,” says Petersen.

The good news is that having an enemy in the office can be a trajectory towards remarkable selfdevelopment.

Experts, including Petersen and Morris, agree that there is a whole arsenal of options to deal with the personal problems in the workplace, the most powerful of which involves developing your own leadership abilities.

Not only will this help you conquer enemies, it can turbocharge all areas of your life.

Spain hosts debate on sustainable development Energy and blockchain technologies face challenges — and even prompt environmental concerns interested in opening a business.

The forum, promoted by Anna Solod, was attended by Alexey Borisov, chairman of the executive committee of World Federation United Nations Association and director of the UNESCO Department of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

InterEcoForum addressed the treatment and management of CO2 emissions and carbon funds as a new climate financing instrument.

Sergi Cuadrat, technical director of the Allcot Group, presented his work as a green

Alexy Borisov

Ángela Muñoz adviser in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Alexey Shadrin, CEO of the Russian Carbon Fund, showed his low-carbon solutions for regional development that make sustainability a business accelerator.

Nordgas Trading made a presentation on remote geological prospection, using nuclear magnetic resonance technology to identify mineral deposits and aquifers.

The head of How2Agency, Ed Baginskis, looked at future applications of blockchain.

The Castellón start-up Klenergy presented Pylon Network, the first Spanish renewable energy distribution platform that connects communities and the mainstream market – also using blockchain.

With the system comes its own payment method in the form of another cryptocurrency, the pylon-coin. Ángela Muñoz gave a welcoming speech to the visiting delegates, most of whom were from Russia, and suggested a quick course in the language for locals might not be a bad idea.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

MARBELLA recently hosted the InterEcoForum, addressing sustainability, with presentations from 20 speakers from Spain, Russia, Greece, Latvia and Switzerland.

The two-day meeting looked at Sustainable Development Goals surrounding energy and blockchain technologies with the aim of generating opportunities from the historical challenges that arise.

Another aim was to enhance communication between international leaders, investors and professionals, as well as many Costa del Sol entrepreneurs

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Big names, big gains at the very top: fair play rules for the behemoths of banking WITH great power comes great responsibility, and multinational banks with trillions of dollars under their care and management have both.

Most, to their credit, address their social and community obligations with some vigour.

This is especially true for the behemoths and big-hitters, which have the added responsibility of being a household name with a reputation to uphold.

John Pierpont Morgan – as in JP Morgan – was an American financier born in 1837 whose name is still known in most households. He became involved

in his father's banking company and in 1895, the firm was restructured as JP Morgan and Company.

His legacy lives on in one of the largest most important banking houses in the world, the largest bank in the United States, and the world's sixth largest bank in terms of total assets – JP Morgan Chase.

The multinational banking and financial services holding company, with its headquarters in New York City, boasts assets under management of over $2.5 trillion, and a mammoth $28 trillion in assets under custody and administration. Forbes magazine

lists it as the world's fourth-largest public company based upon a composite ranking.

The JP Morgan brand covers the investment banking, asset management, private banking, private wealth management, and treasury and securities services divisions.

JP Morgan has assumed its mantle of responsibility and contribution to the community, being well positioned to invigorate the economy and tackle economic, social and environmental challenges on a global scale.

It has the strength, global

Roman Tiraspolsky / Shutterstock.com

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Forbes magazine lists JP Morgan as the world’s fourth-largest public company

reach, expertise and access to capital – and the initiative to use those advantages for the benefit of communities and clients.

But with the stated mission of enabling more people to contribute to, and share in, the rewards of a growing economy, is JP Morgan actually walking the walk?

In 2016, JP Morgan Chase and its foundation gave nearly $250 million to non-profit organisations in 40 countries, and more than 50,000 of its employees provided 325,000 hours of volunteer service in the communities where they live and work.

“We take a comprehensive approach to increasing economic opportunity,” JP Morgan explains on its website, “using our firm's global scale, talent and resources to make investments and create partnerships in four priority areas: workforce readiness, small business expansion, financial capability, community development.”

JP Morgan believes in reducing inequality and creating widely shared prosperity – but notes that achieving that goal requires

the collaboration of business, government, non-profit and other civic organizations, particularly in the cities and metropolitan regions that power economic growth.

Trade Finance is a key part of the JP Morgan make-up, and is claimed on the company website as being “in the DNA”. For more than two centuries, the bank has eased the way for its clients to make trade payments, access liquidity, and manage risk.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS It connects counterparties with traditional trade, supply chain finance, and export finance solutions. Its institutional strength, expertise, technological advantages and established network enable it to deliver practical and practicable solutions, as and where clients need them.

JP Morgan has provided clients with traditional trade and supply chain finance, export finance, and information management solutions for over 200 years.

With industry experts around the world, it provides commentary on a variety of trade.

JP Morgan lists among its focus

points the art of maximising the value of clients' working capital, without a negative impact on customers or suppliers. It also uses clients' risk management framework to promote growth and harnesses industry developments to build advantages.

One of the key tools used by JP Morgan is the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO), an irrevocable undertaking of one bank (typically, a buyer's bank) to pay another bank (seller's bank) on a specified date after successful matching of trade-related data.

In terms of global trade, a complex area, JP Morgan Escrow Services has a team which helps clients mitigate risk for critical transactions.

Its reputation as one of the world's leading escrow agents has been hard-earned by transactions which close quickly, accurately and securely.

JP Morgan's industry expertise and knowledge of local markets enable it to tailor solutions that meet clients' working capital and risk management needs.

Responsibility and power… sensibly combined.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

JP Morgan is the world’s sixth largest bank in terms of total assets

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Members only: packages with a recipe for happy holidays From ‘crazy sign’ dances to movie spin-offs and punning prison references, Club Med has worked its way into our vacation dreams HOLIDAY clubs are an institution.

Think Club 18-30 (Sunset and Sea). Think Club Med (or even Club Fed, a pun on the name for minimum security American prisons).

The “club” moniker has become a catch-all travel industry tag for organised holidays in exotic locations, a carry-over from the Cook's Tours packages of yesteryear. “Club” often refers to companies whose customers are on their first overseas holiday, alone and – at last – unaccompanied by parents.

Of them all, Club Med has proved to be the most enduring.

It was started way back in 1950 by Belgian Gérard Blitz, who opened

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a budget summer colony of tents on the Spanish island of Majorca – slap-bang in the beautiful blue Mediterranean.

The Med's coastline is long, and the first “official” Club Med was on another of its shores: in Palinuro, Italy. These original villages were simple, with straw beachfront huts and shared facilities.

RAPID INCREASE In 1961, Club Med was purchased by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who tried out one of the holiday packages and thoroughly enjoyed it. With his famous family's backing, the number of villages rapidly increased.

And, organisers realised, it didn't have to be strictly about the sea – despite the “Med” of the title. Winter villages, with skiing and other winter sports, were introduced in Switzerland in 1956.

Nor – if you were thinking of the seaside – did “Med” have to be limited to a single coastline.

In 1965, the first club outside the Mediterranean was opened in Tahiti.

Club Med also opened holiday villages in the Caribbean and Florida (where English, rather than French, became the main language).

Although initially aimed at singles and young couples, Club

‘Competition is never far away when there’s a successful idea’

MooNoi_Amphol / Shutterstock.com MooNoi_Amphol / Shutterstock.com

Med became a destination for families from 1967.

It also ceased to be a club in the legal sense, going from a notfor-profit association to a PLC (or SA, for the French) in 1995 – but new and returning customers are, to this day, charged a membership fee.

The French language still has a place in Club Med. Staff are called GOs, or Gentils Organisateurs (Nice Organizers) – there are 15,000 of them, representing 96 nationalities, around the world.

Holidaymakers are GMs, or Gentils Membres (Nice Guests/ Members), while support staff are known as GEs or Gentils Employés (Nice Employees). The resort manager is called the Chef de Village (Village Chief).

Each village contains a team of managers: sports manager, leisure manager, restaurant manager, and so on. GOs and GMs spend days and nights together, rather like the Butlins model.

It's all part of the holiday experience, according to the club philosophy.

Communal dances are led

by the GOs during the day, with standard dance steps and the famous “crazy signs”. GOs are moved between villages and are expected to take part in the show (and do the “crazy signs”).

The Club Med style of vacation has been satirised in movies, from the 1978 film Les Bronzés to Club Dread, a 2004 comedy/horror set in a vacation resort.

RESORT CONCEPT Competition is never far away when there's a successful idea, and holidaymakers have, over the years, sought more sophisticated options. One company head, Philippe Bourguignon – a former CEO of EuroDisney – aimed to change Club Med from a holiday village industry to one more focused on services.

His version of the club took over a chain of French gyms and launched bar and restaurant complexes in Paris and Montreal, but it also continued with the budget resort concept for young adults.

Oyyo, in Tunisia, was the first of the new resorts – but things didn't run smoothly. The strategy wasn't

a success, for various unforeseen reasons; the club fell into deficit after the infamous 9/11 attacks in the US. In 2002, a new Club Med CEO, Henri Giscard d'Estaing, trimmed the fat and focused on upmarket holidaymakers. Oyyo, Club Med World Montreal and many villages in North America, along with those offering more basic facilities, were closed.

Club Med returned to profitability as a result, and in 2015, Fosun International Ltd's Gaillon Invest II and The Silverfern Group finalised a takeover deal.

A bidding war boosted the price of the company from an initial $662m to $1.07 billion.

It's been quite a road trip for the company, from those straw huts of yore to the modern ensuite blocks today's holidaymakers flock to. But the flavour of fun has been retained, as has the continuity of service and the sense of freedom.

Club Med remains a force to be reckoned with, and aspired to, in the package holiday market.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Although initially aimed at singles and young couples, Club Med has become a destination for families

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A burger and a Coke?

All change for fast food and fizzy drink industry McDonald’s and Coca-Cola usher in new ideas to pep-up, perkup and slim-down the customers in the queue JUNK food has come a long way in recent days, with news of fresh meat (fresh meat!) being used in Quarter-Pounders sold in McDonald's US outlets, and CocaCola planning to brew its first alcoholic drink.

To be fair and clear, this is not to say that the beef in your McFeast isn't fresh in terms of sell-by dates (though who knows your cheeseburger's been sitting on that shiny shelf waiting for a customer). The change is that the beef will be fresh as in “not frozen”.

When it comes to the alcoholic drink, this is the first time Coke's been interesting to many people since about 1903, when the beverage giant removed the coke from the cola and palmed us off with caffeine in a switcheroo that you'd think the buying public would have noticed straight-off.

It's no secret that

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Coke and coke went hand-inhand for decades, with 9mg of the stimulant alkaloid from the South American shrub Erythroxylum coca in every glass. A typical recreational dose of cocaine, by way of comparison, is about 75mg, so the get-up-and-go factor may have been more psychological and psychoactive. But still.

So the fresh burger patties are for American diners only, and the new alcoholic Coke, should it ever see light of day, will be sold solely in Japan. Entrepreneurs and frequent flyers, take note (although flight restrictions mean getting a few cans in your luggage will probably be a no-no unless they came from the Duty Free, and the beef won't exactly be fresh after a long-haul flight).

MODEST EXPERIMENT A senior Coke executive in Japan was quoted as saying the move to add a shot of the local spirit shochu would be a “modest experiment for a specific slice of our market”. Concerned and conservative sections of society will be hoping that that specific slice doesn't include teens; alcopops have in the past been widely criticised as gateway grog for young adults.

Lest Macky-Dee's get all the credit for responsible decisions here, it must be said that Coca-Cola has made some responsible pledges of late,

including a promise to recycle a used bottle or can for every one sold by 2030. The company markets 500 brands of carbonated drinks, juices and water, and intends to make all of its packaging recyclable worldwide.

The 2030 deadline is a little distant for some, with 560 million litres of the famous cola alone sold each and every day. That's quite a build-up of trash until the new policy kicks-in, but hey, a step in the right direction and all that.

The company has also decided to cut the size of a 1.75l bottle to 1.5l and put up the price by 20p because of the introduction of a sugar tax on soft drinks in Britain.

The sugar tax was announced in 2016, by the then Chancellor George Osborne, in a bid to tackle rising obesity among children in the UK. Coca-Cola's motivation for cutting bottle size may not be entirely altruistic, but the effect – less sugar, at least in terms of serving sizes – should be welcomed by health professionals (dentists not necessarily included).

One thing Coca-Cola perhaps failed to consider with the smaller bottle size is the probable increase in waste plastic. Volume of sales is likely to remain constant, so this initiative may be another case of two steps forward, one step back.

Roll on, 2030.

In the meantime, I'll have a Quarter Pounder with cheese, please. Oh, and call a taxi – I want a Coke as well, so I'd better not drive.

BV REVIEW

Altruism trumps avarice in the eyes of consumers HINDSIGHT, they say, is always 20-20. So what a delight to discover that at the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, there is a Centre for Advanced Hindsight.

It sounds like an Irish joke, but the centre exists (albeit with the American spelling of the word “center”) and – going by the comments made by Dan Ariely, the centre's professor of Psychology and Behavioural Economy in the documentary Real Value – it could be renamed the Centre for Advanced Foresight.

Because Ariely, like the other experts and entrepreneurs quoted in the documentary by Jesse Borkowski, is not looking over his shoulder, other than to note the things we have done wrong in our constant search for a good bottom line.

Value, traditionally, is whatever people will pay for something.

“Real” value is something more complex – or more simple, depending on how you look at it.

ESTIMATION Real Value demonstrates our default estimation of value with an experiment. Subjects are offered coffee for sale. The coffee comes with extras: a choice of six more-or-less useless additions, such as cardamom and lemon peel. If these odd condiments are nicely presented in ornate dishes, people are generally prepared to pay over-the-odds for their adulterated cup of joe.

Even if the subjects don't know quite why they are being offered curry spice to add to their coffee, their perception is that they have received something extra – which they are happy to pay for.

Some readers will probably break off here and set up a Cardamom Coffee or

Lemon'n'Caffeine pop-up outlet in the nearest supermarket carpark. And good luck to them; if we're dumb enough to blunder into this sort of ruse with our wallets out, we probably deserve the licking that's dished-out.

In similar fashion, we expect expensive wine to taste better than cheap wine – even though a blind taste-test reveals no correlation between price and quality.

“Profit is a metric of sustainability,” says Kevin Trapani, CEO Redwoods Group.

That may be so, but Harvard researchers came up with a more balanced equation: Creating shared value. Creating wealth, in other words, by sharing. “All profits are not created equal,” says Trapani. “Profits that carry a social benefit are better.” Parting with our hard-earned is never easy; a bit of goodwill-fuzzy masks that pain and makes us feel better about our purchases.

Of course, hard-nosed moneygrabbers know this as well as the next wheeler-dealer. Line those shelves with apparently wholesome products, with a percentage of all profits going to charity.

Documentary films of this

nature are often saturated with graphs, graphics, equations, jargon and buzzwords. Real Value is different; it's more likely to inspire you to lie on a patch of sunny grass and watch ants than work on a new business plan.

Interviewees such as Eric Henry, president of TS Designs, and Carol Koury, founder of Sow True Seed, are partly responsible for this chilled vibe as they wander around their laid-back workplaces, with solar power, foraging chickens and busy bee hives instead of filing cabinets, suits and fuse-boxes.

No hierarchy. No authoritarian control.

“The result is that we are loved,” beams Koury.

It may sound a bit dippy-hippie, but these people know what's important and put their work ethic where their mouths are. With sunshine on their shoulders and the gentle clucking of the chooks in the bushes behind them, these are entrepreneurs who seem to have nailed that work-life balance.

They've also cracked something very important about psychology, satisfaction and – as the title puts it – Real Value.

HAL WILLIAMS

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Documentary: Real Value, directed by Jesse Borkowski

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Mark Zuckerberg Social media king rings changes to make it harder to access FB users' data

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PEOPLE Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com

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FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg has found himself in hot water over data breaches in the social network.

Zuckerberg said that Facebook had “made mistakes” that led to millions of users having their data exploited.

Political consultancy Cambridge Analytica has been accused of improperly using accumulated data for its political clients. Zuckerberg admitted there had been a “breach of trust”.

He pledged to take action against “rogue apps”, and said he would testify before Congress if necessary.

In a statement posted on his celebrated social media site, Zuckerberg said Facebook had a responsibility to protect users' data, and promised moves to make it more difficult for apps to collect user information.

Zuckerberg said his company would investigate Facebook apps that gave access to information, and would implement changes, including a forensic audit of any app with suspicious activity. Any developers who tried to sidestep the audit would be automatically banned.

Any developers that had misused personally identifiable information would also be blocked, and those users affected by the “rogue” apps would be informed.

Facebook also intends to further restrict developers' data access to prevent other kinds of abuse. Developers would be denied access to a user's data if the user hadn't activated the developer's app for three months The company plans to reduce the data that users need to give an app when they sign in to just name, profile photo, and email address. Developers will be required to obtain approval and sign a contract before asking anyone for access to their posts or data Mr Zuckerberg said his company would use lessons learned from the experience to secure the platform.

Christian Lange Hi-ho, hi-ho, data-mining we shall go (and you get paid for your personal info)

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COMPANIES worldwide need personal data from consumers to understand market needs and to design products and services that target specific requirements.

“The ways in which data mining can be used can in some cases and contexts raise questions regarding privacy, legality, and ethics,” says Wikipedia of the practice of data-mining. (See story on facing page.)

The Germany-based Opiria-Platform, headed by Christian Lange, is changing all that by enabling consumers to use their data to create a passive income stream – all the while respecting their privacy.

“What we do is build a globalised, decentralised hub which allows people to sell their own personal data, to monetise that,” says Lange, founder and CEO of the Ingolstadt-based company. “It's a marketplace.”

The hunt for data, he believes, is “the oil of the 21st century”. Lange says the industry has an annual revenue of $250bn, and the growth rate is about 13 percent.

Opiria-Platform is holding an ICO for the PDATA token, supported by the EU and peer-reviewed by Strategic Coin, a token and blockchain advisory firm. A due diligence report by Strategic Coin put the PDATA ICO in the top one percent of ICOs; $5m has been raised in a private presale.

Companies can buy personal data directly from consumers and compensate them with PDATA Tokens. “PDATA Token is the currency that expresses the value of personal data and enables its trading by using smart contracts on the blockchain,” says Lange.

Opiria-Platform connects consumers and companies globally and aims to become the world´s largest decentralised personal data marketplace.

