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Jan 2010 | UK Edition
Women in business profiling the most successful females
The BUSINESS TRAVELler’s GUIDE to... bangalore
ursula burns CEO XEROX Corporation
tecHnology
in 2010
breakthrough devices in the year to come
FACE TO FACE: KAIZAD HANSotia, CEO OF GURKHA CIGARS the new MERCEDES sls
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Contents
January 2010
14 FACE TO FACE
Ursula Burns
Regulars: 8 What’s Online 10 Heroes & Zeroes 12 Exec Events FEATURES: 14 Women in business
Charting the rise of women in the boardroom
22 Face to face: Kaizad Hansotia
The man behind the rebirth of the legendary Gurkha, the “World’s Finest Cigar”
BUSINESS: 28 Green visionaries
Who are the climate change protagonists?
36 Apple tablet
32 Bad breath fighters The best products to combat a foul mouth
36 Technology breakthroughs A look into the not-so-distant future
32 Bad breath fighters
28
Arthur Rubinfeld, Starbucks
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Contents January 2010 5
40
40 Sporting skills for the business world What can executives learn from elite sport?
Sport Business
TRAVEL: 44 A Business Travellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guide to: Bangalore Exec Digital visits the Silicon Valley of India
50 Buy an island A beautiful view and no neighbours
Exec CARS: 54 Mercedes SLS
54 Exec Cars
The avian majesty of the Gullwing
LIFESTYLE: 58 Rugged outdoors Personal Travel
50 60
Exectoys... Must haves for 2010
Get out and have fun in winter clobber
60 Top toys for 2010 From exclusive to accessible
64 Top weight loss apps A choice few to help you take off the Xmas pounds
66 Top cocktails Speaking to the top mixologists
70 Ultimate hangover guide How to erase the night before
74 Q&A with Tony Horton How he created his fitness empire
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Editor’s Letter
Rise and fall of Noughties
T Quote of the month
“ We can’t do it on our own, it’s about the whole world coming together” Brown on climate change
he ending to the tumultuous 2009 included talk of super taxes on banks, fraught relations in Copenhagen, and the woes of Dubai, but also among the mish mash was slowing unemployment, an increasing consumer confidence and a gradually strengthening sense of optimism. There is feeling in some quarters that, like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, investments, or least the dollar, are set to soar in the new decade, but unlike the Dreamliner, there is less confidence in the environmental offshoots. Turn to page 28 to discover the green innovators to look out for. This year, we will continue to bring you the best online mix of business and lifestyle content. To kick things off in January, we caught up with Gurkha Cigars boss Kaizad Hansotia who, despite the hardships of the past year, has grown his company impressively. Also, we investigate Bangalore as a business hub, review the Mercedes SLS Gullwing, and much more. Enjoy the magazine.
Ben Lobel UK Editor–in–Chief b.lobel@execdigital.co.uk Receive our free weekly Newsletter http://www.execdigital.co.uk/NewsletterSignup
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8 Online Content
.co.uk http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Dick-Olver--The-new-Q_40239.aspx
Executive business | Executive lifestyle
Highlights from Exec Digital Business Online Dick Olver Exec Digital caught up with the Chairman of BAE Systems to talk gadgets and a race to the manufacturing summit http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Dale-Vince--Founder-and-CEO-of-Ecotricity_31855.aspx#
READ NOW
http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Dick-Olver--The-new-Q_40239.aspx
www.ExecDigital.co.uk provides a mixture of up to the minute business and financial news, plus interviews with industry leaders, thought provoking independent articles and fascinating company profiles from a variety of businesses.
Food for Thought The ‘brain foods’ that can optimise performance at the office. http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Brain-foods--Food-for-thought_40244.aspx
Exec Digital Video Network The best from this month’s postings
‘Only 3% of CEOs are women’ A new Catalyst study shows that few women make it to the top of the Fortune 500 companies. Catalyst CEO Ilene H. Lang explains why this hurts business.
READ NOW
Alfa Romeo 8C Spider An elusive Italian masterpiece whose ancestor was immortalised in the 1967 film ‘The Graduate’.
http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Hidden-Muscle--Devon-GTX_36416.aspx
WATCH NOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCdRfFJ8E1Y
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
READ NOW
http://www.execdigital.co.uk/Stallion-vs-Bulldog_31870.aspx# . http://www.execdigital.co.uk/The-Graduate--Alfa-Romeo-8C-Spider_40246.aspx
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To find out how Vonage can help you, visit
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Vonage® and Vonage the Broadband Phone Company® are registered trademarks of Vonage Holdings Corp. Applies to UK landline numbers starting with 01, 02 and 03. International calls are billed on a per second increment and are subject to a 60-second minimum. Calls to the USA and Canada include landline and mobile calls, all other countries landline only. Fair usage policy applies. Phone not included. Broadband and ethernet modem or cable connection required. Set up costs of up to £18.98 can apply. Please visit www.vonage.co.uk for service terms and conditions and for the full list of free international countries. Standard text rates apply.
Heroes Zeroes Cadbury With only a month to go for shareholders to decide whether or not to sell to Kraft, Cadbury are pulling out all the stops to stay independent. Its workers are marching the streets, and members of the Cadbury family are speaking out against the takeover bid. This time next month we’ll know whether they succeeded.
Climate Change Sceptics As world leaders gathered for what might be our last chance to avoid global catastrophe on the scale of a Roland Emmerich movie, some people were far more interested in going through a university’s emails and arguing over what the word “trick” means.
Virgin Galactic Richard Branson has unveiled the Spaceship Two, the commercial spaceflight vehicle that will cost you £140,000 a ticket. Branson’s described the ship as “the sexiest spaceship ever”. While we admit it looks cool, we’re not yet willing to betray our loyalty to the Millennium Falcon.
Tiger Woods The face of Gillette, Gatorade, Nike, American Express, General Motors, Accenture, General Mills and occasionally American golf, may soon not be. Following revelations about marital infidelity, his sponsors are queuing up to jump ship.
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
What’s Hot and what’s NOT across the UK
Indonesia’s Veined Octopus The veined octopus has been seen carrying discarded coconut shells around to use as a form of portable armour – making it the first invertebrate to be seen using tools. It’s only a matter of time before they learn to weaponise their coconuts. We welcome our new octopus.
The Noughties The decade that was supposed to bring us flying cars, house-robots and hotels on the moon instead brought us the War on Terror, Reality TV and Twitter. All this we could forgive. The main reason this unfortunate decade is listed here is that nobody ever came up with a decent name for it. Bring on the... Tenties?
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Dates for
Exec Events JAN Thu 14 - sun 17
your diary
Autosport International
WHERE: : NEC Birmingham WHY: Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on the unique opportunity to see newly-crowned F1 Champion Jenson Button, who will be coming to the show at the NEC on January 16 and 17, 2010. Put your questions to him in a Q&A session or even get his autograph on the F1 Racing Grid!
