BizResearch

Personal Banking Market Assessment 2012

Extract for Executive Summary

The banking crisis and the subsequent recession have resulted in the personal banking market receiving a great deal of media attention of late, with little of that attention being positive. The current situation and the negative media attention has given bank customers generally very little confidence in the sector, which has affected the way in which it works.

During the mid-2000s, the emphasis was on the expansion of personal banking services, with Internet-based start-ups utilising an era of easy credit and free access to capital in order to set up Internet-only banks. Supermarkets also got in on the act, diversifying into offering financial services products. However, following this period of expansion came the credit crunch and the recession. The global credit markets seized and neither customers nor banks could borrow the money they required. As such, many Internet banks were absorbed into much bigger, longer-standing financial institutions or disbanded altogether and the supermarkets delayed their forays into the personal banking market.

The market continues to be dominated by the ‘big four’ banks (HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Barclays) with the current economic and financial situation making it very difficult for new players to break into the market. Furthermore, despite the financial crisis, consumers generally trust in these larger, longer-established institutions than newer ones when it comes to the deposits held on customers’ behalves. These big four banks have been undergoing a diversification process in order to supply financial services products across the range and best suit their customers’ needs, and continue to assert their dominance on the market.

This report is available to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from Key Note Online which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

Photo from Flickr: ken teegardin http://www.seniorliving.org/

The Happy Planet Index : 2012 Report

Source: New Economics Foundation (UK)

Extract from Executive Summary:

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures what matters. It tells us how well nations are doing in terms of supporting their inhabitants to live good lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future, i.e. sustainable well-being for all.

The third global HPI report reveals that this is largely still an unhappy planet – with both high- and low-income countries facing many challenges on their way to meeting this same overall goal. But it also demonstrates that good lives do not have to cost the Earth – that the countries where well-being is highest are not always the ones that have the biggest environmental impact.

The HPI is one of the first global measures of sustainable well-being. It uses global data on experienced well-being, life expectancy, and Ecological Footprint to generate an index revealing which countries are most efficient at producing long, happy lives for their inhabitants, whilst maintaining the conditions for future generations to do the same....

This year’s results:

• Confirm that we are still not living on a happy planet, with no country achieving high and sustainable well-being and only nine close to doing so.
• Highlight that eight of those nine countries are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Show the highest ranking Western European nation to be Norway in 29th place, just behind New Zealand in 28th place.
• Place the USA in 105th position out of 151 countries.
• Demonstrate how the scores of high-income countries are brought down considerably by their large Ecological Footprints.

Click here to read the full report

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: by seanbjack

Travel Trends 2011

Source: Office for National Statistics

Travel Trends is an annual publication providing trends in overseas travel and tourism, based on interviews on the International Passenger Survey (IPS).

Selected key findings:

• 2011 saw an increase in number of overseas visits both to and from the UK for the first time since 2006.


• Overseas residents made 3.3% more visits to the UK in 2011 compared with 2010 and in total stayed for 3.2% more nights and spent 6.5% more money on these visits.


• UK residents made 2.3% more visits abroad. However, they stayed for 2.0% less nights and spent 0.4% less money on these visits in 2011 compared with 2010.


• Overseas residents made 15.3 million overnight visits to London in 2011, an increase of 584,000 (4.0 per cent) from 2010, and spent an estimated £9.4 billion on visits to the Capital.


• Visits to Europe grew by 3.5% while those to North America grew by 0.4% and those to Other Countries fell by 2.6%


• Holiday visits abroad grew by 1.1%, business visits by 3.1% and those to visit friends or relatives increased by 6.9%.

Click here to read the full report

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Mag3737

Fortune Global 500: the world's largest corporations

Soure: Fortune

Royal Dutch Shell tops the Fortune Global 500, ending Wal-Mart's two-year winning streak. See the full list of the world's largest corporations, including detailed company profiles and contact information.

Fortune is shelved on the first floor of the library.  It is also available electronically to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from Business Source Complete which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: By osde8info

Top 1000 World Banks 2012

Source: The Banker, July 2012

While European banks count the cost of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, China is leading the emerging markets into a new era of banking dominance. But the established markets of the US and Japan should not be forgotten.

It will come as no surprise that 2011 was the year when the eurozone crisis dragged the global banking sector backwards.  Assets and Tier 1 capital in The Banker's Top 1000 World Banks ranking continue to grow, although at a much reduced rate to last year's ranking.  But aggregate profits, which had staged two years of recovery since the financial crisis, reversed by 1%, to stay only just above the $700bn mark.

