Archive for the ‘events’ Category

The Junior-Enterprises riding the crisis

May 14, 2012 - 1:32 am Comments Off

 

The Junior Enterprises are unaware of the crisis. Despite a difficult economic environment, they display a very insolent health. Present in schools and universities, student associations such as dee managed companies had in 2011 a turnover of 8 million euros, up 14.5% compared to 2009, the year 2010 was marked by a high consolidation. Last year, no fewer than 2300 companies have sought the services of Junior Enterprises 160 French members of the National Confederation of Junior Enterprises (CNJE), which promotes the concept and the brand "Junior Company".  

Created more than forty years in order to bring the teaching of the business world, these associations Act 1901 and non-profit professional nature consist only of student volunteers perform consulting and service delivery for clients with very different profiles. "This can range from a business plan for a self-contractor, charged 1,000 euros for a qualitative study of several months for a large group, billed 30,000 euros," said Lamia Bennani Toulouse Flight's Junior Council, voted Best Junior company in France in 2011 by the CNJE.

The university is catching up

These associations have indeed lower social charges due to their special status, allowing them to offer rates up to four times lower than those offered by a traditional provider. "Besides the attractive rate of our services, it is also our expertise which is trusted," said Adrian Vasse, Chairman of the EDHEC Junior Etudes, which has seen its turnover double between 2009 and 2011 to 220,000 euros. A view shared by Matthias Brottier, the president of the CNJE, for whom "it is the concept itself is pleasing. Our members are dynamic and provide a fresh, innovative and pioneering customers. " Their microstructure and quality of association allow Junior Enterprises to be responsive, flexible and personalized service and differentiate themselves from large consulting firms.

Contrary to popular belief, the Junior Enterprises are not just about the areas of finance and engineering. They cover a wide field of activity that both of agronomy at the optical, pharmacy to graphics through the mail. Long reserved for schools, universities are fast catching up. Under the plan "Student Entrepreneurs" launched in September 2009 to publicize and develop contractor status in universities, Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education at the time, wanted to be created a "junior business "in each of the 83 French universities with the help of CNJE. Three years later, the number of junior students has almost quadrupled from 11 to 40!

Among them, the Sorbonne Junior Council, created in February 2010 into the fold of the School of Management at the Sorbonne (Paris I) and sponsored by the Education Minister Luc Chatel. During his first year, she made 10 missions including one for Air Liquide. "It's a relatively small but very honorable for a first year," said Francois-Xavier Renault, its president. The Group Tollens paints, which uses the Junior Company for a mission, declares himself "satisfied" with the quality of the mission carried out and skills emerged.

A concept taken abroad

An experience that allows students to practice the teachings they receive and identify the problems of the company while being paid. Not to mention the professional network that is built up over the missions. All assets which may be valued at the time to enter the workforce.

At a time when the political struggle to stop the rise of youth unemployment and with its experience, the CNJE intends to participate in the debate. Club Junior Enterprises, its think tank, has published a white paper last March bound for presidential candidates to improve the employability of graduates through ten proposals.

A business model that has proven to the point of export beyond our borders. Founded in 1992 on the initiative of CNJE, the JADE federates European Junior Enterprises. In 2012, there were thirty Junior Enterprises in Germany, 25 in the Netherlands, as in Italy, Switzerland 8 or 3 in Romania. And proof that we never stop learning, corporate universities also on the rise.

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The Paris Bourse accelerate the pace

May 4, 2012 - 1:20 am Comments Off

Presidential in major cities Paris | Leeds | Lyons | Toulouse | Leeds | Sheffield | Liverpool | Bordeaux | Lille

Madrid and Rome borrow at rates up sharply

April 25, 2012 - 4:32 am Comments Off

 

In Europe, stock markets resumed their breath on Tuesday, but uncertainty still hangs over the debt markets, fueled by the political crisis in the Netherlands and the period between the two towers of the French presidential election.

Spain and Italy have borrowed at rates up sharply Tuesday. Madrid has raised no issue 1.933 billion euros in vouchers at 3 and 6 months thanks to a strong demand of investors, but she had to pay his show twice what it had paid on March 27 for a similar operation; 0.634% to 1.580% three months and six months against 0.381% and 0.836 respectively

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The Spanish Minister of Budget, Cristobal Montoro, speaking before MPs met to discuss the 2012 budget austerity, acknowledged that his country was "in a moment of extreme fragility", as the recession sets in peril promises deficit reduction. The country has promised to bring its public deficit of 8.51% of GDP at the end of last year to 5.3% this year and to 3% next year

The chief minister, Mariano Rajoy, said in Parliament that "the economic policy is a policy hard, expensive, that does not produce short-term effects, but this is what we need right now ".