www.nec.com
VISIT WEBSITE
JAN fri 8 - sun17
London International Boat Show
WHERE: ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London WHY: The London Boat Show will offer a unique show of equipment and services ranging from water sports through surfing, water skiing, and diving technologies, to charters, motorboats, and luxurious yachts. www.londonboatshow.com VISIT WEBSITE
JAN sun 24 - TUE 26
best for businessâ&#x20AC;Ś Scotland International Trade Fair
WHERE: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland WHY: Offering unlimited opportunities to do business with Kenya and neighbouring countries and will be an excellent platform for your company if you would like to widen your horizons. The event will cover all kinds of consumer and industrial products and technology. VISIT WEBSITE
www.scotlandstradefairs.co.uk
Ursula Burns Position:
CEO, Xerox Corporation Qualifications: Bachelor
of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University On her success: “I know
I’m smart and have opinions worth being heard”
Leader Global Power Brokers 15
Women in Business
Increasingly, women are holding their own at boardroom level in some of the world’s largest companies. Exec Digital charts the rise of women to the top of the corporate ladder
T
By Ellie Duncan
The history of women CEOs in the UK dates back to 1997, when Marjorie Scardino was appointed CEO of Pearson. As such, she became the first female CEO of a top 100 firm on the London Stock Exchange. A year earlier and the US had appointed a single female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That was Golden West Financial’s co-CEO Marion Sandler. Both appointments marked a significant step. Where before there had been a lack of female representation at the top level of business, now women were recognised as global power brokers. Since then, women have continued to buck the trend. Now, a small number of businesswomen are leading the way and taking prominent positions in corporations in the US, UK and beyond. However, there are signs that career women continue to make more progress in America. Amongst America’s 1,000 publicly
traded companies, 27 have female CEOs. In the UK meanwhile, a recent report by the Cranfield University School of Management revealed that out of the FTSE 100 firms, only four have women chief executives: Katherine GarrettCox of Alliance Trust, Dame Marjorie Scardino of Pearson, Burberry’s Angela Ahrendts and Anglo American’s Cynthia Carroll. Notably, GarrettCox is the only British-born CEO out of those four, indicating that the UK needs to take steps to develop its own pool of businesswomen, qualified for the top jobs. UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES It was only on January 29, 2009 that President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – the first act of congress signed by the President. The bill resets the statute of limitations for pay-related discrimination cases. Now, an employee has 180 days to file a formal complaint www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Leader Global Power Brokers 17 of discrimination after receiving that the answer lies in education each pay cheque, as opposed and awareness. “I think it’s a to after the initial instance of combination of raising awareness pay discrimination. As such, it and raising the opportunity to put The percentage restores the basic protections qualified women in front of the of directorships against pay discrimination for committees that select people for held by women women and other workers, boards,” Roizen explains. and applies to both intentional It is also important to educate on the FTSE 100 discrimination and disparate women about the opportunities corporate boards impact claims. and the qualifications that are in 2009 In the UK, it is Minister for available to them. “It’s going out Equality and Women Harriet Harman who is and educating women on what it takes to serve fighting for equal opportunities for men and on a board, getting qualified and getting the women in business. In response to Cranfield kind of work experience during your career that School of Management’s report, Harman said matters,” she says. businesses that still operate an “old boy network” Roizen’s own involvement in organisations and that “do not draw on the talents of all the like the National Center for Women in population”, will not “flourish and prosper” in the Information Technology and Springboard 21st Century. Enterprises, both of which support women in Heidi Roizen, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, business and encourage women into traditionally entrepreneur and corporate executive, believes male-dominated industries, has helped her to
12%
Heidi Roizen Position: CEO of SkinnySongs, serves
as a member of the board of directors of TiVo and is also a director of Yellow Pages Group Qualifications: A degree from Stanford
University and an MBA from the Standford Graduate School of Business Advice: “In any situation where you stand
out and are a minority, I think there are times it works against you and there are times it works to your advantage”
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
27
was the first instance where a female CEO was followed by another woman into the job. Both women had each worked for Xerox for over 30 years; Mulcahey on the sales side The number of of the business and Burns in female CEOs in operations. They were also an America’s 1,000 example of how an organisation publicly traded could benefit from a female companies partnership at the top. Mulcahey AT THE TOP rescued the company when she In the US in particular, there are now a number of high profile female was appointed CEO in 2001, and increased CEOs whose competent leadership skills its stocks during her tenure. But now it’s are demonstrated by their companies’ Burns who holds the reins as the company performance. Ursula Burns took over as CEO takes a hit in the recession. A few of the world’s largest consumer of Xerox in July 2009, as Anne Mulcahey retired from the job after eight years. The products corporations are also headed by handover was significant for two reasons: women, including PepsiCo, whose Chief Burns is the first African American woman Executive Indra Nooyi saw revenues at the to head up a large public company, and it company grow 10 percent in 2008. Her understand where the problems lie. However, she is opposed to the idea of equal opportunity initiatives. “I think if you put people in bec ause you’re checking a box and they’re not qualified, then they’re not going to be successful,” she says.
Irene Rosenfeld Position: Chairman and CEO,
Kraft Foods
Qualifications: PhD in Marketing and Statistics, Master of Science in Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Cornell University ADVICE: “I’ve always challenged myself and
the people who work with me to take new approaches to traditional business challenges”
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Leader Global Power Brokers 19 Dame Marjorie Scardino Position:
Chief Executive, Pearson Qualifications: Graduated
in French and Psychology from Baylor University and completed legal studies at the University of San Francisco School of Law
Katherine Garrett-Cox Position: Chief Investment Officer, CEO
and Executive Director, Alliance Trust
Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts in
History from Durham University
ADVICE: “I’ve got four kids and I keep my
work life and my home life separate”
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
challenge now is to take PepsiCo into the healthy products market, where demand is increasing. Kraft Foods’ CEO Irene Rosenfeld also understands the importance of recognising and answering to the needs of your market in order to succeed. She has overseen the company’s turnaround in just three years; a transformation that Rosenfeld herself refers to as “‘the big cheese’ of all turnarounds”. At a speech to Cornell University in October 2009, she told students that returning the business to sustainable and profitable growth “required making bold decisions
is going to be more attuned to the issues that impact female employees,” adds Roizen. One of Rosenfeld’s biggest pieces of advice to the students of Cornell University was to “ask for what you want”; a skill she adopted in order to seal significant promotions at Kool-Aid and Kraft Canada respectively. “People aren’t always comfortable asking for what they want – especially women,” Rosenfeld says, “because girls aren’t socialized to ‘toot their own horns’, or ask for things.” She reiterates that part of the problem is the “inability” to talk about what you want to achieve. It is too simplistic to suggest that if women were simply to talk about their career prospects, then they can achieve it. But certainly the debate a b out wo me n in business needs to be kept alive in order to make any form of progress. Equal opportunity initiatives may not be the answer but certain industries are opening their doors to women leaders and reaping the rewards. As long as the opportunities for women to gain the necessary qualifications and business experience are made available, women will continue to gain access to and prove themselves in the top jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. But while it’s worth celebrating those females who are already at the top of the corporate ladder, and taking inspiration from their experiences, there’s no time to become complacent and neglect to encourage those aspiring businesswomen on the lower rungs.
“ I think it’s a combination of raising awareness and raising the opportunity to put qualified women in front of the committees that select people for boards” Heidi Roizen
about people, our portfolio, pricing and new products”. Rosenfeld is familiar with the consumer market, having worked with brands like Kool-Aid, Jell-O and Capri-Sun over the years. Roizen believes that women CEOs have forged successful careers in the consumer products sector largely because it is a familiar environment to women, as “gatekeepers” of the domestic purse strings, she says. “Not only is it the case that the customer base is more than 50 percent female,” explains Roizen, “but the workforce is more than 50 percent female. “If you have a woman on your board, she January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Leader Global Power Brokers 21 Female FTSE 10
2009
2008
2004
1999
Female held directorships
131 (12.2%)
131 (11.7%)
110 (9.7%)
79 (6.9%)
Female executive directorships
17 (5.2%)
17 (4.8%)
17 (4.1%)
13 (2.02%)
Female NEDs
114 (15.2%)
114 (14.9%)
93 (13.6%)
66 (10.82%)
Women holding FTSE directorships
113
113
96
67
Companies with female executive directors
15
16
13
12
Companies with at least one female director
75
78
69
64
Companies with multiple female directors
37
39
29
13
Companies with no female directors
25
22
31
36
Female FTSE Index 2009
Cynthia Devine Position:
Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance, Tim Hortons Qualifications: Graduated
with a Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree from the University of Western Ontario and holds an Honours Business Administration Degree. Also qualified as a Chartered Accountant
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
CEO Kaizad Hansotia January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.com
Face to Face Kaizad Hansotia 23
Risen from the ashes
Exec Digital catches up with Kaizad Hansotia — the man behind the rebirth of the legendary Gurkha, the ‘World’s Finest Cigar’
T
By Kevin Doyle
he story of Gurkha Cigars blends the history of British colonialism in India and one modern businessman’s desire to develop and market a product unlike any that had come before it. It is a tale best told while relaxing in a plush chair with a fine cigar and your beverage of choice. While travelling in his native India 20 years ago, Miami-based entrepreneur Kaizad Hansotia – a man called Kaiser by everyone with a history in the premium watch business – discovered and purchased his first Gurkha cigar. In short order, he bought the entire inventory and the struggling brand for the astonishingly low sum of $143 (approx £87).
