Tag Archives: Business Planning

What’s Next for the Chinese Yuan?

On February 17th, in a significant announcement by Chinese authorities, plans to allow domestic trading of Yuan options against other currencies from April onwards were rolled out, with the fundamental aim of assisting Chinese exporters and importers hedge against currency … Read More…

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China and its Influence on the Global Rare Earth Metals Market

“The Middle East has its oil, China has rare earth metals.” —Deng Xiaoping, Chinese President (1992) Take an even a cursory look at any major business media today and China’s influence in the minerals and metals commodity markets is inescapable. … Read More…

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Rethinking Satisfaction Survey Analytics – How the factor performance index transcends the conventional importance-satisfaction matrix.

The core objective of the traditional customer satisfaction survey is to gauge the consumer’s overall satisfaction levels (or perceived satisfaction) with a given brand or a product. To make this information actionable from a marketer’s point of view, though, one … Read More…

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6 Key Actions – Aligning supply chains with corporate strategy.

The supply chain and procurement executive(s) has a ‘seat at the executive table’. To illustrate its potential impact from a pure economic perspective, where else in an organization does one executive have the ability to influence and manage the cost … Read More…

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Copper – Primer & Outlook

Copper is regarded as the most valuable of primary base metals, barring nickel, even though it is not the largest base metal market in the world. Indeed, it is considered a barometer for the state of the economy, given its … Read More…

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Iceland’s Volcanic Ash Cloud and its Impact on Global Trade: A Primer

The volcanic eruption in Iceland has led to a crisis not only for the European air transportation industry, in particular, – disrupting air travel and air cargo operations across northern Europe – but also global commerce overall. The eruption of … Read More…

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Is There Any Value in Forecasts?

With most companies either in or rapidly approaching their business planning cycles, executives and analysts alike are hard at work trying to predict how the next fiscal year will unfold, making a range of decisions from where best to focus … Read More…

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