Cyber attacks against companies are on the increase. They are becoming more
sophisticated, destructive and costly. Cyber security is no longer an IT problem, it is major boardroom concern. The risks posed by cyber criminals are enormous – theft of money and data from corporate and customer accounts, disrupted services, sabotaged IT systems and damaged reputations. The most serious attacks can hit revenues and profits so hard that a company’s very existence is threatened.

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Big data, digital technology and internet are constantly transforming every sphere of our day-to-day lives. Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices (smartphones, household gadgets and office equipment) will be wirelessly connected via a network of sensors to the internet by 2020.

Starting with sectors like information technology, automotive industry, telecommunications, aerospace and defence, innovation has finally reached the pharmaceutical industry on a larger scale. Pharma companies filed 12% more patents in 2014 than the year before and four pharmaceutical companies made it to the list of the Top 20 World’s Most Innovative Companies created by Forbes.

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The emissions scandal continuing to engulf Volkswagen shows that no company, however large or well-established, is immune to a crisis. But how a business responds when things go wrong can mean the difference between a swift resolution and making the problem a whole lot worse.

After rigging its vehicles to cheat pollution tests, VW has seen billions wiped off its market value and its reputation left in tatters. To its credit, say public relations professionals, the former chief executive Martin Winterkorn said sorry quickly and stepped down.

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After years of anemic IT innovation in the insurance industry, the momentum is now dramatically shifting towards digital transformation, and three forces are driving this change.

The millennial generation is becoming a driving force for change. Millennials, born from 1980 to 2000, grew up with Amazon, Google, and social media accessible via mobile devices and computers in their hands, on their wrists, and in their bedrooms, and they have an entirely new framework for customer interaction. All generations benefit from a highly customer-centric, environment-driven digital technologies.

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The new research by Henley Business School reveals that company secretaries, or those fulfilling a similar role, make a significant contribution to board performance, share the same qualities as good chairmen and enable effective decision-making. A sometimes undervalued and often misunderstood role, it is intrinsic to organizational success in the public sector. The role is much more than dealing with administration. Top performers deliver strategic leadership. The company secretary is the third member of the top team and as such is a vital, independent bridge linking the board and the executive.

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THE ENORMITY OF THE VOLKSWAGEN EMISSIONS SCANDAL IS A REMINDER OF JUST HOW EXPENSIVE WEAK GOVERNANCE CAN BE.

With regulator fines, various class action lawsuits by customers and investors, and a global product recall; the full costs of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions crisis remains unfathomable (although some analysts tip it to exceed $86 billion). Of equal concern is the shredding of the company’s carefully honed image of technical excellence and commitment to “safe and environmentally sound vehicles”

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Over the last five years, Zenger Folkman has collected 360-degree feedback data on 2,187 HR leaders. These leaders are spread across hundreds of different organizations with 68% of those leaders located in the US, 11% in Asia, 8% in Europe, 7% in Latin America, 4% in Canada, and 1% in Africa. Comparing assessments of leaders in the HR function with those of leaders in other functions, our data suggest that the typical HR leader is seen as six percentile points below average.

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We know now that leadership skills can be taught. Leadership skills are not “gifts from the gods” bestowed on only a selected few. Leadership skills are not a part of the genetic code. There is no such thing as a “natural born leader”. Leadership skills are skills. They are very easily learnt.

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The global oil glut and the resulting sustained low prices have profoundly affected many emerging market economies. For many emerging economies heavily dependent on oil revenue, the dramatic fall in prices has unleashed a chain reaction with far reaching consequences for social spending, investment, economic development, government budgets and most especially for the national oil companies (NOCs) that account for around 60% of global production. The consequences of this new energy order engendered by sustained low oil prices have already been extraordinary. But what key changes and consequences are yet to come?