“I didn’t know anything about the company. I wanted to buy boxes of cigars to give as corporate gifts. Then, one thing led to another and I bought the company,” says Hansotia. “Our customers and clients liked them. They quickly grew from being corporate gifts to our clients wanting more for their stores, so we started producing cigars as gifts. I had no clue about this business, no pedigree at all.” What Hansotia did have was an acute understanding of marketing and packaging – and an idea that ran contrary to accepted industry practices. “What I knew was that this business had been done the same old way for a long time and the only reason was because that’s the way it had always been done. Well, that’s not good enough and we decided to do it differently. We wanted to come out with small batches of very high-end cigars,” he says. While competitors initially scoffed, they can no longer
“ I didn’t know anything about the company. I wanted to buy boxes of cigars to give as corporate gifts”
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.com
Face to Face Kaizad Hansotia 25 doubt Hansotia. Gurkha has more than 40 distinct smokes and, in general, produces between 500 and 1,000 boxes of each per year. The company is valued at $ 35 million (approx £21.5 million) and its high-end products are sought after by A-listers worldwide, ranging from Saudi Princes, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, to “90 percent of Hollywood”, including Harrison Ford and Matthew McConaughey. Gurkha’s top-shelf HMR – featuring a 15-year Connecticut Maduro wrapper with 12-year Dominican binder and filler aged with one bottle of the world’s finest cognacs – sells for $15,000 (approx £9,200) a box. This year the company will also produce three boxes of the Maharaja, carrying a $500,000 (approx £308,000) price tag per box. “One is going to Russia, one to China and one to India,” Hansotia says.
A BIT OF HISTORY
At the height of British rule in India, the Gurkhas were acclaimed for their bravery and strength, fighting in both the Indian Army’s Gurkha regiments and the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas. They were, in effect, a 19th century version of Special Forces operatives. They also were quite adept at making their own cigars from the local tobacco. Fondness
Packaging and presentation are part of the reason for Gurkha’s success for these legendary Nepalese colonial fighters inspired the British to name their own cigars Gurkhas. Hansotia retained and revived the name as an homage to the Gurkhas’ fabled history.
BUILDING THE BRAND
Visit the company website (www.gurkhacigars. com) and you are immediately struck by its elaborate and attractive design. Hansotia understands the importance of striking presentation and that starts with the image of a smiling Gurkha warrior shown testing the edge of his massive knife against a finger. “When you see our packaging in person it will floor you. When we first started, we were coming out with cigars in glass tubes with
“ Everything is limited. If we release 1,000 boxes a year, for example, that’s only 20 boxes per state. They come in and they’re gone” www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
melted wax and different cognacs. People said it was amazing, but back then cigars were $6 or $7 and we were at $20. They said it couldn’t be done, but the thing with cigars is, you sell them once and if the customer doesn’t like it, you’ll never see them again,” Hansotia reasons. While competitors persisted in using cardboard or cedar boxes, Hansotia upped the ante. Some Gurkhas, for example, come in a lacquered red mahogany box with a piano-like sheen. Others are delivered in ornate, decorative tins. All of them feature elaborate bands that are heavy on gold and silver accents.
PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES
Much like fine wine requiring the best grapes, exquisite cigars result from procuring and aging the best tobacco an average of five to 10 years. “Wine is all about the grape. Out of 100 bales of tobacco, we may choose one. It’s all about the quality of the tobacco and controlling the production. Everything is limited. If we release 1,000 boxes a year, for example, that’s only 20 boxes per state. They come in and they’re gone,” Hansotia says. Hansotia scours the globe for tobacco. His insistence the best in the world is produced in Connecticut may surprise most. “It is the best of the best in the world. They’ve been growing tobacco for more than 200 years and they do it consistently. The climate is fantastic, the soil
is rich and full of nutrients, and they have the money to spend on fertiliser and to rotate their crops,” he says. The company maintains production venues in Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic and an 8.000 sq ft distribution centre in Miami. “We’re always on back order,” Hansotia says. “That’s not good, but it’s a double-edged sword – it keeps our demand up. This is a natural and Assassin cigars p r o c e s s a n d
“ These are very, very strong and are for only the most experienced smoker. They will knock you on your…! These are not for the new smoker” Kaizad Hansotia, on the new Evil
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Face to Face Kaizad Hansotia 27
The Evil Cigar Packaging
we don’t rush it. When the cigars are ready, they’re ready.” Hansotia develops all the blends himself, but recently allowed his sales managers to try their hands at the craft. The results produced the popular and potent Evil and Assassin cigars that Hansotia says “are very, very strong and are for only the most experienced smoker. They will knock you on your…! These are not for the new smoker”. Hansotia ranks the “mild to medium” Grand Reserve, the “nutty, fruity” flavoured Shaggy, and the “European and creamy” Anniversario 1807 as the best sellers. The boutique line, featuring the HMR, the limited edition 20th anniversary Archive, The Beauty,
and The Beast, are also in high demand. Hansotia favours the Elegance and the Black Dragon, and recommends either the Red Rothchild or the Grand Reserve for the novice smoker. But what’s the best way to enjoy a cigar? “Why, with your friends and a nice meal of course. Just like a beautiful bottle of wine, you want company there to enjoy it with you.” And don’t expect Hansotia to rest on his laurels. The company has introduced a limited line of coffee and espresso. “Every year we will do something new, whether it’s introducing new products or new tobaccos, introducing variations, or changing our price points. We’re always looking to evolve, to do something different, and that distinguishes us,” he concludes. www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
28 Green Visionaries Green Business
Green Visionaries
As people around the globe realise how big a threat climate change presents, Exec Digital looks at the people with the vision to do something about it By Kevin Doyle
T
here was a time, not so very long ago, when the term “green movement” evoked images of a fringe element that generated minimal interest and enjoyed about as much success as Sisyphus did pushing that boulder uphill. Now that we have finally come to grips with the realisation our planet is truly in peril, the green movement has become a global force that gathers momentum and grows stronger with each passing day. However, for the movement to keep driving forward and truly succeed, innovation, ideas and the willingness to take bold steps must cross all sectors. Exec Digital presents five individuals and projects we think are committed to making a difference.
Jeff Skoll
It’s not often we look to the entertainment industry for true enlightenment. However, this Canadian entrepreneur and founder of Participant Media has clearly made the movie January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
buffs among us re-think that position. Skoll was the first president and full-time employee of eBay, responsible for the company’s hugely successful business model. Since 1998, through Participant Media, he has been creating films that compel social change, including former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth. Skoll is about more than movies. He also heads the Skoll Foundation, to which he donated $250m in eBay shares; and the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund to battle climate change. And he’s also a major investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing electric cars.
Arthur Rubinfeld
With approximately 17,000 stores around the world, the pollution potential for the Starbucks Coffee Company is massive. Instead, under the guidance of Rubinfeld, the President of Global Development, Starbucks has made a huge international commitment to lead in sustainability.
R
SKOLL
RUBINFIELD
ANNENBERG
As a means of caring for the planet and encouraging others to do the same, Starbucks has a goal of using 100 percent reusable or recyclable cups by 2015. The company is employing an aggressive climate change strategy that will see it upgrade existing stores and build new ones to reduce use of water and energy by 25 percent. Recycled and renewable materials will be used to remodel existing stores and all new company-owned sites will aim for LEED certification by the end of 2010.
Wallis Annenberg
Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation, Wallis Annenberg counts environmental stewardship among her many causes and passions. The best example of her dedication to the environment is the 2,500 sq ft wooden Universally Accessible Treehouse in Torrance, CA, funded through the Annenberg Foundation. Environmentally-sensitive design and construction considerations include: decking
made of stamped, sustainably-harvested South American Ipe wood; oak posts recovered and repurposed from fire-damaged forests and trees damaged by grazing horses; use of recycled wooden branches in the arbor; and use of helical pier foundations that are among the most environmentally sound methods for placing posts near living trees, that will grow unimpeded. With that kind of keen birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye vision, one can only anticipate what might be next.
Greensteam Demonstration Project
San Diego-based Global Greensteam LLC, a subsidiary of Global Green Solutions, Inc., has started construction of its prototype Greensteam system. Completion of the $8 million demonstration unit, financially supported by Aera Energy LLC, is projected for late summer 2010. The Greensteam combustion system produces renewable steam energy from waste biomass while minimising air pollution. www.ExecDigital.com | January 2010
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Green Business Green Visionaries 31 In comparison to existing gas-fired generators, the Greensteam systems will provide an estimated carbon dioxide emissions reduction of 300,000 CO2 equivalent tonnes per year. The global implications are obvious.