Opiria-Platform and PDATA Tokens will “democratise the brokerage of personal data in a secure, lawful, fair and transparent way” using blockchain technology “and the principle of choice – your choice to securely sell your personal data, with whom you want, with the help of our platform”.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

PEOPLE

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The art of making money: caveat emptor, as always Fine art can make you money, but many investors have been duped. TONY LENNOX finds the fine line.

WOULD you spend £70,000 on a piece of conceptual art? Say, an installation of a room with the lights going on and off every 30 seconds? That was the expected price when Christies of London put up for auction a work by Turner Prize-winning artist, Martin Creed, in 2014.

Work No.127: The Lights Going On And Off didn't involve the purchase of the room, nor even the light bulbs or wiring… just the concept. The buyer was offered a certificate giving him or her the right to recreate the idea.

It didn't find a buyer.

Other works in that same Contemporary Art auction did sell, though - generating nearly £100 million in sales on the night.

Whether it's Old Masters or the work of contemporary artists, art has become very big business in

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Challenge is to ‘see a new perspective’ the last half-century.

As investors look for a safe home for their money in difficult times, the art market has come to be seen as a place where potential fortunes can be made. And, just as easily, lost. The general advice to the layperson thinking of investing in art is: Beware.

New York-based art advisor, Heidi Lee Komaromi with many years of experience in the art world, specialises in Post-War and

Contemporary Art. She has managed and built corporate and private collections, dealing with the primary and secondary art markets.

In 2002, Komaromi founded HLK Art Group to guide clients who were building contemporary art collections. “While there are definitely ways to try to speculate the potential appreciation of an artwork,” she says, “there can be no guarantees.” Who knew?

It's a risky game with uncertain returns, Komaromi cautions. “One can fall in love with an artwork for any number of reasons, but if you are interested in collecting emerging contemporary artists for example, you are most likely interested in the fact that it is challenging you to see a new perspective, or pushing you in a new direction.

“If a great artist is someone who influences other artists, introduces new ideas and has a profound effect on the broader culture, then buying an artwork purely for its aesthetic beauty alone is not likely to have much staying power in the market.”

Other experts agree that the uninitiated are at the greatest risk of losing a packet if they go into the art market without the necessary knowledge. Prices are volatile; the market is idiosyncratic, and there's no readyreckoner to judge two w o r k s of art.

And it's

authenticity to give credence to the fakes, galleries and leading art houses accepted them with hardly a question. “I was very surprised. It just seemed so unbelievable,” said Myatt.

With the need for good information so critical, it is little wonder that art consultancies – hitherto unknown – have sprung up to cater for this demand.

These are people who will pick out art based not on its aesthetic qualities, but rather its potential returns.

SPECULATIVE The art market's steady rise in size and value began in the 1970s when institutional investors first took an interest. Until then it had been the preserve of the ultra-rich. Now almost anyone can aspire to be an art collector.

Judged against other investments, art has performed well over recent decades.

Traditionally the art market tends to bounce back more quickly

after a period of recession, but anyone looking for a short-term speculative profit is advised to steer clear.

Transaction costs are high. A buyer may be required to pay up to 30 percent of the cost of an artwork in commission. Selling by auction also means a buyer will have to pay a seller's fee of between five and 10 percent.

The price of an artwork itself is sometimes increased in value by up to 40 percent just for the buyer or seller to break even on the deal.

Owning an art collection also has on-going costs which don't apply to, say, gold. Maintenance, and the need to employ experts to give guidance on repair and storage conditions, come at a high cost.

Investors dipping a toe into the art world will also come across the word “illiquid” – meaning not easily converted into cash. In other words, if you buy expecting to make a quick profit, you may

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

worth remembering that the art market is not regulated in the same way as other traded commodities.

Investors in art can't depend on official bodies like the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to bail them out if things go wrong.

Another risk facing a wouldbe art collector is the danger of buying a fake. John Myatt, the Staffordshire artist jailed in 1999 for conspiracy to defraud, turned out hundreds of fake “masterpieces” – and has since become an established artist in his own right. His works now fetch respectable sums. Myatt believes there are thousands of fakes for sale, and even hanging in reputable galleries and museums across the world. Many remain in private collections, their owners too embarrassed to admit they've been duped.

When Myatt's co-accused, John Drewe, forged certificates of

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come unstuck.The first piece of advice from those who know is: don't buy what everyone else is buying. You may be coming late to the party and pay big prices – just as interest in that particular artist is beginning to wane.

Even with established artists like Damien Hirst, fashion can be fickle. Hirst's works, which were selling for eye-watering sums only 10 years ago, are currently going through something of a dip in interest.

The maxim that it is better to buy the best work of an up-andcoming artist than the worst work of an established one is good and well, but gambling on an artist's future popularity is as tricky as picking the winner of the Grand National.

For those considering an entry into the field, the cost of a Picasso may be out of range – but the contemporary art market is accessible and vibrant.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART A good place to start investing is by attending end-of-degree sales at reputable art colleges, such as the Royal College of Art in Kensington.

Some of art history's biggest legends – Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, and Marcel Duchamp – faced criticism early in their careers.

“As for today's artists – Mark Bradford, Cindy Sherman, Ai Wei Wei, Kara Walker– they are all challenging the status quo,” says Komaromi, “and making art part of the conversation.”

Some have been lucky enough to identify an emerging artist at the right time, buy at the right price, and make a subsequent killing. But these are few and far between – and tastes can change.

What was popular, and a good investment, last year may be gathering dust at the back of some dealer's shop today.

If you don't know what you're doing, you're likely to be in the dark half the time. Just like the (potential) owner of Work No.127: The Lights Going On And Off.

Ivanov Oleg / Shutterstock.com

By SUSIE ALLEN FIFTY years ago, University of Chicago students camped out overnight in Ida Noyes Hall for the chance to take home works by artists including Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and René Magritte. The prints and paintings were theirs to display in their rooms and enjoy for the rest of the quarter.

This Autumn, a new generation of students showed equal commitment when the Art To Live With programme returned after a three-decade hiatus. By 8am on the day of Art Match, the courtyard outside the Smart Museum of Art was filled with about 100 students, some of whom had arrived the evening before with backpacks, sleeping bags, blankets and a touch of Warhol whimsy in the form of a giant stuffed Winnie the Pooh.

The program was founded in 1958 by the Dean of Students Harold Haydon and Joseph R. Shapiro, an art collector and a cofounder of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Shapiro believed “the best way to become acquainted with art — and to appreciate it — is to live with it.”

By 1962 the number of works available for students to borrow had grown from 50 to 500. (Although the pieces were originally on loan, Shapiro later donated them to the University.)

The collection included several works by contemporary Chicago artists that Shapiro hoped would appeal to students' tastes.

Although the programme enjoyed huge popularity in the 1960s and ‘70s, Art To Live With was discontinued in the late 1980s.

Some of the original pieces now hang in public spaces around campus; others will be available to borrow in years to come. The programme's return was made possible by a gift from University Trustee Gregory Wendt, who as a student borrowed a print by the Latvian-American artist Sven

Lukin. It is now open to college students living in the University of Chicago's seven residence halls.

This year prints by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró were especially coveted, said first-year Michael Burke, who arrived at the Smart Museum about 1:45 am and by sun-up was “running on the free coffee that they gave us”. Burke had his eyes on the abstract, brightly coloured works of the 20th-century American painter Alfred Jensen.

“I don't think the Picasso is that cute, actually,” he said. “I more want something that I want to look at every day.”

But he'd be happy with anything. (In the end he left with Alfred Leslie's Four Women, which, with its 1960s look, “is totally giving me Dreamgirls vibes”.)

Behind Burke in line, fellow first-year Will Asness was hoping for a Miró, though he's realistic about his chances of getting one (slim) and cheerful despite how long he's been awake (nearly 24 hours). It hasn't been the night he planned: “I was walking back to my dorm to get a nice, nice sleep” when a friend told him

everyone was camping out to get art. It sounded like a fun way to spend the night, and besides, he's got a “section of free wall just calling for” something to fill it.

In groups of six or seven, students are let into the museum to pick from the 75 pieces on offer.

Once they've made a selection, they fill out some paperwork and wait for their art to be bubblewrapped for safe transportation to its new exhibition space. Today the program is entirely free, but in its first iteration, students paid a fee of 50 cents to a dollar to secure the loan.

Despite what you might imagine, museum staff aren't too concerned about the safety of the objects back in the residence halls. It's a bit like taking home the class hamster, explained Alison Gass, the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum.

“I've talked with other museum directors, because there are strong programs like this across the country.”

The museums are also careful about which pieces they lend. The Picassos and Mirós in the Art to Live With collection are prints— still valuable, and touched by the artists' hands—and no one, Gass said with a laugh, is getting the museum's beloved Rothko.

First-year Alex LaHood said he's feeling the pressure: The thought of living with a piece of art history is “slightly stressful but also cool.” His housemate Ethan Truelove was equally surprised t h a t the

Francisco de Goya print he selected will be sitting next to “a six-dollar nylon flag and some baseball caps I have on my wall, and the little University of Chicago felt flag.”

As the line progresses, fewer and fewer students end up with their first choices, but most take the setback in stride. First-year Julia Matyjas picked a tropical landscape print by Georges Rouault that complements her room's travel-themed décor; her roommate wound up with Francis Chapin's sketch of a figure sitting on a stool, which she deems “the most normal one left.” Third-year Ben Warren selects a piece he and his friends have dubbed “the Creepy Baby” (actual title: Baby with Blue Scarf

by Eleanor Coen). “This guy liked it,” he explained, gesturing to his roommate. “I can vibe with it,” the roommate agreed.

Gass said that students will soon play a bigger role in selecting the pieces included in Art to Live With. The Smart plans to put together a student collections committee. * This first appeared in The University of Chicago Magazine.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Students get up close and personal with great works

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Stagg parties and death in the Andes; all part of Citi life It started life as the City Bank of New York and took on the challenges of Latin America and the Bolshevik revolution BANK presidents? Fuddy-duddies, bean-counters and bureaucrats, in the eyes of Mr and Mrs Average.

But Mr and Mrs Average have probably never heard of Peter Stagg.

Scroll through the online annals of Citi – which started life as the City Bank of New York – and you will learn about world history, as well as a bank's trials, triumphs and tribulations over the centuries. While most institutions have an “About Us” or “Company Profile” sections on their websites, Citi has a fascinating potted history from the late 1700s to the modern day.

Instead of a dull and dry account of charters, mergers and proclamations, Citi takes its website visitors and clients on a varied and sometimes ribald romp through history.

There is a detailed account of the bank's

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development, to be sure, but also some delightful detours and an “at-a-glance” view of historic world events through the eyes of a financial institution.

Back to Peter Stagg, president of City Bank of New York in the early 1800s: one of those enjoyable detours. Before joining City Bank, Peter Stagg had been president of the Commercial Insurance Co. Stagg was no dull financier. Among other things, he was a member of a private club renowned for wild parties where members bet cases of champagne as they played the children's game Follow The Leader on the streets of New York – at night.

Stagg's hijinks didn't go unnoticed, and he was sacked by the bank's owners in 1825.

He was succeeded in the post by Thomas L Smith – but the Stagg family wasn't finished having fun.

Six years later, another family member, John Stagg, joined the board – and managed to remain there until 1850.

There is

no record of his party habits.

It isn't just odd characters and national and international history that make the Citi website list; internal strife and peculiar professional challenges are there too. Take, for instance, the bid to ensure the basic competence of bank staff back in the early days of the 20th century.

In 1912, the City Bank held the first compulsory class in basic arithmetic for 47 young employees. They were versed in the simple operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Speed and (especially) accuracy were prized, and the bank said at the time, “some of the boys developed quickness and accuracy which were nothing short of marvellous”.

A messenger, Strafford Wentworth, won $10 for being the only student to get all the answers right in the final examination in 1916. Another messenger, Harry Popper, won $5 for coming second and getting four of the eight best times. To convert £45,674 into dollars at an exchange rate of $4.76 without the aid of an adding

Were the parties this raucous in Peter Stagg’s day?

machine, the ebullient-sounding Popper arrived at the correct answer ($217,408.24) in just 26 seconds. More impressively, the 16-year-old was able to discount a note of $75,000 due in 74 days at four percent to get the correct answer of $74,383.58* in 1 minute and 57 seconds. (*The four-step operation assumed annual interest is paid on 360 days and involved two simple multiplications followed by long division, to two decimal places, and a simple subtraction.)

Finding Americans with overseas banking experience was difficult in the early days. Foreign talent had a crucial part to play, and diversity became part of the Citi employment ethic. Mike Corbat, the current CEO of Citigroup, says of diversity: “The breadth of background, experience, thought, opinion and perspective supports our commitment to advancing diversity as a proven catalyst of economic growth and progress.

The richness of our teams helps us to recognise diversity as an integral part of how, and why, we do what we do every day.”

In São Paulo, back in the day, it was a similar story – perhaps the start of it. The manager of the branch set up in 1915 was Canadian, the assistant manager Irish. Of the remaining 20 staff, half were Brazilian, and the rest were European, with just four Americans. It was a similar story in Havana, where of the 40 employees, half were Cuban.

There were six Americans in all.

The much smaller branch

in Montevideo had only 15 staff in 1916; three Americans, four Uruguayans, three Spaniards, two Englishmen, two Argentinians, and an Irishman.

This cosmopolitan character was evident in the bank's third branch in Buenos Aires, which had sections for Poles, Ukrainians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Slovaks, Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, and Italians. Its staff could speak a total of 21 languages.

ENTHUSIASM The City Bank's enthusiasm to become established in Latin America claimed an early victim.

Vice-president Herbert Eldridge had been selected to supervise the foreign branches out of New York.

After joining National City Bank in 1913, Eldridge had helped to expand the bank's business in Texas. On November 21, 1915, Eldridge, in his mid-40s, died of heart failure caused by altitude sickness while on a visit to the Bolivian Andean city of Potosi, which sits at an altitude of 13,000 feet, or almost 4,000 metres.

With foreign territory comes risk, and the unfortunate Eldridge wasn't the only City Bank rep to meet with disaster.

The bank's president in the early 1900s, Frank Vanderlip, was bullish on Russia. The Petrograd branch opened on his watch in the former Turkish embassy in January 1917; in March, the Russian empire collapsed.

Undeterred by the Bolshevik revolution on November 7, the bank opened its second Russian branch in Moscow's National

Hotel on November 27.

The timing was unfortunate.

A month later, the new Soviet government declared banking a state monopoly and took over the branch. “They were quite decent about it,” staff member Boies Hart wrote in his diary at the time.

Russia was an early lesson in sovereign risk. Total loss was limited to less than $10 million, but the combined assets and deposits of the nationalised Russian branches came to $33 million, more than 40 percent of the bank's capital.

The lesson from Russia was apparently lost on another bank president, James Stillman Jr, who oversaw expansion into Cuba. By 1920, the bank had more than 20 Cuban branches – but when sugar prices collapsed, the bank's exposure was $79 million, or 80 percent of its bank's capital.

Citi has come a long, long way, and has learned lessons about risk, inclusiveness, outlandish behaviour, the benefits of multiculturalism, foreign travel and trade. It's a long road that has left a sense of mission and accomplishment for the modern Citi, which lists its somewhat simplified modern goal as providing financial services to enable growth.

Its core activities are safeguarding assets, lending money, making payments and accessing the capital markets on behalf of its clients. And a glance over its shoulder reinforces the fact that Citi is up to the task – and ever was.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Rahul Ramachandram / Shutterstock.com

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Steeling the limelight in the new world of fashion A daring collaboration between a Swedish fashion designer and a steel manufacturer yields steel which is thinner than silk

By ABI GROGAN CHOOSING the right outfit for the red carpet has become even more difficult as sustainability, local manufacturing and innovative materials are being championed.

This new approach to fashion ethics has been showcased at the most visible spotlight on fashion, the Oscars ceremony, where steel took an unexpected starring role.

Swedish fashion designer Naim Josefi's haute couture creation used rolled steel embellishment in his design for film star Bahar Pars to wear to the Academy Awards.

The actress was convinced by the designer's use of innovative materials, saying, “an established fashion house would have given me a very nice dress, but I want to make a statement; to be on the creative forefront”.

Known for daring use of technical materials in his collections, this isn't the first time Josefi has clothed celebrities in pieces made from or inspired by the properties of metal – Lady Gaga wore a 3D-printed plastic version of a line of shoes Josefi originally crafted from steel.

Josefi's dress for the Oscars is made from around 6,000 ultra-thin, rolled steel sequins, produced by manufacturer

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voestalpine Precision Strip AB in Sweden. Environmental impact is very important to the designer's ethos, with pure aesthetics only informing part of the decision on what to use when choosing materials.

“I want to surprise,” says Josefi, “show the unexpected, move creativity forward. Sustainability is also very important to me, and – as it is 100 percent recyclable – steel is an obvious choice.”

Ian Jones, head of sales and vice-managing director of voestalpine Precision Strip AB, said the voestalpine researchers in Munkfors were approached via Jernkontoret, the Swedish steel industry's special interest group, and asked to provide some particularly thin strip steel.

“He was so enthralled with the material that he expanded his concept and decided to use several shades of blue. Through a series of oxidation experiments, researchers were able to colour the 0.022mm-thick steel strip in different shades of blue.”

The dress, which features 18,000 sequins, was the centerpiece of Josefi's Stockholm Fashion Week collection, with its delicate construction and colouring catching the eye. Ian Jones, whose company more

traditionally sees their ultra-thin product used in scalpels, razors and small valves, jokes that the material for the dress was made using “black magic, like all the rest of our steel”.

Jones highlights the “complicated series of cycles of high precision cold rolling and annealing down to these ultrathin gauges” that is required to produce this kind of steel, which is thinner than silkworm silk.

In a world where fast-fashion has led to short lifecycles for some clothing lines, Josefi's approach is to create enduring outfits that can help to combat the perception that the fashion industry creates and disposes of products too quickly.

For Josefi, putting thought into the processes and materials behind fashion masterpieces can be just as important as the conception of the design itself.

Collaborating with teams like the researchers at voestalpine has helped deepen his understanding of this aspect.

“All my collections are built on scientific research. Technology helps me realize complex ideas and thoughts,” he says. *This story first appeared on the World Steel Association website

Colm Curneen

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WOCHIT, the social video-creation platform, has announced the appointment of Dublin native Colm Curneen as the company's director of business development.

