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Carlos Ghosn Can Be Held in Jail Until Jan. 11, Tokyo Court Says https://on.wsj.com/2EWtw6N TOKYO—Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn can be held in jail without the possibility of bail until Jan. 11, a Tokyo court said Monday, lengthening a detention that has gone on for a month and a half. The court ruling follows Japanese prosecutors’ third arrest of Mr. Ghosn, in a continuing investigation of alleged wrongdoing during his time at Nissan. In the Japanese criminal justice system, each arrest allows prosecutors to keep suspects detained for up to 22 days without bail, if the court approves an extension... Business via Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com December 30, 2018 at 11:33PM
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Disgraced former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn will remain in Japanese custody past New Year's Day12/30/2018
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Disgraced former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn will remain in Japanese custody past New Year's Day https://read.bi/2Qfy9u1 Thomson Reuters
A Tokyo court on Monday backed Japanese prosecutors' request to keep the disgraced former Nissan Motor Company chairman Carlos Ghosn behind bars until January 11, due to the latest allegation of financial misconduct. His previous release date had been set for January 1. Ghosn, initially charged over underreporting his income, has been under lock and key since November. His stay in detention has been extended once again, after another arrest warrant served last week, alleged that Ghosn transferred massive personal investment losses of up to 1.85 billion yen ($17 million) to the Japanese automaker in 2008, The Asian Nikkei Review reported, on Monday. Ghosn has denied all the allegations. Ghosn, a legend in his field, was arrested in Japan last month on allegations of massive financial misconduct when his private jet landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The former chairman of Nissan was detained alongside a Nissan director, American Greg Kelly, who is accused of having enabled Ghosn. Ghosn was long credited for helping to save Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, and as the architect of an alliance between Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi. The alliance became the world's largest automotive conglomerate by sales volume last year. Now he has been rearrested three times as Japanese prosecutors search for what they allege might be hidden millions in compensation and perhaps even financial engineering to conceal more personal losses. Kelly was released on bail on Tuesday, but Ghosn's fall from grace to a cell in Tokyo has been extended again after further suspicion of aggravated breach of trust against Nissan was cast on December 21. NOW WATCH: The legendary economist who predicted the housing crisis says the US will win the trade war See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 30, 2018 at 11:18PM
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China's wounded manufacturing sector has contracted for the first time in 2 years https://read.bi/2AnNt2t REUTERS
By its heady and often creative standards, Chinese economic data of late has offered little for economists to cheer about for Christmas and the New Year. Now with the latest gauge of Chinese factory activity falling once again, the only thing in the stocking coming out of the Middle Kingdom this year is an official contraction for December, Bloomberg reported late Sunday night. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, released on Monday (AEDT) dropped to 49.4, striking deep into two-year lows as the ongoing trade war headlines a collection of challenges for the world’s second-largest economy. The lead-up to Christmas has been a complete mess for China's massive economy, which grew at its slowest pace since the GFC over the last quarter, giving rise to what looks like a further deceleration in activity. The official manufacturing PMI released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was pushed right to the edge at 50.0 last month, but now that December has fallen through the 50.0 mark, indicating contraction, the result signals the lowest mark since February 2016. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in manufacturing activity, while a reading below 50 shows a contraction. A subindex for total new orders fell into a contractionary territory of 49.7 in December, the lowest level since February 2016, while the production sub index dropped sharply to 50.8 from 51.9 in November. In the year to November, retail sales grew by 8.1%, the weakest increase since 2003. Industrial output didn't fare much better, expanding by 5.4% from 12 months earlier, the slowest pace in three years. These are all data points released by the Chinese government, and all point to what looks like a grinding of gears in the nation's once unflappable economic momentum. Separate PMI data on China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors also offered little to cheer about. The new export subindex, which works as an indicator of external demand for Chinese products also contracted down to 46.6 from 47.0. However, Bloomberg reports, China's non-manufacturing PMI rose to 53.8 from 53.4, some upbeat numbers amid the gloom, suggesting that perhaps President Xi Jinping's latest stimulus is making some