London’s Better Buildings Partnership
“ The green movement has become a global force that gathers momentum and grows stronger with each passing day”
Established in April 2008, the Better Buildings Partnership is an initiative driven by the London Climate Change Agency. The goal is to gather the city’s primary commercial and public property owners and devise a strategy to improve sustainability in existing buildings and accelerate CO2 emissions reduction from those buildings. To date, a dozen or so of the capital’s major property owners have gotten on board. They account for roughly 15 percent of the 15 percent of the city’s commercial property is part of the BBP
city’s commercial property. Among the BBP’s goals are the development of tools that support retrofit projects, such as carbon emissions and sustainability benchmarks, best practice toolkit of sustainable retrofit technologies, and green leases. I t ’s an ambitious endeavour w ith b oth i m m e di ate a nd l ong -te r m benefits that’s to be commended. Whether it sticks, remains to be seen.
The top bad
breath fighters Want to avoid being the ‘Bad Breath Seth’ of the office? Exec Digital features our list of the best products to combat a foul mouth By Sarah Wolfe
A
s an executive, you want to floor clients and employees with your knowledge and expertise – not a case of terminal bad breath. While daily tooth brushing and tongue cleaning are obvious steps to a clean mouth, coffee, cigarettes, garlic and a bad cold can have those around you backing away. If you’re not into keeping a toothbrush or mouthwash on hand, the next best option is breath mints and gum. Opt for xylitol and peppermintoil based products rather than sugary ones, which can cause more bacteria growth and smellier breath. Exec Digital has tested a range of products from the multi-billion breath freshener industry and brings you our pick of the best items to keep your mouth sparkling.
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.com
Strategy Fresh Breath 33 Ice Breakers® Only available in the US With its recognisable flavour crystals, these are the most mild of our selected mints, but still unclogged our sinuses and gave us confidence to have face-to-face conversations with each other. The round container snaps securely to prevent spillage. www.hersheys.com/icebreakers
SMINT® 40 pastilles for £0.99 Don’t let its size fool you. Just one of these tiny, triangular mints can kick the most heinous breath to the curb, leaving you with a cool, fresh aftertaste. Flavours from the Spanish company include Winter Ice, Liquorish and Wildberry. Its one-at-a-time dispenser is compact and easy to carry in your pocket for business trips and meetings. www.smint.com
Listerine PocketPaks Oral Care Strips® 3 24-strip packs for £2.73 While other fresheners merely mask that garlic smell, this product kills as much as 99 percent of bad breath germs. It’s like having a bottle of mouthwash on hand, only with more pleasant tastes like Fresh Citrus and our favourite, Cool Mint. And did we mention the flat, miniature packaging can be carried undetected? www.listerine.com
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Our Knowledge, Your Potential KM&T (Knowledge Management and Transfer) is an established global consultancy providing World Class business solutions to support and enhance manufacturing businesses. These solutions are gained from deploying specialist tools and methods into some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best known manufacturers and their supply chain. We employ senior Toyota trained specialists with vast experience of implementing change at every level within any manufacturing organisation. KM&T has an approach which really makes a difference. KM&T can coach and mentor your staff to learn and implement the tools that can transform your business. Encouraging and nurturing personal and organisational growth will bring improvements for the business and the people within it. We assist clients to visualise changes, and then facilitate them. Working with staff at every level, from boardroom to shop floor, ensures significant return on investment, sustainable results and shareholder value. Our pedigree and approach make us unrivalled.
Contact us today to see how we can improve your business. KM&T UK The Techno Centre, Puma Way, Coventry CV1 2TT Tel: (0)24 7623 6275 Email: info@kmandt.co.uk
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Strategy Fresh Breath 35 “ Pop one for a basic freshening up or more for an invigorating blast of arctic air in your throat and nose”
Starbucks After Coffee Mints 5oz. tin for approx £1.90 Available at Starbucks everywhere, these minty wonders zap latte breath in a snap by eliminating the most odorcausing compounds. Packaged in stylish tins, the coffee giant features tried and true tastes like Peppermint and a delicious Cinnamon flavor we especially liked. www.starbucks.com
Altoids® 50g tin for approx £1.50 England’s “Curiously Strong Mint®” lives up to its name largely from its use of real peppermint oil – a traditional way to cleanse the pallet. Pop one for a basic freshening up or more for an invigorating blast of arctic air in your throat and nose. The famous reusable tins maintain the minty freshness. www.altoids.com
36 2010 Technology
Top Technology Breakthroughs
of 2010 A look into the not-so-distant future By Gabe Perna
Y
ou never know what will take off next in the world of technology. In a fast-paced, ever-changing industry, predicting trends is never easy. Often, technologies that are supposed to take off end up flopping (anyone else remember DIVX?). Other times, technologies with little to no hype end up breaking through. Despite the difficulty of predicting technology, we at Exec Digital are up to the task. In honour of the New Year, we present our top technology breakthroughs. By the end of 2010, these five technologies will be found in electronic devices worldwide. 1. Smart Driving Devices When Global Position Systems (GPS) emerged at the beginning of the decade, my father told me: “It won’t be long before cars can drive themselves”. While we’re not there quite yet, we’re getting closer. At next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Root Four Imagination will present the Safe Driving Monitor. This device can monitor a driver’s speed, distance travelled and braking habits. The device,
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
marketed especially for concerned parents of young drivers, uses a sensor that plugs into the car’s diagnostic port and a keychain sensor. It’s not the only smart driving technology out there either. Volvo designed automatic braking technology in some of its new 2010 models. The technology can detect when a pedestrian or another vehicle is about to be hit by the car and then automatically brakes. Other devices such as Zoomsafer can prevent you from using cell phones while driving.
Safe Driving Monitor
2. Augmented Reality Augmented Reality is the combination of a physical real world environment with virtual computer-generated imagery. Imagine using your phone to identify a monument and give details on it. Well, dozens of new applications which have appeared on the iPhone and Android phones can do that with Augmented Reality capabilities (Wikitude, Junaio). In its December 2009 issue, Esquire Magazine presented an Augmented Reality printed magazine with interactive multimedia features. For its Christmas campaign, Stella Artois used Augmented Reality to bring a Christmas snow tree to life. As developers improve and refine Augmented Reality, expect to see widespread usage in mobile devices, on printed publications and in advertising campaigns across the globe.
Esquire’s Augmented Reality issue
3. Portable Charging More and more companies are finding fun and innovative ways to portably charge electronic devices. While portable charging is nothing new, we feel it’s ready for a breakthrough into mainstream retail. Remember at the beginning of this decade, most computer users couldn’t connect to the internet without a wire. Now wireless internet technology is available everywhere. The world is going Powermat wireless charging device
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
38 Technology 2010 Apple Tablet wireless. That much is a fact. Last month, Exec Digital recommended the Safpwr Smart Battery Case for the iPhone. This rechargeable battery wraps around the phone and charges it without wires. Novothink has come out with Surge, which is an iPhone and iPod touch wireless charger powered by solar panels. Powermat USA has innovated the wireless charging mat, which can wirelessly charge any type of electronic device. Don’t be shocked to see more companies come out with wireless chargers for smartphones and other devices. 4.Apple Tablet It seems when Apple releases something, the rest of the technology world watches them closely. Thus far, Apple kept the Tablet under wraps, not even confirming its existence yet. We don’t know what it’ll be exactly or when it’ll release. It’s likely to be a minicomputer, likely an e-reader mixed with an oversized iPhone. When it does release, analysts expect it to be a big seller. Furthermore, the growth of the Tablet and other
Electronic Housekeeper
January 2010 | www. www.ExecDigital ExecDigital.co.uk .com
smart mobile devices will mean an explosion in the growth of mobile applications. The Tablet seems to be the perfect boom or bust device. It’ll either “change the game” or end up a memorable flop. With Apple’s recent roll (the iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch, etc.) it’s hard to bet against them. 5. Energy Monitoring Whether it’s in automobiles, retail devices or in your heat and water usage, monitoring energy efficiency has become a part of everyday life across the globe. In 2010, more and more technologies will emerge to help consumers monitor their energy usage. Take for instance the Electronic Housekeeper. The Housekeeper is an “environmentally conscious console” that controls and monitors electronic equipment and appliances to save electricity. With its touch screen capability, it allows you to control every electronic device within the home or office. The product has made its mark in Europe and the Middle East, and debuts in Nor th America in 2010.