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Energy Trend An Cipates Global PV Demand to Reach 59GW and Industry to Undertake Massive Capacity Expansion in 2016. Spurred by major and emerging markets, global photovoltaic (PV) demand has grown substantially this year. According to the latest Gold Member Report by EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, installed capacity worldwide for 2015 is estimated at 53GW, amounting to a 20% year-on-year growth. Next year’s total installed capacity is expected to reach 59GW, up 11% in annual growth.

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Although the Asia Pacifi c region boasts many fundamentally attractive markets for asset managers, the industry is not immune from global asset management challenges common in other parts of the world. Depending on the territory, these can include growing levels of competition, revenue pressures, regulatory uncertainty and investor scepticism.

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Viewed traditionally as a self-liquidating, non-interest, sensitive fee-earner, innovative bankers are learning all the lessons of the past and applying them to a world where commodity prices are as bullish as we have ever seen them and emerging market countries, rich with mineral, ore, energy and agrarian commodities are seeking to do business with the rest of the world.

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A 17-year-old Kolkata boy was prescribed Dapsone, an antibiotic, for a skin problem, and developed severe, potentially fatal, side effects. The doctor could not diagnose the condition, Dapsone syndrome, nor did he report the side effects to the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India, a government watchdog. It took visits to two speciality hospitals, a fortnight’s stay in an intensive-care unit, and a week in a ward to bring the boy back from the brink of death.

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The new research by Henley Business School reveals that company secretaries, or those fulfilling a similar role, make a significant contribution to board performance, share the same qualities as good chairmen and enable effective decision-making. A sometimes undervalued and often misunderstood role, it is intrinsic to organizational success in the public sector.

The role is much more than dealing with administration. Top performers deliver strategic leadership. The company secretary is the third member of the top team and as such is a vital, independent bridge linking the board and the executive.

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The aviation industry is rapidly evolving. Increasing demand for air travel globally combined with historically low fuel prices make this currently one of the most exciting sectors to be in. New players with different business plans are entering the market – manufacturers, low cost carriers, finance houses, operating lessors. This is a time of change and growth. With over $150 bn worth of new jet aircraft delivered every year, the opportunities are great – but so are the risks.

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Corporate governance (hawkamah in Arabic) in Middle East is no longer a term that requires defining, or has an unclear business case All Middle East countries except Iraq have issued a General Corporate Governance Code, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE being the front runners. UAE has emerged as one of the least corrupt and most globalized economies in the Middle East, ranking 26th out of 177th in the Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index.

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All organisations must engage with the twin aspects of risk; embracing opportunity whilst controlling threats. The energy sector has a great track record for the former, but a long list of tragic major accidents are testimony to failures in managing the latter aspect. In high risk industries, even a single major incident can represent a challenge to the very survival of an organization; as witnessed in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. However, successful management of HSE is more than just avoiding the human, financial and reputational costs of accidents, or indeed doing ‘just enough’ to comply with local government regulation. Investing leadership time, energy and resources on HSE issues can deliver premium in terms of reliability, workforce engagement & productivity as well as forming an integral contribution to the bottom line results.

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Organizations around the world, in nearly all industries, have experienced some degree of stress or turmoil caused by the global economic recession. In this environment, internal auditors are playing a vital and growing role in monitoring and helping improve organization-wide systems, processes and controls. This role likely will continue to grow in the next few years as organizations address not only financial pressures, but also regulatory pressures that governments impose in response to the financial crisis. In particular the internal audit function now plays a pivotal role to support the audit committee, risk committee and the risk unit of companies. With the increase in corporate fraud the internal audit and risk unit have to fully understand the importance of managing forensic and fraud audits and related services.

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Organizations around the world, in nearly all industries, have experienced some degree of stress or turmoil caused by the global economic recession. In this environment, internal auditors are playing a vital and growing role in monitoring and helping improve organization-wide systems, processes and controls. This role likely will continue to grow in the next few years as organizations address not only financial pressures, but also regulatory pressures that governments impose in response to the financial crisis. In particular the internal audit function now plays a pivotal role to support the audit committee, risk committee and the risk unit of companies. With the increase in corporate fraud the internal audit and risk unit have to fully understand the importance of managing forensic and fraud audits and related services.