Asian sovereign funds

For its part, Italy, who had taken advantage of favorable borrowing conditions since the beginning of the year, faces a rebound in interest rates business card design. The Italian Treasury has borrowed Tuesday nearly 3.5 billion euros on the market, as in Spain enjoying high demand, to 6.5 billion. But the rates of bonds maturing in 2014 surged to 3.355% against 2.352% at its previous similar operation in late March.

All is not lost, however, in the eurozone. Despite the political crisis and the threat of rating agencies on the Dutch AAA, the Netherlands has borrowed two billion euros in two years Tuesday, rates fell to 0.52% against 0.66% on secondary market on Monday. Many investors believe that the Netherlands has solid fundamentals frankly. "The yields are high but traders are satisfied," said Lyn Graham Taylor, bond strategist at Rabobank.

Another encouraging sign: the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) lifted successfully 3 billion to 7 years at 2.65%, or 160 basis points more than Germany. "This is a great achievement," commented Frédéric Gabizon, HSBC has submitted a tender. "Especially since 40% of the demand comes from sovereign wealth funds from Asia, which shows that outside of Europe investors are confident."

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Globalization for the giants of fashion

April 21, 2012 - 9:32 pm Comments Off

 

"There is no market in the world where one can say that our expansion is complete." Signed Thomas Lourenco, owner of H & M France, this assertion could be pronounced with the same assurance by his peers Zara, Gap and Uniqlo. From New York to Shanghai through Roanne and Cape Town, the four largest clothing retailers in the world are opening every year by hundreds of shops.

Spanish Zara, Swedish H & M, Gap and American Japanese Uniqlo are all facing the same problem: on their home market, the sales growth slows, when it is not negative. "Diversifying internationally is an emergency, insists Luca Solca, head of research at CA Cheuvreux Europe. The economic slowdown, particularly in southern Europe, is likely to be higher than expected. "

Zara and H & M are still dependent on Europe for more than half of their sales, while Gap focuses 68% of its activity in the United States. Last year, the benefits of Fast Retailing, Uniqlo's parent company, they have been sealed by its poor profitability in Japan, where the brand 80% of its sales. The Japanese group has up its sales targets for this year, but its growth (14% to EUR 9 billion) will come mainly from abroad.

Uniqlo and its three main competitors have no choice but to accelerate in emerging markets, starting with the most promising, China. In 2011, Inditex (Zara's parent company) has opened 156 stores and is 400 by the end of the year. Decided to carry more than half its sales outside Japan within four years, Fast Retailing plans to open 100 stores in Asia this year, including 80 in China, before doubling the pace in 2013. The Japanese want to pass Zara and H & M in China, where Gap has to spend 15 to 45 stores this year.

Adaptation of forms and colors of clothing

The four giant jacked and on other emerging markets. H & M has just opened in Mexico, Thailand, Latvia. Swedish now eyeing South Africa, where Zara plans to open in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The Spanish also investing Australia, Taiwan and Peru. The Gap American ventures in South America, via Chile.

Uniqlo also hunt on the land of origin of its rivals. After all, Europe is still, by value, the first in the world market for clothing. The Japanese also sees the potential in the United States. After opening two "flagships" in New York, he announced a first store in San Francisco, and an innovation center and offices to handle logistics and human resources. It plans to open hundreds of stores in the United States, seeing a market of $ 10 billion by 2020. H & M, which opened 200 stores in the U.S. since 2000, and Zara, which has 47, can not take the risk that the Japanese enjoy one of the disappointments of Gap in the U pay day loans.S..

Neither group can not abandon its traditional market, the risk of yielding market share. Zara and H & M and continue their offensive in France. The Spaniard will land in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) after the summer; Swedish invests him with smaller cities like Roanne (Loire).

This conquest accelerated on every continent requires the giants of fashion to reshape their strategy and working methods. Paradoxically, refining collections is relatively simple. They remain in effect to 80% common to all countries. Zara added a size XXS for Japan, Gap smaller sizes in Shanghai, "where people are smaller," and other major Beijing … H & M has dedicated her clothes formatted in the UAE.

Brands also avoid sending too much green (color of the husband or wife cheated) and white (color of mourning) in Asia, and juggling the short or long sleeves at the option of climates. Lines of spring H & M are adorned with pastel colors, such as Uniqlo, yet partisan bright colors. Blades are apparently more seyants skinned fashionistas Chinese very well and flatter your tan Europeans. Globalization can sometimes synergies in the colors …

Higher prices by 30% in the Chinese market

For now, the Chinese conquest of clients has not changed the procurement strategies of the giants of fashion. They have responded to higher cotton and wages in China. H & M still produces most of its collections in Asia, but increasingly in Bangladesh. Uniqlo stocks up 80% in China, but part of its production is relocated to Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Zara, meanwhile, increased its production in Asia and will continue this strategy. But "we will always maintain at least 50% of our supplies in Europe," says a manager of Zara, whose production is mainly located in Spain, Morocco and Portugal. This asset can deliver within 24 hours of Europe, and in little more time in Asia, where customers are fond of European products.