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40 Learn from sport Sport Business
Sporting skills to the business world
What can executives learn from elite sport? By Ian Armitage
O
ur CEO has an interest in – no, wait, fascination with – top-level sports. And whenever we sit down together, he asks me if I can write an article which looks at what executives can learn from the sporting elite. It is a valid topic for discussion and you can see the allure; after all, many business leaders feel there are some valuable lessons to be learned. The “feeling” is so strong that it often results in companies paying out vast fees to listen to an inspirational talk by sporting legends. But why? I’ve often wondered what you learn from such an event. Like me, most executives are sceptical that you can learn anything at all, treating these dinners (or whatever shape the event may take) as nothing more than a chance to rub shoulders with their sporting heroes. However, elite sport is a powerful metaphor for business, and there are many parallels. Achieving goals and targets, establishing strategies, hard work, determination and teamwork are just some of the key challenges in both worlds. “Success in sports and business relies on the ability to continually move performance to higher levels,” says Keith Hatter, CEO at K2 Performance Systems, whose job it is to apply lessons learned from athletes to leaders at some of the world’s biggest companies. “One of the most important lessons I have learned is that elite athletes, like top business
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
leaders, are not born but made. Obviously there has to be some innate natural ability, but the real key, for me, is the performance choices they make. “If business can learn anything from sport, it is the performance aspect. Business often lags behind in this respect.” The problem, he says, is that many businesses don’t understand performance fully, and often confuse it with outcome. Could you imagine, for instance, Sir Alex Ferguson asking Wayne Rooney how many goals he’ll score in his next match, what the score will be and demanding a guarantee for the win? No. But you could imagine a situation where a sales leader is demanding 10 sales before Friday, the sales rep predicting he’ll sell 20 and then guaranteeing the outcome even before he starts. This is a problem. “Having worked with elite performers in both sport and business for more than 20 years, I know that the best possible performance in any environment requires a number of factors to be in place. Only when all the factors are in place can anyone perform at their peak,” says Hatter. “Business is superb at making sure the technical component — in other words, the skills required — is in place, much like sport,” he adds. “However, where the two differ is that the other aspects of performance are too often overlooked, ignored or entirely misunderstood. These other vital components of performance have as much to do with activity outside the office as within it.”
Sport Business Learn from sport 43 “ One of the most important lessons I have learned is that elite athletes, like top business leaders, are not born but made” Keith Hatter He says some businesses, not in his client list, regularly neglect these often important factors, resulting in poor morale, low motivation and a drop in performance. “Motivation needs to be effective over the long-term, not just the short-term,” Hatter says. He has a point. You could, for instance, motivate an individual to do almost anything by pointing a gun at them – that motivation of fear is quite effective in the short-term. But that type of motivation is not likely to be sustainable. “There is much for business to learn from sport,” Hatter says. Again, he has a point. And as if to prove it, he adds: “Selection is particularly interesting and business could learn much. If you look at how sport operates, you wouldn’t select someone without seeing a lot of them. Yet in business, you will often see people being selected or employed on the basis of how they perform on two or three interviews, and one or two referee reports.” Some businesses have attempted to remedy this and employ people on a trial basis initially, in order to gauge whether they will fit with the organisation. Of course, there are workplace and industrial relations implications here, but nobody likes being somewhere if they don’t fit. “Selection is very different in the two worlds, but is coming closer. To add something else into the mix, another common problem
we see is that people get concerned with things they can’t change, rather than things that they can change, as well as getting distracted by irrelevancies,” Hatter explains. “This brings us back to performance and we see it in business and sport. This can be a measurement issue as well — you need to make sure that you are paying attention to things that are both important to overall performance and that are within your control to change.” He says sometimes people will concentrate on measures that are unimportant and/or beyond their control but that show favourable results because then they will not have to confront the shortcomings of the team. “It’s all open to debate,” says Hatter, once a divisional MD of Hays plc, a FTSE 100 company. “But one thing is clear: in both business and sport, what we have found is that what you achieve this year will never be good enough next year.”
KEITH HATTER position: CEO, K2 Performance Systems career: Chartered surveyor, then
Divisional Managing Director of Hays plc what’s next?: Hatter is preparing for the
Lanzarote Ironman in 2010
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2009
The headquarters of Infosys, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second largest IT company, is located in Bangalore
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Business Travel Bangalore 45
Bangalore A Business Traveller’s guide to:
Exec Digital visits the Silicon Valley of India
B
By Chris Farnell
angalore, also known as Bengalūru, has a history going back centuries. However, it’s a history of people who are consistently looking to the future, living at the cutting edge. This year marks the centenary of the Indian Institute of Science, conceived as a “Research Institute”, or “University of Research”, by one Jamsetji Nusser wanji Tata way back in 1896. When the institute opened in 1909 it had only two departments: General and Applied Chemistry and ElectroTechnology. Now the institute has interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs in Chemical Biology, Earth System Science, and Nanotechnology, among others. The institute aims to blur the traditional
boundaries between disciplines, thereby promoting cross-disciplinary research. THE SILICON PLATEAU The Institute of Science is just one such research pioneer in the city that is known as the Silicon Valley of India (despite being based on a plateau). India has one of the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic IT industries in the world, and Bangalore is at the forefront of that industry, so it’s no coincidence that the city has the largest number of broadband internet connections in the country. The city is home to, among others, Microsoft Research India, which is engaged in cuttingedge basic and applied research in computing, information technology, and related areas across multiple fields. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the facility, an event Microsoft intends to mark on January 22 at its TechVista 2010
India has one of the world’s fastest growing and most dynamic I.T. industries in the world
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hMMdb2LyN4I&offeri d=162900.10000007&subid=0&type=4 http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hMMdb2LyN4I&offerid=162900.10000007&subid=0&type=4
Business Travel Bangalore 47
The Public Utilities Building is a major economic centre
Top: Brigade Road. Above: Microsoft, Bangalore.
event, which will showcase research being done at leading institutions across India. This event typically attracts leading researchers, academicians and industry representatives from around the world. Microsoft is not the only company to put down roots in Bangalore however. Just outside the city is Bangalore’s Electronics City, one of India’s largest industrial estates at 332 acres. The estate houses many IT industry leaders, including Wipro, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Infosys, Patni Computer Systems, CGI, Siemens, ITI, Yokogawa Electric, and Satyam.
cool. Not content with being India’s most connected city through the Internet, the recently opened Bengaluru International Airport provides direct flights to London, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore, among others, and the city is a major railway terminus to the rest of the country. Once inside the city, one of the most popular forms of transport are the three-wheeled auto-rickshaws that run through Bangalore. These are usually easy to flag down, although it can be more difficult if you’re in an office neighbourhood at the end of the day. Prices are usually reasonable, but can get extortionate at TRANSPORT night or during bad weather, when drivers are It’s easy to see why so many businesses choose likely to ignore their meters. to use this city as their base of operations. The city’s many trees almost provide a natural air- THE CITY conditioning system, keeping the city refreshingly The city itself is firmly divided in two, and locals www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
are very conscious of the North-South divide. The North of the city is more old fashioned, while the South is considered trendier, and is where you will find most of the city’s malls and restaurants. The city has an amazing range of quality eateries, ranging from upscale restaurants to English-style pubs. These can be found near Mahatma Gandhi Road, or MG Road as it’s often called, or near Race Course Road, Brigade Road and Koramangla. Especially highly recommended is the Sahib Sindh Sultan in Koramangla. It is a finedining, ‘Colonial’ Indian restaurant, themed
THe FACTS
Total area: 709.5 km² Population: : 5,840,155 Official languages: Kannada,
English, Tamil, Teluga, Hindi CAPITAL: New Delhi CURRENCY: Indian Rupee TIME ZONE: G.M.T +5.5 CALLING CODE: +91
AIRPORT: Bengaluru International Airport January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
to look like the inside of a 19th century train carriage, serving a range of North Indian and Anglo-Indian dishes. MUST-SEE SIGHTS A city with as long and varied a history as Bangalore has a lot of landmarks to visit while you’re there. The Bangalore Palace is definitely worth seeing, as is the Bull Temple, where there are usually musical acts performing at the weekend, while nature lovers really have to see Cubbon Park’s Rose Garden. Bangalore is a city of opportunity, but it’s also not a place you’ll forget in a hurry.
