American Megatrend 2010

• Pada waktu itu menjadi ide yang kontroversial karena orang menganggap bagaimana mungkin sebuah informasi menjadi nilai ekonomi, Di dekade 1990-an, information economy menjadi motor penggerak ekonomi sebuah bangsa dan telah menjadi industri bernilai triliunan dolar dimana Amerika menjadi penggerak utama dan pemimpinnya

• Megatrends 2010 meliputi berbagai tren sosial, ekonomi, spiritual yang mengubah kapitalisme ke dalam versinya sendiri yang lebih baru dan menyeluruh. Megatrends 2010 menggambarkan dimensi dalam perubahan

• Karena esensi dari ideal dan kepercayaan membentuk berbagai macam tindakan kita

• Dalam Megatrends 2010, Moral adalah hal yang utama. Karena pencarian moral dan arti kerjaan dan juga keinginan untuk mengalami kedamaian dan tujuan dari sesuatu yang sakral didunia bisnis yang penuh stres, adalah kebenaran yang dalam, yang hidup di hati jutaan orang. Seperti etika, sosial, penghargaan terhadap prestasi kerja

Wendys International ( Contoh Artikel Sponsor 1 )

Wendy's International, Inc. NYSE: WEN is the parent company of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. It also owns 70 percent of Cafe Express and 25 percent (fully diluted) of Pasta Pomodoro. The Tim Hortons chain was spun off by Wendy's into a separate company in September 2006. The Baja Fresh chain was sold in October 2006.

John T. Schuessler is chairman of the board and chief executive officer. The corporate headquarters is located in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.

Versace ( Contoh Artikel Sponsor 2 )

Gianni Versace S.p.A. (IPA: /'ʤɑnni ver'saʧe/) is an Italian clothier founded by Gianni Versace in 1978. After Gianni Versace was killed by Andrew Cunanan on July 15, 1997, his sister Donatella Versace, formerly vice-president, stepped in as creative director of the designing of Versace and his older brother Santo Versace became CEO.

The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, (though the Versace family are from Reggio Calabria) and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses. Versace designs, markets and distributes luxury clothing, accessories, fragrances, makeup and home furnishings under the various brands of the Versace Group.

Versace's Style Department employs a group of designers and stylists who work in teams. Each team is specifically dedicated to each fashion line or label. These teams operate under the close supervision and guidance of Creative Director, Donatella Versace.

The Best Markets for Your Money

Four out of four investment experts agree: Emerging foreign markets are the place American investors should be looking to put their dollars to work.

That was the lesson if you read investment expert John Mauldin's recent "Thoughts From the Frontline." Mr. Mauldin and his roundtable of research analysts concluded quite without debate that:

1. "For the first time in a century the US is not the locomotive of global growth -- we are the caboose, bringing up the rear."
2. "The emerging world in general and China in particular will continue to grow strongly."
3. "China, India, and probably Vietnam will continue to lead Asia's strong economic growth and the region, with its large population, is now the primary engine of global GDP growth."

Your money and your brain

For most purposes in daily life, your brain is a superbly functioning machine, steering you away from danger while guiding you toward basic rewards like food, shelter and love.

But that brilliant machine can lead you astray when it comes to investing.

Is your brain wired for wealth?

Take our quiz and find out.

1. In Year One, Weeds.com earns $ 2.50 per share. In Year Two, it earns $ 5 per share. In Year Three, it earns $ 10 per share. What is your best estimate of what Weeds.com will earn in Year Four?
$20
$5
$15
How on earth would I know?

You buy high only to sell low. You try to time the market. You follow the crowd. You make the same mistakes again. And again. How come?

We're beginning to get answers. Scientists in the emerging field of "neuroeconomics" - a hybrid of neuroscience, economics and psychology - are making stunning discoveries about how the brain evaluates rewards, sizes up risks and calculates probabilities.

With the wonders of imaging technology we can observe the precise neural circuitry that switches on and off in your brain when you invest. Those pictures make it clear that your investing brain often drives you to do things that make no logical sense - but make perfect emotional sense.

Your brain developed to improve our species' odds of survival. You, like every other human, are wired to crave what looks rewarding and shun what seems risky.

To counteract these impulses, your brain has only a thin veneer of modern, analytical circuits that are often no match for the power of the ancient parts of your mind. And when you win, lose or risk money, you stir up some profound emotions, including hope, surprise, regret and the two we'll examine here: greed and fear.

Understanding how those feelings - as a matter of biology - affect your decision-making will enable you to see as never before what makes you tick, and how you can improve, as an investor.

