Small data that have a big impact on businesses. This was first published in Business Strategy Review, Volume 24, Issue 4 - 2013. Subscribe today to receive your quarterly copy delivered to your home or work place. http://bit.ly/BSR-subscribe

1. Small data
It really is a numbers business
© Copyright 2014 London Business School

2. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 2
In his speech to the Institute of Directors’ Annual
Convention 2013, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard
Branson confirmed that 700 tickets have been sold
for Virgin Galactic’s commercial passenger flights
into space. Next stop space hotels?
Source: telegraph.co.uk

3. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 3
UK employees are less productive than the majority
of their G7 counterparts. In 2012, output per
employee in the UK was 19 per cent below the G7
average, while output per hour worked was 16 per
cent less than the G7 average, the widest gap since
1994. Only Japan fared worse. From 2007 to 2012
GDP per hour fell by two percentage points in the
UK, but was up three percentage points on average
in the rest of the G7.
Source: ons.gov.uk

4. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 4
The latest incarnation of Take-Two Interactive’s video
game phenomenon, Grand Theft Auto V, saw global
first-day sales top $800m (£496m) recouping the
reported $270m (£170m) development costs within
24 hours. It’s the fastest selling, highest grossing
launch for any video game.
Source: take2games.com

5. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 5
Happier people earn more. Research by economist
Professor Satya Paul, University of Western Sydney,
looked at the effect of happiness on income
inequality, after controlling for various factors.
Australian respondents rated their happiness from
one to ten. The happiest earned about Aus$1,766.70
(£1,022) a year more than the most miserable.
Source: smh.com.au

6. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 6
At 9pm, 12 September 2013, Twitter quietly tweeted
on its official page that it had “confidentially
submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.”
Opinions on valuation vary, but with ad revenues for
2013 estimated by eMarketer at $545m, and total
tweets per day running at about 500 million,
guesstimates predict the business will be valued at
$15bn upwards.
Source: blog.twitter.com

7. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 7
With annual new credit in China at 21 trillion yuan
(£2.15trn) in August 2013, it is the fifth year in a row
that net new credit has exceeded more than one
third of China’s GDP. Credit of all types is up from
$9trn (£5.5trn) to $23trn (£14trn) in five years, with
the total now 200 per cent of GDP.
Source: ftchratings.com

8. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 8
UN migrant figures highlight the increasing
globalisation of labour. In 1990 there were 150
million international migrants in the world. Today
there are 230 million. Although 171 million
international migrants are of working age, there is
still a significant number (26 million) aged 65 and
over.
Source: esa.un.org

9. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 9
The size of the largest ever single donation to
London Business School is £25m. The gift,
announced in the autumn, was made by the Idan
and Batia Ofer Family Foundation towards funding
the redevelopment of the iconic Old Marylebone
Town Hall, now renamed The Sammy Ofer Centre.
Source: london.edu

10. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 10
The world record transfer fee for a football player is
€100m (£84m). Gareth Bale left Tottenham Hotspur
and signed a six-year contract at Spanish football
club Real Madrid during the 2013 summer transfer
window. Total spending by premiership clubs in the
UK that summer was a record £630m.
Sources: theguardian.com; bbc.co.uk/sport

11. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 11
In 2000, China produced 604,677 passenger cars.
By 2005 it was producing 3,078,153 cars, with total
new car sales of 3,971,101. In 2012 total passenger
car production in China was 15,523,658, the most of
any country. Sales were 15,495,240. In comparison
the US produced 4,105,853 cars in 2012, down from
4,321,272 in 2005.
Source: oica.net
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12. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 12
The estimated cost of global fraud is £2.91trn. Since
the beginning of the recession the global average
cost of fraud has increased by almost 20 per cent, to
reach 5.47 per cent of GDP. A 40 per cent cut in the
UK’s losses to fraud would be roughly equivalent to
the UK Government’s military defence budget.
Sources: bdo.uk.com; ukpublicspending.co.uk

13. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 13
The Institute of the European Investment Bank
has created two new economics awards to
recognise and stimulate excellence in
economic and social research, and its
implementation and diffusion. The first Young
Economist Prize was awarded to Professor
Elias Papaioannou from London Business
School, while Professor Klaus Zimmermann,
University of Bonn, won the Outstanding
Contribution Award.
Source: institute.eib.org

14. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 14
Apple’s next generation mobile operating system
was released in September 2013. As of June
2013, Apple had sold 600 million iOS devices.
The previous OS, iOS6, ran on 93 per cent of
active i-devices.
Sources: macstories.net; techpinions.com

15. BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 15
This was first published in
Business Strategy Review
Volume 24 Issue 4 2013
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