Global oil prices reached a historic peak in May 2008 at $143.91 a barrel. By January 2009 the price had plunged to $48.37. A gradual recovery from this slump continued until June 2014, when another massive crash took the price of oil back to 2009 levels.
With Brexit looming, UK farmers stand to lose or gain the most of all industries. The worst case scenario is the devastation of the farming sector by the ending of EU subsidies, which currently constitute 60% of the income of the average UK farm. The government has promised to match EU subsidies until 2020, but has so far been silent on what happens after that.
MBAs are a scientific approach to management stemming from early 20th century industrialisation. It is in their DNA to prepare people for management careers in large corporations. Among much else, you’re taught about Business Process Management, TQM, Six Sigma, and all kinds of other management theories and their relative merits and applications.
A new short video course aims to eradicate slavery from supply chains by educating procurement teams in taking action to prevent human exploitation. A supply chain can consist of hundreds of contractors, subcontractors, agencies and suppliers with complex relationships and varying standards. It might be possible for companies to know all about the provenance of suppliers in the first and second layers in their supply chain, but exploring it in depth to trace materials right back to their origins is nearly impossible.
Some of us remember TV ads from when we were kids telling us not to climb over fences by railway tracks, play ball games around tracks, fly a kite near overhead wires, and to be generally wary of railways. It makes sense to warn children not to go near railways when they are playing, but what about adults who have to be around railways in their work?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us, even with the Third is still in progress. Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are three of the driving forces behind it. While the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ has always applied mainly to manufacturing, it now also involves service industries such as banking and insurance, who are investing heavily in Big Data to help them model credit risk, fraud, marketing success and other key data.
The thing about meditation is we know it’s good for us, but we convince ourselves we don’t have time for it. Ironically, meditation can help to quieten down the very same stressful thinking that prevents us from doing it: time is in short supply, we have to keep the pedal to the metal all day in order to get anywhere, sitting still for ten minutes a day is a complete waste of time, etc.
How would you respond to the job interview question ‘How many electric kettles are there in New York State?’ It is beneficial to be able to make a procedurally-based, well-informed guess that shows you have the smarts to arrive at a logical approximation. How To Estimate Anything by Management Consultants SAPBRIEF teaches a skill that’s useful in business and life: the art of the informed guess.
Most office workers know a few Excel functions to get them through the day. But that’s like driving a Ferrari at walking pace. Excel is a massively powerful piece of software that can do almost anything that’s asked of it – if only you know how. Excel has arguably saved more hours of work than any other piece of software, but it needs to be programmed to do so. This means there is a substantial market for Excel training.
You are lost and alone in the wilderness. For the first day or two, it isn’t too bad apart from the mosquitos. You’re going to be rescued, right? On day three you’re concerned but still aiming to catch the next episode of The Walking Dead. But around day four, when nobody has shown up yet, the reality sinks in and you must start to plan your survival for however long it takes until civilisation comes looking for you, or until you find it again.
