Wal-Mart's exultation

Wal-Mart


Rank: 1 (Previous rank: 2)


CEO: Michael T. Duke

The mega-retailer didn't have a whole lot to complain about in fiscal 2010. Profits were up and, thanks to its sales, the company once again climbed to the top of the Fortune 500. Same-store sales were about flat for the year, but compared with Target's 2.5% decline, flat is good.

Most remarkable was Wal-Mart's image overhaul. It helped that former CEO Lee Scott beefed up health care coverage for employees, thought more about the environment and became a public presence. Certain critics will never be placated and fiscal first-quarter results weren't the greatest. But there's no denying Scott left new CEO Mike Duke a company in fighting form.




Exxon Mobil

Rank: 2 (Previous rank: 1)


CEO: Rex W. Tillerson

The oil giant made a big bet on the domestic natural gas market late last year buying Texas-based XTO Energy for $41 billion. But refining and exploration remain its backbone. The company drilled 45 new wells last year and hit pay dirt on nearly two-thirds of them.

Other big projects: new ventures in Qatar, the Black Sea, and Kazakhstan, including the giant Kashagan field located offshore in the Caspian Sea. With operations in nearly every corner of the planet, Exxon always seems to get a seat at the table when big projects arise. Maybe size does matter.



Chevron


Rank: 3 (Previous rank: 3)


CEO: John S. Watson

With prices for crude oil and natural gas off sharply from their recent highs, revenue at the oil giant tumbled 37%, from $265 billion to $167 billion. The good news: Production of oil and gas jumped 7%, thanks in part to a 57% success rate on its exploratory drilling.

But another pitfall looms: Chevron has a heavy exposure to high-acid crude, particularly its deep-water projects in the U.K. If the government forces it to start processing the high-cost oil, Chevron may opt to cede its drilling rights, a move that would result in a sizeable charge against earnings.



General Electric

Rank: 4 (Previous rank: 5)


CEO: Jeffrey R. Immelt

The house that Jack built ended 2009 by selling a controlling stake in its NBC Universal entertainment unit to Comcast, a deal that valued the new entity at $37 billion. Investors largely shrugged off the deal, but as concerns over its finance unit begin to fade -- and talk of a dividend increase start to heat up -- GE stock lately has been on a tear.

GE chief Jeffrey Immelt hopes to keep the momentum going. He's investing $6 billion to develop new medical products and technologies, and is making big bets on green technologies, from fuel-efficient turbines to "thin film" solar panels.



Bank of America

Rank: 5 (Previous rank: 11)


CEO: Brian T. Moynihan
 
 

 
Say this about Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan: He certainly knows how to talk the talk. In his letter to shareholders, Moynihan went out of his way to thank U.S. taxpayers for making $45 billion in TARP funds available. He also described how he is working closely with "policy leaders" on financial reform.


Whether he can walk the walk -- i.e., turn around BofA's fortunes -- is another matter. While the company did repay its TARP loan in December, it is still sitting on billions of dollars of vulnerable residential and commercial mortgage debt -- one reason the company spent 8,000 words discussing risk in its annual report.

Credits -cnn

Harrods sold for $2.2 billion to Qatar Holding

"Qatar Holding was specifically chosen by (Qatar) Trust as they had both the vision and financial capacity to support the long term successful growth of Harrods," Costa said. "Of paramount importance to Mohamed Al Fayed was to ensure that the Harrods staff would find in QH an owner who would be supportive of their efforts to maintain the traditions of Harrods."

I have to give Mohamed Al Fayed a big round of applause for selling Harrods to Qatar Holding. He has truly transformed the old Harrods which is a crumpling office into a flamboyant shopping mall with a myriad of products from all over the world. The mall per se has become an oasis of colour and charm that is recognised by the world today.


It is an icon. Not just any other shopping malls, it is historical. Another apposite word is venerable. Harrods has been the shopping mall that everyone goes to, it's a commodity that everyone needs.


To transfer the ownership of such a huge powerhouse, it is not just about the money, it is about passing on the history, and more importantly the culture that has been sustained for so long, since the 1840s.


I admire the fact that Qatar Holdings was not just chosen for its financial capacity for if it is so, there would have definitely been many other potential bidders.