Business Travel Bangalore 49 Downtown Bangalore
TRAVELLERS’ TREATS 3M Privacy Gold Price: £27
Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, Bangalore
Avoid the meddling eyes of nosy passengers during your next trip. The 3M Privacy Gold are lightweight versions of the computer monitor filters that executives use to obscure confidential data on their computer screens from “prying eyes”, but these ones are optimised for laptop computers so that data is safe on a plane or on a train. Additionally, unlike previous types of 3M laptop privacy filters, 3M Privacy Gold emanates a blinding golden aura when an unauthorised person attempts to view your laptop monitor from a side angle. www.3mprivacyisgold.com
SimpleTOUGH USB 2.0 Portable Drive Price: £94 The SimpleTough will surely be just what the Indiana Jones type executive needs. SimpleTOUGH is one of the world’s most rugged drives for protecting your electronic data in harsh environments. Designed for serious mobility, it is the only water- and shockresistant external drive available today. It’s even engineered to sustain a 10-foot (three metre) drop; this is definitely made for those who work hard and play even harder. www.simpletech.com www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Buy your own
island A beautiful view and no neighbours – buying an island certainly has its advantages By Ian Armitage
W
e’ve all been there before. You pay through your teeth for an exclusive holiday only to find out that five other couples have done the same and that you now have to share large parts of your romantic trip with someone other than your wife. But what can you do about it? Well, this is a fast-shrinking world; a world in which privacy has become a very valuable commodity and wealthy companies and individuals are now parting millions for the seclusion that a private island provides. It is an ever popular opinion for those that can afford it and off the top of my head I can think of numerous examples of companies or individuals owning an island, which
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
they use for exclusive getaways or private business trips. Billionaire tycoon Rupert Murdoch, for instance, has used the Hayman Island, a resort off the Great Barrier Reef owned by one of his many companies, Ansett Airlines, for meetings, a setting which offers total and absolute privacy. British entrepreneur Richard Branson is another famous private island owner. O k , you have the c a sh , and want an island. But how do you go about buying one of your own? Well, numerous specialist websites have emerged online, and we’ve searched them all to find the best islands on the market...
Personal Travel Buy an Island 51
http://www.vladi-private-islands.de/sale/site/html/cms_de-sale_detail_en-1222/Bonefish%20Cay.html
Bonefish Cay Bonefish Cay, BAHAMAS Price: £8.9m Size: 13.5 acres Price per acre: £0.66m www.vladi-private-islands.de
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Flying Economy? We’ll treat you like a VIP. As a Priority Pass member, you can enjoy the comforts of an airport VIP lounge regardless of what class you fly, what airline you’re booked on or if you belong to an airline lounge program. You'll still be able to escape the chaos of the typical departures hall into a quiet, calm and luxurious space. There are over 500 airport VIP lounges in 90 countries worldwide - and membership costs from just £69 per year. With work facilities such as e-mail, internet and conference space, there is nowhere better to focus your mind, come up with great new ideas or finish that presentation. Alternatively, just sit back and relax, enjoy the cool lounge ambience, complimentary drinks and snacks and do, well, very little… Except, perhaps, watch the very stressed world go by. For a full list of over 500 airport VIP lounges across the world, visit: www.prioritypass.com/execuk08
Change the way you travel, find out more and join online at www.prioritypass.com/execuk08 Priority Pass P.O. Box 120 Croydon England CR9 4NU Call +44 (0)20 8680 1338 or Fax +44 (0)20 8688 6191 Priority Pass offices located in London, Dallas and Hong Kong
Personal Travel Buy an Island 53 Rangyai Island, Thailand Price: £97.6m Size: 100 acres Price per acre: £0.97m
Rangyai island
www.privateislandsonline.com
http://www.privateislandsonline.com/fanny-key-florida.htm www.vladi-private-islands.de
Fanny Key http://www.privateislandsonline.com/rangyai-island-thailand.htm Fanny Key, Florida http://www.privateislandsonline.com/puerco-island-philippines.htm
Price:£4.9m Size: 1.7 acres Price per acre: £2.9m www.privateislandsonline.com
Puerco Island
Puerco Island, Palawan, Philippines Price: £0.8m Size: 11 acres Price per acre: £72,000 www.privateislandsonline.com www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
On a wing & A PRAYER Introducing the avian majesty of the Mercedes SLS AMG By Ben Lobel
I
n March, Mercedes finally announced its next supercar, to reach showrooms in 2010 and earning an early reputation for THE next ultimate sports machine. The word was that the car would be a modernday take on the classic Gullwing of the 1950s, with aluminium frame, a Mercedes-first aluminium spaceframe chassis, with the light frame accommodating a 6.2 litre AMG V8. Now, images abound of the albatross-like marvel, spreading its wings proudly as Mercedes soars back into business in the ultra-premium end of the market. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tackle user logistics first â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as talking about the SLS AMG without mentioning functionality of use is akin to meeting a beautiful woman and choosing to ignore the fact that she has hands shaped
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Exec Car Mercedes SLS AMG 55
www.ExecDigital www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
like anvils. It’s certainly a style of body that few will be familiar with – but there’s nothing to be afraid of; the car of the future is entered by a blip of the key fob, making the flush door handle pop out to greet your outstretched hand. A gentle tug sends the gullwing spectacularly skyward without much fuss. Climbing aboard isn’t too difficult – if you are around eight foot tall you can both narrowly avoid banging your head on the elevated door and use your considerable wingspan to pull the lofty door closed while seated at the wheel. Those of a less gigantic persuasion can comfortably miss the perils of the car’s open wing but may need to pull the door closed on the way into the car so as not to be reaching in vain to shut it. Style over substance, you may muse. The 300SL was the bloodline for the SLS AMG
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
After all, birds do tend to be awfully showy with their majestic swooping and cruising, and their insistence on being the centrepiece of a delicious roast. Not a bit of it. This avian can undoubtedly walk the walk as well as squawk the talk. Here’s the lowdown for the stats hawk: it delivers 563 bhp at 6,800 RPM. It goes from 0-62 in 3.8 seconds and 128 mph in around 11.8. The top speed is electronically governed to 197 mph. It all sounds very impressive but let’s now imagine ourselves in the cockpit. The 6.2 litre V8 has, of course, been used in a variety of Mercs, but this one is different – primarily more lightweight, weighing just 453lb thanks to its lightweight aluminium components – all while never compromising robustness.
Exec Car Mercedes SLS AMG 57 “ The acceleration? Effortless – the seven gears each offer their own pitch of attitude” There is real technology behind this. The acceleration? Effortless – the seven gears each offer their own pitch of attitude. Reaching illegal speeds happens in a serene manner – a swan-like grace to go with the intensity of a vulture. Enough of the bird analogies, already. In the ‘sport’ or ‘sport plus’ setting, the gearchange times shorten and the engine starts to growl, making the transition into big-league sports car. With the DTMinspired carbon-fibre driveshaft, and lightweight all-aluminium chassis and body, and with AMG keen to show off its serious pedigree, the SLS
has been confirmed as the safety car for Formula One next season. W e h e a r t h e r e ’s a c o n v e r t i b l e version coming in 2011 – so even if you loved the bird references, presumably there will be nothing avian to speak of about that one, save for the same level of swift, precise and graceful speed and elegance – if not the wings. What else? Well, Mercedes AMG has set itself the ambitious date of 2013 for a fully electric version with, wait for it, ‘no loss of performance’. The variety on the way is stunning.