waves. Unless the weak PMI numbers spark the central government into more sharp doses of stimulus or subsidies, 2019 is looking like a bad year to be a factory in China. "The slowdown will continue into the next year," Larry Hu, a Hong Kong-based economist at Macquarie Securities told Bloomberg. The case of the disappearing PMIReuters According to Reuters, the regional manufacturing PMI, published monthly by the Guangdong Department of Industry and Information Technology, had been looking lower than the official index. And then the data series just stopped updating in October. And a few weeks ago the central government in a belated note suggested that the index was somehow “illegal.” According to The New York Times, a government directive for local journalists was sent out in September naming six economic topics that were to be "managed." Top of the list was worse-than-expected data, local government debt risks and the impact of the trade war. “It’s possible that the situation is more serious than previously thought or that they want to prevent a panic,” Zhang Ming, a retired political science professor from Renmin University in Beijing, told The Times. NOW WATCH: Bernie Madoff was arrested 10 years ago today — here's what his life is like in prison See Also:
SEE ALSO: There were more disappointments in China's latest round of economic data Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 30, 2018 at 10:42PM
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How Gun Dealers Took Up The Front Line Of Gun Violence http://bit.ly/2EZF21g As I drove southwest from the Washington, D.C. suburbs, into rural Virginia, the Christmas music station on my radio faded to Fox news, and then to an oldies station, real oldies, 1950s. I was on my way to Staunton, Va., to interview a man I suspected was particularly brave. Back in 2002, Adrian Stacy put a gun to his own head. This evening, he’d agreed to talk to me about why and what happened afterward. Around me the foothills of the Appalachians stretched to the horizon, beautiful in the fading light. A car swung in front of me on 81. The license plate read: “Hunt Elk.” This was gun country. But this part of Virginia throws out a genteel image of guns: Sport and hunting guns, guns in lockboxes, lovingly passed down from parents to children along with gun safety lessons and a tradition of Saturday shooting at the range. These are the guns that most everyone in America thinks they can live with. But the hard truth at the center of America’s relationship with guns is that while we like to believe we are in the most danger from guns in the hands of others -- criminals and madmen -- we are actually most in danger from guns in our own hands. Suicide strikes many more people than any other kind of gun violence: Two-thirds of the people who die by gun, die in a suicide. Some 70% of the 47,000 people annually taken by suicide are white men. The Stonewall Jackson Inn Adrian Stacy was almost one of them. Sitting across from me in the lobby restaurant of the Stonewall Jackson Inn, which is swathed in bright Christmas decorations and busy with parties, he sits straight as the lobby’s tall tree, his hands folded in atop the table. His long brown hair is tied into a ponytail. The child of divorced parents, he was living with his mother and stepfather, a truck driver who was away most all the time. When his mother landed in the hospital for an extended stay, it fell to Adrian to take care of his younger sister. He was 15, and she was 8. Child protective services heard about it, and took her to a foster family. “I felt like I failed her,” he said. His mother taught him how to handle a gun, and he liked to take the family’s guns out of a lockbox, clean them and look at them. One night he sat on his bed, holding one of the handguns. He turned the music up, so no one would hear. He raised the gun to his head. “I was wondering, would anybody miss me?” He didn’t have many friends at school, but he did have one friend, down the street, Gary. Gary walked in the house. Hearing the music, he headed back to Stacy’s bedroom and opened the door. He pulled the gun out of Stacy’s hand just as the hammer cocked back. “He snatched that thing out of my hand,” Stacy says now. “He saved a life that night.” The Gun Culture Wars Suicides are an afterthought for gun control groups and a subject only gently broached by gun rights groups (the NRA rarely mentions it in its media, though the group has gun safety programs. The National Shooting Sports Federation funds suicide prevention programs, though to some controversy). Suicides and firearms have only begun to be a focus in the public health world in the past decade. Ralph Fascitelli, the co-founder of a smart gun company called Lodestar, harshly condemns the leading suicide nonprofits. (One of the benefits of a smart gun that worked – say, one with a biometric lock – would be to make it harder for teen-agers to use a gun for suicide._ “I am a progressive but how we can on the left blame the conservatives for not addressing gun deaths when the two leading suicide non-profits (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology) are ignoring the issue of guns, which represent the majority of suicide deaths. I presume the suicide groups will deny this vociferously, but here's the evidence which is nowhere near commensurate with the impact of guns on issue:
