It really is a numbers business - Business Strategy Review

Small dataIt really is a numbers business

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BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW 2

The OECD’s first skills survey of 24 countries, in2013, tested 166,000 adults to assess the skills of724 million people. Japan topped the all-adultsnumeracy and literacy skills tables. Although, for 16-24 year-olds, Japan had the second highestproportion of young people with no computerexperience. The UK was the only country where the55 to 65 age group outperformed the 16-24 group inboth literacy and numeracy.

Source: oecd.org


The value of 1,400 art-works discovered in the flat ofCornelius Gurlitt in Munich, and revealed to theworld in November 2013, was estimated at £846m.That’s a sizeable splash in a global art market worthsome £36bn. The cache of 121 framed and 1,285unframed works includes paintings by PabloPicasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marc Chagalland Henri Matisse.

Sources: bbc.co.uk; European Fine Art Foundation


Late in 2013 India joined an elite group of nationsthat have sent spacecraft to Mars. Barring problems,the Mars Orbiter Mission should take 300 days totravel along its 680 million km trajectory to the redplanet. Cautious optimism is required. Of some 40Mars missions since 1960, over half failed. The cost?A comparatively inexpensive £45m.

Sources: bbc.co.uk; thehindu.com


The World Bank launched its first bond aimed athelping businesses owned or run by women inemerging economies. The five-year, triple-A ratedbond was issued by the International FinanceCorporation and raised $165m. A third of allemerging market SMEs are owned by women.

Source: reuters.com


PwC asked 500 top business leaders withoperations in at least one of the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation’s 21 economies what themain skills shortages were in the Asia-Pacific region.Managerial (57 per cent) and executive (52 per cent)were top of the list. While the most critical shortage(49 per cent) was in technical skills, such as IT andengineering.

Source: PwC


Just as London Business School starts its newLuxury Management MBA elective, the luxury goodsmarket is thriving, with a 2013 sales total of $318bnworldwide. That’s three per cent up on 2012. Most ofthe growth comes from emerging markets such asChina, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Source: Euromonitor


Work harder, get poorer. A growing economy nolonger guarantees greater individual prosperity,apparently. The share of national income capturedby the workforce is steadily declining in OECDnations, down to 62 per cent from 66 per cent in theearly 1990s. Increased productivity doesn’t meanincreased wages. It does mean the providers ofcapital are prospering, however.

Source: economist.com


A UN Environment Programme report on wastemanagement estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes ofsolid waste is collected worldwide. That’s a lot ofrubbish, or alternatively a big business opportunity.The global waste market is estimated at $410bn ayear, with over 500,000 people employed inrecycling in the EU alone.

Source: recyclingportal.eu


While cyber security and resilience are high up theorganisational agenda, following the EdwardSnowden NSA leaks, German officials can rest easy.According to Hans-Christoph Quelle, CEO ofSecusmart, which supplied German governmentsecure smartphones, complete with encryptionchips, “Theoretically, it would take 149 billion yearsto crack this code based on today’s technicalstandards… the universe itself isn’t even that old.”

Source: eweek.com


A census of billionaires revealed a global billionairepopulation of 2,170 individuals in 2013. Europe hasthe most billionaires, the US the wealthiestbillionaires. Sixty per cent of billionaires are self-made. Based on the numbers, an average billionaireis 63, has $3bn net worth, four homes, is wortharound $20m and has luxury assets and personalholdings of $136m, including a $14m art collection.

Sources: billionairecensus.com; wealthx.com


OPEC has revised upwards predictions of total worldoil demand by 2035 to 108.5 million barrels a day.The revision is partly due to an accelerating increasein car ownership in China, rising by 380 millionvehicles to 2035. A rise in OPEC’s output to 37.5million barrels a day over the same period requires$7.5trn worth of infrastructure investment, meaningpetrol prices are unlikely to fall in the short term.

Source: opec.org


This was first published in Business Strategy Review

Volume 25 Issue 1 2014

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