Curneen, who has more than 15 years of media experience, joins Wochit from another apparently misspelled organisation, Storyful, a social media intelligence and news agency acquired by News Corp in 2013.

“My role is to work with newsrooms, agencies and brands to help redefine their digital strategies and put engaging video, the trusted people behind the camera and real time digital communities at the core of what they want to achieve,” says Curneen on his new LinkedIn profile.

He has been head of business development at Global Editors Network, and has worked for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and The Financial Times.

Curneen will be responsible for managing Wochit's strategic partnerships and growing an international portfolio of clients.

Wochit enables publishers, newsrooms and content creators to produce short-form videos around trending topics at the scale and speed required in the video-first, mobile era.

It has rights-cleared assets from AP, Reuters, Getty, Bloomberg and others, and cloud-based editing tools.

Last year, Wochit announced the closing of another funding round worth $13 million. Wochit has raised $28m to date. The company is backed by ProSieben, Singapore Press Holdings' SPH Media Fund, Carlo de Benedetti, Redpoint Ventures, Marker LLC, Greycroft Partners and Cedar Fund.

Wochit is based in New York, with offices in London and Tel Aviv.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

PEOPLE

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Getting ‘in-shape' is never easy – but follow these tips and get set to flourish Summer’s coming, and BV’s favourite personal trainer, NATHAN DeMETZ, tells us how to get (closer to) the perfect beach body

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AS SUMMER draws near, everyone begins to think about warm weather, especially after the snow, rain, and cold of the Winter (and sometimes Spring) months.

Inevitably, thoughts turn to being shirtless or in swimsuits – so what do you do if you're a little anxious about showing some skin?

Well, first understand there is no such thing as magic, and your transformation won't happen overnight; probably not what you want to hear, but it's true.

The most common reason people fear showing some skin is due to some flab hanging somewhere (maybe in multiple spots). So weight loss—or more specifically fat loss—is one of the top goals.

Specific goals are the best kind, as they are generally quantifiable.

To want to lose weight isn't a

specific goal. Try saying, “I want to lose 10 pounds.” That provides a specific goal that can be measured as a quantifier for success.

It might help to take the goalsetting a step further and to state a goal of losing 10 pounds of body fat.

Setting a goal to lose 30 pounds in 30 days is not realistic. Sure, people who are very overweight can do it, but someone who is only 30 pounds away from their target goal is not going to – at least not safely.

Not only will you be likely to lose lean mass – muscle – but you're going to put yourself at risk of health complications. The body is not designed to lose weight that quickly; those who take extreme, unsustainable approaches can wreak havoc on their health.

The result is a “yo-yo diet”. Set a

reasonable goal, such as losing a pound a week.

One of the biggest obstacles a newbie to the health and fitness process faces is knowing what to do. Many people make changes to their eating habits and begin an exercise program without knowing how to do either; this is a plan for failure.

Some wing it and figure out what works, but most fail to see meaningful results and hurt themselves, or see some results, only to rebound.

Be the person who makes a plan for success. If you're reading BV magazine, you understand the importance of a good business plan.

Think of your health and fitness goals in the same light.

Look at the goal, determine the path to get there, consider the

training. The body is an adaptive machine. Provide or deny stimuli, and it will adapt. If you want to keep muscle, the body needs stimulus – in the form of resistance training.

You don't need to become a bodybuilder.

Calisthenics, resistance bands or any other form of resistance training will work (including lifting weights, of course). You don't need to spend hours in the gym, start taking supplements or believe in bro-science; just need engage in enough resistance training to maintain muscle.

I can hear it now: “What about cardio?”, and “Don't I need to do cardio to lose weight?” No. Wrong. False. And before you assume I'm a cardio hater: I'm a trainer, nutrition coach, health coach, and run coach. I coach runners every day, I run five to seven days per week year-round.

No form of cardio will help you lose weight and meaningfully improve body composition if you don't focus on nutrition and resistance training. Do it for

performance or because you like cardio, not as an excuse to eat more.

So how can you use this information to train your Summer body? Good question.

Determine what your goal is; let's assume it's to see less fat and more muscle. If you want to lose 10 pounds of fat, we'll give you eight weeks (the minimum time it should take to safely and sustainably reach this goal).

If you aren't currently working out and nutrition control is a foreign concept, hire a trainer, or download an app or programme.

Look for someone/something that provides nutrition and exercise as part of the package.

Give yourself the full training plan, and be sure to follow that plan. You can't say the plan didn't work if you didn't follow it correctly. Hold yourself accountable. Track your progress.

Don't focus on your bathroom scales, as they don't show changes in body fat. We have people track workout stats (sets, reps, speed, distance), body-part measures (waist, chest, thighs, hips), and weight as well as fat mass.

The last two allow us to track changes in lean body mass and fat mass, the key metrics. Combined, they will tell you if you are on the right path or help you to adjust your approach.

You can do this. Now get started… * Nathan DeMetz is a USbased trainer, nutritionist, and health coach who operates Nathan DeMetz Personal Training.

Learn more at demetzonlinepersonaltraining. com

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

resources available to you, and create a plan to get there.

And, as in business, if you can't figure it out yourself – bring in help.

One common flaw is focusing on either exercise or nutrition – but not both.

If all you care about is general weight loss – meaning you do not care if you lose fat or muscle – then focusing solely on nutrition may be a fine option. Control your food, restrict your calories, and weight loss will come.

But if you want to change body composition, this is not the best approach.

Cut calories below your need, and weight loss is inevitable (barring an underlying medical issue, of course). However, the body does not know you want to change its composition – lose fat and see, or build, muscle. It knows only that it is not receiving enough calories and must burn some material. Usually, it will burn both fat and muscle.

To avoid losing muscle and burn fat, engage in resistance

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Old Bombay is alive and well — and thoroughly modern Mumbai is a mix of traditional temples, British bombast and modernity. BV’s JASON AGNEW shares the secrets of a city that boasts wonderful food and a fascinating blend of cultures.

MUMBAI, India's “City of Dreams”, is also a city of extremes where millionaires (crorepatis) can leave their luxury apartments and get a shoe-shine for 12p – but a cup of espresso can cost more than the taxi fare from the airport.

The city formerly known as Bombay has mushroomed in the seven decades since it became the business and entertainment capital of an independent India. Its elegant Victorian centre, with stunning Gothic and art deco architecture, now shares space with rows of top-end high-rise buildings and sprawling shanty town slums that house the rural population which has flocked to the city.

Some will make it, the rest will join the legions of dhobiwallahs (laundrymen and -women), streetfood vendors, or beggars.

Mumbai moves at a furious pace. Crossing the road is not for the faint-hearted, the pavements are often occupied by various forms of commerce, but it is seldom overwhelming. Thronged thoroughfares give way to charming traffic-free lanes, narrow and lined with elegant balconied two-storey buildings and little wadi (hamlets), oases of serenity in the heart of the city.

Here is a random selection of some of the places that make Mumbai a place like no other.

MUSEUM: DR. BHAU DAJI LAD (MUSEUM OF MUMBAI) The city´s oldest museum opened in 1872 as the V&A. It was renamed after the Mumbai physician and sheriff who raised most of the funds to open it, and showcases the cultural heritage and history of the city. It traces its evolution from a group of

Koli fishing villages on seven swampy islands to the bustling megalopolis that it is today.

Its High Victorian interior with tiled floor, Corinthian columns and gilded ceiling mouldings houses an impressive collection of 19th century fine and decorative arts, maps, clay models, photographs, clothing, and headwear. It all gives a fascinating perspective on the rampant growth and industrialisation of one of the world´s major urban centres.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Rd. Station: Byculla.

Open 10am to 6pm Entrance 100 rupees (£1.20) MANI BHAVAN This elegant townhouse in Old Bombay is where Mahatma Gandhi stayed whenever he was in the city between 1917 and 1934. The lovingly curated exhibitions include the room where he slept and

worked, complete with mattress and two spinning wheels.

Gandhi, for whom spinning was so symbolic, learnt the craft here while developing his philosophy of satyagraha (Sanskrit: freedom through truth), often translated as non-violent protest.

There is a photographic record of his life, press cuttings of important events – including his assassination on January 30, 1948 – 28-tableaux of clay figurines depicting his life, a collection of his letters to statesmen and a tribute from Einstein.

On the terrace is a plaque marking the spot where he was arrested in his tent in 1932 after launching the Civil Disobedience campaign that ultimately led to Indian independence.

19 Laburnum Road. Station: Grant Road Snehal Jeevan Pailkar / Shutterstock.com

Open 9:30am to 6pm Voluntary donation appreciated WALKING: GIRGAON CHOWPATTY AND MARINE DRIVE Five minutes from the Mani Bhavan house, Mumbai meets the Arabian Sea in a spectacular fashion.

Marine Drive is a 3.6-kilometre-long, C-shaped avenue that runs parallel to Back Bay. Lined by art deco mansions, five-star hotels and office blocks, it is known as the “Queen´s necklace” as it resembles a string of pearls when lit up at night.

Girgaon Chowpatty beach at the north end of the curve has been described as Mumbai´s public living room, where people from all over the city come to its wide expanse to escape the overwhelming claustrophobia of its streets. Mumbaikars of all walks of life come here to enjoy the carnival atmosphere, the street food (bhel puri, vada pav etc) or a pleasant evening stroll in the fresh seaside breeze.

Children flying kites during the festival of Makar Sankranti (to the Sun God) in January or the Ganesh Chaturthi (to honour the elephant-headed god locally known as Ganpati) in September when throngs of devotees immerse their idols in the sea.

Station: Charni Road.

SIGHTS: HAJI ALI DARGAH MOSQUE Dramatically located on an islet linked to the mainland by a 500-metre causeway, the mosque was constructed in 1431 of the same Makrana marble as the Taj Mahal to house the tomb of Ali Shah Bukhari. Legend has it that the extremely wealthy merchant had given up all his worldly goods and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He died on the trip and was buried at sea, but his body floated back to Mumbai, coming to rest upon some rocks.

This is where his shrine was built.

Check the tides and take some small-denomination notes to pay the person who looks after your shoes while you are inside. Back

on the mainland, given the heat and pollution, you can refresh yourself at the Haji Ali Juice Bar with a fresh pomegranate (anar) juice or a delicious rose falooda lassi (yogurt drink).

WHERE TO STAY: THE TAJ MAHAL PALACE HOTEL How many hotels top the list of tourist attractions in the world´s great metropoles? The Taj (as it is known by all) stands so imperiously on the Mumbai waterfront next to the Gateway of India that it is a landmark in its own right, and easily the most prestigious hotel in India.

Boasting 560 rooms and 44 suites serviced by 1,600 staff and 35 butlers, 11 restaurants and bars, this is the home-from-home of presidents, film stars and royalty. Even if you don't stay, have a drink at the Harbour Bar, with its spectacular views of the Gateway of India. Prices roughly equate with those in London.

Rooms start from £130 in the adjacent Tower: suites start at £500.

WHERE TO EAT Mumbai is the city of a million hawkers and there is street food everywhere (with varying degrees of hygiene). One gem is Bademiya, just behind the Taj, which is open till 4am and does a great chicken tikka roll, served in a roti of sublime texture and topped with fried onion. They also serve delicious curries.

Bademiya, Tulloch Rd, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, £1.50 for a tikka roll. Open 5pm-4am.

SAMRAT You should “go veggie” at least once in Mumbai and this self-proclaimed foodie paradise is a great place to start. Its website claims that “the food that we create is not only delicious and appetising, but is visually pleasing as well”; this is undoubtedly true, and its elegant air-conditioned dining room and attentive waiters make this a splendidly old-fashioned experience. Th Gujarati thali, or mixed plate, is the main draw, with three vegetable dishes, dal,

unlimited pullao rice and roti, butterscotch milk and water, all for less than £4 for lunch or £5 for dinner.

Prem Court Building, Ground Floor, Jamshedji Tata Road, Churchgate Open 12 noon to 11pm.

GYMKHANA 91 The Gymkhana 91 owner once lived in Fulham, London, but came back to Mumbai to recreate the style of the traditional gymkhana – nothing to do with horses; it was a gentlemen's club – with neogothic style walls and canebacked Raj-era chairs, but with a modern menu of Indian and Asian cuisine. This former textile mill offers lots of space and light, and there is a great terrace and a bar serving signature cocktails.

Raghuvanshi Mills, Lower Parel, Station: Lower Parel Open 11:30am to 1:30 am.

BAR: WOODSIDE INN A good range of Gateway craft beers, and during Happy Hour (4pm-8pm) you get two drinks

for the price of one. Frequented

by Indian businessmen knocking back single malts, ex-pats and (later in the evening) by the happening people of Colaba.

Indian Mercantile Mansion, Woodhouse Road, Colaba.

SHOPPING: FABINDIA This modern department store sells ethically sourced, traditional Indian silk and cotton clothing and homeware.

Jeroo Building, 137 Mahatma Gandhi Rd, Kala Ghoda. Open 10am to 8pm.

EXCURSION: ELEPHANTA ISLAND An hour from the Gateway of India, the temple caves of Elephanta Island (Gharapuri) have UNESCO World Heritage status. Dedicated to the god Shiva, this complex of halls, pillars and shrines was carved out of the rock between 450 and 750 AD. Unique.

Ferries every 30 minutes from 9am to 3:30 pm; £2 return. Cave entrance fee: £5. * Trip was self-funded

India the ‘new Europe' for post-Brexit Britain?

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By HAMISH MURESS INDIA is home to a growing middle class and a young, brandconscious population.

With a population nearing 1.3 billion, its potential is being recognized by British businesses looking to build a new export market.

But India is also a nuanced market, and one that requires a solid long-term strategy.

One of the biggest hurdles for UK exporters is the rupee, which over the last 12 months has weakened by about 14 percent against the pound. This is problematic for British businesses because it makes their products more expensive to Indian buyers.

It also devalues any revenue that is repatriated from India to the UK when converted to sterling.

But small businesses need not be put off by the rupee's shortterm weakness. Many forecasts signal rupee strength for the rest of the year, with the Reserve

Bank of India cutting its inflation forecasts while raising economic growth targets to a whopping 7.4 percent. This combination of lower inflation and higher growth should support the rupee in the second half of 2018.

At the same time, global factors such as the escalating trade sanctions between the US and China will only aid India's economic growth, particularly given that India is less dependent on exports than its Asian competitors.

STRENGTH A tailored currency strategy is the best way to capitalise on the rupee's growing strength, while protecting small businesses against any downward trends.

Despite the rupee's current weakness, it can still be beneficial for UK businesses to price goods in sterling when exporting to India – though this of course depends on the nature of the business, and who it is selling to. The pound is

a global reserve currency, which lends it more stability and protects against some volatility.

Given the size and complexity of the Indian market, it makes sense to consult with an expert body like the UK India Business Council before moving ahead.

Their website can connect small UK businesses with opportunities from Indian buyers, as well as offering clear advice on the best way to enter the market.

Recent research by international payments company OFX found that India is one of the most attractive markets for small businesses looking to begin trade outside of the European Union, ranking only slightly behind more familiar markets like the USA, Canada and Australia.

With English one of India's primary languages of commerce, it is an appealing market for trade post-Brexit – and all eyes will be on Prime Minister Modi, and any trade promises he may make.

From a software ‘player' to a leader in his field: a story of grit and passion at the top KRIS Canekeratne loves to win – and considers anything short of a win a learning opportunity.

Growing up in Sri Lanka, the CEO of leading digital engineering firm Virtusa excelled at sports, becoming junior national champion for golf and table tennis before his 16th birthday. Sports also taught Canekeratne the value of real time leadership and sticking to the game plan, learnings that would impact the trajectory of his startup decades later.

Virtusa was founded in 1996

by Canekeratne, at the time an already accomplished software engineer. He wanted to assemble global teams to innovate and help clients accelerate their time-tomarket rather than spend time on mundane tasks.

“This led me to experiment with a small team of people both in the US and in south-east Asia to determine if we can leverage a global talent pool to innovate and help our clients bring their product and business ideas to market faster by applying Software Platforming efficiencies,” he says.

Although it began as a software engineering service provider, Virtusa has come a long way and established itself as a major player in the global IT outsourcing industry. It has evolved to become a digital engineering leader, helping clients manage their core IT systems better, while also transforming them into digitalfirst enterprises.

The company serves some of the largest, global blue chip

enterprises through its technology centres in the US, Europe, India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Virtusa recently surpassed $1 billion in revenues, employs more than 22,000 people in 50 offices around the world, and has a successful financial track record

‘Our focus has always been on delivering business value to our clients’ of delivering 20 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) since going public in 2007.

As CEO, Canekeratne plays a key role in defining the company strategy in continuously using technology and innovation to maintain its leadership in the industry. “Our focus has always been on delivering business value to our clients, doing more than to

just help them reduce costs, which has been the prevalent model of our industry for many years,” he says.

“We use a focused approach of understanding the business problem our clients are trying to solve, and thereafter using our strong consulting skills to develop a solution roadmap.

“This is then followed by leveraging our deep domain skills and software platforming expertise. We execute innovative solutions that help them accelerate time to market, improve operational efficiencies, and enhance the customer experience.”

The company's organic growth is also supported by its inorganic strategy of acquiring companies that bring complementary capabilities to the table and, in the process, drive company scale and growth. With the acquisition of Polaris Consulting And Services in 2016, Canekeratne was able to establish Virtusa as an IT services leader in banking and financial services, while also scaling business capacity and opening up new markets.

Among his various accomplishments, Canekeratne co-founded eDocs, a provider of electronic account management and customer care, in 1997; the company was later acquired by Oracle Corporation.

With a willingness to do whatever it takes and an openness to new ideas, Canekeratne has proved himself to be a natural entrepreneur.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

A company joining the elite billion-dollar revenue group has mastered the art of turning a vision into reality

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Up, up, away: nothing says success as clearly as ownership of a private jet You’ve made the Big Time! Congratulations. You have the car, the club, the Cohibas and the trophy partner; now you need a private jet. Right…?

YOUR response may be along the lines of “like a fish needs a bicycle”.

But some of the world's real highfliers, pun not intended but hard to avoid, do require more than regular airlines can offer.

Want to travel with your emotional support peacock?

Forget United. Same deal for hedgehogs, apparently. But there are more pressing reasons to own your own jet. There's a big question you need to ask yourself – and it isn't about the price; if you need to ask that, as they old saying goes, you don't have enough.