Result of this procurement strategy, the giants of fashion practiced in China prices averaged 30% greater than those displayed in Europe, partly because of taxes and customs duties. So, high prices encourage Chinese purchasing power remains low, to consider Zara, H & M and Uniqlo brand as "premium". "This will force these retailers to improve their quality," says a consultant. Or, conversely, to harmonize their prices. "Especially since they are exposed to local competitors, the European-sounding names, such as Hong Kong's Giordano, much cheaper," says Anne-Laure LINGET, the Federation of knitwear and lingerie. In China, the war between Zara, H & M and Uniqlo may be more complicated than elsewhere.

In bankruptcy, think Kodak pay bonuses to employees

April 9, 2012 - 11:04 am Comments Off

 

Living under the bankruptcy system, the famous Chapter 11, is not easy for a company. In a document filed with the court last week, the company found, in fact "a marked rise in employee departures in the first quarter." Departures deemed "particularly damaging" to the management level.

That's why Kodak offers to pay $ 8.5 million in an initial group of 119 frames, which still represents more than 71,400 dollars per person, to retain them. Another group of just over 200 employees, has been identified and should receive $ 5 million, or about $ 25,000 per employee.

Out of "Chapter 11" is a real possibility in the United States. The most striking recent example of a successful exit is to make the assets of General Motors bad credit unsecured personal loans. This scheme allows the company to restructure while being protected from its creditors, a situation similar to the existing backup procedure in France. To achieve this, we must however keep its senior most "critical activity and the restructuring process," according to Kodak.

The company explains that "among the 7,600 employees of the group, there are many who have unique skills and value, but the weakness of available funds requires the group to make a strict selection of the beneficiaries" of this plan.

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The pico projector, an accessory for smartphones

April 7, 2012 - 9:12 pm Comments Off

 

By launching a "pico" that can creep into his jeans pocket, Sagemcom, already number one in Europe, hopes to boost sales. Last year it sold 225,000, a growth of 75%.

"We estimate that the global market should be increased tenfold by 2015 to reach 5 million units sold," said Nicolas Denis, Director Sagemcom documents. He said the ultimate. "Rather than looking at more video on the screen of his phone, kids can project onto a wall, table … their image in large, up to 3 meters diagonally," he adds. To give more visibility to its pico, Sagemcom decided to market them under the Philips brand. "We have a licensing agreement with Philips brand which has an international reputation," says Nicolas Denis. A contract that allows the Dutch, in addition to the payment of interest, maintain the brand recognition among the general public.

The pico-projectors can also be connected to some digital cameras, a PC or a tablet. But for Sagemcom, use will be primarily related to smartphones. Even if they could be the main competitors of pico-projectors. Samsung has launched the Beam, a smartphone with integrated pico. For its part, Sony has built into a camcorder. They also arrive in cameras and nothing precludes a tablet with a pico-projector arrives one day in this market.

To compete with this type of product, Nicolas Denis put on two assets: the battery of these devices – the image projection is very energy – and the brightness of the projected image, still relatively low when it comes from a smartphone. This last consideration is specificity in Lumens. The latest addition to Philips displays SamgemCom-30 Lumens, it is two times more than a smartphone. This allows to see the image without needing to be in the dark. "There is a demand for pico projectors, as there is for USB. It depends on the degree of expected performance, "said Nicolas Denis, who also builds on the innovative capacity of Sagemcom. For proof, Dragone's latest is also a USB port (patented). What limiting cables to transport and adapt perfectly to the side "pocket" of the object!

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 Release: Nicolas Demorand thrashed by his editorial

April 4, 2012 - 1:52 pm Comments Off

 

Release still stands. While the newspaper has recently published a full page to remember that it won 5.39% of distribution paid France last year, according to OJD, the best performance among the national dailies, all employees, together in civil society personnel Liberation (SCPL), Tuesday signed a letter of genuine grievances against their managing editor and publishing, Nicolas Demorand.

"One year after the arrival of Nicolas Demorand, the graft did not" attack the SCPL, including the editors of Liberation. "The list of grievances is long," continuing employees, evoking by turns being "dispossessed" of the newspaper not to identify with it. They blame their managing editor, former France Inter recruited by Edouard de Rothschild in early 2011 to revitalize the newspaper before the election, not to give clear direction, only to take "no account of what the drafters, they can learn according to their skills and ability to work together. " They say they are despised by a direction described as "authoritarian and arrogant." "Differences of view" would be the source of "confusion as editorial organizationally."