Greed: The thrill of the chase

Yahoo in China human rights case

Whole websites, including media sources, are eliminated from Yahoo

A human rights group in the US is suing Yahoo for alleged complicity in rights abuses and acts of torture in China.

The World Organization for Human Rights says Yahoo's sharing of information with the Chinese government has led to the arrests of writers and dissidents.

One journalist cited in the case was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his email and IP address to officials.

Yahoo insists it must comply with local laws in areas where it operates.

But it acknowledges that providing Chinese officials with information has enabled them to make arrests.

In a statement, Yahoo said it supported privacy and free expression and added that it was working with other technology companies to find a way to address human rights concerns.

De-listed sites

The human rights group has brought the case in San Francisco on behalf of the journalist, Shi Tao, and another activist named Wang Xiaoning.

The men's defence lawyer said Yahoo should have asked the Chinese government why it wanted information aboout the two men before handing it over. He said had failed to live up to its ethical responsibilities.

The BBC's David Willis in California says the case has prompted debate about the responsibility of US internet companies to protect the anonymity of users in the countries in which they operate.

Strict laws exist in China to regulate the internet. Shi Tao was jailed for posting comments critical of government corruption on the web.

Yahoo is not the only internet company accused of collaborating with Chinese authorities. Rivals Google freely admit to blocking politically sensitive items on their China website.

Whole websites - including media sources - are eliminated from Yahoo and Google in China.

De-listed sites are skipped over when the search engine trawls the web for results.

The internet firms argue it is better to offer Chinese users some information than none at all.

Marketing Image di Dalam Pemilu Presiden AS 2008

Para kandidat calon presiden Amerika Serikat baik yang berasal dari Partai Republik dan Partai Demokrat berlomba-lomba menampilkan Marketing Image bagi diri mereka masing-masing kepada para pendukungnya supaya dapat terpilih sebagi orang nomor satu di Gedung Putih. Saat ini dalam Marketing Image ada tiga calon kandidat yang paling popular yaitu Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (Demokrat), Barrack Obama (Deokrat), dan John McCain (Republik). Mereka melakukan Marketing Image dengan cara berpidato, berbicara langsung dengan rakyat, korespodensi dengan e-mail, membuat film tentang citra mereka untuk iklan telivisi dan video popular You Tube.

Di dalam kampanye pemilu Presiden AS, sebuah Marketing Image sangat dibutuhkan sekali karena Marketing Image berguna untuk menampilkan kemampuan dari individu yang bersangkutan apakah layak untuk dipilih atau dipercaya untuk menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat. Hal ini disebabkan menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat. Hal ini disebabkan menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat berarti menjadi pemimpin dunia dan tentunya rakyat Amerika Serikat menginginkan presiden yang mempunyai charisma dan pintar, bukan presiden yang jadul.
Di dalam Marketing Image seorang kandidat calon Presiden Amerika Serikat yang pertama akan dilihat adalah keterampilan dia berpidato untuk menjelaskan visi dan misi dia Seandainya individu yang bersangkutan menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat ini juga dapat digunakan untuk melihat kapasitas intelektual dari individu yang bersangkutan. Kedua individu akan dilhat apakah sukses atau gagal dalam menjalankan pekerjaan sebelumnya. Contohnya Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton yang mewakili Negara Bagian New York mempunyai catatan yang bagus di dalam pekerjaan sebelumnya yaitu ketika menjadi Ibu Negara Amerika Serikat pada jaman pemerintahan Presiden Clinton. Ketiga, individu akan dilihat dari latar belakang pendidikan di Universitas papan atas seperti Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University akan lebih disukai oleh para pemilih dan para pemilih juga ingin melihat latar belakang keluarga apakah seorang individu tersebut berasal dari keluarga baik-baik yang penuh dengan norma dan etika.

Tetapi yang paling terpenting dalam Marketing Image saat ini adalah para calon kandidat Presiden Amerika Serikat harus mampu merangkul para pemilih baru, yaitu kaum muda. Karena kaum muda pada pemilihan presiden 2008 adalah faktor penentu pada saat ini. Bagi kandidat yang akrab dengan teknologi informasi hal ini adalah sebuah keuntungan yang besar karena bisa menjumpai para pemilih baru dengan dialog interaktif memakai fasilitas multimedia di internet. Situs You Tube yang merupakan situs Video yang popular dikalangan generasi baru juga dimanfaatkan oleh para kandidat seperti Barrack Obama dan Hillary Clinton. Marketing Image yang mereka para kandidat juga harus mampu menarik kaum muda. Para kandidat juga bisa menawarkan program-program kampanye yang sesuai dengan aspirasi kaum muda.