The question is: How many hours do you fly in a year?

“If you're not flying … 150

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to 200 hours a year, you really shouldn't buy one. You should just rent one. We're the first people to advocate that.” Those words come from Steve Varsano, founder of luxury private aircraft company The Jet Business, so they're worth heeding.

Americans used to make up 80 percent of Varsano's customers, but now that's closer to 50 percent, with emerging markets in countries like China, India, Ukraine, Nigeria, Mongolia and Angola taking up the slack.

Back to the costs, for those of you not just kicking tyres. The initial outlay, obviously, is for the aircraft itself. Prices range

from about $3 million to $90 million, and new factory jets with international range start at around $20 million.

Varsano says many of his customers switch jets every four or five years, like car owners. But the whopping purchase price isn't the end of it, even if you stick to the same old plane. Depending on its size, it can cost from $700,000 to $4 million a year to run.

The next expense to contend with is maintenance, and the more expensive the plane, the more expensive it will be to maintain.

A jet plane used regularly can cost millions of dollars in annual maintenance.

NetJets Lease offers similar benefits, with a different payment structure for those who don't want an initial outlay. Costs are guaranteed and predictable for the term of the lease (up to 60 months).

A lease starts at 50 hours of annual flying time, and can be

There is a solution: fractional ownership increased in 25-hour increments.

Other programmes are available for those who fly fewer than 50 hours a year. Marquis and other NetJets card programmes give prepaid access to aircraft for 25 hours at a time, with no longterm commitment.

NetJets employs 3,000 pilots, offers international flight coordination by its own planning department, and takes other

strains from potential owners.

The company has ultimate responsibility when it comes to liability, for example, and when a flight request is received teams create itineraries, monitor weather patterns and match aircraft to requirements.

Oh, and the support animals?

Your furry little Diddums will be made as comfortable as possible, and the NetJets Owner Services Team will even arrange a special treat or meal for them. And – just in case someone else's Diddums gets the hiccups, or worse – rest assured that the cabin is thoroughly cleaned for each new trip.

During taxi, take-off and landing, pets are secured inside the cabin with three seating options: in a pet carrier, belted into a seat, or leashed while attached to a passenger seatbelt (not in the aisle).

Air regulations state that pets under 150 pounds in weight can occupy a passenger seat, but heavier ones must remain on the floor. So if your particular Diddums is a rhino or an orangutan: floor only, sorry.

They still get the in-flight treat.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

And the biggest expense – believe it or not – is the cost of fuel.

You're looking at thousands of dollars per hour for aviation fuel.

You're literally burning money.

Because fuel economy fades with ageing engines, a jet's value is quickly lost. After ten years or so, the purchase price of a used jet can theoretically approach zero, because nobody wants to buy it.

The next item on the bill, before we get to the final tally, is the cost of pilots. Someone has to drive it, right? Most jets require two pilots, and if you're private, you'll be paying a bit more than the industry average; so factor that in.

If you're still interested, get your plastic out. If that combined total has you feeling a little weakkneed, but you still need your own wings, there is a solution.

Fractional ownership. Kind of like time-share.

NetJets is one of the companies with a shared ownership plan.

It still isn't cheap, and it comes with a minimum commitment of 36 months – but if you decide to leave the programme after that period, NetJets will repurchase your share.

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DJ Gramatik A token effort by musician Gramatik raises $2.48m in less than 24 hours

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PEOPLE SLOVENIAN electronic music producer and tech advocate Gramatik has become the first artist to “tokenise” his intellectual property with the launch of the GRMTK token.

He made financial history of a sort by raising $2.48 million in less than 24 hours during his recent token sale in Zurich. It was a move which created a new model for funding, and is being hailed as a new base for the artist-fan relationship.

The GRMTK token represents the intellectual property of Gramatik.

Anyone who buys tokens is entitled to a share in his work-related revenue, including music and film scores.

According to Gramatik himself, GRMTK isn't just a cryptocurrency. “It's much more than that,” he is quoted as saying. “Now my audience can share in my inspiration and success by also owning the rights and royalties of my music, and anything I create and distribute.”

If, for example, a fan holds 100 GRMTK tokens, then he or she owns 100 tokens worth of the rights and royalties of the music and projects created by Gramatik.

A quarter of the total tokens were sold-out within 24 hours, hitting the maximum contribution amount $2.48 million and putting the total value of his burgeoning GRMTK Entertainment Economy at $9 million.

It has been hailed as a revolutionary move for artists in the music and blockchain arenas.

“Embedded in the GRMTK token is not only the rights and royalties of my creations, but the ideals and philosophy of freedom and liberty for all artists, for all people,” says Gramatik.

“This is a movement of not only art, but of the mind and of the spirit.”

He is confident that other musicians will follow his lead. “They just need to see actual progress, that it's not just a theory. When they see that, I won't even need to convince them.

They'll see for themselves. Then I can see widespread adoption.”

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Arms maker Remington files for bankruptcy amid falling sales and public backlash Debts, faulty trigger mechanisms and a link to the Sandy Hook massacre have all harmed the US gun manufacturer in recent months. Coupled with recent atrocities in the United States and an outcry from the public the future looks bleak for small arms manufacturers.

REMINGTON Outdoor Company, the North Carolinabased gun manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy in the wake of falling sales.

Remington is the oldest gun manufacturer in the US, founded more than 200 years ago. It recently filed for bankruptcy protection to cut a deal with its creditors.

Remington's CFO, Stephen Jackson, said sales had fallen sharply over the previous year; times for small arms manufacturers are currently troubled in other ways.

The bankruptcy filing comes as America's youth have taken to the streets in protest, demanding

safety in schools and legislation for stricter gun control.

Financial and arms industry experts have speculated that events in Washington DC – including the election of Donald Trump as president – have reduced the demand for guns, leading to the sales slump.

Gun sales spiked during the 2016 presidential campaign because US citizens determined to protect their Second Amendment right to bear arms were worried that Hillary Clinton would win and tighten gun regulations.

Trump was then seen as an ally of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), which endorsed him. With no panic-

buying to circumvent any impending restrictions, gun sales have tapered-off.

Trump promised attendees at an NRA convention last year that he would “come through” for them.

The Second Amendment “freedoms” continue to strike a chord with American voters, even in light of regular mass shootings.

The FBI's own statistics show firearm background checks fell in the months following Trump's election.

But recalls for defective Remington firearms may also have played a part, with trigger replacements required for more than seven million Model 700

With no panic-buying to circumvent any impending restrictions, gun sales have tapered-off 70

Trigger replacements were required for more than seven million Model 700 bolt action rifles was taken by Lanza from the house of his gun-enthusiast mother.

He committed suicide with yet another brand of gun, this time a semi-automatic pistol – but Remington was the name which stuck in the public's mind.

NEGATIVE Mossberg, Springfield, Smith and Wesson, Glock, Colt and Ruger – some of the weapons used in other mass American shootings – have been lucky to escape a similar negative association.

A judge threw out the initial Sandy Hook class action suit, but an appeal by families of the 26 school victims – 20 of them children – is being considered.

The small arms company's

reputation had been tarnished.

Remington has recently announced a restructuring plan to reduce its debt by $700 million and inject $145 million into its subsidiaries.

The company had racked-up a massive debt, but hoped to emerge “with a deleveraged balance sheet and ample liquidity”, according to the Remington CEO Anthony Acitelli.

Acitelli said at the time that the “fundamentals of our core business” remained strong. * The deaths of the Sandy Hook killer and his mother, Nancy, bring the total deaths to 28.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

bolt action rifles. The defect was determined to be “potentially deadly”.

Remington's demise started years earlier, in the 2012 school massacre at Sandy Hook, Connecticut. A class action suit brought by families of the victims, claimed the publicity and marketing the company had invested in the marketing of the Remington Bushmaster .223 calibre XM15-E2S assault rifle – the firearm used by the killer, Adam Lanza – was partly responsible for the tragedy.

The Sandy Hook rampage started with the murder of the killer's own mother, using a different firearm. The Remington

March for our Lives: is the tide of public opinion turning?

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International students flock to US to ‘invent the future' MIT, with its reputation for academic rigor and innovation, attracts graduate students from around the world. The effort is worthwhile, but it isn’t all roses. The director of the Sloan School of Management MBA Programme, MAURA HERSON, penned this report for BV on diversity and reward.

MIT HAS a worldwide reputation, and international students make up 34-40 percent of the Sloan School of Management's MBA Programme.

MIT Sloan, based in Boston, values diversity and strives to provide a supportive environment for its global citizens. Its mission is to develop principled and innovative leaders who will improve the world, and enrich the learning experience of all students.

The MBA Programme conducts around 50 “Sloan on the Road” events each year to share admissions information and encourage qualified applicants,

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and its efforts – combined with MIT's reputation – continue to pay off.

The US remains a popular destination for international graduate students. In the MBA Class of 2019, 48 percent of international students will be from Asia or the Middle East, 22 percent from South or Central America, 16 percent from Europe, nine percent from Canada and Mexico, three percent from Oceania, and two percent from Africa.

MIT has applications from India, China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Central and South America, all regions where it has

active alumni promotion.

Its toughest competition comes from Europe, with strong programmes in the UK and the EC. For European citizens, the education model of a five-year undergraduate/graduate degree programmes and a subsidised national education system, can make going to the US a daunting proposition.

Once students have enrolled in the MBA programme, adapting to life in the US isn't always easy.

The good news for new settlers is that Boston is a cosmopolitan city, with colleges, universities and companies with diverse workforces. MIT Sloan is also

Vitor Pamplona / Creative Commons

Students also frequently participate in the “Ask Me Anything” weekly series, in which students share their experiences and answer questions from classmates. They discuss family expectations, cultural norms, and business in their home country, as well as the opportunities and challenges of being a foreign visitor to America.

The Japan Club organises an annual trip for MIT Sloan students to spend 10 days in Japan, visiting companies and attending cultural events. International students have also led tours of Israel, Brazil, Morocco, Thailand, and Korea While visa issues may seem like another challenge, MIT has never had a student turned-away for this reason. Uncertainty over Donald Trump's proposed travel bans, but to date they haven't caused a problem.

Once students have a valid visa, they are eligible to work in the US for their summer internship and to work for American companies post-graduation (for a set period).

Many international students want to stay in the US to work, but recently they have shown increased interest in opportunities in their home regions, working for multinational companies

or pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

Most international students say it's worth the effort to attend MIT Sloan. They learn a lot about their own capacity to succeed in a rigorous and unfamiliar environment, which builds selfconfidence. Their time at MIT also builds a global network, giving them the connections to do business anywhere – as well as the MIT name on their resumes.

Career-changers benefit from immersing themselves in a rigorous management education programme for two years. This stint gives them time to gain knowledge, build and practice new skills, participate in a summer internship and unlock many other opportunities.

Rather than teaching students how to operate in a specific part of the world, MIT Sloan prepares them to lead in a global economy, across different cultures – and to invent the future.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

more “international” than it appears on paper, as many US students have previously lived, studied, or worked abroad.

That said, international students still need to get used to a new culture and language.

Students from China, for example, may not be accustomed to raising their hand to speak in class, but classroom contribution is required as part of the grade at MIT Sloan.

The institute offers a weeklong pre-orientation session to all students to help them get used to the American style of teaching.

During this time, senior staff members, such as Senior Associate Dean Jake Cohen, share their experiences as international students. MIT is open about the fact that there will probably be some initial discomfort as students assimilate – but there are resources for personal and academic support.

More support comes from clubs: the Latin American Club, South-east Asian Society, European Business Club, Greater China Club, Brazilian Club, and Africa Business Club. These enhance students' experience with social events and business conferences.

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Keeping roads safe and open – and the via truly global!

Globalvia literally lives up to its name – an international organisation dedicated to roads and rail infrastructure IT'S EASY to tout an environmentally friendly approach to road-building; to follow-through on that promise, or give concrete examples of it, is often something else altogether.

But there's no loose talk or idle boasting at Globalvia; Perez Fortea has no problem finding examples.

When an overpass on one of the company's road construction projects was going to leave a pond in permanent shadow, Globalvia captured the aquatic residents and transported them to a new, brighter home.

When the mating season of the lesser kestrel was in full swing near a certain stretch of Spanish road, Globalvia put the construction project on hold – for two whole months – to ensure noise didn't disrupt Nature's rhythm The company creates, constructs, maintains and

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‘An asset survives a concession head’ manages toll roads, using different systems of funding.

There are “availability” roads, for which Globalvia is reimbursed simply for the road being accessible to traffic. There are no individual tolls for road users on availability roads. Then there are shadow tolls, in which Globalvia receives payment aligned with, and according to, the volume of traffic using the road. Finally, there are user-pays roads, the

typical and familiar toll road.

There are attendant risks with each road type: availability roads, for instance, generate no income at all should they be closed for any reason, whether that be for maintenance, repairs or to clear debris from the scene of an accident.

Perez Fortea says Globalvia's duty remains the same in all cases: “To provide safety and service, and to cater to the needs of road users.”

If that was all there was to it, road construction would be a very popular area indeed; there is, of course, much more to be considered.

“We always work as a team,” he says. “Not just with fellow employees, but with our clients, grantors, construction companies.

An asset survives a concession head.”

Rail comprises just 20 percent

assets are managed by a staff of 80 people. Those staff members are frugally allocated to projects, two or three at a time, to prevent the confusion and stress that can accompany large, but unwieldy, departments.

Perez Fortea is not “just” a businessman; he is a Business Advisor to the United Nations, reporting to Ministers in various cabinets and crossing the Atlantic at least once a month.

He deals with developments, looks at new projects and does what he can to keep things running smoothly – with a light hand on the tiller.

Perez Fortea has been CEO since 2013, having worked his way up to the position via the posts of operations and construction investment director and corporate managing director.

These staging posts increased his already broad understanding of the infrastructure industry.

He attended an Englishlanguage school and is bilingual, which helps with international business (and interviews with English-language magazines such as BV).

“The company has been through many changes,” he says.

“When I joined, my mission was to create a philosophy or culture, one that focuses on the team and provides service, caters for the needs of all those using our roads.”

Mission accomplished, it would seem.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

of Globalvia's business; the CEO would be happy if that figure were to rise to around 35 percent: “There aren't too many rail specialists in the world,” he says, “but there are always more roads”.

Roads that, like the societies and places they link, are in a constant state of change and development.

Globalvia is looking to the future, says Perez Fortea. “A challenge is adapting existing infrastructure to new technology, and the way people are moving from one place to another, the view of motoring.”

Think roads which will some day charge the batteries of electric vehicles travelling in a dedicated lane, autonomous and driverless cars, major car-pooling initiatives which could radically alter road use.

The goalposts move, but Globalvia's goals don't change: Safer. Better. More environmentally friendly.

Globalvia prides itself on its flexibility in the face of these new and ongoing challenges, and recognises that without that flexibility there would be little scope for growth.

“Our shareholders aren't putting us under pressure, so we only invest in what we see as ‘correct' projects,” says Perez Fortea.

“That lets us grow and build value for the shareholders – but not for the sake of growth.”

Those shareholders have recently approved 600 million euros for investment, taking the total to a round one billion euros. Perez Fortea has his focus for 2018 on a major project in Madrid, where Globalvia has its

headquarters.

Radial roads spreading out from the Spanish capital like the spokes of a wheel were built in the early 2000s.

Now those roads are being put out to tender, and Globalvia is ready to get involved – when and where suitable.

America is part of Globalvia's international portfolio of road and rail developments – the company is active in eight countries around the world – but while the US is welcoming of overseas contractors who show the right amount of skill, gumption and dedication, the states' laws are the fly in the ointment.

DISPARITY The disparity between state and federal legislation and planning means standards and operating procedures vary from state-tostate. While Virginia and Illinois, for example, are proactive and accommodating, other states may have more restrictive regulations in place.

Intricacies such as these may account for fact that American projects are limited to just 15 percent of Globalvia's international turnover, while Latin America accounts for 25.

Madrid, with Spain responsible for 40 percent of turnover, is the key management hub, where all

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Flat Earth niche market stretches around the globe Chris Pontius, a Texan model-maker, is finding regular custom in an odd-shaped world. HAL WILLIAMS gets his head around a new, old concept.

QUICK question: how far away is the Sun, and what is its diameter?

Come, come: you should know the answer to this one.

Yes, that's correct. It's 700 miles away, and 32 miles in diameter. Er… hold on. It seems there's some dispute here. Some people say it's 3,000 miles away.

The first figure comes from Samuel Birley Rowbotham (18161884), a 19th century religious fundamentalist and itinerant lecturer who devoted much of his life to convincing others that the world was, indeed, flat. Not everyone, flat-Earthers of the day included, agreed with him about the distance to the Sun, hence the 2,300-mile discrepancy quoted above.

While many may think that

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belief in a Flat Earth died out sometime around Rowbotham himself, a quick Google search will tell you otherwise: in fact, there has been a recent renaissance in Flat Earth belief, aided by the internet and unhindered by science, astronomy or logic.

Whatever your personal beliefs on the matter, the fact remains that not everyone is on the same page – or planet – in this debate.

So let's leave the actual Flat Earth thing, Sun's diameter and proximity and all, for another time. Let's talk business.

Consider, for a moment, two things: the benefits of a niche market, and the sheer number of humans. Even if nine out of ten people on the planet disagree with you, there are 760 million people

are on your side. That's something worth considering when seeking out a unique market.

Chris Pontius is an artist and model-maker based in Dallas, Texas, who is convinced that the Earth is not spherical, nor very far from the Sun. His beliefs may count against him during Quiz Night at the local bar, but things are working out very nicely when it comes to his creative and business exploits.

Pontius is one of those admirable people who refuses to go with the masses and turn his back on his own beliefs.

“When I was 12 I figured out that Santa was a fantasy. Flat Earth is for those who prefer reality,” Pontius told BV. “There's mountains of evidence to prove

Time zones, seasons and phases of the moon. All are challenges to Flat Earth theory

Chris Pontius, artist and model-maker cost much more. I will be making some (larger) models soon for schools and science museums.

They will have more detail and be huge.”

It may be a while until the dials are used in mainstream classrooms, but Pontius is getting ready nonetheless. “I use a variety of hardwoods for the bases, which I shape by hand and do the finish work. The domes are laser-etched, thermal-formed and fitted to the frame. I make the driver for moving the Sun and Moon and use gears to get the timing as close as possible. Finding some

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

the Earth is flat and motionless.

