BizKnowledge Watch

stock. Xchng

The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) has just published the “Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 2009.” This annual publication is one of the leading sources of statistical information on the region and contains social, economic and environmental data.

The report is divided into four sections, which focus on:

-Demographic and social aspects, with a particular emphasis on gender.

-Economic statistics, such as prices, international trade, balance of payments and national accounts.

-The environment and natural resources.

-Methodological aspects related to the origin of the data, their definition and coverage.

According to data from the yearbook, the economy of Latin America and the Caribbean has grown by 4 percent over the last 60 years, while the region’s population has risen by an average of just over 2 percent a year.

The complete document can be downloaded in PDF format. The statistical graphs are in Excel.

stock. Xchng

Business schools have made a very important contribution to management education over the past decades. The new economic and social context has created new challenges for them. Their capabilities will have to evolve if they want to have a deeper impact.

This new working paper by Professor Jordi Canals discusses business schools’ new role in the post-crisis world.

Staff, students & faculty can access this paper from the IESE Publications website.

(CC) PK Kool/Flickr

The automobile industry is one of the sectors that has been most hit by the recession. Demand for cars has fallen sharply, accentuating the difficulties of excess production capacity already faced before the crisis and deepening the economic downturn in major car-producing countries.

This OECD report examines how closely the automobile and business cycles are related, how the automobile industry been affected by the crisis and the future prospects for car sales.

Click here to read the report in full.

(CC) por ceslava.com/Flickr

En busca del equilibrio by Jordi Canals; No soy Superman and Desde la adversidad by Santiago Alvarez de Mon; Ópera y operaciones by Beatriz Munoz-Seca and Josep Riverola; Persuasion by Brian O’C. Leggett and Ricardo Velilla; and Consistencia by José Ramón Pin, are the first titles authored by IESE faculty to be made available in e-book format. All the books are published in Spanish.

For more information, click here.

You can find the paper edition of these books at IESE’s Library catalog.

(CC) publik16/Flickr

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has just launched the study, Rethinking Poverty: Report on the World Social Situation 2010. The report seeks to contribute to rethinking poverty and its eradication. It stresses the urgent need for a strategic shift away from the market fundamentalist thinking, policies and practices of recent decades towards more sustainable development and equity-oriented policies appropriate to national conditions and circumstances.

The full-text is available on the web

(CC) dfarber/Flickr

IBM (Technology), Intel Corp (Technology) and HSBC Holdings (Banks) top this year’s edition of the Covalence Ethical Ranking which covers 581 multinationals representing 18 different sectors.

The ranking measures qualitative data on 45 criteria including labor standards, waste management, social utility and human rights policy. And because it is a reputation index, the Covalence survey also incorporates media, industry and NGO documents into its evaluation.

For more information about this ranking, visit the Convalence website.

(CC) Mr. Kris/Flickr

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has prepared the report, “Beyond the Midpoint: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” to review the extent of progress made towards the MDGs as well as assess what it will take to accelerate progress towards the goals around the World. Thirty country-level assessments and extensive consultations with stakeholders were undertaken to discern the factors which influence MDG progress in a country, as well as understand what has worked, what has not, and why.

The findings reveal that there are four key areas which shape MDG achievement at the country level:

-Policy choices and their coherence

-Governance and capacity deficits

-Fiscal constraints

-Political will.

The full report is available here

stock. Xchng

They say that « money leads the world », but where to? After “Diversity” in 2007 and the “Protection of the Planet” in 2008, the 3rd edition of World Forum Lille took place on the 19th, 20th and 21st of November 2009 and was dedicated to “Sustainable Finance.”

The financial crisis has revealed also a crisis of meaning. The World Forum Lille has been a great opportunity to discuss the obsession with short-term gain; the ensuing multiplication of increasingly complex and impenetrable financial products; an “easy money” policy (encouraged by certain public authorities) pushing for excessive indebtedness; and a widening gap between the financial and speculative sphere, on the one hand, and the “real economy,” on the other. This spiral generated increased inequalities, which, in turn, have led to increased instability.

Is a more ethical world possible? Is a more responsible economy viable? Is a new financial order possible? The challenge for this edition was to convince companies that it is possible to adopt a different approach to finance without reducing one’s economic performance.

You can find out more about the event at the World Forum Lille online magazine.

(CC) International Monetary Fund/Flickr

The IMF has just published the latest update of the World Economic Outlook and the Global Financial Stability Report, GFSR Market Update. The world economy is still on the road to recovery and, despite improving conditionals, financial stability remains fragile in many advanced countries and some hard-hit emerging market countries.

According to the report, the top priority now should be to improve the health of banking systems to ensure that credit channels are normalized. The IMF said that the goal for all countries is to exit from the extraordinary public interventions to a global financial system that is safer, but retains the dynamism needed to support sustainable growth.

Read more and download the report.

stock. Xchng

Synopsis

The unprecedented crisis that virtually every American institution is facing these days calls for strong leadership. But what exactly is a leader to do? Recognized leader Bill George offers leaders a seven-point strategy in this short, straight-talking audio book. His Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis are field tested, based on his own direct experience as well as years of researching the actions of companies that have weathered heavy storms and are successfully withstanding this one. They are:

        Face Reality, Starting with Yourself

        No Matter How Bad Things Are, They Will Get Worse

        Build a Mountain of Cash, and Get to the Highest Hill

        Never Waste a Good Crisis

        Before Asking Others to Sacrifice, Volunteer Yourself

        Don’t be Atlas: Get the World off Your Shoulders!

        Be Aggressive: This is Your Best Chance to Win in the Market

George is one of the few leaders today that have the credibility to be offering such advice. Former CEO of Medtronic, current board member of Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil and Novartis, and professor of leadership at Harvard, he has been tested in the trenches and has his finger on the pulse of what is going on today.

For more information, click here.

You can find this title at IESE’s Library catalog.