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft which combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface. It is a member of the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Access can use data stored in Access/Jet, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or any ODBC-compliant data container. Skilled software developers and data architects use it to develop application software. Relatively unskilled programmers and non-programmer "power users" can use it to build simple applications. It supports some object-oriented techniques but falls short of being a fully object-oriented development tool.

Access was also the name of a communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. This Access proved a failure and was dropped.^[1] Years later Microsoft reused the name for its database software.

Microsoft to Bring Back SideWinder Brand

SideWinder is back.

Microsoft Corp., citing a resurgence in PC gaming, says it will reintroduce the SideWinder brand of gaming peripherals, starting with a new mouse that will be released in October.

The SideWinder name was discontinued four years ago. Microsoft says the decision to come out with a SideWinder mouse was prompted in part by the popularity of its general-purpose IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 PC mouse among gamers.

It will be the first SideWinder-branded mouse. Previously, the SideWinder line included PC game pads, joysticks and steering wheels. The SideWinder brand was introduced in 1995.

The product line was dropped in 2003 because of the rising popularity of console gaming at the time, said Matt Barlow, director of worldwide marketing and business development in Microsoft's hardware group.

"We saw double-digit declines in these particular businesses around the world," he said. However, in the past 12 months, he said, Microsoft has seen a revival in PC gaming.

	The new SideWinder mouse

The SideWinder mouse, to retail for $79.95, comes with a wider scroll wheel, customizable weight, specially positioned buttons and other features meant to appeal to gamers. It also has a small, built-in LCD screen to display the mouse's DPI setting and help users record macros, small programs that automate specific moves in games.

Barlow declined to talk about specific plans for future SideWinder-branded products, but he said the introduction of the mouse is just the first step in bringing back the name.

Microsoft's renewed interest in gaming hardware was apparent last year, when it introduced a mouse called Habu with gaming peripheral company Razer.

The Microsoft Hardware group is marking its 25th anniversary this year. An anomaly within the software company, the group competes with companies such as Logitech.

Apart from making mice, keyboards and other peripherals, the group has contributed to projects such as Microsoft's Xbox video-game console and Surface tabletop computer. Tom Gibbons, Microsoft corporate vice president of specialized devices and applications, said the hardware unit has been profitable since its inception.

Product Management

Product management is an organizational function within a company dealing with the planning or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product Management is also a collective term used to describe the broad sum of diverse activities performed in the interest of delivering a particular product to market.

Marketing

Key concepts

Product / Price / Promotion Placement / Service / Retail Market research Marketing strategy Marketing management

Promotional content

Advertising / Branding Direct marketing / Personal Sales Product placement / Public relations Publicity / Sales promotion Underwriting

Promotional media

Printing / Publication / Broadcasting Out-of-home / Internet marketing Point of sale / Novelty items Digital marketing / In-game Word of mouth

How to perform SWOT Analysis?

The SWOT analysis is a valuable step in your situational analysis. Assessing your firm’s strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities, and threats through a SWOT analysis is a very simple process that can offer powerful insight into the potential and critical issues affecting a venture.

• The SWOT analysis begins by conducting an inventory of internal strengths and weaknesses in your organization. You will then note the external opportunities and threats that may affect the organization, based on your market and the overall environment. Don’t be concerned about elaborating on these topics at this stage; bullet points may be the best way to begin. Capture the factors you believe are relevant in each of the four areas. You will want to review what you have noted here as you work through your marketing plan. The primary purpose of the SWOT analysis is to identify and assign each significant factor, positive and negative, to one of the four categories, allowing you to take an objective look at your business. The SWOT analysis will be a useful tool in developing and confirming your goals and your marketing strategy.

• Some experts suggest that you first consider outlining the external opportunities and threats before the strengths and weaknesses. Marketing Plan Pro will allow you to complete your SWOT analysis in whatever order works best for you. In either situation, you will want to review all four areas in detail.

Learning to Make the Move to CEO-Harvard Business School

• Launched in 1945, AMP is the longest-running executive education program in the world. And at 8 weeks, it demands a serious time commitment that may at first seem unthinkable to a busy executive who will be asked to cut off all contact with his or her organization—in other words, leave the BlackBerry at home.

• The AMP classroom is full of experienced leaders with much to contribute to each other.

• "Everyone in this program has earned their stripes at a very senior leadership level," Simons notes. "It's important to have that kind of person because participants work in groups and in very intensive classroom situations. The ability to teach and to learn from one another is a big part of the AMP experience." Applicants are generally 3 to 5 years away from achieving the rank of CEO or its equivalent, and they must be endorsed and sponsored by their company's highest levels of management.