NASA uses magic tricks and fake photos to try to prove the sphere – and spends billions.”

Pontius says that his conviction that the Earth is flat and not a tiny speck in a vast universe makes him appreciate “this beautiful world that was created for us and all the other forms of life”. This led him to the less controversial notion that “we must take care of it and use its resources wisely”.

It also led him to create working Flat Earth models, a creative and business enterprise generated by a lack of existing technology.

Pontius describes the spherical Earth as an “elaborate deception (that) must have been created to keep curious explorers from discovering other lands outside our ‘ice ring',” he says. There are many mysteries about Antarctica, and Pontius feels many of them can be explained by moving to a Flat Earth scenario.

It has proved modestly profitable for him, so far. “I discovered a very small niche business opportunity over two years ago when I was searching for a Flat Earth model and was surprised to find none,” he says.

“I thought I could make some simple ones that would sell for $100.”

He quickly revised the pricing structure. “I believe in making a quality product and they're complicated to make, so I have to sell them for at least $300. The larger sizes and added features can

quiet, reliable motors has been a challenge.”

Recreating all the movements of the Sun and Moon according to Flat Earth theory is complicated.

The sun laps the moon every 28 days.

It seems that most of the people that buy Pontius' art are middle-aged, and they like to have a close representation to look at other than “a fantasy globe”.

He says he's surprised that no one has tried to copy him. “I set the standard pretty high and they are not easy to make,” Pontius says. “I welcome competition.

I sign, date and number each model.”

He has made 37 models to date, and sold about 25 of them.

All money from sales has gone back into buying more materials and making more models.

“Eventually I hope to make a profit,” he says. “Maybe after the 100th model I will be able to earn a living. I think it's important (that) everyone wakes up to the deception.

“You don't have to be supersmart, just be open to the possibility that you've been played.”

Where’s Antarctica...?

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Havana's antiquated cars have history – and class BV heads to Cuba, home of revolutionaries, cigars, rum and classic cars. Report and photographs by GEORGE SHORT. HAVANA'S history is evident in the vehicles on its streets: American classics shipped out of Detroit in the 1950s, with swooping lines and bold tail fins, and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, bland and boxy Soviet cars which hark back to harsher times and climes.

A US trade embargo, enforced until 2011, meant that Cuba's vehicles have effectively been preserved in amber for the past six decades. Very few modern cars prowl these streets, and those that do are low-end imports. I visited Cuba in January and stayed in central Havana, the bustling capital with just over two million inhabitants, and the only luxury vehicle I saw on the streets was a

single Mercedes C Class.

Surprisingly, there were also very few motorcycles, though there were some scooters and a few older bikes fitted with sidecars. Police patrol cars have moved into the 21st century, but the military vehicles of Cuba are still reminiscent of the days of the Missile Crisis.

DECREPIT TARMAC It's clear that the Cubans take pride in their history, even more so when it comes to the cars which they relentlessly clean and polish.

If only the roads were as beautiful as the cars. Decrepit tarmac riddled with pot holes seems to hark as far back as the building facades, which positively ooze history.

The buildings behind these facades are crumbling and barely held-together, however, and on closer inspection this proves true of some of the cars.

Most of these classics, now around 60 years old, are still driven on a daily basis.

Tourists can get a taste of motoring history in the old clunkers which are hired out for taxi rides and city tours.

The Cuban people know every detail of the cars, which is impressive but hardly surprising – many have been passed down through the generations as family heirlooms.

Locals take justifiable pride in their living museum-pieces, and it was an honour just to see them.

Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Babies, Cuban-style. Above at rest and below on the move

Ingvar Kamprad Controversial IKEA founder who turned a teenage gambit into a global phenomenon

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SWEDISH billionaire IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad died recently at the age of 91.

He launched the furniture business as a teenager and turned it into one of the world's best-known brands.

IKEA's simple, self-assembly designs are found in homes around the world. Kamprad started IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17. The major breakthrough came in 1956 with the flat-pack concept. Legend has it that Kamprad hit on the flat-pack idea after seeing an employee taking the legs off a table to fit it into a car, and realised the system could be developed for more efficient transport and storage.

“One of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Ingvar Kamprad, has peacefully passed away, at his home in Smaland, Sweden, on the 27th of January,” the company said.

Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven praised Kamprad as “a unique entrepreneur who had a big impact on Swedish business”.

Kamprad was born on March 30, 1926, in southern Sweden. He showed entrepreneurial spirit at the age of five, selling matches to his neighbours. He added seeds to his inventory, along with Christmas tree decorations, pencils and pens.

Kamprad never threw his money around, drove an old car and encouraged staff to write on both sides of a sheet of paper. Waste was to be avoided at all costs.

Controversy came into his life at times. He was a member of the New Swedish Movement, a far-right nationalist group that supported European fascist parties in the 1940s.

His lived abroad, mainly in Switzerland, to escape Sweden's notoriously high income taxes; something else that was widely criticized.

Kamprad stepped back from the day-to-say running of his empire in later years, relegating himself to an advisory role. He worked until the very end of his life.

His sons, Peter, Jonas and Mathias, sit on the boards of IKEA entities, but the family is no longer at the IKEA helm.

Ikea has 400 stores around the world, which were visited by about a billion people in the past year. The retailer aims to generate an annual revenue of 50 billion euros ($62 billion) by 2020.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

PEOPLE

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Many flavours of change: digital is sweetest of all As some of the mighty fall, others are on the rise – thanks to embracing ‘significant cultural transformation’ SINCE 2000, over 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies have either been acquired, merged, or declared bankrupt.

In the same period, there has also been an emergence of innovative, technology-driven companies, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber, and Air BnB, which have leveraged new business models to become very large, and very successful.

Changes like this don't just happen by accident. The underlying catalyst is digital transformation.

Consumer markets are undergoing a seismic shift and businesses across the globe are now competing on a new battlefield driven by digital technologies. In a connected, digital world, competition can rapidly emerge from the most

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unexpected places, creating threats to organizations. At the same time, several opportunities exist to disrupt the status quo and achieve market leadership using digital-first strategies.

Organisations that embrace digital business transformation will have an advantage over their competitors in sustaining and growing market leadership.

According to a recent study commissioned by Virtusa, and conducted by Forrester Consulting, 85 percent of firms surveyed said their annual budget for digital transformation will increase, with 37 percent indicating the increase would be by 10 percent or more. Some industries, like financial services, are making rapid advances in their digital journeys, while others, like insurance and healthcare, are

struggling to gain momentum.

Interestingly, while budgets are increasing, the survey also showed that although the majority of firms have started their digital transformation journey, many projects have stalled or failed to deliver tangible value to the business.

The problem is not with the technology. Most of the technologies involved in digital transformation – such as mobile, analytics, cloud, or AI – are mature enough to support transformation.

The challenge for businesses is to understand how to leverage them: not only to drive incremental change, but to truly transform their businesses. The focus of digital transformation initiatives needs to shift from being exclusively technology-

* Access the full digital maturity study at: http://www. virtusadigital.com/digitaltransformation/

transformers!

Coutts brings in a new platform Initiative takes organisation ‘beyond the ordinary role of a bank’

COUTTS has launched a new platform called Coutts Connect that will enable its client network to interact online.

The single, vital entry criterion is that the user must be an existing client of the private bank. The launch follows a pilot scheme, with users able to link from LinkedIn profiles for quick registration.

The platform uses matching algorithms to link users with others who share their interests, or could meet their needs. Once membership is approved, users are able to contact one another, seek advice, ask questions, advertise for non-executive directors, or seek contacts.

Coutts says the initiative should appeal to successful entrepreneurs and angel investors, and is open to all clients, from city professionals through sports stars to musicians and landowners.

Users can pose questions in a group chat, which is ideal for seeking advice on the process of exiting a business. They can also share experiences and ideas, or private-message

other users. Subscribers are also able to advertise positions, business opportunities and collaborations, or browse other members' profiles and invite relevant applicants.

Posts can be public, private, or restricted to a specific audience.

Stuart Newey, Coutts head of banking, said it had traditionally gone “beyond the ordinary role of a bank” by introducing its influential and successful clients to each other “so that together they can achieve great things”.

“Traditionally, this has been done through networking events and face-to-face meetings, but to meet the demands of an increasingly fast-paced and technology-driven world we have now launched our own networking site,” Newey explained.

“We hope that this new tool will be a catalyst for many new business deals.”

Coutts retains its regular networking opportunities, which offer educational, networking and “daring to be different” experiences for clients.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

based innovation to re-imagine customer journeys.

Today, most organisations are treating digital transformation as a loose correlation of technology projects. Digital transformation is not a project, but a complete change and re-wiring of the business. Digital transformation requires significant cultural change and is about streamlining the customer experience, optimising operations, and embracing change. It's not about the ROI of a single digital programme, but rather survival in your industry.

One of the key challenges is how to get started. Mobilisation, facilitation, and alignment are key to being successful. Frequently, this requires an unbiased, external partner who brings thoughtful leadership, innovation, and a combination of consulting and engineering rigor to the table.

Digital transformation is increasingly the cost of doing business, and digital engineering is key to organisations capturing the full value of their digital-first investments. A long heritage of delivering software engineering services to help clients manage their core application platforms and improve customer experiences has given Virtusa a unique advantage in supporting clients transform to digital-first enterprises.

Virtusa's strategic digital solutions and services are designed to help companies transform their businesses, expand their addressable markets, and increase revenues.

Leveraging its strong innovation and digital engineering expertise, proven platforms, industry-led solutions, and partnerships with leading technology vendors, Virtusa has a proven track record of successfully helping some of the largest global firms in their digital transformation journey.

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Shopping woes of Spain hurt mainly in the brain In this ‘Rant’ section, BV gives free reign and column inches to anyone with anything to get off their chest. LENNY BATZ is first cab off the rank…

CONFRONTED with the challenge of writing something meaningful and rousing about global business and trade, I have chosen instead to rearrange my sock drawer, tell everyone about my laptop issues, and introduce you to my mum.

I spend a lot of time in Spain, which is where I was when one of the pins of my British plug adaptor fell off. It didn't get stuck in the plug socket, to look on the plus side, but I had only one adaptor, and thus no laptop and no phone (my mobile uses a USB charger, and if you're wondering why I didn't just buy a new Spanish charger, the laptop's a Mac – go price one at your local dealer).

In this instance, the internet was of no use; I didn't want to order a dozen adaptors from Ebay or Amazon. I needed to buy one. Now. So I set off along the

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charming streets of a charming town in sunny southern Spain, where there are so many ex-pats ingleses that I was fairly confident I would find an adaptador britanico.

I was forgetting about Spanish trading hours, of course. In Andalusia, you can choose the time of day you'd like to be disappointed by your shopping experience. You can go in the morning, say before 10am, when quite a few shops haven't opened yet.

If you miss the brief window of opportunity that follows, you can try your luck at lunchtime, but duh, it's lunchtime. If you nip into town after lunch, you're forgetting the charming tradition of siesta. You could always try popping back come evening, but there's an even chance that it'll turn out to be a saint's day, or national early closing day, or the local feria (feast day), or the shopowner's brother-in-law's birthday, or some other noteworthy occasion which means you can buy nada, hermano.

The internet has changed the way we live, and the way we shop: it's a 24/7 world, where

borders, boundaries, or problems of product-availability no longer apply (as long as you have internet connection, a credit/debit card and a suitable plug adaptor). But the internet has also changed the way we are targeted by advertising.

Take my mum, for instance.

She applied (from her home in Australia) for an AU$50 shopping voucher from a major supermarket chain, which will remain nameless. All she had to do was fill in a quick online survey, and she was in the draw.

So she did that, and sat back to see if next month's groceries would be a bit cheaper. Instead of a voucher, she received a daily deluge of hundreds of unsolicited advertising emails in her inbox. Are you serious? Is this bombardment productive in any way?

Another example: a recent acquaintance boasted to me, in a post-party moment, how much his Patek Phillipe watch was worth.

Ever doubting / inquisitive, I googled the PP website to find out if his claim was true. It was – but I was unprepared, having done an online search, for the consequent deluge of watch-related ads laserguided to my (almost-dead) laptop.

Change is the only constant, Hereclitus once said, and – he could have added – frequently one-way. Internet shopping is here to stay. The only thing to do is aaa-ccennntuate the positive – and embrace it.

Weyland Tech and Tokes platform announce new blockchain partnership

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CRYPTO is aligning itself more closely with fiat currencies thanks to the rapid evolution of blockchain technology, and America's legal cannabis industry is moving into the mainstream.

Those separate developments are bringing diverse players into the same arena. Weyland Tech, a provider of mobile business applications, has announced that a memorandum of understanding with TKS Ventures to bring blockchain technology to Weyland's platforms.

The Tokes Platform was founded to solve the legal cannabis industry's cash-only transaction and banking issues with its own cryptocurrency, Tokes. It also provides software solutions for payment processing and supply chain management.

Running on the Waves blockchain, Tokes is seen as a robust cryptocurrency with fast transaction times (less than a minute) and a secure immutable digital ledger. The Tokes transactional protocol is applicable for both businessto-business and consumer-tobusiness models.

“There are solid underlying dynamics between Weyland and TKS that extend far beyond this initial partnership,” said Weyland CEO Brent Suen.

“The overarching fit is that Weyland's AtozPay will provide a digital wallet and the TKS enterprise resource planning and supply chain platform provide superior blockchain-based security for the order processing steps in the transaction process.”

Suen says cannabis industry leader TKS has a combination of a utility token and seed-to-sale

TKS CEO Michael Wagner and the Tokes token

tracking platform that will benefit to his company's online-to-offline (“O2O”) initiative. He believes this will allow the integration of blockchain and cryptocurrency capabilities into AtozPay and CreateApp to provide flexibility for diverse communities across global markets.

“The Tokes team is developing systems for one of the toughest regulatory environments in the world; we believe the robustness of their end-to-end supply chain managements systems for the cannabis market can be repurposed for retail logistics in

a variety of industries CreateApp serves.

“The mobile-first countries Weyland focuses on have skipped a number of legacy technologies as they develop and will be early adopters of blockchain technologies that will be introduced,” said Suen.

TKS CEO Michael Wagner said the Tokes token and platform has initially been focused on the cannabis space, “but we have always anticipated that the TKS blockchain, ERP, and merchant gateway systems that we have been developing would be open to use in other product verticals and they have been designed with that in mind”.

Wagner said TKS was looking forward to developing “robust solutions” for global markets.

TKS and Weyland's final agreement will support the application and use of blockchain tech for payment and banking layer solutions in the unbanked demographic prevalent in Weyland's SE Asia markets.

The partners will jointly develop logistics and fulfilment solutions via the blockchain to allow for secure tracking, compliance of transactions along the supply chain.

Combining Weyland's current mobile marketplace solutions – which include e-wallet and other fiat currency-based payment services with TKS's Merchant Gateway services – facilitate a twoway conversion of paper currency in jurisdictions where allowed.

The TKS cryptocurrency will be expanded into various noncannabis industry applications by virtue of Weyland's other payment solutions.

Craig Wright ‘Nakamoto' now faces legal claims over plan to steal Bitcoin worth $5bn

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AUSTRALIAN entrepreneur Craig Wright – who has claimed to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto – is being sued over an alleged scheme to steal $5bn in the cryptocurrency.

The identity of the mysterious Nakamoto – the person or group which created the software for peer-to-peer electronic cash system in 2009 – has never been established beyond doubt.

Wright claimed in 2016 to be the creator of Bitcoin in interviews with the BBC, The Economist and GQ magazine. To demonstrate the veracity of his claim, Wright used a Bitcoin wallet to sign a message using private keys from early Bitcoin blocks, which were believed to belong to Nakamoto.

His claim to be the father of Bitcoin was also backed by Gavin Andresen, the Bitcoin Foundation's chief scientist. Other insiders dismiss his assertions as “absolute rubbish” and “nonsense”.

A lawsuit filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida has alleged that Wright intended to cheat IT security expert Dave Kleiman out of hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins, as well as intellectual property rights to blockchain technology.

Kleiman died in April 2013, and the lawsuit has been filed on behalf of his estate by his brother, Ira. According to the court documents, Wright and Kleiman were in a partnership to mine the cryptocurrency, with ownership and control of more than a million Bitcoins.

The lawsuit claims that the Kleiman estate owns the rights to Bitcoin worth $5,118,266,427.50, as well as IP rights.

The filing stops short of saying who was ultimately responsible for the cryptocurrency's creation; the case continues.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

PEOPLE

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Gibraltar muscling-up to take lead role in new ‘ecosystem' It was all about fintech at the Gibfin conference on the Rock.

HAL WILLIAMS was there to meet some of the movers, shakers and shapers of an emerging world.

IF THERE was a buzzword at the Gibfin conference held recently in Gibraltar, it was Ecosystem.

It's not a bad choice of term for the vibrant, enticing and sometimes sharp-toothed world of fintech. The dictionary definition of the word ecosystem – “A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment” – pretty much sums it up, especially if you replace the word “physical” with “virtual”.

Like any ecosystem, it's many-tiered, interconnected, impossible to predict and familiar to specialists alone – but the tiny tax-haven of Gibraltar is boldly striding into this biological community with the aim of being the most efficient organism on the block.

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The Rock hosted the Gibfin conference at the luxury floating Sunborn Hotel from February 28 to March 1. Gib clung to its British link with some tempestuous weather, but there was a generous Gibfin courtesy tab at a neighbouring Irish pub, lashing rain to coax us all in, and hey, look, they have Guinness on tap. It didn't feel like your average financial conference from the word go: no fuddy, no duddy, just drive and dynamism, networking and information exchange.

The marketing director of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), Phil Young, told me the overseas territory was properly prepared for its foray. It has Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) legislation in place to become the first global jurisdiction to provide

a proper regulatory framework – and official licencing status – for companies involved in the crypto industry.

Gibraltar's main concern from the word go, cryptocurrency owners among you will be glad to hear, is investor safety. Proper safety requires regulation, Gibraltar wisely reasoned, and as from January 1 this year that has been taken care of.

GSX director Nick Cowan said he saw 2018 as “the Year of the Regulator” and echoed Young's message: “It's mainly about investor protection. Gibraltar has the (regulatory) framework in place, and the landscape will be driven by regulators. People will come to Gibraltar because regulators understand the business.”