Suicide is, of course, deeply stigmatized – not just suicide by gun. Talking about it goes against a deep cultural and religious taboo, one of our deepest. Guns complicate the issue. While experts think the best way to cut the suicide rate is to limit access to guns, that idea runs smack into the middle of America’s ferocious gun rights debate. “The nation (is failing) to make suicide conversations discussions about firearms and firearm discussions conversations about suicide, said Michael Anestis, associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi. “The single greatest tool we have to reduce the national suicide rate involves making firearms less accessible for suicide attempts,” “Red flag” laws are one of the new frontlines in the political war. They enable police to petition the court to take weapons away from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. But there’re most often mentioned in the context of mass shootings or domestic violence. The Grassroots Movement In 2009, a suicide analyst for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services discovered that in the course of less than one week, three people, not acquainted with one another, bought a gun from the same gun shop and killed themselves. Ralph Demicco was stunned. The owner of Riley’s Sport Shop in Hooksett, N.H., hadn’t heard anything about it, and considering his range a model of gun safety, he was deeply troubled. An ad hoc committee formed, including Demicco, made up of people from the more practical-minded parts of the gun community: firearms safety instructors, gun shop and gun range owners, and public health and suicide prevention experts. The group called themselves The Gun Shop project, which provides training and media to people in the gun community about suicide and encourages them to temporarily take a friend’s gun away if he or she seems to be in danger. They designed the program off what the evidence shows about suicide in America.
The effort has spread to 22 states, where there are coalitions of doctors, public and mental health professionals and gun shop owners and firearms instructors with training and materials to hand out if they suspect someone is in trouble. In Virginia, where Adrian Stacy heard about it, it’s called Lock and Talk. There has been a slow culture shift in gun businesses around the country, several have told me. One gun range in Colorado won’t rent to a first-time customer who comes in alone – unless a friend or relative can vouch for the person’s mental state by phone. The range, Bristlecone Shooting, Training & Retail Center, instituted the policy after someone killed himself in the middle of the range. It’s hard to tell if they have succeeded. The suicide rate has risen in the United States. It’s hard to prove a negative: Are there people who would have killed themselves if it hadn’t been for a conversation or if hadn’t been harder to rent or buy a gun? In the United States, where there are between 300-400 million guns in civilian hands, truly limiting access is hard. In Israel (another heavily armed society), according to Anestis, one small-scale effort worked. After the Israeli Defense Force saw a spike in young soldiers killing themselves, it changed the rules so that soldiers couldn’t bring their firearms home for the weekend. The suicide rate dropped. Demicco, who retired from his gun business after 40 years, said the movement has deliberately stayed as neutral and grassroots as possible. “If it became part of the political debate it would mean legislation,” he said. That would be anathema to him, and probably many of the other range owners and gun dealers. He said any movements to take guns away would run afoul of civil liberties concerns (it’s very hard to predict who will kill themselves); Constitutional concerns among gun owners and even concerns, he said, over privacy in the health care community. He believes there has been a slow culture shift, so that more people in the gun community are willing to talk about the taboo subject of suicide. “We’re asking a lot in terms of the old way of thinking,” he said. “The gentlemen I know do not talk about these things. A lot of them are not ‘new age.’” Growing Up With A Shadow After Gary intervened the night Adrian Stacy almost killed himself, Stacy’s dad came from near Virginia Beach to pick him up. But Stacey never talked about what had almost happened that night. “There was a lot of self-reflection,” he said. “The amount of pain I’d caused him – I felt so ashamed of my actions.” He his father to bone cancer in 2004. After he graduated from high school, he joined the military and became an automotive technician. A back injury left him unable to work, but he got a job at a pawn shop that sells guns. The suicide attempt remained a part of him, entwined with the pain of losing his dad. “It got bottled up so bad,” he says. His girlfriend, Logan, now his fiancée, lost an uncle, Guy Shifflett, to suicide. She encouraged Stacy to go to the Out of the Darkness Walk for Suicide prevention. Seeing so many people who’d been through their own mental health crises enabled him to start talking about what had happened. “There were so many people with so many different stories,” he said. “I thought to myself, I cannot be ashamed of this.” He met Rebecca Textor, who founded Virginia Lock and Talk, who told him about the program, which provides free cable gun locks, pamphlets and a poster that asks, “Concerned about a family member or friend?” He wanted to help people who are in the midst of a crisis, and help people