Conversely, it has been chosen on the faith that Qatar will maintain the traditions of Harrods. To me, that is super important.


You just can't buy culture, it's innate, borned since the day the company was created. It has to be sustained for it is what made the company so successful. It's the distinguishing factor that seperates the company from the rest of the corporations out there.


The employees have been submerging themselves in the culture for so long and many of them understood the way things operate in the company. They have a sense of belonging and a sense of faith in it as well. To take that away from them, will definitely affect not just their efficiency but also their mental well-being.

They will feel hurt, lost and misplaced.


Of course, I'm not saying that there should not be any changes. Operational-wise, it is imperative that the company continue to seek the most innovative ways and policies to surprise the consumers and the workers as well. However, when it comes to the culture, it must stay.


Well done, Mohamed Al Fayed. You have left behind a legacy.


Truly impressed.





Credits -marketwatch, -wikivisual, -scrapetv, -toddstrong

Project Runway Mila

Project Runway.


Mila's Collection

Credits -allprojectrunway

Club 21 Bazaar 2010. 28-31 May

Love the Club21 style? Then here’s a good reason to shop at their outlets from now till 15 June 2010: with every $350 spent in a single receipt, you will be rewarded with a $50 Club21 Style Cheque. This promotion is only open to payments made with UOB credit and debit cards. As always, terms and conditions apply.




If you’re not a UOB cardholder, you might be interested to check out the Club21 Bazaar, 28 to 30 May 2010. Brands such as Betula, Donna Karan, ck Calvin Klein, Jill Sander, Mulberry and many more will be offered at clearance prices, of up to 80% off the usual retail price. The sale opens on 28 May exclusively for Club21 and HSBC cardholders and is open to public from 29 May onwards, details as follows-

28 to 31 May 2010
 


Club 21 Bazaar


Up to 80% Off



28 May : Preview Sale



10am – 8pm : Club 21 Members & HSBC Premier & Platinum Card



1pm – 8pm : All HSBC Credit Cardholders



29 – 31 May : Open to Public

Time



Fri – Sat : 10am to 8pm


Sun : 10am to 6pm



Location


Pit Building


Republic Boulevard


Singapore



Brands Offered




Balenciaga

Betula



Blackjack



ck Calvin Klein

Club 21



Club 21 Gallery Janes



DKNY Kids



Donna Karan



Dries Van Noten



Jil Sander



Kids 21



Marc by Marc Jacobs

Marni



Mulberry

Twelve 21



and more


Credits -greatdeals, -frillr, -models, -frogandprincess, -danefrost

Airlines

On Thursday, Southwest Airlines Co. said its passenger unit revenue in April jumped an estimated 18% to 19% from a year ago, even as traffic demand fell nearly 1%. Helping the domestic budget carrier was a reduction in seat capacity, which helped it to fill a greater percentage of its planes and lift ticket prices.


By keeping capacity low, airlines can shift a higher percentage of ticket sales to premium-paying business-class and first-class travelers.



Well well well, we all know that the recent Icelandic eruption in Europe has caused some devastating impinge upon the airline industry right? Revenues have been fluctuating because airplanes have to be banned from flying under such acerbic weather conditions. They have no choice but to halt operations for a few days.

However, the good news is that revenues are actually stabilising and in the future years, we will see an uproar in the revenues as well.


First and foremost, why is the revenue rising despite the fact that the demand for air tickets is falling?

Well, simple! That's because the airlines are making better use of the seat capacity of the airplanes. There is way better management than before. In the past, managers just aim to create as many seats as possible to fill up the rising demand but they are not aware of the importance to optimise the number of seats occupied in every single flights.


As a result, many flights have many empty seats and this cost them a loss in the efficiency of revenue. In the end, they have to lower the air tickets by a huge lot just to entice people to fly with him.

Say for example, Airline A decides to cut down on the number of flights to America from 2 to 1 daily. This in turn bring about a rise in seating capacity from 70% to 90%. And it earns them a total of $90,000 per flight.


Conversely, Airline B decides to retain the number of its flights to America at 2. The seating capacity fell from 70% to 50%. Even though they earn $50,000 times 2 which gives you $100,000. They are not making more money than Airline A.