The SCPL editorial criticizes the current, that Nicolas Demorand prints for over a year, "one eye-catching," an "editorial treatment supporter" Libe … yet made the subject of regular times in the press reviews and in social networks for its one noticed, especially when the DSK affair last May or the beginning of the presidential campaign. This "policy Cover" has undoubtedly contributed last year to an increase in newsstand sales (individual sales) of over 10%, nearly 9,000 additional copies.

June 2011, a motion of no confidence was passed by the same SCPL, which already criticized Nicolas Demorand of being "out of step with the culture of the newspaper." The grievances were already numerous.

Nicolas Demorand has not yet responded to these attacks.

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Theolia on the road to recovery

March 30, 2012 - 5:24 am Comments Off

 

"In 2010 we re-starting the engine of our development. In 2011, we intensified this process. " Two years after Théolia came close to filing for bankruptcy, its general manager, Fady Khallouf, welcomed the turnaround began. The operator Wind "now walk on two legs" on one side, Theolia operates parks for its own account – and it is green electricity producer – on the other, it develops and installs wind turbines on behalf third parties. "This is the guarantee of a balanced growth that allows us to make the most of opportunities," says Fady Khallouf. This refers in particular to long-term contracts -15 years or more – which can have suppliers from wind.

Currently, the assets of Theolia reach an installed capacity of 910 megawatts (MW), which operated for 604 partners. In 2011, the company has commissioned 18 low rates payday advance.4 MW in the Hexagon. But his biggest development project in Morocco is concentrated, with a 300 MW a third scheduled to be operational in 2014. "The site will be commissioned in installments: engineering studies are completed, with the National Electricity (ONE), the Moroccan electrician, we are preparing to launch tenders to select the different OEMs, "said Fady Khallouf.

To Theolia, 2011 is the first year that the operator posted a net operating profit excluding items, up from 10.3 million euros. But the group posted a net loss of 39.2 million euros, following the impairment of goodwill in Italy where the system of feed-in tariffs is being revised in proportions much less profitable for the operators. "We cleaned up the balance sheet, we can now develop on a sound footing," said Fady Khallouf yet.

Life insurance goes into the green

March 25, 2012 - 4:00 am Comments Off

 

The reverse trend was apparent in January. After seven months of withdrawals exceed deposits, and a record 3.8 billion euros in net outflows (deposits less withdrawals) in December, flows on life insurance contracts appear to be stabilizing. In February, the payments for the first time since last August were higher than withdrawals, according to figures released by the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA) and the Group of mutual insurance companies (Gema).

The amount of deposits has been higher than 300 million euros to the withdrawals. A level far below the record numbers in July 2011 to 2.7 billion euros. Since this rise is not due to increased payments for savers on their contract. They have instead further decreased by 14% compared to January 2012. The trend reversal is in fact due to a sharp slowdown in redemptions, which fell 24% from the previous month. They still remain higher than 21% from their level in February 2011. In fact, Bernard Spitz, president of the FFSA, remains cautious, and denies seeing a continuing trend payday loans online.

Leaded by the crisis which encouraged investors to choose short-term investments, or to deleverage rather than investing, life insurance has lost ground to rival the booklet Who is disputing the preference of the French. The latter has also continued its growth with a collection of 1.93 billion euros in February. A total of 222.3 billion euros are now placed on the 60 million booklets A possessed the French. An amount that is still very far from those placed on life insurance contracts which reaches 1.377 billion euros in late February.

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Men and women still unequal in enteprise mobility by

March 8, 2012 - 5:40 pm Comments Off

 

Inequalities between men and women managers are not in the gender pay gap. In terms of mobility, too. The Association for the employment of executives (Apec) Thursday released a study showing that both sexes are in fact not at all accommodated in the same boat. If their rate of mobility, internal and external, are strictly comparable, however, there are big differences.

Women executives in, especially before thirty years, more precarious than men, they leave their companies more frequently following an end of CSD (14% of cases for the former against 4% for the latter). Result, levels of responsibility found following these mobilities are very different, with women less likely than men to keep the same level as before their departure (two-thirds of men against 57% for women). Their male colleagues have also promoted more often in cases of internal mobility (43% against 36%).

Another consequence is that wage increases are less frequent after a mobility in women than in men, especially when the transition took place without any period of unemployment. 62% of men see the amount of their payroll advance, against 54% of women. As for the perception of the future, women have less confidence (65%), their mobility was internal or external, and want to move less than men in their company. They also fear more than being unemployed (43% against 36%).

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