speak up more about what’s going on inside them. “Firearms are not the issue,” he said. “It’s a question of what keeps people safe.” Some of the pamphlets have been picked up. He also volunteered to be in a video, which he was nervous about. “Suddenly I’ve got cameras pointing at me … it’s very difficult to talk about.” “I’m 16 years a survivor … involving a firearm,” he says in the video. “I’ve been given another shot at being a better person … and helping people heal.” He looks up from the table where we’re sitting, nodding to a woman in a group of carolers that have wandered in, and I thought about how high the stakes are in a small community, where everybody knows everybody. Stacy said he was happy that the video is running at the local mental health center, also a part of Virginia Lock & Talk. “The patients look at me when I walk in and say, “Hey, he’s the guy on the TV,” he says. “That makes me feel good.” Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 30, 2018 at 09:31PM
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FlyInside shows VR flight sims how to soar http://bit.ly/2EWcQMJ After almost two years of development, FlyInside Flight Simulator has launched in Early Access on Steam. FlyInside is a made-for-VR flight sim which supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows MR heasdsets. Virtual reality is well suited for cockpit sims, providing a sense of depth and scale monitors simply can’t match. Even from a practical perspective, looking around a cockpit naturally with your head is far easier than using a hat switch or D-pad. TrackIR is a useful middle ground, but is awkward for large movements since it isn’t 1:1 and the monitor is still stationary. FlyInside originally began in 2015 as a Kickstarter for a mod for Flight Simulator X(FSX). The project raised more than double its $13,500 goal, unlocking Leap Motion support as a stretch goal, as well as support for Prepar3D, a newer flight simulator based on the FSX codebase. Why a new sim?Through either mods or official updates, all major PC flight simulators today have some form of VR support. However, the fact that VR was an afterthought in these sims is often all too obvious. Performance is sub par, the menus are difficult to operate, and a lot of functionality is almost impossible while essentially blindfolded, requiring complex keyboard mappings. FlyInside standalone is tackling these issues by building from the ground up for VR. Performance has been a key focus for the team’s custom engine. In VR low framerate feels sickening, so must be a priority. In our brief testing we found performance to be adequate on a GTX 970 with only a few hitches- noticeably better than the mod for Flight Simulator X. The sim lets you decide which input device you want to use. You can use your VR controllers as virtual hands, Leap Motion to use your fingers directly, or the traditional option of a HOTAS (joystick). Using Touch controllers in the mod for FSX felt tacked on and glitchy, but in the standalone it now feels native. Flicking switches, adjusting levers and even controlling the stick can all be done with your hands. Available aircraftWhile all flight sims come with default aircraft, most enthusiasts use 3rd party solutions from studios who develop highly detailed models for multiple sims. For FlyInside, the studio has included 10 aircraft from studios MilViz and TFDi Design: Light Aircraft
Airliners
Legacy
Military
Helicopters
Future plansAccording to the early access listing on Steam, FlyInside plans to add:
The team intends to be in early access for 6 to 12 months. The sim will be at a higher price when it launches, with the price increasing when new features are added. We’re certainly impressed with the initial early access build. VR flight simulation was once thought to be a simple addon for existing sims, but it’s now clear that a deeper appreciation of the challenge is needed. VR represents a unique interaction paradigm in which the user is essentially blindfolded. Rather than relying on old keyboard shortcut workflows, flight sims need to take radical new design decisions to streamline flying. The FlyInside team are one of the first to appreciate this and start the hard work. This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2018 Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com December 30, 2018 at 09:15PM
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How To Build Company Culture When All Your Employees Are Remote http://bit.ly/2RkDbKh With more and more people working remotely, the challenges of creating company culture and a team-centric environment are evident. In 2016, 43% of employed Americans said they spent at least some time working remotely , according to a survey of more than 15,000 adults. That’s why it’s critical for employers to offer alternative methods of team building and integrating the company’s values into the solo workdays. Create virtual hangout spaces. In lieu of team members seeing each other everyday and spending time together in meetings or over lunch hours, companies can create bonds by utilizing technology to allow employees to spend time with each other. “We recommend that companies create virtual hangout spaces via Slack where remote employees can live chat, share files, post photos and collaborate throughout the day to mimic everyday office life,” says Erin Halper, CEO and Founder of The Upside, a growth platform for independent contractors. “We also encourage