Interview with Sir John Templeton by Eleanor Laise

Sir John Speaks --- He bought low during the Depression, sold high during the Internet boom and made more than a few good calls in between; Sir John Templeton, dean of contrarians, tells us where to invest now.

A 1934 Yale graduate and Rhodes scholar, Templeton has a voracious
appetite for information. The small-town Tennessee native became known
as the Marco Polo of his Oxford class, thanks to a round-the-world
postgraduation jaunt. In his late 20s he opened his own
money-management firm and began to put international investing on the
map. His flagship Templeton Growth fund has posted a 13.8 percent
annualized return over 50 years, well ahead of the Standard & Poor's
500's 11.1 percent.

SmartMoney: How did a kid from rural Tennessee become a pioneer of
global value investing?

John Templeton: In Tennessee I didn't meet anybody who owned a share of anything. At Yale there were hundreds of boys from wealthy families, but not a single one who was investing outside one nation. I thought that was just not sensible. Surely they'd get better results if they
searched everywhere rather than limiting their search to one country. Then I investigated the investment counsel profession and couldn't find any investment counselor who specialized in helping people invest outside America. So I saw a wide-open opportunity.

J.K. Rowling to speak at Commencement January 17, 2008

•

• J.K. Rowling, author of the world-renowned “Harry Potter” novels, will be the principal speaker during the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard University’s 357th Commencement on June 5, 2008.

• “Perhaps no one in our time has done more than J.K. Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and the sheer joy of reading,” said President Drew Faust. “Her tales of Harry, Ron, and Hermione and their Hogwarts adventures have cast a spell on millions of readers around the world. Harvard isn’t exactly Hogwarts, but I’m sure that her visit with us this June will be a moment of magic for J.K. Rowling’s many admirers across the University.”

• Rowling’s seven “Harry Potter” novels, published from 1997 to 2007, are among the most popular and beloved books in history. Countless readers have eagerly awaited each new volume chronicling Harry’s life as a young, orphaned wizard possessed of extraordinary powers and confronted by formidable challenges as he and his friends progress through the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

• Global sales of the “Harry Potter” books have reportedly surpassed 375 million copies. The titles have been translated into more than 65 languages and are available in more than 200 countries. The most recent volumes rank among the fastest-selling books of all time, and each of the seven titles has risen to the top of The New York Times best-seller list. When the final novel in the series was published last July, Harvard Square was the site of a night-long festival, and thousands of people, many in their finest wizard costumes, flocked to Harvard Yard to hear a concert by Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, and the Hungarian Horntails.

Housing starts at decade low

Housing starts and permits both fell to their lowest levels in more than a decade, as the latest readings on the battered housing and homebuilding markets came in below expectations Thursday.

Housing starts fell 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.38 million in July from a revised 1.47 million rate in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast starts would fall to a 1.41 million pace in June.

Current Mortgage Rates

Type Overall avgs

30 yr fixed mtg 6.12%

15 yr fixed mtg 5.79%

30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 7.18%

5/1 ARM 6.21%

5/1 jumbo ARM 6.60%

The latest reading is the lowest level of starts since January 1997 and is down nearly 21 percent from the year-earlier level.

Starts of single-family homes fell even more sharply, dropping 7.3 percent to just over a 1 million annual rate, the lowest since December 1996 and the second lowest level in more than 12 years.

Building permits, which are often seen as a snapshot on builders' view on the state of the market, fell to an annual rate of 1.37 million from the June figure of 1.41 million, marking the lowest level since October 1996. Economists had forecast a rate of 1.4 million.

Permits for single-family homes fell to just over a 1 million pace, the lowest level in more than 12 years.

Business Plan

A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals being attempted may be for-profit or non-profit. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on service goals. Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan that has changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

Business plans are decision making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.

Business Continuity Planning ( B C P )

A completed BCP cycle results in a formal printed manual available for reference before, during, and after disruptions have occurred. Its purpose is to reduce adverse stakeholder impacts determined by both the disruption's scope (who and what it affects) and duration (how bad, implications last for hours, months etc). Measureable business impact analysis (BIA) "zones" (areas in which hazards and threats reside)include civil, economic, natural, technical, secondary and subsequent.

Brand Management

A good brand name should:

• be legally protectable
• be easy to pronounce
• be easy to remember
• be easy to recognize
• attract attention
• suggest product benefits (e.g.: Easy-Off) or suggest usage
• suggest the company or product image

distinguish the product's positioning relative to the competition