Gibfin 2018 was held at the Sunborn Hotel, a floating five-star pleasure palace

The Rock is keen to consolidate its position as a business hub music festival, where you miss out on a headline act but find yourself blown away by something obscure you chance upon at the acoustic stage.

One of the obvious starting points was Gibfin sponsor Lendo, which is working with FCA regulated lenders in the UK who

will take selected cryptocurrencies as collateral for fiat currency, and claims a “first mover” advantage.

Lendo CEO David Honeyman said the volatility of cryptocurrency was taken into account in setting up the system in Gibraltar.

“I think everyone's worried about a crash (of Bitcoin) from

FAST MOVES MEAN HEAD START THE London-based fintech start-up, Lendo, is making headlines for its pioneering approach towards regulated cryptocurrency.

Forbes magazine's Monty Munford praised Lendo's software, which he said “bridge(s) the gap between the crypto community and the mainstream world”. Lendo CEO David Honeyman says Lendo aims to remove the “us and them” vibe from the arena.

Honeyman said Lendo, one of the Gibfin sponsors, worked with FCA-regulated lenders in the UK which will take selected cryptocurrencies as collateral for fiat currency. It enables cryptocurrency holders to release cash loans without offloading coins.

“We have a volatility index of different cryptocurrencies and the lender will always have the discretion to say we're not lending against (a certain) cryptocurrency,” he said. “Lenders will lend against the five top cryptocurrencies, the more stable ones.”

Google, Facebook and Twitter are blocking ICOs from advertising on their platforms, and many tokens have fallen in value as a result. Lendo recently launched a token pre-release to test the waters anyway, and was rewarded with 42,000 users registering for the service within hours.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

This new ecosystem is already a place of uncharted waters, myths and mysteries, so regulation was a no-brainer.

Bitcoin has been sending thrills up the erect and proper spine of traditional banking for a while now. Suddenly finance is anything but dull, and the whole world is interested in which banks, and bankers, and countries, and cultures are embracing or demonising it.

Investors and start-ups are flocking in to find a foothold on the Rock. Experts in blockchain's many applications, specialists addressing the community's security concerns, ICOs hoping to take advantage of the growing momentum, entrepreneurs, token offerings, guides for emerging investor technology: they were all at Gibfin. Acronyms like DLT, GSX, and ICO were bouncing off the walls of the Sunborn's conference rooms.

Some attendees were big fish.

Some were tiddlers.

The drive, energy, expertise and enthusiasm of all of them was impressive.

I met many interesting people and, of course, failed to catch up with many more. It was a bit like a

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one of the crazy peaks,” he said.

“In December at one point it had reached about $20,000.

“Definitely we wouldn't want to lend 60 percent LTV (loan to value) on that value, so what we're going to do is take two values.

“We're going to take today's value and we're going to take the last three months, the quarter's moving average … so there are ways to even-out the peaks and troughs.

“We have a volatility index of different cryptocurrencies and the lender will always have the discretion to say we're not lending against this cryptocurrency, for example, or we are lending against this cryptocurrency, it's a stable enough asset.

“I think lenders will lend against the five top cryptocurrencies, the more stable ones, the ones with the bigger market caps.

“I think 2018 will be the year where cryptocurrencies are less volatile.”

Mining was a concept that cropped up several times in the conversations I had. Not mining for Bitcoin, but for data – described by Christian Lange, founder and CEO of German data-mining company Opiria, as

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‘IT'S A CURRENCY, NOT AN INVESTMENT' THE marketing director of Gibraltar Stock Exchange, Phil Young, says he would expect other countries to be “open-minded and receptive” to blockchain as a secure system.

“It's not a static picture,” he says. “I would suppose that all regulators will be open-minded. Eventually they will be, but they're all approaching it from different directions.

“Some countries have different agendas, but one thing that is common across most of the spectrum is investor protection. The new regulations and legislation for Gibraltar have been effective from January.

“If you go back to 2015/16, the regulator asked the question: ‘Should we be regulating the blockchain space, and if so, how? How do you view Bitcoin and these other cryptocurrencies, or are they currencies? Should Bitcoin be viewed as a currency?'

“My personal view is yes, it should be used as a currency.” “the oil of the 21st century”.

“What we do is build a globalised, decentralised hub which allows people to sell their own personal data, to monetise that,” he said. “It's a marketplace.”

Lange says the industry has an annual revenue of $250m, and a growth rate is about 13 percent. Not surprising, then, that personalised approaches are such as his are emerging; no more surprising that he is not alone in the field.

One of Lange's competitors

is Jean-Philippe Beauded of Canadian firm VN3T, which uses machine-learning, or AI, to move ahead in the field.

The company's technology operation remains in Canada, but the core team is migrating to Gibraltar to be at the centre of things.

But not all the Gibfin attendees were crypto fanatics. David Gyori, CEO of Banking Reports, provides fintech training for bankers.

“At this conference, I think there is one person out of the

Cryptocurrency regulation: the hard work has been done in Gibraltar

400 who is sceptical about cryptocurrency,” he said, “and that is me.”

Gyori, a Hungarian, was one of those “acoustic stage” revelations for me, one of those scary-smart intellectuals who couches complex concepts into understandable terms.

With a well-paced, hypnotic delivery that held me pretty much spellbound, Gyori was unafraid to take a bit of a tilt at crypto and our attitudes to it.

“Bankers are ambivalent about crypto, and as the crypto world grows with amazing dynamism and exponential expansion, the tension between traditional finance and the new crypto world is growing too.

“The big question over the next one or two years is where, when, and how this tension will be resolved.”

Most conservative, orthodox bankers, and those at the other end of the spectrum, agree regulation is needed.

Banning crypto, and everything related to it, would be a mistake. Regulating in a smart way is the solution, but that needs hard

Avoiding risks of over-regulation work. This hard work has been done in Gibraltar,” says Gyori.

“This makes Gibraltar unique.

They have clear regulation for crypto; one can agree or disagree with it, but they have regulated ICOs, crypto, blockchain.”

A potential problem Gyori foresees is future over-regulation.

“Regulation was needed after the 2008 crisis, which revealed terrible areas of underregulation,” he said, “but there was a political overshoot; they went too far in regulating banks.

OVER-REGULATED “The European Union went the furthest, the US went the second-furthest. There is moreor-less objective evidence, based on the professional assessment of global financial regulatory experts, that banks in Europe are seriously over-regulated. In the US, somewhat over-regulated.”

That regulation is strangling banks and killing corporate innovation.

European banks need a bit more liberal regulation – and Gyori sees the first signs of politicians moving in that direction. There are three things banks need to know about fintech, he believes.

“First: Internal and external innovation are both needed. Not one or the other; you have to go and find the best partners outside.

“Second: Fintech companies are competitors. There are a lot of misunderstandings that banks and fintech companies are partners, great friends. No. Fintech companies are competition. And business partners: we call it ‘coopetition'. The coexistence of competition and co-operation.

“Third: Banks have to understand that fintech is very complex.

“What bankers understand, currently, is that fintech is dynamic.

“What they don't understand is how complex it is. I give you two numbers. I have a system (which shows) 30 categories within fintech, and 200 sub-categories.

This complexity bankers don't yet understand.”

By BJORN HAUGE The Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) intends to be the world's first regulated exchange for trading security tokens.

With a regulated exchange and environment available to trade, individuals who want to get in on crypto can be part of the markets because they won't be violating any rules, laws, or regulations.

The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) is a subsidiary of GSX Group Limited, which owns the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX). The GSX was the first licensed stock exchange in Gibraltar, operational since 2015.

The GSX was also the first to offer a Bitcoinbacked Exchange Traded Instrument, the BitcoinETI, which invests exclusively in Bitcoin and was also the first European-regulated product for Bitcoin.

Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange is a token exchange is being developed with a different package from other exchanges available today.

It aims to become a world-leading institutional grade token sale platform “built upon principles of decentralisation and community consensus”.

The GSX introduced its new Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange in August 2017.

Over the past few months, the company has been participating in blockchain conferences worldwide.

The three primary core objectives of GBX: A world-leading institutional-grade token sale and ICO platform that operates under Gibraltar's regulatory framework; A high-quality crypto exchange, including a marketplace where issuers of utility tokens, traders and investors can participate with confidence and trust in a platform where the tokens listed have been subjected to an institutional grade approval process.

To be the world's first stock exchange for tokenised securities

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Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

LONDON START-UP IS FIRST CAB OFF THE RANK

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William Hill write-down after regs-change slashes value of bookie's Australian operation The first rule of gambling: ‘The house always wins’. So how has William Hill managed to veer so far off-course?

THREE Australian gaming brands, Sportingbet, Centrebet and Tom Waterhouse, were rebranded William Hill Australia in 2015.

It must have seemed like a safe bet (pardon the pun) to William Hill bookmakers, which has done very nicely over the years with new markets, bold moves and good timing.

The original Mr Hill started his international enterprise in London in 1934 – at a time when gambling was illegal in Britain. He started taking bets on greyhounds and exploited a legal loophole permitting credit or postal betting, and later introduced the first fixed-odds football coupon.

The company has since spread to pastures new by a series of cunning and/or carefully considered moves.

It shifted its online and fixedodds games to Gibraltar in 2009 for tax reasons, and it remains a member of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association. But not all of William Hill's decisions have met with success.

It pulled out of Italy after a twoyear stint, and lost almost £22m in a similarly ill-fated stay in Spain (it was bought-out by Codere for £1m after investing heavily

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in the new operation). William Hill fared better in the States, expanding into Nevada – the only state to allow sports betting – and buying three local operators for a reported $53m.

It was in 2013 that William Hill first tested the waters in Australia, spending big – almost A$840m (£469m) – and appointing Tom Waterhouse (the person, not the eponymous gaming operation) as local CEO. Since then, it has stumbled into an annual loss after slashing the value of the Aussie business.

William Hill showed a pre-tax

loss of £74.6m for 2017, compared with a profit of £181.3m for 2016.

That was mainly due to a £238m charge to write-down the value of its business in Australia.

The Australian write-down follows changes in regulation which have banned credit-funded betting, coupled with a tax rise.

The write-off may have pushed the company into a loss, but William Hill claims its underlying performance has improved.

Net revenues have risen seven percent to £1.7bn, while adjusted operating profit is up 11 percent to £291.3m. William Hill says online business revenues also rose, in this case by 13 percent.

Earlier this year, William Hill was hit with a £6.2m fine by the Gambling Commission for breaching anti-money-laundering and social responsibility regulations.

The Commission said the company did take sufficient steps to ensure oversight measures were effective. It is believed some customers deposited money linked to criminal offences.

William Hill said in its results statement that it would carry out an independent review as a result of the findings, and work to implement any necessary changes.

Do-wop do what? Kasotsuka Shojo are singing the praises of chosen virtual currencies Pop group members take their chances on crypto-payday

Each group member appears as a different cryptocurrency The Virtual Currency Girls made their debut in Tokyo this February for an audience of about 20, which – for those who have heard them sing – is a surprisingly good turnout.

Punters can only buy concert tickets and merchandise using Bitcoin – and the girls' salaries are also paid in the cryptocurrency.

There is a degree of balance to their message, however. “We

Tickets and merchandise can only be bought using Bitcoin

feel nervous about receiving our salary,” member Hinano Shirahama says in a YouTube clip. “It depends on market fluctuations.”

Shirahama's words of caution are somewhat devalued by the group's name, stated mission and the Bitcoin symbol at the top of her mask. But things aren't quite as peachy as they could be for the girls, with some cryptocurrencies in something of a tailspin at the time of writing.

Their debut single is called The Moon, Cryptocurrencies And Me, and it includes this (Japanese language) lyric: “Be careful about your password! Don't use the same one!”

With 40 percent of global Bitcoin trading coming from Japan, this development may not have even been necessary. So whose bright idea was it?

No one is rushing forward to take credit, but the clever money says this was a late-night, sakefuelled plan which somehow came to fruition.

It happens.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

A NEW Japanese pop group is helping the world understand cryptocurrency. Possibly.

Each of the Virtual Currency Girls – or Kasotsuka Shojo in Japanese – appears as a different cryptocurrency. The girls wear frilly maids' outfits and metallic masks in the lucha libre style, with furry ears and the symbol of their respective cryptocurrency added for cute factor and publicity / identification.

The Virtual Currency Girls' stated aim is to promote music (think squeaky electronic pop with hamsters on lead vocals) and the use of cryptocurrencies.

That's about it, really.

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Bankers' Bitcoin block ‘won't halt crypto trading' Lloyds Banking Group has blocked credit card transactions for cryptocurrency purchases, but that lacks logic – and may even increase demand, say experts

By HAL WILLIAMS BANKS have recently clamped down on cryptocurrency trade, and blockchain experts are voicing their confusion at the move.

In Britain, Lloyds Bank, the Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA are no longer accepting credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies.

The announcement came in the wake of a decision by Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), Britain's biggest mortgage lender, to ban its credit card customers from buying Bitcoin.

American blockchain expert and entrepreneur Daniel Jeffery, the founder of crypto-commerce company Lantah, says he can understand – in investment terms – that Bitcoin could be seen as

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Bitcoin is not necessarily an investment, it is a currency high risk. “However, Bitcoin is not necessarily an investment, it is a currency,” he says. “Bitcoin carries something a pure investment (such as a stock) doesn't have, utility. If banks are going to ban the purchase of crypto with credit cards, they should also ban foreign currency exchange and cash advances.

“Do banks question the

purchases of any metal, collectables, art, or even rocks? All of these items can be considered to serve a utility or act as an investment, depending on the intent.

“If banks don't have a broad ‘no investments of any kind' rule for credit card purchases, then this may appear as if they are both assuming your intent (investing) and choosing what is a good or bad investment, then forcing those opinions onto their customers.”

Jeffery, whose company has bases in Florida, Texas and California, became involved with the market space of blockchain technologies, working with a team of technology experts – and believes blockchain will change society and the financial world.

Blockchain functions as a decentralized database that is managed by computers on a peer-to-peer network, resulting in cheaper, faster, and more secure medium for online transactions without the need of third parties such as banks.

Those banks could be signalling their displeasure with the credit card embargo.

Jeffery's company, Lantah, based in Florida, Texas and California in the US, uses blockchain technology to offer the first global, borderless marketplace.

Lantah aims to replace businesses' need to handle storage, inventory management and ordering at a global level.

The LBG's new rules and regulations will do little to actually stop anyone who really wants to buy Bitcoin, in Jeffery's opinion.

“There is always a way around it and no central authority can truly regulate Bitcoin.

“While I wouldn't advise violating any contracts you may have with a bank, getting a cash advance and purchasing Bitcoin through a local seller gets the same job done, arguably easier

and faster than most online methods.

“Banks and regulators should take their time to understand the crypto community. While their actions may temporarily damage the market price of coins, overall, these types of actions are the very reason why Bitcoin was invented.

“Any attempt to stop crypto and control individuals finances will only increase demand for cryptocurrencies in the longterm and further incentivize competitors to continue developing banking alternatives.”

HUGE LOSSES The stated reason for the move is concern that customers “could run up huge losses”, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported. LBG will block any attempts to buy Bitcoin with a credit card starting February 5 – but digital currencies can be purchased with debit cards.

LBG credit card customers will be blocked from buying Bitcoin online through a blacklist that will flag sellers, according to The Telegraph.

Forbes describes Bitcoin as the “people's currency” with the potential to become a new currency, free of government

or bank control. However, governments are stepping up regulations of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and shutting down cryptocurrency exchanges.

Vietnam and China have announced new controls to crush cryptocurrencies.

A Bank of America survey has called Bitcoin, the “most crowded” trade. Digital currencies have plunged, with Bitcoin at one point slipping below $8,000 (£5,700) and headed for its biggest weekly loss since December 2013.

Bitcoin's slide has led to concern about debts if the virtual currency continues to depreciate.

British investors have bought Bitcoin as it surged in value, peaking at nearly $20,000 (£14,465) in December.

The LBG move follows warnings by regulators in the US, South Korea, China, Russia and India over the cryptocurrency.

Germany's Bundesbank has also called for global regulation and France's finance minister wants tougher rules.

Facebook has banned adverts for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on its sites after criticism from users.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Bitcoin behind bars? Crypto can’t be caged, say experts

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Staying ahead of the game with a focus on quality and forward-thinking reinvention Are you ‘XO’? It’s not a size, it’s a philosophy – and one that’s doing well for a particular company that is XO daily…

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STAYING ahead of the game is tough — never more so than in the ever-changing apparel and accessories industry, where internet sales and supply chain connectivity mean constant evolution.

Against such business backdrop, the way to keep that vital edge is to maintain a forwardthinking approach, stay abreast of change, and constantly strive for excellence.

The Luen Thai Group is a leader in fashion and lifestyle apparel and a forward-thinking consumer goods supply chain company. One key factor in maintaining that lead is an unflinching obsession for quality.

Coupled with that is a range of strategic initiatives, beginning with its corporate vision of sustainable shared success through reinvention.

With over 37,000 employees in 18 production facilities in seven countries, Luen Thai is committed to giving its best – to the people, the communities and the environment in all these locations.

“We strive to be XO, daily,” is the company motto – with “XO” as in-house shorthand for “extraordinary”.

The company is making deliberate investments on areas focusing on speed, flexibility, quality and overall costs — all critical success factors in today's supply chain.

Key to its advantage is being able to compete in a market where everyone competes, everywhere.

“To assure our future, we made

investments in smart technology and built the factory of the future in Cebu, Philippines,” says CEO Raymond Tan. “This factory is a proof of concept of our material strategy, automation, digitalisation and sustainability.” This successful concept is now implemented in all Group factories.

“In this initial effort we will see to it that we reach the next step of our reinvention journey: Smart Everywhere,” Tan says, “a roll-out of the technology to all our business units, and ultimately connecting the entire supply chain with our customers and vendors.”

At Luen Thai, sustainability goes beyond economic prosperity.

“We embedded sustainability in the core of our business and committed ourselves in showing extraordinary care for our employees, our community, and the environment; we try to be better daily.”

Luen Thai is a “peopleintensive” business. “We have put the highest responsibility to provide extraordinary care for our people through talent

MikeDotta / Shutterstock.com

management, competitive remuneration and promotion of a healthy work-life integration, on top of our support for value of equality and diversity,” says Tan. Under its programme of care for the community, Luen Thai leads and supports diverse initiatives, focusing on children's welfare through sports activities, education and the arts.

“We also help prepare them for integration to the larger community through livelihood and employment opportunities.”