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To minimize losses on a problem loan, you must first analyse the loan by ensuring that all of the pertinent information is taken into consideration. The benefits of using a systematic approach to your analysis include 1) consistency, i.e., each individual in the decision-making process uses the same information, and 2) error minimization, i.e., it reduces your chances of missing an important issue or fact.

The following process will help you gather and understand the facts, analyse the problem, and enable you to make a recommendation to correct the problem. The process is not entirely sequential—some steps occur simultaneously and often overlap.

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The payments industry today is in a state of fl ux, with several technological, economic, and demographic factors cutting across the length and breadth of the value chain. The industry is witnessing rapid growth in innovations across the value chain, thus making it more fragmented. Non-banking payment service providers in the form of financial technology start-ups (Ripple, Chain) and established non-payments technology giants (Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon) have caused disruption and disintermediation in discrete parts of banking and the payments landscape.

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The world of pharmaceutical development and manufacture is having to change its culture and practice to meet the opening global market. Outsourcing, global sourcing and international inspections are becoming a common occurrence and international pharma companies need to differentiate by having consistent, world-class GXP compliance systems that meet the demands of many stakeholders and inspection authorities. The demand for consistent Quality Management Systems is becoming a requirement, not an option.

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Electricity drives the engine of opportunity in the modern world. It allows our children to study by light. It powers the innovation in our factories. From telecommunications to transportation, power is essential to virtually every aspect of our increasingly dynamic and interconnected world. As a result, investment in power infrastructure must be a part of any strategy for economic development. This is true for both broad economic growth initiatives in emerging countries and targeted rural growth initiatives in developed countries.

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Retail Banking has changed significantly over the last decade, as a result of the global financial crisis and the rapid growth in alternative channels of distribution emanating from the new digital era. The banks are facing two important challenges because of these changes. On one hand there is a lot of pressure to reduce costs and they have to do ‘more with less’ and on the other hand they are forced to look for new growth opportunities and to be innovative to maintain their competitive position.

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With more than half of the world’s people and businesses, Asia’s prospects are bright if it can harness the energy and ideas of its SME sector. This requires an orientation for banks towards the scale and approaches of SMEs that differ from the traditional corporate sector. These new approaches require that banks establish proper strategies, oversight mechanisms and analytics, while also introducing new products, services and processes to capture this business. This course will provide an overview of SME strategy development, bank governance and management requirements, customer relationship management and SME-oriented products, financing methods and impact on bank ratios, and credit risk management and scoring systems.

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Cyber security is the most prominent risk issue facing company Boards of Directors and executives worldwide. We are inundated almost daily with accounts of major corporate data breaches and compromised networks. Recent high-profile attacks such as the targeting of point-of-sale terminals at Target, Home Depot and Staples, server software at JP Morgan, and employee databases at Sony, demonstrate how vulnerable even the largest and most sophisticated companies can be. In this highly challenging environment, board members and executives are, not surprisingly, unsure of how best to protect themselves.

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Pharmaceutical licensing has become a major industry in its own right, and is undertaken by many thousands of professionals, many of whom work full-time on licensing activities.

According to David Scott, licensing is a skill in itself, and a good track record will encourage potential partners to deal with you. This skill is just as valuable to a company as any sales or scientific skill and, if used properly, can have a huge impact on corporate profitability.

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All oil and gas contractual relationships –whether upstream, midstream or downstream — involve risks, with a high potential for problems and adversarial relationships.

In this brief Ebook, James P Groton throws light on proactive steps that is to be taken in the oil and Gas contracting relationships

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Banks must meet more (and more varied) regulations today than ever.The sheer scale and scope of banking regulations, including Dodd-Frank,Basel III and IFRS, pose challenges to all financial institutions, from the smallest bank to the largest financial services enterprise This Ebook details, How a unified IT infrastructure enable financial institutions to improve not only regulatory compliance, but also operational efficiency and competitive positioning

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