What Portugal needs at the moment, according Alvaro Santos Pereira (Portugal’s economy minister);

is a boost to the growth of their economy. How he plans to do so is through lowering the corporation tax they currently have, to a predicted 17% by the year 2016. This, together with the economy minister’s recent tour through Europe and North America, where he promised friendly taxes to investors and multi-national companies.

The reduction of tax is expected to increase the flow of money going into their economy and to create more jobs.  However, reducing corporate taxation would not only mean good things for Portugal, with it would come bad things for other countries. The lower the taxes are in other countries, (in most cases) the more the chances of investment in in other countries decreases. Germany is a country that is very sensitive to this type of economy-boosting move. If the portuguese are not careful, they might end up harming their relationship with the country that ‘bailed them out’.

Sources:

-http://www.portugaldailyview.com/whats-new/stimulus-package-portugal-announced-company-tax-cuts-to-boost-growth

-http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2013/oct/22/portugal-tax-rate-business

Results have shown that advertising in the internet is extremely effective as it is easier and in most cases; less expensive. This, however, is no shocker as it has been going on for many years, making companies like Google earn billions of dollars from advertising. What is interesting about it is how quickly advertising in the internet has grown.

As anyone can see, in this digital era; people’s everyday life depend more and more on the internet, and in some places, like the article “Online Ads Key to Business Growth” talks about, people “depend more on the internet than on the traditional media”.

Many markets; such as the movie rental market, have been threatened to completely disappear by online streaming media providers such as Netflix. As consumers now follow the trend to depend more on the internet… could this be the start to the case the movie rental businesses ended up in?

Sources:

-http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=290444

-http://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-earnings

With the increasing use of storing data in ‘cloud’ systems such as “Dropbox”, “iCloud” and “Google-Drive” the future of databases in the business world could be in the ‘clouds’. A ‘cloud’ is a place where you can virtually store your data, rather than on physical devices (memories,USBs,Discs, etc..). Businesses could potentially save millions of dollars from very expensive machinery for storing data, without mentioning the space needed to store these.

What big businesses would need to make this transition to ‘cloud’ storage is a provider that can give them security (that they will not loose their information and that only they have access to it). ‘Clouds’ are commonly used today, mainly, for personal use and the businesses that provide this service have complete control over the million dollar market. This means that if  DropBox, iCloud, SkyDrive, Google Drive or possible ones can provide enough security to convince large businesses to have an online provider manage their data, they could just become the pioneer in a billion dollar market.

Sources:

-http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/best-cloud-storage-dropbox-vs-skydrive-vs-google-drive-vs-icloud-1120024

-http://www.nextgov.com/cloud-computing/2013/07/disa-plans-427-million-hybrid-cloud-storage-setup/66221/

-http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10412528-62.html

Bacardi, the giant in the alcoholic drink industry has launched an advertising campaign where the company is portrayed as a true victor in the business. Founded in 1862, the company has faced fires, earthquakes, prohibition and even exile. The advertisement (as seen above) concentrates purely on the story behind Bacardi, rather than on the rum itself. Could this be a bad decision towards advertising their products? I believe it isn’t. With increasing awareness of the risks involving the consumption of alcohol, potential consumers are being ‘scared away’ (decreasing their overall consumption of alcohol). Driving consumer into seeing Bacardi from a different aspect might just be the best thing they could do. As the article ‘Bacardi Campaign Focuses on Resilience Rather Than Rum’ mentions, the campaign tells an admirable story of success. With upcoming releases of television advertisements focusing on the many problems that the company overcame to stand where it does today, potential consumers may end up choosing Bacardi over other brands simply for what it stands for, associating the consumption of it with success. The brand shows a promising future, however, only time will show how effective their new campaign really is.

