As the debate rages on about whether an increase in the U.S. minimum wage will boost or hinder hiring, one aspect is more unambiguous: It would almost surely lift consumer spending. According to Bloomberg, while the effect will probably be positive, the magnitude of the improvement remains up in the air. Walmart, for instance, is…
Introduction: The authors were faced with a mounting problem: Sales forecasts were continuing to deteriorate and Corporate was mandating a traditional application of Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP). This application relied on forecasts and static data. Static data is sufficient where forecasts and run-rates are consistent, though that is simply not the case in the…
Reuters reports that Portuguese export firms are buzzing with activity despite three years of economic crisis at home. In the words of one footwear designer, Luis Onofre, “It’s a one-way trip. If we stop growing exports, we dig our own grave.” During the depths of Portugal’s crisis in 2012, his firm raised its foreign sales by…
Not long ago, before the financial crisis and the global recession it triggered, economists referred to America itself as fulfilling the role of consumer of last resort. American consumers were fueling demand for the goods China and other nations produced, and so, they kept the world economy humming. However, as Bloomberg reports, it may not quite…
Reuters reports that soaring diabetes rates, driven by increasing obesity, have fuelled profits at the Danish company, Novo Nordisk’s Kalundborg factory for nearly two decades. Now, the company wants to tackle obesity head on by launching a specific treatment. At first thought, it seems to be a no-brainer. However, in a global economic downturn, modestly effective weight-loss…
The chairman of C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc – the biggest company no one has ever heard of – is one mysterious man with good reasons for staying out of the limelight. The 61-year-old ‘hidden billionaire Cohen’, has transformed C&S into the world’s largest grocery wholesaler since taking the helm of the business in 1989, making him one…