This is on top of the group's growing and varied community services across its global locations.

Under the platform of XO CARE for environment, Luen Thai has put in place initiatives that reduce its environmental footprint while increasing its hand-print through technology.

It benefits from its digitalisation and automation platforms with the goal of providing flexibility, speed, quality and overall cost and waste reduction.

“Our culture, coupled with our rich history, our people and our vision for the future, make us eXtraOrdinary,” says Tan.

Ghana International Bank plc

Ghana International Bank Overview About us - Ghanaian-owned bank based in the City of London GHIB has over 50 years presence in the heart of the city of London, the world’s leading financial centre. GHIB is unique in that it is a Ghanaian owned bank authorised by the UK Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the PRA. We combine experience across the continent with international expertise and correspondent banking links to all the major global financial institutions.

GHIB focuses on four key areas: international trade finance, correspondent and corporate banking, treasury and transactional banking services. For organisations doing business in Africa the bank provides a gateway to the global financial system, providing access and expertise, capital and extensive cross border capabilities.

London

Ghana International Bank plc 67 Cheapside London EC2V 6AZ, United Kingdom Tel: +44 207 653 0350

Accra

Ghana Representative Office 11th Floor, Cedi House Liberia Road Accra, Ghana Tel: +233 302 660809

Nairobi

East & Central Africa Office 13th Floor, Delta Corner Tower 2 Chiromo Road, Westlands Kenya Tel: +254 7808 11583

Elon Musk The starman of the century so far — ­ still making history

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Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

PEOPLE

OK, LET'S talk about this guy. He's the founder, CEO and lead designer of SpaceX; the co-founder, CEO and product architect of Tesla, and chairman of SolarCity.

He also put the first car into space in a brash, hyper-expensive and highly controversial publicity stunt which some say pollutes the otherwise pristine vacuum of space. (And could potentially infect other planets with Earth goobers; there is no evidence that Starman's red Tesla sportster was properly disinfected before it blasted off.)

We don't even have to mention his name – though in the interests of journalistic completeness, we will: Elon Reeve Musk – because this man's combination of business nous, bluster, lateral thinking and bravado have made him one of the most talked-about entrepreneurs of all time.

Musk made it to the 21st spot on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People in 2016, and earlier this year had his personal net worth estimated at $20.1 billion (making him the world's 53rd richest person, again according to Forbes).

Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971 and moved to Canada at the age of 17. He later attended American universities, earning degrees in physics and economics. He was on his way to a PhD in applied physics and material sciences at Stanford University when he dropped-out to pursue an entrepreneurial career.

He co-founded Zip2, a software company, X.com, the online payment company which became PayPal, and lit the blue touch-paper of SpaceX in 2002.

Tesla, an electric vehicle and solar panel manufacturer, just sort of happened, in the apparently effortless Musk fashion, and in 2015 he co-founded OpenAI, a non-profit research company that promotes “friendly” artificial intelligence.

He co-founded neurotechnology company Neuralink, along with The Boring Company, an infrastructure and tunnel-construction enterprise, in2016.

Musk envisions a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop, has proposed a vertical take-off and landing electric aircraft, and reckons we should think about moving en masse to Mars. Hmmm.

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Jamie Oliver

Please, sir, can I have some more...? Tough times for top TV chef

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PEOPLE

JAMIE Oliver's Jamie's Italian chain has been teetering and staggering under the weight of £71.5m in debts.

The Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group (JORG) has had a rough ride recently, despite Oliver putting £3m of his own money into the business.

Two of the TV chef's other flagship London restaurants – separate Barbecoa outlets – have gone into administration in recent weeks.

The Piccadilly Barbecoa is due to close just one year after its relaunch. The other (initially) doomed outlet, near St Paul's Cathedral, was closed but has been saved by Oliver himself through a new subsidiary, via an arrangement which allows the purchase of the best assets of a business before it goes into administration.

Last month it announced that the group was shutting down 12 of its Jamie's Italian restaurants as part of a rescue plan with creditors.

The debts included £2.2m in owed wages, £30.2m of overdrafts and loans and £41.3m owed in rent, tax and debts to suppliers and other creditors.

Uncertainty over Brexit has been cited as a concern for the JORG. The price of ingredients bought in Italy has gone up because of the fall in the value of the pound against the euro since Britain's vote to leave the EU. Jamie's Italian CEO Simon Blagden said each restaurant in the chain needed to attract 3,000 diners a week to be profitable.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Mr Pics / Shutterstock.com

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The fine art of stuffing-up at the right moment to make sense, and use, of analytics Professors of marketing at the Kellogg School, ERIC ANDERSON and FLORIAN ZETTELMEYER, recount a story called the Analytics Paradox. The punchline will surprise you.

“A YOUNG firm starts out making many mistakes. Eager to improve, it collects lots of data and build cool new models,” says Eric Anderson.

“Over time, these models allow the young firm to find the best answers and implement these with great precision. The young firm becomes a mature firm that is great at analytics. Then one day the models stop working. Mistakes that fueled the models are now gone and the analytic models are starved.”

The paradox is that the better the firm gets at gleaning insights from analytics – and acting

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on those insights – the more streamlined their operations become. This, in turn, makes the data resulting from those operations more homogeneous.

But over time, homogeneity becomes a problem: variable data – and, yes, mistakes – allow algorithms to continue to learn and optimize.

As the variability in the new data shrinks, the algorithms don't have much to work with anymore. The paradox, says Florian Zettelmeyer, leads to a rather startling recommendation: Occasionally, you need to purposely mess stuff up.

“You design variation into your data in order to be able to derive long-run insight.”

Zettelmeyer and Anderson are academic directors of Kellogg's Executive Education programme on Leading With Big Data And Analytics; they are also writing a book about data science.

They offer a look at how the best firms have found a way to sidestep the Analytics Paradox.

In some sense, the value in big data lies in its messiness – in the often unexpected variation of how events play out, and the myriad ways these events help establish connections between variables

As the variability in the new data shrinks, the algorithms don’t have much to work with

that can help people make better decisions.

“In theory, the best manager for analytics is the one who walks into the office every morning and flips a coin to make all decisions,” Anderson says, “because if you make all your decisions by flipping a coin, you will generate the best possible data for your analytics engine.”

The problem, he adds, is that managers flipping coins tend to get fired very quickly.

“The managers who survive are the ones who are really good at implementing decisions with great precision.”

To understand how the best teams can find their operations too optimised for their own good, Anderson offers this hypothetical example.

“Right now, your company offers two-day delivery, and someone says to you, ‘I would like you to go back and analyse the historical data. Tell me whether we should have two-day delivery or move to one-day delivery.'

“Could you answer that

question with your data?”

If your delivery process is being overseen by a highperforming team focused squarely on efficiency, then you probably cannot answer this question with data.

“If you are really good at delivery – if you've been running operations efficiently – how many days does it take?” asks Anderson.

“Two days. The guy who was messing up and taking four days to deliver a package was fired.

STRATEGY “The one who was delivering in three days sometimes and one day other times got fired.

“You're left with all of the managers who deliver in two days – you've built an organisation that is so good at delivering things that it almost always happens in two days.”

Hamstrung by your own success, you do not have the data to know whether a better possible delivery strategy exists, or how you might successfully move to a new model.

“If I don't occasionally do the

wrong thing, I will never know whether what I think is the best actually still is the best,” says Zettelmeyer.

Of course, firms have plenty of good reasons for not wanting to reward incompetence, or promote a manager whose decision-making seems limited to coin flips.

Instead, top firms have adopted a fundamentally different strategy for thinking about big data.

“The best firms are heavily investing now in creating data, designing data,” says Anderson.

“They're purposefully injecting variability in the data.”

Whether they are experimenting with how many days it takes to deliver a package, how to set prices, or how to best maintain an aging fleet of vehicles, these elite firms understand that experimentation and variability need to be built into the organisation's DNA. Just a fraction of firms, maybe five percent, are doing this, says Anderson. So what do most managers need to do differently?

“When you take a business

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Companies are purposefully injecting variability in the data

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action, you need to keep in mind what the effect is on the usefulness of the data that are going to emerge from it,” says Zettelmeyer.

That requires the foresight to understand the questions you may wish to answer in the future, as well as the discipline to work backward from those questions to ensure that you set yourself up to get data that are rich and helpful.

A company rolling out a national advertising campaign, for instance, might decide to tweak the campaign in important ways only in select markets, or to stagger the roll-out by region.

While there may be short-term costs in terms of efficiency and optimisation, the resulting data have the potential to teach the company going forward.

Such foresight cannot be the purview of a single employee or team at an organisation, the pair stress. That's because decisions about how to experiment should be made with specific problems in mind.

“It cuts across the whole organisation, so it has to be a

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‘You’re going to find yourself in in the future’ cultural change in how we think about our day-to-day operations,” says Anderson.

The key, Zettelmeyer says, is “to transport yourself into the situation you're going to find yourself in in the future.”

What data would be helpful to have in order to make the next decision, and the next one? What relationship between variables do you want to demonstrate? And how could you design an experiment to demonstrate that link, given your existing capabilities and constraints?”

And keep in mind that the infrastructure this requires may be quite different from what is necessary for managing much of the big data that flows through an organisation.

For instance, the high-level dashboards that senior leaders are used to may not be capable

of distinguishing among many subtle but important differences in when a campaign was rolled out, for instance, or how a delivery route was established.

“It's a very different thought process in terms of how you would actually build an IT system to support experimentation,” says Anderson.

Thus, rather than trying to outsource this work to a dedicated data-science team – or worse, a single piece of software – Anderson and Zettelmeyer recommend that firms train managers on how to think, and ask questions about data.

“It requires a working knowledge of data science,” says Zettelmeyer. “This is a skill set that managers need in order to even be conscious that this is something they need to take charge of.” * This article first appeared on Kellogg Insight: https://insight. kellogg.northwestern.edu

Kim Williamson Yoga is a way of life that has led to adventure and travel for young entrepreneur

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THE founder of Shanti Life, Kim Williamson, has practised yoga for more than 20 years and has been teaching it for 17.

And Williamson says it's been a 10-year journey to create her brand, a journey littered with many obstacles and triumphs. The enterprising yogi has flown across the world to glean ideas from indigenous peoples, lost her luggage, had visa problems, been attacked in the middle of the night by a taxi driver, and fallen off a motorbike in a Monsoon storm.

The development of Shanti Life products was sparked by the low standard of yoga mats and props she saw her students using in class. “To me, using PVC, toxic, nonbiodegradable mats was the antithesis of what I believed yoga to stand for,” she says. “It should be about harmony with self, and harmony with environment.”

Williamson's aim as the founder of Shanti Life was to create an eco- friendly, ethical lifestyle company with sustainable business practices.

Products include functional footwear specifically designed for yoga and activities normally practiced barefoot. Williamson says she has often encountered people who are selfconscious about their feet and dislike practising barefoot. And on a chilly morning there's a need for warmth.

Also in production are a non-slip yoga mat – made with natural rubber and suitably soft. “like stepping onto a fluffy cloud”, according to Williamson – and a hemp yoga towel. “It's super absorbent and totally natural, offering the amazing properties of hemp: anti-fungal and antibacterial.”

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

PEOPLE

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Want to get ahead? Upload your brain to the cloud Cryogenics takes a giant step sideways with glassy grey matter and voluntary, um, suicide. HAL WILLIAMS thinks hard.

NOW here's a variation on control+alt+delete: get dead and upload your brain to a cloud.

Yes, you read that right: “get dead” is the first stage of the process.

A US start-up says it can do the cloud upload no worries once you've crossed the Great Divide, and to set your (soon-to-beuploaded) mind at rest – should you have any pre-op flutters – it has pioneered the technique with rabbits and pigs.

Just how many Gigs a rabbit brain requires to keep on doing whatever a rabbit brain does in cyberspace (or in a rabbit, for that matter) is anyone's guess. Nor is it entirely clear what shape your

own brain will be in once the process, called aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation, has been completed.

What is particularly interesting, not to say bewildering, is that customers are apparently lining up for the procedure, despite obvious downsides (being dead) and legal issues (killing people first).

Oh, and you have to pay ten large to get on the waiting list.

The slightly-creepy sounding Nectome is a company founded in 2016 by MIT AI researchers.

It hopes to offer a commercial application of its novel process for preserving brains (including yours, if you're up for it and in

the black at the bank). So, leaving aside the controversial “gettingdead” part for the moment, here's BV's understanding of the process…

The subject's brain is “vitrifixed” – the start-up's own term for turning your grey matter into glass – and presumably kept in a jar or on a shelf somewhere.

The next step, the theoretical upload operation, has won two prizes from the Brain Preservation Foundation (who may, admittedly, be a bit strapped for suitable award recipients).

The BPF accolades came for the successful preservation of a rabbit's brain in 2016, and a pig's brain in 2018.

“Get dead” is the first stage of the process 104

Start-up accelerator Y Combinator has taken Nectome on, with the organisation's chief executive, Sam Altman, joining the queue of 25 pioneering people on the waiting list. Altman told MIT Technology Review that he assumed “my brain will be uploaded to the cloud”.

A bold assumption, at this stage. For the “vitrifixation” process to work well enough for accurate upload / revival, it has to be carried out at the moment of death.

EMBALMING So the blood flow to the brain must be replaced with embalming chemicals at the crucial moment to preserve the neuronal structure.

You can almost hear the words, “This may sting a bit.”

Nectome thinks that its service will be legal in US states with goahead euthanasia laws, including California, where “death with dignity” statutes are already in force. Even so, Nectome's services probably won't be legally offered until around 2021.

The company doesn't – yet – have any revival procedures

in place for stored brains. A fully uploaded simulation of a biological neural network should see light of day some time around 2024.

No ETA, so far, for the provision of any kind of outsideworld interaction of the uploaded brains.

No hurry, though, as the chemical solution can keep tissue intact for centuries. Future generations of scientists will (hopefully) work out how to reboot you.

Nectome has a large federal

grant in place and is working with a top MIT neuroscientist, Edward Boyden, to get things up and running.

Just how far Altman (kind of a trippy name, considering the subject matter) is prepared to go, and how deeply Nectome has thrust its tongue into its cheek, is another story.

Another downside: we may have to think up another term for that blinding ache that comes with hastily devoured ice-cream.

Let's face it: brain-freeze just won't cut it any more.

HOW COLD IS COLD? CRYOGENICS is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. Liquefied gases, such as nitrogen and helium, are used in most cryogenic applications. Liquid nitrogen is the most commonly used element in cryogenics and can be purchased around the world. Helium allows for the lowest possible temperatures to be reached. The exact point at which the temperature scale refrigeration ends and cryogenics begins is not well-defined, but generally, scientists say a gas is cryogenic if it can be liquefied at or below -150 °C. Cryogenicists use the Kelvin or Rankine temperature scale, both of which measure from absolute zero, rather than more usual scales such as Celsius or Fahrenheit, with their zeroes at arbitrary temperatures.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

A simulation of a fully uploaded biological neural network - maybe

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Spanish Seat's new brand hits ground running in Geneva Cupra craves the cool quotient and parent company eyes potential partners around the world THE Geneva Motor Show is a place to get lost in the bling, to be stunned by the engineering, to fall in love with the aesthetics and be blown away by the sheer volume of choice.

If you're from Business Vision, of course, the flash of a Ferrari or a roar of a Lambo is less of a clarion call than innovation, a “cool quotient” and a bold business plan.

Amidst the shiny-shiny and vroom-vroom of the Big Name manufacturers, BV found a relative tiddler: Seat, the Spanish national vehicle manufacturer (pronounced Say-at, more like Fiat than the thing you sit on; it's an acronym for Sociedad

Española Automóviles Turismos).

The company struggled in its early years as part of the Volkswagen group, but recently its fortunes seem to be taking a positive turn.

“We are now writing positive figures at last,” said Wayne Griffiths, executive vice-president of sales and marketing.

“The main reason for that I think has been the decisions that we've taken on product, so extending our product range to include SUVs, crossover cars, that was a big decision.”

And 2017 was an excellent year for the company. “Sales grew by 15 percent, and this year we've been off to a great start, (sales are) 20

percent up.” What sets Seat apart from the competition is its target demographic. “We're focused on young customers, on average 10 years younger than the rest of the (industry target) market.

“That's good because young customers are less fixed in their ideas around brands and image, so it gives (us) a great opportunity.”

Seat hails from Barcelona, a “cool city that young people like and a city that inspires design”, according to Griffiths.

“It's a great place where people want to go. So a brand from Barcelona, making nicely designed cars focusing on connectivity and youth, that's what I'd say it's about.”

Ekaterina Polischuk / Shutterstock.com

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The Geneva Motor Show is a place to be blown away by the sheer volume of choice

Alexander Migl

Seat holds about eight percent of the national market share.

“Seat should be leading the Spanish market, (to be leading) our own market is an objective,” says Griffiths.

The company's hopes are largely pinned on the new Cupra range to make the difference. The Cupra range is being launched as a new brand, independent within the company, which turns out sophisticated performance cars. “Sophisticated in terms of design and materials, and performance, obviously, the driving horsepower.”

The Cupra model on show in Geneva, the 296-horsepower turbocharged Ateca, has a sophisticated price tag, too: it will go on sale at around €43,000.

“Still a very affordable car,” Griffiths insists. “An SUV with 300 horsepower for 43 thousand Euro is a unique proposition.”

For a manufacturer to come out with a new vehicle, under its own existing logo, could be seen as a risky venture. “We really believe we have the chance of getting new customers,” says Griffiths.

“We can reach out to a new audience and younger people that are less driven by classical premium brands and find themselves able to drive cars … that define the character that they seek.”

Wayne Griffiths A specialised network of 250 dealers will support the Cupra brand, about 20 percent of Seat's existing dealer network.

Almost 90 percent of Seat sales are in Europe, but the market in Mexico is picking up nicely, with sales of some 25,000 cars to date.

The company is extending ts global presence, says Griffiths.

“Establishing the Cupra brand (and) extending our global footprint is a strategic initiative.

A 90 percent dependence on Europe is far too high.

“We need to try and get to a 7030, 30 percent of our sales outside of Europe.”

The plan is to do that in South America, using Mexico as a hook, then extend into Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile – places where the company believes Seat and Cupra could be strong.

“We are already in Algeria, with 20,000 cars sold there,” says Griffiths.

“The whole Mediterranean belt, that's a natural place for Seat to go well.

“People that read Business Vision will be more interested in Cupra, I think, than the Seat brand.”