Sources:

-http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/business/media/bacardi-focuses-on-resilience-rather-than-rum.html?ref=business&_r=0

-http://www.alcohol.org/

Recent information was leaked on the companies under the NSA’s payroll  (for access to “81% of all international phone calls into the US”). AT&T, Sprint and Verizon are said to charge hundreds of millions of dollars a year to let the NSA tap their customers’ mobile phones and keep them under surveillance.

The amounts paid to these companies (around 300 million USD) however only represent a small part of their revenues. Is their consumers’ trust worth that little? These companies are now in risk of making great losses due to an expected drop in sales – as customers no longer want them to be their providers now that information how consumer information is being sold to an agency.

Although businesses today are now much more respected and preferred when they prove to be responsible. Being a socially responsible business, trusted by consumers doesn’t only create an image, but might just save you from a scandal like this one, which will most likely lead to a much bigger (compared to the NSA’s money for information) loss of revenue.

Sources:

–       http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2013/09/23/attverizonsprint-are-paid-cash-by-nsa-for-your-private-communications/

With increasing regulations on all sorts of drinks, from energized to any kind of sweetened beverage – drink companies might just have to change their strategy. Mainly in the United States, the sale of sweetened drinks is being regulated.

The main concern behind recent awareness campaigns, regulations and even banning from certain places like schools all across the country, is the amount of sugar and/or caffeine in these, which is bad for anyone health-wise.

However, governments have addressed this issue directly to the sizes of the drinks sold, rather than demanding healthier products or taxing these un-healthy products directly. This might just become an opportunity for both distributors and drink companies.

(county of Los Angeles awareness campaign)

As products do not have to change, consumers will still be happy with the product itself, only they will have to adapt to new sizes. As the sizes decrease, the amount of products sold will most likely increase (in order to fulfil the consumers thirst).

For the right price, both the companies making the drinks and the businesses distributing them might make of this ‘obstacle’ an opportunity to increase their sales.

Sources:

–   http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/11/1700421/bloomberg-soda-ban-right-direction/

–   http://changelabsolutions.org/childhood-obesity/SSB-regulation

–   http://www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/additivesbranch/energydrinks#.UlPoimTwKnY

Many U.S companies have had to make some adjustments to their employees’ health plans, due to ‘Obama-care’. Some of the country’s biggest employers have had to cut down costs and in some cases, employees are not entirely happy.

Although implementing mandatory health insurance for companies with 50 or more employees is a good thing, employees from some companies have lost benefits they used to have before. UPS (4^th biggest employer) had to ‘stop providing insurance for spouses of non-union workers’. IBM will no longer provide health care for around 110,000 retirees.

Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) believes ‘Obama-care’ is a “good thing for the country”, yet refuses to rely on it by itself. Starbucks employees will keep enjoying great health insurance and face no changes, as – although costs will rise, the company refuses to cut down expenses that will affect their employees.

However, this extra ‘cost’ could potentially be good for their brand. Not only does it give a good image of the company, but it might just motivate their employees to provide a better service, therefore keeping customers happy – and eventually maybe even an increase in the company’s revenue.

Sources:

-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/starbucks-obamacare_n_3935999.html

-http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/27/news/companies/starbucks-obamacare-schultz/index.html

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The Dole® food company claims to be socially responsible… are they really? Is this company truly dedicated “to the safety of [their] workers, communities and the environment?” I don’t think so.

www.greenbiz.com claims in the article posted below, that a lawsuit was recently filed against Dole® for purchasing bananas from growers who do not seem to have their same philosophy, as their operations have destroyed wetlands and poisoned water sources in Guatemala. Is this just me or has this already become a threat to the environment and the Guatemalan community?

Can their company really be trusted if the claims are true? In my case I would lose my trust in them and therefore wouldn’t believe in the other aspects of their so called “philosophy”. Being ethically and socially responsible won’t just make you look good, but it will gain the trust of your consumers… and therefore would most probably increase your sales. I would say it is much more important than they think and should watch closely who they buy their bananas from next time.

Greenbiz article: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2012/11/20/lawsuit-takes-doles-sustainability-claims-task