Why is that so? Simply because you forgot to account for the other concomitant costs, i.e. cost of the fuel, the cost of the employees, the staff, the stewardess, the people at the control room, the pilot and all the preparations done to make this additional flight work.


Yeah, so fundamentally, it's a huge mistake to focus on the quantity rather than the quality in today's market. Many are looking for the luxurious flights nowadays to pamper themselves. Now that the business classes are making a move to start taking flights to their destinations, it will be fatuous to ignore them for the business market is now revived.


More planning will need to be done to make sure that the number of seats occupied on every flights is optimised. You will have to look at the market demand.


Trust me, numbers don't really work in this market. The more number of flights you give the consumers, the more indecisive they will be and at the end of the day, they might not even choose to take the flight altogether.



Credits -marketwatch, -haagsche, -mauritus

Jay Nicolas Sario Collection

Credits -allprojectrunway

Dividends storm

Right now, most of the companies are infatuated with dividends.


It's the new trend of the year 2010. It is de facto imperative to dish out dividends to the investors in order to keep them investing in the company.


In this dire state of the economy, investors are all looking for safety nets that pay the most dividends. There are a group called the "Dividends Aristocrats". Some of the famous ones are Pitney Bowes, Mcdonald's, Walgreen Co., WalMart and Coca Cola.

What do I mean by "Dividends Aristocrats" ? Well, simply put, they are companies that pay increasing dividends for a minimum of 25 years, without a single break in the streak. That's what I call impressive.


I mentioned this group mainly because of the fact that a lot of emasculated and floundering companies are now trying to join in the game. They are paying high yields as well to attract gullible investors into their companies. They need the funds desperately so they used high yields as a small trade off. However, these companies are extremely dangerous because they might just fail the next day.


Hence, here's a caveat to all the investors out there, whether the precarious ones or the timorous ones. Few things to look out for when you are investing in companies.


1. Make sure that they have a copious amount of funds in their balance sheets and that their debts are low.


2. Make sure that they pay dividends for at least a decade or so. If there happen to be a break in the streak, find out the cause and make a sound judgement on that.

3. Make sure that the company is a conglomerate, a big company that is extremely sustainable in today's market. Do not bet against those that are merely a fad or dying ones or even the saturated ones.


4. Last but not least, look out for the expansion opportunities and acquisitions of the company. If they happen to make a ridiculous and abysmal investment, then you might be the one paying the price.

So do not be beguiled by companies who pay high yields, do analyse them, scrutinize them before investing.


Be more cautious and do not take the bait so easily!

Credits -forexcare, -theglobeandmail, -btinternet

Naps boost memory

But only if you dream.


Yes, that's right. We always give ourselves the excuse that it is alway healthy to rest after working so hard.


But apparently, it is not extremely helpful for we don't dream most of the time. A short nap concomitant with a dream will be the most effective.

After that short dream of yours, you will be able to boost your own memory and studying will be made way more effective than before. It boost your memory not by one time or two, but by a total of 10 folds !


But you might be wondering now, why is it that we need to dream to increase our memory by 10 folds?


Well here's the answer.


Experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center confirmed that when you dream, you tend to hunt down connections between the myriad amount of information you look at when you're awake. The brain tries to differentiate between useful and paltry information.

It will keep those useful ones and dump those paltry ones.


The brain is really interesting isn't it? Even when you're dreaming, it is still working relentlessly.


Also, if the work you are doing is highly stressful and intricate in nature, there is a higher chance that you will dream of it, in another form of course, i.e. if you are solving a maze, you might end up dreaming of a cave which appears to have many paths set up for you.


Also, if you dream of something which you are not good at, you seem to get better at it after you wake up, especially if you are doing it almost everyday.

I can totally relate to this because at times, when I'm actually struggling to understand a complicated concept, I seem to be mired in it after a while. I can't solve it no matter how many times I attempt to look at it from various angles. However, after I wake up from a nap, I seem to be able to grasp the concept easily. I mean, it just comes straight to me, right on!


Before I know it, I seems to be on a roll with other concepts as well, everything just seems so fluent.


I guess that's the sheer power of a short nap along with a dream of course!


So what are you waiting for? Give yourself an one hour nap if your brain is blocked. 


You might be able to find the answer once you wake up!


Credits -cnn, -sciblogs, -allposters