The company is looking for new dealerships In Latin America, and additional partners. The main challenge is to find the right people.

“Not the classic sales guy in the suit, we want cool.”

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

Seat hopes the 296-horsepower turbocharged Ateca has a bright future

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Malcolm Duncan Gotta hand it to this guy

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PEOPLE rnkadsgn / Shutterstock.com

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GOLD casts of Nelson Mandela's hands have been sold for $10m (£7m) in Bitcoin.

A Canadian cryptocurrency exchange firm, Arbitrade, paid South African businessman Malcolm Duncan the sum for four casts of the hands of the country's first black president.

Duncan, who lives in Canada, bought the casts from a mining group, Harmony Gold, in 2002. He is said to have paid about $31,000, half of which was supposed to be given to charity. It isn't clear if that happened, Bloomberg reports.

Duncan is a 62-year-old businessman who settled in Canada in the mid-2000s.

He claims to have met Mandela twice and his company is said to have supplied equipment for a clinic established with Mandela's help.

“He's a politician that never, ever (said) a single wrong word,” Duncan is quoted as saying, which makes Mandela a rare (and unfortunately extinct) breed.

Arbitrade said it planned to launch an international educational tour called “Golden Hands of Nelson Mandela” to teach youngsters about the life of the once-jailed antiapartheid icon.

Mandela was jailed on Robben Island for 27 years for opposing white minority rule in South Africa, and released in 1990. (Although so many people have said they remember him dying in jail that it led to the coining of the term “Mandela Effect”; Google it if you're in the mood.) He went on to serve as South Africa's president from 1994 to 1999.

The 9kg casts are of Mandela's hand, palm and fist, and are believed to be unique. There were other sets, but Duncan told Bloomberg they were destroyed as part of Mandela's attempt to control his copyright.

A Bitcoin deposit, converted to $50,000, has reportedly been paid to Duncan. The remainder is expected to be paid in instalments.

.W O R L D Awards 2018 Spring announcement highlights

AN INVITATION TO VOTE Readers are cordially invited to vote in the Business Vision (BV) Awards Programme.

BV seeks out candidates with outstanding corporate achievements but all eventual winners will have convinced the judging panel that they have the vision to maintain and build on their success well into the future.

Visit our website www.bv.world/awards to place your vote or email us at award@bv.world We will send you a copy of the nomination form.

The information you provide will be used by the BV judging panel but not shared with third parties. As a small token of our thanks you will be entered in a free draw for a one-year complimentary subscription.

No vote is wasted. Your recommendation will receive our full attention.

Rio Grande Renewables — Best DER Project Development Team | Latin America 2018 RIO Grande Renewables specialises in Distributed Energy Resources, small-scale power generation sources close to homes or businesses — an alternative to a traditional power grid. Rio Grande Renewables works for municipalities, schools and utilities worldwide, with offices in the United States, Costa Rica, Brazil and Mexico. Rio Grande provides its clients with end-to-end solutions, with the mission of taking the complexity out of the investment decision. The company offers a comprehensive service to its clients and its focus on sustainable, green energy commended it to the BV judging panel, which has conferred on Rio Grande the Best DER Project Development Award (Latin America).

JP Morgan — Best Trade Finance Banking | United States 2018

Club Med — Best Holiday Club Brand | Europe 2018

ALL-INCLUSIVE holiday packages — as opposed to package holidays — are what Club Med does so well.

All the necessary ingredients for a dream holiday are there: transportation, transfers, accommodation and meals, with personalised services for families. Ski holidays, romantic breaks to exotic destinations: whatever holidaymakers dream of, Club Med provides in an eye-twinkle. Flight bookings, transfers and resort destination in one easy transaction — it's become synonymous with the Club Med name. If that isn't brand identity, in a very competitive field, what is? The BV judges all agreed that actions speak at least as loud as words, making Club Med the Best Holiday Brand (Europe) award winner.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

TRADE Finance — as the JP Morgan website asserts — is in the company DNA. For more than 200 years, JP Morgan has been helping clients make trade payments, access liquidity, and manage risk. The company offers traditional trade, supply chain finance, and export finance solutions. Its established institutional strength, practical expertise, comprehensive technology, flexibility and unrivalled network enable it to deliver global solutions. JP Morgan's expertise helps clients to maximise the value of their working capital and turn risk management frameworks into growth factors. The BV judges were impressed, and duly conferred the Best Trade Finance Banking (US) Award.

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NetJets — Best Business Jet Fractional Ownership Services | United States 2018

PRIVATE jets: if you can't manage a whole one, try this. The NetJets shared ownership option is the best solution for those who fly 50 or more hours per year, with a minimum commitment of 36 months (guaranteed share repurchase on completion). Fractional owners can up- or downgrade and get a tax benefit without having to lash out on an entire aircraft. Continual investment means the youngest and best maintained fleet in the world. No maintenance, fuel, hangar or hiring charges for you… and three seating options for “emotional support animals”. The BV judges aren't sure if peacocks qualify, but everything else about NetJets adds to equal Best Business Jet Fractional Ownership Services (US) Award.

Citi — Best Digital Banking Services | United States 2018 CITI offers a comprehensive North American trade platform, with full mobile capabilities. Citi has a global network and its own Treasury and Trade Solutions franchise which enable it to provide end-to-end service, integrated cash management for cross-border trade flows, and trade finance services. It has long-standing relationships with export credit agencies and regional processing centres around the world, and offers “white label”, or generic, solutions and trade services to financial institutions. Its understanding of local legal and regulatory requirements, trade practices and risks commended Citi to the BV judging panel, and resulted in the Best Digital Banking Services (US) Award.

Bang & Olufsen — Best Audio Products Branding | Europe 2018

HIGH-END audio-visual brands: name any three. Chances are, Bang & Olufsen would be one of the ones you picked. The Danish firm has become synonymous with class and style — with a price tag to match. But as long as quality matches that price tag, it's all good. Design, consumer focus, and innovation are all part of the package. For customers around the world, the company has been delivering high fidelity sound for almost a century. The identifiable nature of the B&O logo — as an acronym, ampersand and all — says enough to the BV judges, who have accorded it the Best Audio Products Branding (Europe) Award.

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Banco Santander Rio — Best Trade Finance Banking | Argentina 2018

BANCO Santander Rio is the largest privately owned bank in Argentina, with more than 1,900 banks worldwide and local banks in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Santander's online trade portal helps companies to identify the best markets in 185 countries. Santander Río keeps its focus on customers' needs, and puts an emphasis on helping clients who operate abroad, or wish to establish an international presence.

It created Santander Río Trade, a foreign trade and information portal of resources for companies' global expansion, for this reason. The global spread and client focus appealed to the BV judging panel, which presented Banco Santander Rio with the Best Trade Finance Banking (Argentina) Award.

eDreams ODIGEO — Best Company to Work For | Europe 2017

Top Hat — Most Innovative Open Source Software Developer | United States 2018

WITH a $200,000 donation from two angel investors in 2010, Mike Silagadze and Mohsen Shahini built a platform to make use of technology virtually all students bring into lecture halls and classrooms: smartphones.

Top Hat lets educators take attendance, administer quizzes and share lecture notes by connecting to students' mobiles. The platform can deliver homework and interactive educational content, and Top Hat is now creating and distributing interactive materials as a viable alternative to textbooks. The logical, practical, democratic and fun nature of Top Hat prompted the BV judges to doff their caps and make the award of Most Innovative Open Source Software Developer (US).

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

eDREAMS ODIGEO, one of the world's largest online travel companies with over 18 million customers in 43 countries, is rightly proud of its dynamic, healthy and collaborative working environment. A culture of cross-functional co-operation means brainstorming and creative solutions for its multidisciplinary teams, including 400 engineers dedicated to its innovation and technology. The company aims to find the right talent, provide valuable experience and help employees to develop their skills. eDreams ODIGEO values feedback, fair recognition and reward, things which struck a chord with the BV awards judging panel. With 45 languages and 60 nationalities reflected in the global eDreams ODIGEO team, the company lives and breathes its vision of sharing diversity and culture. The BV judges believe that eDreams ODIGEO is not only a great company to work for, it has gained an important competitive advantage, and conferred the Best Company to Work For (Europe) Award.

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Windsor Brokers — Best Forex Research Team | Cyprus 2018 WINDSOR Brokers began as a family business in 1988 with just two employees, and now operates in 80 countries, mainly in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, China, and eastern Europe. The five-strong Windsor Forex research team has a combined experience of more than 35 years in financial market analysis. Slobodan Drevnica, the head of analysis, is a leading contributor on FXStreet, an online resource for real-time Forex analysis. The Forex team's daily market overviews are published on all Windsor's online channels – in English, Arabic, Chinese and Farsi. During its 30-year history, Windsor Brokers has received many awards, to which the BV Judging Panel has added another: Best Forex Research Team (Cyprus). Strong risk-management and customer-support teams have helped to make the Windsor wish to be around for many generations — like the olive tree — a reality.

Danske Bank — Best Banking Services | Denmark 2018

BUSINESS Vision often leads the way in finding and nurturing corporate excellence with its awards programme, but Danske has scooped several awards over the years — including the title of number one Nordic bank. Priding itself on “strong local roots and bridges to the rest of the world”, Danske has been helping people and businesses realise their ambitions for more than 145 years. It serves personal, business and institutional clients and customers, and in addition to banking services offers life insurance, pension, mortgage, wealth management, real estate and leasing services. It's a comprehensive list, and our judging panel confers the BV Best Banking Services (Denmark) award.

Matahari — Most Innovative Retail Operations | Indonesia 2018

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MATAHARI Department Store specialises, like many others, in apparel, accessories, beauty products and homeware. But Matahari stores aim to deliver a more dynamic shopping experience. The first outlet was a children's fashion store, which opened in 1958 in Jakarta. The first department store followed in 1972, and the company has since expanded across the archipelago to have a presence in 62 cities. It has 50,000 employees, 126 stores and more than 1,200 Indonesian suppliers. Over 90 percent of direct purchase are locally sourced. The BV judges appreciate the foresight, fashion-conscious approach and the sensible and sustainable product and stock sourcing. Most Innovative Retail Operations Award duly conferred.

Globalvia — Most Ethical Concessions Management Team | Global 2018

SPAIN-BASED Globalvia is a worldwide infrastructure concession management leader which has caught the attention of the BV judging panel. A key issue for roads PPPs (private-public partnerships) is how the concessionaire is to be paid, and who is to bear the traffic and revenue risks. Globalvia has excelled in making this delicate balancing act a free and fair exercise, and has been consistently ranked as an industry leader for the past 10 years. The company, established in 2007 and led by three international pension funds, manages 27 projects in eight countries specialising in highways and railways – including the granddaddy of all road and rail countries, the US. Most Ethical Concessions Management Team (Global) Award duly conferred.

WyeTree Asset Management — Best Structured Credit Specialist | United Kingdom 2018

Société Générale — Best Trade Finance Banking | France 2018

SOCIÉTÉ Générale (SG) offers global transaction banking, which provides corporate clients, financial institutions, SG entities and business lines with a wide range of payment products and services such as payments, corporate cash management services, Foreign Exchange conversions and standby letters of guarantee. The commitment of Société Générale's teams in France to support businesses internationally, and to build close relationships with its customers, attracted the attention of the BV judging panel. The bank offers tailored advice and innovative solutions for clients' security issues and financing needs, and its role as a leading French provider of trade finance services has led to this BV recognition as Best Trade Finance Banking (France) Award.

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

WYETREE Asset Management was created in 2007 as a “happy place” in the financial world, dedicated to the individual needs of its loyal and long-standing client base. The company operates on three guidelines: 1. Be honest. 2. Don't follow the crowd. 3. Work in the interests of the client. With a springboard like that, it's small wonder that the BV judges identified WyeTree as a potential award-winner. WyeTree's own business vision hinges on ethical development and the longevity of the company. WyeTree, with just 11 staff, prides itself on attention to detail and takes on-board every relevant opinion to deliver on its promise.

Job-creation and the internal development at WyeTree helps the community at large to develop when the market and platform allow: evolve, grow, and prosper. Award duly accorded.

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SEB Banka — Best Corporate Banking Services | Latvia 2018 LEADING Nordic financial services group SEB is guided by a strong belief that entrepreneurial minds and innovative companies are key in creating a better world.

The BV judging panel is right with the company on this, and has duly conferred the Best Corporate Banking Services (Latvia) Award. SEB aims to help clients achieve their aspirations, and fosters ambition. This universal Latvian bank is second-largest in the country in terms of assets, with a comprehensive array of banking services on offer. It has a strong position in private and corporate banking – particularly in long-term savings and lending for corporate customers, where SEB is the market leader.

SMX International — Best International Logistics Partner | Brazil 2017

SMX International — “born in Brazil, acting globally” is the rather poetic introduction on the company website. From its headquarters in Itajaí, Santa Catarina, SMX has established itself as a global reference point for quality in the logistics field. The company offers smart services and customised solutions through an extensive network of agents, exclusive software and a proactive attitude. Its professionals are involved in every project, managing time and cost to give customers an efficient, safe and functional logistics service. “Count on us,” the website says, and the BV awards judging panel are inclined to endorse that motto by conferring the Best International Logistics Partner (Brazil) award.

Luen Thai Holdings — Best Original Equipment Manufacturer | Asia 2018

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Luen Thai is a forward-thinking consumer goods supply chain company that has used its vision of sustainable, shared success through re-invention to build its impressive reputation. The BV judging panel was impressed by the results Luen Thai has achieved, its strategic regional production and expansion plans, and its constant quest to innovate. The company certainly lives up to its motto: “Be XO daily.” “XO” is company shorthand for “extraordinary” — in all activities, including social engagements. Luen Thai CEO, Raymond Tan, dedicates financial support from Luen Thai to the Tuloy Foundation, which cares for thousands of street children.

He also makes a personal commitment to Tuloy, serving as the foundation's chairman. The BV judges are pleased to announce Luen Thai as winner of the Best Original Equipment Manufacturer (Asia) Award.

Barclays Bank Kenya — Best Shari’ah-Compliant Investment Bank | Kenya 2018

ISLAMIC financial institutions have an extra layer of supervision in the form of religious boards that not only meet the needs of Muslim clients but help support best practices of corporate governance. The additional security provided by Shari'ah-compliant products is becoming increasingly attractive in all spheres. The Barclays Shari'ah Advisory Committee ensures that the day-to-day running of the bank conforms to the Shari'ah, including any proposals for new types of transaction. Barclays provides assistance in the development and innovation of Shari'ah-compliant financial products, objectives, criteria and strategies. The BV judging panel commends the bank's thoroughness and thoughtfulness in this complex area and confers on Barclays the Best Shari'ah-Compliant Investment Bank Award.

Virtusa ­– Best Digital Transformation Partner | United States 2018

3 Step IT — Best IT Asset Management Team | Europe 2018

ONE step, two step …3 Step IT. It's a logical progression to find an IT asset management team offering more than most. 3 Step IT has 4000 customers worldwide, with clients from the manufacturing and service industries. The Finnish company, based in Helsinki, has subsidiary operations in Denmark, Estonia, the UK, Hong Kong, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore and Sweden. It offers solutions to central and local governments, universities, public corporations and healthcare districts. 3 Step IT offers financing advice and arranges leases and the management of financed assets. It has been voted “Best place to work” for 10 consecutive years, with 88 percent of its employees rating it “a great place to work”. The BV judging panel couldn't argue with its company ethos or its employees' evaluation, and had no hesitation in conferring the Best IT Asset Management Team Award (Europe).

Business Vision Spring 2018 Issue • www.bv.world

VIRTUSA Digital has a winning formula, and here it is: 50 percent art, 50 percent science, 100 percent discipline. Transformation requires imagination and hard work, and Virtusa brings the design and consulting expertise to reimagine digital storefronts, while delivering the engineering rigor required to support the digital customer experience. Virtusa's strategists, designers and engineers strive for constant improvement in the transformation process, with structure and careful pacing to ensure an understanding of clients' needs.

It takes pride in challenging convention, and itself, in accelerating innovation, from whiteboard to proof of concept, build, launch and beyond. The BV judging panel was impressed by this passion, and the company's drive to bring new ideas to life. The judges were also taken with the motto: “The more complicated it is, the simpler the experience has to be.” Quite so. Best Digital Transformation Partner (US) Award conferred.

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Astad | Best Project Management Team — GCC 2018 PROJECT management covers a multitude of tasks, and Qatarbased Astad has a comprehensive understanding of all the key areas.

Construction management? Check. Add to that base: commercial, commissioning, design and risk management, with advisory services and staff augmentation skills thrown in. Astad is committed to honest development and communication – critical aspects of efficient stakeholder collaboration. The Qatari-owned company creates an arena where stakeholders can discuss, negotiate and participate at every level. With its in-depth understanding of the local market and culture, Astad has crucial advantages over global competitors.

The transparency and cost-effective nature of Astad's immersive understanding of the field impressed the BV judges, who were decisive in conferring the Best Project Management Team award (GCC).

Cazenove Capital — Most Trusted Wealth Management Team | United Kingdom 2018

CAZENOVE Capital's motto may come as a revelation to some of its competitors: “What matters most to our clients matters most to us.” Like all nuggets of wisdom, it's a deceptively simple premise that has stood Cazenove Capital in good stead. Its clients – private individuals, family offices, trusts, businesses and pension plans – rely on its expertise. The need to apply the logic was there, as was the aptitude and foresight. The BV judging panel was impressed by the investment services the company provides. Cazenove is a leading provider of personalised wealth management services, with two centuries of experience; it plans long-term and invests the time to understand each client's circumstances, goals and ambitions. A client list which endures for years, decades and even generations says a lot – as does the Most Trusted Wealth Management Team Award the judging panel awarded.

Tesla — Best Automotive Innovation | United States 2018

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TESLA makes the bold statement that users of its vehicles have saved 2,884,417 tons of carbon-dioxide — a rolling total displayed on one of the Tesla websites, changing by the second. The company, under CEO and founder Elon Musk, has taken a many-pronged approach to cleaning up the automobile act. More bold claims come from another Tesla site: “Quickest acceleration. Longest range. Safest cars ever.” Those three things say an awful lot about the greenest transport segment since the horse and carriage, and one which is finally finding traction in the mainstream. The BV judging panel is unable to encompass the many achievements of the visionary car company, but says it all by conferring the Best Automobile Innovation (US) award.

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