companies to promote the sharing of personal stories and photos on their Slack channel to replace traditional ‘water cooler’ bonding.” Halper has received the most positive feedback from clients who create a mandatory weekly virtual meeting through a video chat platform like Zoom, discussing the typical business topics, combined with a weekly theme to encourage employees to share personal goals as well. Megan Berry, VP of Product at Octane AI, a messenger marketing platform for e-commerce, has also had success with this strategy. She points out that remote workers are typically frequent travelers, and it’s important to take that fact into consideration. “Remote work makes it easier to travel so a lot of the people on our team are passionate about traveling. That's why we have a channel specifically for sharing travel tips and photos. It's important to create spaces to talk about things other than work,” says Berry. Master the art of conversation. It’s easy to get right to the point when chatting over email or text, but it’s important to remember that the absence of tone in virtual conversations can create a negative experience for some people. Always remember to talk to people in a friendly and conversational manner. “Ask them how they're doing or how their weekend was, and generally interact the same way you would in person,” says Berry. She emphasizes the importance of first asking how someone is doing and not just reaching out to them and immediately asking for the status of a project or email, as people wouldn’t respond favorably to that conversation style in person, and the same applies when working with a remote team. “When you're just typing to each other it's too easy for tone to be interpreted negatively so you need to be extra careful to be positive,” she adds. Whether you achieve that by using emojis, gifs, or simply making small talk, it’s important to convey a positive tone in all of your interactions. Think of it this way, you need to put an emphasis on positivity in your written communication to replace the smile coworkers would’ve seen had you been working in the same office. Offer perks and in-person opportunities. At Studio 15 I make it a point to research events related to our industry in each of the cities that our team members live and work in, and offer them tickets to events and parties that not only give them access to do things they may not otherwise have access to, but also immerse them into the industry, which is a win-win for everyone. Jamie Lieberman, Founder and Owner of Hashtag Legal, a law firm specializing in online businesses, offers her team a yearly in-person retreat and invests in their continuing education. “I talk to my employees about their goals and I invest in continuing education in subjects that will help them develop skills they are interested in and can benefit the business,” says Lieberman. Utilize time zones to maximize productivity. Being very clear about work expectations, deadlines and management style will go a long way in creating a productive work environment for a remote team. In addition, not only is it important to be considerate of everyone’s time zones, it can actually work in your favor if you line up certain tasks to maximize productivity. For example, my web development team is overseas and therefore they work the opposite hours from those of us in the U.S. So I always ensure our web developers have all new artwork, images, and copy they need for new launches or website updates the day before the roll out. When we get into work the next day, the projects the web team worked on are complete, allowing us to do all the testing and launch the initiative much quicker than if the entire team worked in the same time zone. While it can be challenging to not have the entire team available at the same times, a little preparation can turn this into a positive for both the business and the team. “A huge benefit of remote work is the potential to work your own schedule and have great quality of life. This only works when the rest of your coworkers respect your working hours. Don't ask someone to handle something when it’s after hours for them,” adds Berry. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 30, 2018 at 08:27PM
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6 Mistakes To Avoid In A Job Interview http://bit.ly/2Ti0DFm We often talk about what you should do in an interview, but not about what you shouldn’t. Prepare yourself fully for your next interview by knowing both what to do and what mistakes to avoid making. With that knowledge, you’ll be able to focus on your performance and impress the interviewer. Fidgeting. Fidgeting during an interview projects a lack of confidence. Pay special attention to your body language from the time you greet your interview to the time you leave the room. Make eye contact throughout the interview and keep your legs still. Shifting in your chair a few times is alright, but make sure you aren’t tapping your feet or shuffling around a lot. If you find your hands fidgeting, try folding them together. Not dressing appropriately. The old adage of ‘dress for success’ has a lot of truth to it. Clothing plays a significant role in making a good impression. It’s the first thing you will be judged on in an interview. If you’re unsure of what to wear, business casual is always a good option. Regardless of what you wear, make sure that your appearance is neat. Shirts and pants should be free of wrinkles and