SLS AMG v 300SL SLS AMG
Model
SLS AMG
300SL
Max power
563 bhp
212 bhp
0-62
3.8 sec
5.0 sec
Top speed
197mph (limited)
146 mph
Price
£150,000/ next June
Prices vary from £90,000 £270,000 used
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
The Rugged Outdoors
Men’s Alpha LT GTX Pro Jacket £389.99 No bells or whistles, this is a lightweight and fully waterproof jacket with the harness HemLock feature, and is ideal for use with a climbing harness. Made from Arc’teryx’s lightest weight GORE-TEX Pro Shell, this jacket delivers severe weather protection. Features: • Helmet compatible Storm Hood • Fully waterproof WaterTight vislon front zip • 3 layer GORE-TEX Pro Shell www.arcteryx.com January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Fashion & Style Rugged Outdoors 59
tdoors
Just because winter is here, it doesn’t mean you can’t get out and have fun By Ian Armitage
North Face Etip Gloves £22 Etips are an essential if you want to take your BlackBerry with you when you hit the slopes. The Etip finger ensures full control while browsing and means you never need to take your gloves off. Features: • L aptop and MP3 player click-wheel functionality • Silicone gripper palms www.thenorthface.com
Spy Optic Apollo Ski Goggles £109.99 The industry’s most advanced snow goggles, Spy Optics Apollo Goggles are a must if you’re out on the slopes this winter. Why? It offers 1/3 more peripheral vision than any other ski goggle. Features: • Groundbreaking Multi-Base Mosaic lens - creates maximum peripheral vision, no distortion or internal reflection • Anti fog and anti scratch coated • Flexible frame conforms to any face size or shape • Self-positioning Magnesium/ Grilamid hinge turns 360 degrees, ensuring helmet-compatible fit • 100 percent UVA, B & C protection www.spyoptic.com
“ Etips are an essential if you want to take your BlackBerry with you when you hit the slopes” www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Purdey Double
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Exec Toys For 2010 61
Top toys for
2010 The best toys for the coming year, from the exclusive to the accessible By Ian Armitage 6-figure shotgun Price: Approx. £61,606
Barrel rifle with elephant engraving
According to those that know, the perfect shotgun should feel like an extension of your arm. ‘The better the fit, the more you’ll hit,’ or whatever the saying is. And, if a top-quality shotgun is what you want, then there is plenty of choice — Boss, Holland & Holland or William Evans are just a few of the manufacturers on the market. However, if you want the perfect shotgun — and we mean PERFECT — it has to be London gunsmith Purdey. Fewer than 100 Purdeys are made each year and the company’s over-under shotguns (one barrel on top of the other) start at around £61,606; the prices go up from there, depending on how many unique touches are added. www.purdey.com
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hMMdb2LyN4I&offeri d=162900.10000007&subid=0&type=4 http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=hMMdb2LyN4I&offerid=162900.10000007&subid=0&type=4
Exec Toys For 2010 63 Big name, big watch — Polanti Price: From £250 First introduced in Los Angeles at the turn of the century, Polanti watches can now be found on the wrists of Hollywood’s finest; Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, Don King, Snoop Dogg and Sylvester Stallone, to name a few. The market for these watches continues to grow, so it is a real investment piece. www.polantiusa.com
An Old Master’s masterpiece Price: Approx. £15.2 million Auction house Sotheby’s is living proof that classic art doesn’t go out of fashion. Despite the worst recession in living memory, it continues to break records and, as recently as December 2009, sold Anthony van Dyck’s last self portrait for a massive $24.6 million. So why not get in on the action? Estimates for a diminishing supply of Old Masters have shown little change over the last 12 months, and look like a good investment. Throughout January, and indeed the rest of 2010, a number of important paintings will be auctioned by Sotheby’s, whose sales of Old Master Paintings include masterpieces from the 14th to the early 19th centuries by many of the greatest names in Western art — from Guido Reni to Vermeer, and Rubens to J.M.W. Turner. www.sothebys.com
Self Portrait With a Sunflower showing the gold collar and medal King Charles I gave Anthony van Dyck in 1633
Grape expectations – top wine of 2010 Price: From Approx. £13.35 Where to start? Afterall, there is so much choice in this category. That said, we’d recommend something from New Zealand winery Craggy Range. Why? Well, its wines have been recognised as some of the best in the world and with veteran winemaker Steve Smith at the helm of the winery’s team, it’s no wonder. Its prestige collection is certainly worth a taste. www.craggyrange.com www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
touch lighter Calorie tracker Price: Free Another free app for the calorie conscious; Calorie Tracker is available from Lance Armstrongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health and fitness website livestrong. com. Through the app, users can look up and track daily calorie, fat, carbohydrate, and protein intake. The app draws on a nutritional database with over 450,000 food and restaurant items. To throw your physical activity into the equation, just use the app to calculate burned calories for a variety of exercises. Users can also use the app in conjunction with the website for forums, Q & A, and support groups. www.livestrong.com
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Lose it! (US ONLY) Price: Free With Lose it! the user can set goals, create a daily calorie budget, record food and exercise, and view graphs of progress with this full-featured weight management app. After you enter your stats, you can create a custom plan, with an end date in mind, based on how much weight you want to lose per week. www.apptism.com
Weightbot Price: ÂŁ1.19
Weightbot from Tapbo your weight and progr displayed progress re key information, includ to attain while using th Your BMI is calculated www.tapbots.com/w
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Health & Fitness Top Weight Loss Apps 65 Here are a multitude of iPhone apps on the market to help you with weight loss. Exec Digital investigates a choice few By Keith Johnson
40-30-30
1 stone diet or a jog go f
Price: Free While calorie trackers are great, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t offer a guide to the right nutritional balance. Step forward http://www.apptism.com/apps/40o30o30 40-30-30 which comes in handy if you want to calculate the proportion of carbs, proteins and fats in your meal. Scrolling through the weight in grams option for each nutritional element will allow you to view your ratio. www.apptism.com
ots will help you track ress to a goal with a eport. To start, you enter ding the weight you wish he app, and your height. d and you are away. weightbot
iMapMyRun Price: Free iMapMyRun utilises the iPhoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GPS technology for real-time distance, time, pace, and speed tracking. It even integrates with Twitter, should you want a quick way to advertise your fitness regime. Once you setup your account (you can use an existing MapMyRun.com account), you can save your runs, bike rides, and walks to a training log, with maps, for future reference. Additional features include the ability to sync with the website and use voice feedback to coach you as you go. Note: as with all apps like this, you do need to leave the app open for the entirety of the workout. www.imapmy.com
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Top Three
Cockta
The Old Master Giuliano Morandin, The Dorchester Hotel For 30 years Giuliano Morandin has managed The Bar at The Dorchester Hotel, with an eye for the classics and a taste for the new. His list includes timeless classics like Martinis and Mojitos, while also using recipes by The Dorchester’s legendary first Head Bartender, Harry Craddock, who opened The Bar in the 1930s. For his cocktail, Giuliano chose one of his new recipes that he describes as “a little different”. The Imperia Caviar Martini Cost: £50.00 plus service & V.A.T Ingredients: 50ml Imperia Vodka 40ml sour cream 40ml freshly squeezed lemon juice 15ml kummel 15ml gomme A dash of egg white powder Method Into the shaker with plenty of hard cubed ice. Shake hard and strain into a tall martini glass. Garnish with a teaspoon of fully sustainable caviar on top of a kummel tuile across the top of the glass. Bite and take a sip. The perfect combination. www.thedorchester.com/the-bar January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
ails
Food & Drink Top Cocktails 67
Exec Digital spoke to some of the world’s most prominent mixologists, each with their own philosophy and techniques,and asked them to tell us about their signature drinks. Here are the results By Chris Farnell The Mad Scientist Tony Conigliaro, 69 Colebrooke Row Winner of the International Bartender of the Year Award 2009, Tony Conigliaro is a renowned spearhead in the industry. He embraces the science of chemistry and often uses equipment more commonly seen in pharmaceutical labs than in a bar, such as centrifuges, cold smokes and pot stills. Yet this is much more than just science for science’s sake, and for Tony’s recipe, he chose a cocktail with a distinctly rural flavour. The Somerset Sour Cost: £8.00 Ingredients: 50ml Somerset cider brandy 25ml lemon juice 15ml sugar Dash of egg white 25ml cider Method: Shake the brandy, lemon, sugar and egg white and pour into a large martini glass (or coup). Top with the cider and garnish with a Hay scented bobbing apple. www.69colebrookerow.com
www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Food & Drink Top Cocktails 69 The Russian Cocktail King Bek Narzibekov Bek Narzibekov was born in the USSR and grew up in London. He is founder and Creative Director of the Russian Cocktail Club, and co-owner of the Samarqand in London. While working at Milk and Honey in London, Bek helped the bar win Class Magazine’s ‘Bar of the Year’ and Evening Standard’s ‘UK Best Bar’. While working at City Space, based on top of a five star hotel overlooking Moscow, Bek noticed that most of the foreign visitors were asking for Moscow Mules and White Russians, cocktails that are actually American. For his cocktail, Bek offers us his latest creation, his newly created Russian version of the White Russian. “The task that I set for myself was not easy,” Bek says. “I basically had to replace Mexican Kahlua coffee liqueur while retaining the color and coffee hints.” The White Russky Cost: 750 Rubles (about £16.00) Ingredients: 50ml vodka / 50ml homemade rye bread syrup Method: To make the Homemade Rye Bread Syrup, take the authentic Russian non-alcoholic drink, Kvass, pour 2000ml of it into a clean saucepan and reduce it down to 750ml (just like you reduce wine for red wine gravy). Stir the syrup with the vodka in a mixing glass.Top with vanilla cream (using the same method as making an Irish coffee, with the addition of vanilla). Serve in a cocktail glass with a dark chocolate spiral garnish.
