Argentina has defaulted on its debt eight times since gaining independence in 1816. The most recent default in August 2014 was unusual because the US blocked Argentina's attempts to restructure its debt from the 2001 default. While Japan is known for its culture of long working hours, a report found that 600,000 people in China die annually from work-related exhaustion, rivaling the toll in Japan. Goodyear launched its new semi-rigid airship Wingfoot One in August 2014, the company's first major redesign of an airship in 70 years, touting its technologically advanced design and top speed of 70 mph. Negotiations over the Doha round of global trade

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BUSINESS
STRATEGY
REVIEW
Small data
It really is a numbers business
From record-breaking to record borrowing,
interesting stats and numbers across the world.

2. Business Strategy Review 2
Since independence in 1816, Argentina has
defaulted on its debt eight times. The August 2014
default is unusual. The US scuppered Argentina’s
attempts to restructure the 2001 default. The
Argentina government even transferred $539 million
to the Bank of New York Mellon, ready to pay
bondholders, but that payment was frozen.
Source: www.economist.com

3. Business Strategy Review 3
Japan is famous for its long hours working culture,
typified by the millions of white collar salarymen. It
is, after all, the nation that came up with a term for
death by overwork: karoshi. But now China may be
rivalling Japan in the overwork stakes. A report in
the Communist Youth League’s official newspaper,
the China Youth Daily, put the number of people
dying from work exhaustion annually in China at
600,000.
Source: www.wantchinatimes.com

4. Business Strategy Review 4
The new Goodyear Blimp Wingfoot One –
technically a semi-rigid airship, rather than a blimp,
which is a simple airbag with no internal structure
– launched in August 2014. The firm’s first major
airship redesign for 70 years was pitched as:
“ushering in a new era of technologically advanced
airships” by Goodyear. Wingfoot One’s top speed is
a swift – for airships – 70mph.
Source: www.goodyear.com

5. Business Strategy Review 5
The aim of the Doha round of WTO negotiations,
begun in 2001, was to liberalise world trade. As of
August 2014, negotiations are still ongoing. Efforts
to get consensus between 160 nations have been
blighted by disagreements, particularly between
developed and developing economies. India vetoed
the most recent attempt at reaching a deal on trade
facilitation.
Source: in.reuters.com

6. Business Strategy Review 6
In 1888, Clementina Black proposed to the annual
Trades Union Congress: “That in trades where
women do the same work as men they shall receive
the same wages.” In 2014, women are still waiting.
The UK’s National Management Salary Survey,
published by the CMI and employment lawyers
XpertHR, revealed that across male and female
managers of all ages, women received about 20%
less than men in comparable full-time jobs.
Source: www.theguardian.com

7. Business Strategy Review 7
In July 2014, US traders borrowed a record $460bn
from banks and financial institutions to back stock
hunches – a net $182bn once cash and credit
balances held in margin accounts are accounted for.
Margin trading – borrowing money to buy stock –
was rife in the run-up to the 1929 Wall St. crash.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

8. Business Strategy Review 8
After laptops, PDAs and smartphones, it is the turn
of smart wearable devices to transform the way we
consume information. Market intelligence firm CCS
Insight predicts that shipments of wearable devices
will grow from 9.7 million in 2013 to 135 million
in 2018. Of these, 87 per cent will be wrist-worn
devices.
Source: www.zdnet.com; www.bizreport.com; www.ccsinsight.com

9. Business Strategy Review 9
The contemporary art market appears to have
survived the widespread economic malaise of
recent years. A Christie’s auction of contemporary
art in the middle of 2014 saw 35 works go for $134.6
million. One picture on sale was “Untitled (Fire, Red/
Black U)” by Wade Guyton, who makes his art using
ink jet printers and photocopiers. Despite Guyton
printing numerous identical copies of the work from
the original file immediately prior to the sale, the
work sold for $3.525 million.
Source: www.vulture.com; www.instagram.com; www.nytimes.com

10. Business Strategy Review 10
The computer game Minecraft, invented by Swedish
programmer Markus Persson, provides an open
world where players design and construct cities
– and anything else – from small blocks. It may
not sound exciting, but it is the best-selling PC
game of all time, with some 100 million registered
users across all platforms. It is also used as an
educational tool and has now been snaffled up by
Microsoft for $2.5bn.
Source: www.eurogamer.net

11. Business Strategy Review 11
This was first published in
Business Strategy Review
Volume 25 Issue 4 2014
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