Management Tip of the Day: How to reach the C-Suite
“Top-level promotions are often governed by unwritten rules. Who makes it to the C-suite and why isn’t always clear. But there are a few non-negotiables that every leader needs to make it to the top:1. Strong performance. Make sure you have a long track record of consistent performance and clear results.2. Ethics. All good companies want leaders with honor and character. Be sure you make decisions with integrity.3. Drive. You need to want it. Demonstrate your desire and ability to assume higher levels of responsibility at each point in your career.”- Today’s management tip was adapted from the book “Harvard Business Review on Advancing Your Career.”(For the full post, see: here)
Market Chatter — Corporate finance press digest
* El Paso Corp Chief Executive Douglas Foshee does
not plan to stay at Kinder Morgan Inc after the pipeline
company acquires his employer, a Wall Street Journal report
said.* Mattel Inc , the world’s largest toy company, is in
talks to buy Hit Entertainment, the British owner of Thomas the
Tank Engine, for a little over 500 million pounds ($788.9
million), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar
with the matter.* U.S. officials and big banks are working on a plan that
would make refinancing available to some borrowers whose houses
are worth less than their loans, so long as they are current on
mortgage payments, the Wall Street Journal reported.* The Irish government has spoken to Abu Dhabi’s Etihad
Airways and International Airlines Group (IAG) about
the possibility of buying the state’s 25 percent stake in Aer
Lingus , state broadcaster RTE reported on Monday.* Bank of America Corp is selling its 49 percent
stake in 4 World Financial Center in Manhattan to Brookfield
Office Properties Inc., Bloomberg News reported, citing a person
with knowledge of the situation.
Thais count floods cost, Bangkok warned crisis not over
Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala has said the damage from flooding since July could be as high as 1.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and ministers will discuss relief measures and extra government borrowing to pay for it.Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Monday spending on reconstruction could amount to more than 100 billion baht ($3.3 billion) after the worst floods in half a century damaged large areas of farmland and closed huge industrial estates.The cabinet was to discuss a proposal to raise the budget deficit by 14 percent to 400 billion baht ($13 billion) for this fiscal year from October 1.The cost could go far higher if Bangkok, which accounts for 41 percent of GDP, is hit by floods.Monsoon rain, high tides and water flowing down from reservoirs in northern Thailand had threatened the capital at the weekend but its defensive system of dikes and canals held.However, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra warned the danger was not completely over and that districts in the north of the capital may still face problems over the next 48 hours.”We don’t want to cause any panic among Bangkokians,” he told a news conference late on Monday. “However, if you want to move valuables or electrical equipment to higher ground for safety reasons, that would be good.”Residents have complained about contradictory noises from city and government officials, including an evacuation warning in a northern suburb last week that proved to be a false alarm.There have been conflicting signals over the fate of the Nava Nakorn industrial estate north of Bangkok, which has 270 plants and about 270,000 workers, but the government told firms to halt operations on Monday as floodwater breached its walls.At least six big estates have now closed, most of them in the central province of Ayutthaya.HIGHER WAGE BILLThe government is pushing ahead with a big increase in the minimum wage despite the huge bill companies face to restart their operations once the waters subside.Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party had promised a minimum of 300 baht ($9.70) a day in its campaign for the July election that swept her to power, a commitment industry said would be ruinous and economists said would fuel inflation.Government, employer and worker representatives came up with a compromise on Monday, agreeing to a big 40 percent rise that will still leave the minimum below 300 baht in most provinces, including Ayutthaya. The rise has also been pushed back to next April from January because of the flooding.The 300 baht minimum will apply in Bangkok and six other well-off provinces, including the tourist island of Phuket.That wage is five times higher than the minimum in Vietnam and 2.5-4.6 times that in Indonesia, according to Kasikorn Research Center. A rice-based meal costs about 37 baht from a Bangkok street-vendor.The wage rise will add to the central bank’s dilemma at its rate review on Wednesday. Core inflation is near 3 percent, the top of its target range, but the economy is under threat from both the floods and a slowdown in Western export markets.The consensus view is that the Bank of Thailand will hold the policy rate at 3.50 percent.”Before the floods, our economy was growing close to its potential. We have to look at how far monetary policy can be flexible,” Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on Monday after a meeting between officials and business leaders.(Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Paul Tait)
Sierra Leone arrests 39 in oil palm land lease dispute
* SOCFIN part of France’s Bollare GroupBy Simon AkamFREETOWN, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone authorities have
arrested 39 protesters in the south of the West African nation,
following tensions between the local population and a unit of
international agro-investor Socfin .The locals were protesting a multi-million dollar land deal
in which the government is leasing to Societe Financiere des
Caoutchoucs (Socfin) 12,500 hectares for oil palm production in
the Pujehun district.The initial phase of the deal is worth $112 million.Green Scenery, an NGO in Sierra Leone, said some locals have
complained they were not properly consulted and were not given
information concerning the deal, signed in April.Farmland in many developing countries has attracted foreign
investors in recent years, but a U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organisation official last year warned some big land lease deals
might risk deepening poverty and ramping up social tensions.Green Scenery said in a statement locals had blocked Socfin
operations in the area since Oct. 3 because they were angry
about not receiving information on the lease agreement, in which
a local chief was involved.The statement did not give details of what information the
farmers said they were deprived of.Gerben Haringsma, the general manager of Socfin Agricultural
Company Sierra Leone Ltd, told Reuters the company was investing
in social projects and the protesters were in the minority.”We tried for weeks to reason with these guys (the
protesters).”“The government decided to stop it, saying this was getting
out of hand,” he added.Socfin, part of France’s Bollore Group , owns more
than 51,000 hectares of palm estates in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and
Cameroon.David Sesay, assistant inspector general of police for the
southern region of Sierra Leone, said officers arrested 39
people on Tuesday and took 27 to the country’s second city of Bo
for questioning.”The people were continually rioting, blocking the road, and
impeding people from going to work,” he said.Sierra Leone was devastated by civil war between 1991 and
2002, and held presidential elections in 2007.Since the end of hostilities the minerals-rich country with
abundant resources such as iron ore, bauxite, diamonds and
titanium ore, has attracted a number of foreign investors.African Minerals is developing a site at Tonkolili in the
centre of the country which it has said is potentially the
world’s largest deposit of the iron ore magnetite.In the agricultural sector, alongside Socfin Swiss
commodities trader Addax, has leased a large area for sugarcane
for biofuel use near the town of Makeni.”In some ways the renewed interest in agriculture is a
welcome reversal of decades of underinvestment in the
agricultural sector that has contributed to rural poverty and
urban migration,” Oli Brown, environmental affairs officer with
the United Nations in Freetown, said in an email.”However agricultural investment needs to be carefully
managed and designed to ensure that it contributes to rural
development and does not exacerbate food insecurity.”