shoes should be clean. Not doing your homework. You need to research the company and learn as much as possible before your interview. A couple of key points to focus on are the company culture and important milestones in the company’s history. Make sure to learn the name of your interviewer as well. When you show up well prepared, you show that you’re serious about the job. Complaining about your previous employer. Complaining is always frowned upon in an interview, and complaining about your previous employer is especially troublesome. An interview is not the place to air your grievances. If you left your previous job because you didn’t get along with your manager, talk about how the culture fit wasn’t right or specific challenges you encountered. Try to keep your comments constructive and don’t let things become personal. Forgetting to put your cell phone on silent. You’re in the middle of talking about how you’d be a great fit for the position when your phone starts to ring. This can happen to anyone. While it won’t be a make or break error that would instantly disqualify you from getting the job, it can raise a red flag to the interviewer. It can also distract you and cause you to lose focus or let your nerves take over. Chewing gum. Chewing gum in an interview is an absolute no. Often this is an honest mistake, because you’ve forgotten to spit it out prior to entering the room. Avoid this mistake by having a mint rather than a stick of gum. If chewing gum helps to calm your nerves, set a timer for 15 minutes before the interview to remind you to throw it out. Make these items into a checklist that you go over each and every time you have an interview. Run through it before you leave your house and again on the way to the interview. That way when you arrive at the interview, you can focus solely on your performance and ace it. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 30, 2018 at 06:34PM
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Global 100 Law Firm Nixon Peabody Says Goodbye To The Corner Office http://bit.ly/2F0i2iP When Andrew Glincher, CEO of the Global 100 law firm Nixon Peabody, broke the news to his attorneys in Washington, D.C. that he was remodeling and that everyone’s office was going to be the same size, he got some pushback. “I had a couple of people that didn’t want to give in,” Glincher said “I finally said to them, ‘All of your colleagues are doing this. If you think you need a bigger office than your colleagues, I guess that’s OK.” But Glincher made it clear he was not thrilled with the concession. He informed the recalcitrant space hogs that they would be required to pay the difference each month between what their space was costing the firm and what the smaller uniform spaces were costing. “Nobody took me up on it,” Glincher said of his offer. That was in 2015. Since then, Nixon Peabody has equalized its offices in Los Angeles and in New York City. This January, the firm’s offices in San Francisco and Boston will get the same treatment. Glincher says it’s all about developing a work space that demonstrates the firm’s unique values and culture. “The idea is to send a message: We’re all equal it doesn’t matter what your job is, everybody is treated with the same respect,” Glincher said. “I have the same discussions with the folks in the mail room. It doesn’t make a difference.” In Washington, D.C., the average size of the offices is 140 to 150 square feet. In San Franciso, offices will average about 120 square feet. There are some architectural challenges – beams and other obstacles – but the space is gutted to start from scratch for the best chance to achieve parity among office spaces. Crain’s New York Business noticed Nixon Peabody’s renovation in 2017. The law firm’s office was named one of Crain’s 5 coolest offices in New York for 2018. Crain first described the incredible views of Midtown from the Nixon Peabody space, writing, “Floor-to-ceiling windows offer a 360-degree view of the cityscape, and glass walls allow sunlight to permeate the Perkins & Will-planned digs.” The New York business publication next recognized Glincher’s equal-spaces-for-all approach: “The company also has used its space to break down traditional hierarchal barriers. Corner offices have been eschewed in favor of meeting rooms outfitted with standing desks, and collaboration rooms are scattered throughout to encourage lawyers across disciplines to brainstorm.” Glincher extends his groundbreaking approach to attire, favoring business casual for both men and women. “The clients I’ve served and continue to serve, most of them like the business casual approach,” Glincher said. “If I walked in with a tie, they’d cut it off.” If he’s asked to speak somewhere, Glincher usually dons a suit and tie, but sometimes goes with an open shirt. On Fridays in the summer, it’s blue jeans and a golf shirt for the CEO. “I really try to encourage people to come up with new ideas and do things differently,” Glincher said. “We don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. Giving people freedom has created a much more innovative culture.” Glincher says his approach has resulted in more than transparent offices and casual dress. “If you look at the Top 100 law firms only 30 percent had positive income improvements two years in a row,” he said. “In 2016-2017, we were one of them. You can never point to one thing, but I think a working environment and culture of collaboration are important.”
Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 30, 2018 at 05:22PM
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Beverage Startup Betting Bitters Will Win Over American Palate http://bit.ly/2EXKCQP Four women in Maine with decades of experience in the natural products industry have launched a business based on bitterness. Karen Farrell, 42, one of the partners, explains why they launched Bitter Love in November 2017. Farrell has more than 20 years of experience in retail, sales and marketing. “Bitter Love was born out of the need to change the palate of America,” Farrell said. “Bitter is a functional taste. When you drink something bitter, it has a cascading effect in your body that aids digestion.” The Italians understand bitter, Farrell said. In Italy, you are typically served a bitter drink before you eat your meal. “Bitters are missing in the American diet,” she said. Bitter Love is entirely self-financed and right now has only one full-time employee, Alexandra Noyes, 28, a graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in psychology. Noyes also has an equity stake in the company. Leah Gootkind, 41, has a degree in nutrition, and Taja Dockendorf, 40, owns a marketing and branding firm specific to the national organic category. The partners’ love of bitters also comes from the knowledge that sugar is really bad for you, Farrell added. The company offers three non-alcoholic drinks made of a bitter blend of digestive herbs, sparkling water, and fruit juice, adding up to 40 calories per bottle and, of course, no added sugar. There are three flavors: Tart Cherry, Toasted Pineapple and Peppered Grapefruit. The herbal blend consists of ashwagandha, gentian, ginger, wormwood and artichoke. Farrell, who is also an herbalist, explains that ashwagandha is traditionally used in medicine in India, and helps your body adapt to stress. She describes gentian root as a “classic bitter.” “If you went to a bar right now and had bitters in your cocktail, that’s what you would get,” Farrell said. Wormwood is a digestive bitter, artichoke herb helps with cholesterol and ginger is a “spicy, digestive bitter,” which many people are familiar with. “What we looked at is the standard American diet and what people need,” Farrell said. “You need this beverage to help you digest your mac and cheese.” Dockendorf said she sees the company’s beverages as an everyday drink, regardless of digestive issues. “This is a great drink as a mid-day pick-me-up,” Dockendorf said. “It enlivens the palate and taste buds and quenches that mid-day funk. If something didn’t agree with you it helps to settle the stomach.” Fuller adds, “We want people to drink this instead of drinking a soda. Any time I want a refreshing beverage I can drink this.” Bitter Love is on Amazon.com and in about 135 retailers in New England. The company will launch in New York City’s Fairway Market in January. “Fairway is a specialty retailer focusing on natural and organic foods in Manhattan, New Jersey and Westchester County,” Fuller said. “We’re excited.” Dockendorf said the company is cash positive. The women are hoping to break into Whole Foods, where they got a verbal commitment before Amazon took over, but are still waiting for final approval. “We love what we do in our day jobs,” Dockendorf said. “This is a wonderful extension, something that makes us happy.”
Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/dTEDZf December 30, 2018 at 04:32PM
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Lindsey Graham suggests Trump may have changed his mind on pulling troops out of Syria: 'I think the president's going to finish the job when it comes to ISIS' https://read.bi/2LGqOmp Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
"We are in a pause situation," said Senator Lindsey Graham on pulling out US troops from Syria. After a White House lunch with President Trump, Graham indicated that Trump may have changed his mind on on the highly criticized decision to pull out of Syria. "I think the president's going to finish the job when it comes to ISIS," Graham said. Staying in Syria would be a change from Trump's plan to pull out completely, which he has defended over the last two weeks. Graham told reporters on Sunday afternoon, "He [President Trump] told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we're headed in Syria." Trump's decision earlier this month to order his staff to execute the "full" and "rapid" withdrawal of US military from Syria was met with harsh criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Hours after the announcement, Graham took to the Senate floor to call Trump's decision "dishonorable" and "a stain on the honor of the United States." "We need to keep our troops there. They're inside the ten-yard line in defeating ISIS, but we're not there yet. If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get slaughtered," Graham told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday morning. After meeting with President Trump at a White House lunch, Graham told reporters, "We’re slowing things down in a smart way.” "We still have some differences," Graham acknowledge, "but I will tell you that the president is thinking long and hard about Syria — how to withdraw our forces but at the same time achieve our national security interests." See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://read.bi/1IpULic December 30, 2018 at 04:30PM |
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