Also “completely virtual” are the models at the center of H&M’s swimsuit and lingerie online campaigns, the Swedish-based retailer confirmed.
“It’s not a real body; it is completely virtual and made by the computer,” H&M press officer Hacan Andersson told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in an article questioning the company’s picture-perfect online models.
Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he's been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he's never landed the top gig. It's because he "made the cars too well," he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off corporate message. That said, his new book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, has a message worth hearing. To get the U.S. economy growing again, Lutz says, we need to fire the M.B.A.s and let engineers run the show.
At Netflix, the vacation policy is audaciously simple and simply audacious. Salaried employees can take as much time off as they'd like, whenever they want to take it. Nobody – not employees themselves, not managers – tracks vacation days.
So the company scrapped its formal plan. Today, Netflix's roughly 600 salaried employees can vacation any time they desire for as long as they want – provided that their managers know where they are and that their work is covered.Business guru Peter Drucker called management "the most important innovation of the 20th century." It was well-justified praise. Techniques for running large corporations, pioneered by men like Alfred Sloan of General Motors and refined at a bevy of elite business schools, helped fuel a century of unprecedented global prosperity.
But can this great 20th century innovation survive and thrive in the 21st? Evidence suggests: Probably not. "Modern" management is nearing its existential moment. more.....
| Patent_Office | 2000 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | % Increase from 2000 to 2008 |
| Japan | 125,880 | 141,399 | 164,954 | 176,950 | 41 |
| United States of America | 157,496 | 173,770 | 157,283 | 157,772 | 0 |
| China | 13,058 | 57,786 | 67,948 | 93,706 | 618 |
| Republic of Korea | 34,956 | 120,790 | 123,705 | 83,523 | 139 |
| European Patent Office | 27,523 | 62,780 | 54,699 | 59,819 | 117 |
| Russian Federation | 17,592 | 23,299 | 23,028 | 28,808 | 64 |
| Canada | 12,125 | 14,972 | 18,550 | 18,703 | 54 |
| Germany | 14,707 | 21,034 | 17,739 | 17,308 | 18 |
| Australia | 13,548 | 9,426 | 11,236 | 11,863 | -12 |
| France | 11,274 | 13,788 | 12,112 | 10,811 | -4 |
| Mexico | 5,527 | 9,632 | 9,957 | 10,440 | 89 |
| Singapore | 5,090 | 7,393 | 7,478 | 6,286 | 23 |
| United Kingdom | 8,253 | 7,907 | 5,930 | 5,360 | -35 |
| Hong Kong (SAR), China | 2,737 | 5,146 | 4,839 | 4,001 | 46 |
| India | 1,263 | 7,539 |
|
| 497 |
BEIJING – China overtook Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7 percent for their first increase in 14 months, data showed Sunday, in another sign of China's rise as a global economic force.
Exports for the last month of 2009 were $130.7 billion, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. That raised total 2009 exports to $1.2 trillion, ahead of the 816 billion euros ($1.17 trillion) for Germany forecast by its foreign trade organization, BGA. more.....