“ I basically had to replace Mexican Kahlua coffee liqueur while retaining the color and coffee hints” Bek Narzibekov, Russian Cocktail Club
www.russiancocktailclub.com www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
THE ULTIMATE Guide By Jennifer Denby
A
s you heedlessly knock back the mulled wine and Champagne, the hit of Christmas and NYE drinking will be back to bite the following morning, and you’ll undoubtedly find yourself reciting that well used little phrase, “I will never drink again!” Unfortunately, the hangover truly is an elusive foe for which there’s been an abundance of remedies over the centuries. But if you don’t fancy the Roman’s fried canaries for breakfast, rubbing lemons under your drinking arm in the style of the Puerto Ricans, or even roaming through Google’s 2,200,000 ‘hangover cure’ hits, then read on…
FILL AN EMPTY STOMACH
Prevention is better than cure, so they te things first, before you go out, have a me carbohydrates or fats. Everyone knows t on a full stomach slows the absorption o not for the reason you may think. When stomach closes to allow the food to dige keeps alcohol in the stomach, and enzym neutralising it before it has a chance to g
THE PRICKLY PEAR JUICE Prickly pear juice is widely believed to have a reducing effect on hangovers. Be warned though, studies have shown differing results. But don’t write this one off just yet, the science behind it does make sense. C-reactive proteins, which are released by the liver to fight inflammation, are 40 percent lower when prickly pear juice is consumed. This indicates that the inflammation caused by alcohol is reduced; lessening nausea, dry mouth and loss of appetite. Take it a few hours prior to your night out.
January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
WATER, WATE AND MORE W
So you’re home from Water. It is the traditio time to rehydrate is be pint before you fall int to sip if you wake up d the nicest feeling dow but every glass you fo will be worth two in th
H
ell us. So first eal that includes that drinking of alcohol, but you eat, the est. This also mes then begin get to the liver.
After Hours Hangover Guide 71 CHOOSE YOUR DRINK WISELY There are poisons besides alcohol that play their role in a brutal hangover. Congeners are nasty chemicals that naturally occur in all fermented drinks. As a rule, darker drinks – red wine, whiskey, tequila – have more congeners than lighter drinks - white wine, vodka, gin. Remember though, whatever your drink’s shade, if it’s cheap, it probably has more poison in it. And as most of us know that red wine is the ultimate hangover-inducing temptation, if you’re clever, and have taste, you’ll steer clear of cheap red wine. And as one extra insight that most of us won’t want to hear – carbonated drinks speed up your body’s absorption of alcohol. And yes, that includes carbonated drink mixers…bad news if you’re a whisky and coke man.
ER WATER
your night out, what next? onal hangover remedy. The best efore going to sleep, so drink a to bed and keep a glass nearby during the night. It may not be wning yet another pint of liquid, orce yourself to swallow now he morning.
PACE YOURSELF Although easier said than done, try not to consume more than one drink an hour. That means no more whisky chasers or playing the “take a shot every time someone...” game. Your liver breaks down alcohol at the rate of about a beer an hour, so pacing yourself will lessen the severity of a hangover. If you find it hard to sip your drink, try alternating with water throughout the night. www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
After Hours Hangover Guide 73 SLEEP TIGHT One factor that is often overlooked is the effect that sleep has on your hangover. Studies show that some of your “hangover symptoms” are actually related to sleep duration and quality, and not the amount you knocked back the night before. Although, as drinking time often goes at the expense of sleeping time, the two are significantly linked. So to improve your headache, lethargy and slow responses, we suggest you get some long and undisturbed shuteye.
BACON SANDWICHES It’s official, a bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover. Scientists from Newcastle University say that although food doesn’t soak up alcohol, it does increase your metabolism helping you deal with the night’s after-effects. Indulging in too much alcohol eats up neurotransmitters - chemicals that carry messages in the body – and bacon, which contains a high level of aminos, works to top these up, leaving you with a much clearer head.
GIVE ME SOME SUGAR Ever wonder why you feel weak and shaky after a heavy night? Alcohol attacks the body’s store of glycogen, breaking it down to glucose which is then flushed away in your many trips to the bathroom throughout the night. Try a high sugar sports drink; they replace nutrients and electrolytes, which also help to control fluid levels in the body. Bananas are also great; they’re high in fruit sugars and as an extra benefit, are a natural antacid, helping with any nausea.
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW While there are many pills promising to cure or prevent hangovers, remember that there is little, if any, scientific evidence that supports these well-marketed claims. However, there are some saviours to be found. The supplement NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) works because it is rich in cysteine, an amino acid that is used by the body in the manufacture of free radical-eliminating glutathione. Just trust us; this is an invaluable hangover remedy. B-vitamins are also rescuers. Drinking drains the body of vitamins, so taking this may speed recovery. However, if it’s painkillers you’re after, then ibuprofen is your best bet, but always wait until the morning. And remember, Aspirin upsets the stomach and can aggravate a hangover, and taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) when alcohol is still in your bloodstream can cause severe liver damage. www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010
Tony Horton, fitness and creator of P90X F itness is a multi-billion dollar global industry with exercise programmes, diet pills and promises galore. Tony Horton, however, has risen above the fray to bring a simple yet powerful approach that’s transforming people’s lives. Exec Digital learns how Horton created his fitness empire and about the philosophy behind his groundbreaking programmes, P90X including the revolutionary P90X®.
How does it feel to be part of something that keeps on growing? I t ’s m i n d b l o w i n g . W i t h P 9 0X , t h e Beachbody® folks and I aimed to fill a niche market: people spending money on gym memberships and trainers and frustrated at the results. I hear and read amazing stories ever yday on Facebook , Twitter and the Beachbody message boards. It’s humbling.
Your career started out on the East Coast?
Don Knotts and Brad Pitt.
Were you always into fitness?
Not really. My dad was a great athlete, but I didn’t have great coaches and discipline early on. I weight lifted in college and my instructor had a major influence on me. In California, I went to the gym mostly to meet girls and had a really short attention span for routines – one day it was yoga, the next lifting, and then rock climbing and rollerblading. I discovered, by accident, I was getting in better shape then ever because of the variety in my fitness. .
Why does P90X work?
Two words: muscle confusion. Each exercise or routine supports another. For example, yoga promotes strength, flexibility and balance, which helps with core synergistics. Core synergistics, although not full-blown cardio, gives you the lung capacity for better yoga. The philosophy behind the 12 DVDs is different from traditional fitness. With P90X you’re always moving and doing one routine that will help you improve on other ones.
How does P90X benefit business travelers?
You can bring disks and do a majority of the routines in your hotel room. Many people My roots are in Rhode Island, and I use the book at the gym to do sequences. mainly grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut. I went Others download P90X to their iPods and out west in 1980 to be an actor — a combination of iPhones and watch the routines. I also January 2010 | www.ExecDigital.co.uk
Q&A Tony Horton 75
s® guru X
By Dean Tsouvalas recommend a routine called UCML that I created for Usher and d i d i n Wa s h i n g to n w i t h a group of senators and congressman at the congressional gym. It’s four dif ferent moves: push-ups, cardio for 60 seconds, followed by 30-40 reps of abs or core moves, and a leg, lunge or squat move. You do chest, cardio, core and legs, take a short break, and do as many rounds as you want up to an hour for a tremendous workout. You don’t need anything other then gravity and the floor.
and Tony Horton, personal trainer X P90 of creator
Why did you create the 10-minute Trainer?
If you could do only one type of exercise what would it be?
P90X wasn’t reaching those with very little free time and who don’t like exercise. As long as you do something fairly intense for 10 minutes twice a day, you’re going to see some change. For busy executives and parents, 10 minutes is easy to commit to.
Gy mna sti c s . I t ’s eve r y thing : ba l a nc e , flexibility, strength, coordination. If it were just a couple moves, it’d be squats to pull-ups.
What are your diet guidelines for restaurants and fast food places? Ask for what you need. If you need healthy food, tell the waiter you’re on a special diet. If you really care about your health and fitness, you don’t want to throw a wrench into your really good intentions.
What do you want readers to know about Tony Horton or P90X? Regular exercise and a healthy diet with whole foods will direct you into a life that’s the antithesis of a life without it. If you’re only focused on image you will inevitably fail. You’ll want to keep going when you see how much the quality of your life improves. www.tonyhortonp90x.org www.ExecDigital.co.uk | January 2010