The Banker is shelved on the second floor of the library.  It is also available electronically to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from Factiva which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: By yuan2003

Private equity 2012 - report from TheCityUK

^{Private Equity 2012}

^{"Global private equity investment was down by 25% to $93bn in the first half of 2012 according to TheCityUK’s Private Equity 2012 report, continuing the decline seen in 2011. Although UK private equity firms saw a similar decline in investments in 2011, buyouts increased to £8bn in the first half of 2012, a 38% increase on the second half of the previous year.}

^{TheCityUK report shows that private equity backed buyouts generated 5.9% of global M&A activity in the first six months of 2012, down from 6.9% in 2011. Recovery in the second half of the year will largely be dependent on stabilisation of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and improved global growth prospects.}

^{The report also provides a regional breakdown of UK deal activity which shows that firms located in London accounted for 44% of all UK investments in 2011, at £2.9bn. The value of deal activity elsewhere in the South-East increased to 17%, from 14% in 2010. Other regions that increased their share of value included the North-West, Scotland, East of England, East Midlands and Wales."}

^{The  report from TheCityUK is available for free. To read it fill in this quick form.}

^{Picture: FlickR:creative commons: by Duncan~}

 

 

 

Power of Curiosity

Source: RSA

Almost every country in the world will face massive energy challenges over the next few decades. In the UK we are already faced with an energy ‘trilemma’ – three important goals that are pulling us in different directions. We need to aggressively reduce carbon emissions, while ensuring that a varied energy supply can reliably meet our energy needs, and we need to achieve this without exacerbating fuel poverty, by keeping energy bills at affordable levels.

In this context, we need fresh insight into energy supply, demand, and efficiency. The challenge is that innovative solutions will need to engage with the complex interplay of technology and behaviour, suggesting that the traditionally technology-led energy sector needs to become more curious about the foibles of human nature, and customers need to become more curious about their interaction with the energy technologies they rely on every day.

Unfortunately, most people are not particularly interested in their relationship to ‘energy’ as such, and a variety of attitude surveys suggest growing levels of ‘green fatigue’. We may think about the issue of ‘energy’ when we notice our gas and electricity bills are getting higher, but our curiosity is rarely piqued while turning up the heating or leaving the lights on.

Perhaps if we better understand the nature of curiosity in general, we might find ways to cultivate curiosity about our shared energy needs, both in the energy industry and the population at large. If we can do that, it may help us spur the kinds of social and technical innovation that are now political, economic and ecological imperatives.

Click here to read the full report

Creative Commons: Flickr: Leonid Mamchenkov

UK: Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications (Finch Group Report)

Source: Research Information Network (UK)

From Executive Summary:

This report tackles the important question of how to achieve better, faster access to research publications for anyone who wants to read or use them. It has been produced by an independent working group made up of representatives of universities, research funders, learned societies, publishers, and libraries. The group’s remit has been to examine how to expand access to the peer-reviewed publications that arise from research undertaken both in the UK and in the rest of the world; and to propose a programme of action to that end.

We have concentrated on journals which publish research results and findings. Virtually all are now published online, and they increasingly include sophisticated navigation, linking and interactive services. Making them freely accessible at the point of use, with minimal if any limitations on how they can be used, offers the potential to reap the full social, economic and cultural benefits that can come from research.

Our aim has been to identify key goals and guiding principles in a period of transition towards wider access. We have sought ways both to accelerate that transition and also to sustain what is valuable in a complex ecology with many different agents and stakeholders. The future development of an effective research communications system is too important to leave to chance. Shifts to enable more people to have ready access to more of the results of research will bring many benefits. But realising those benefits in a sustainable way will require co-ordinated action by funders, universities, researchers, libraries, publishers and others involved in the publication and dissemination of quality-assured research findings.

Click here to read the full report

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: i_m_not_here

A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User – Wave II

Source Online Publishers Association (OPA)

Extract from Press Release

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) has released “A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User – Wave II,” a study unveiling a range of trends on the attitudes and behaviours of tablet users. Accessing content and information was found to be the dominant activity on the device (94%), followed by accessing the internet (67%) and checking email (66%). The study also revealed that tablet users’ primary content-related activities include: watching video (54%), getting weather information (49%), and accessing national news (37%) and entertainment content (36%).

The OPA collaborated with Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. to conduct the study. Magid fielded a nationally-representative online survey of 2,540 people, ages 8 to 64 years old between March 19 and March 26, 2012. The survey found that current US tablet adoption is at 31% in 2012 (74MM tablet users), up from 12% in 2011 (28MM tablet users) and is expected to reach 47% (117MM tablet users) by Q2 2013.

Other key findings from “A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User – Wave II” include:

• Tablets have become embedded in users’ lives with 74% using the device daily and 60% using it several times a day;
• Tablet users spend an average of 13.9 hours per week with their tablets;
• 92% of video watched on the tablet is short form news and entertainment -- which includes sports, weather, news and TV show clips -- followed by 64% viewing user generated content (e.g. YouTube);
• Paid apps account for 23% of all tablet apps downloaded in the past year; and
• The tablet app market has doubled with an estimated $2.6B spent in 2012, up from $1.4B in 2011.

To download a copy of the study’s findings, click here.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: By ebayink

The Cost of Power Generation 2012

Source: Datamonitor

A number of general trends can be identified within the power generation market. These include the steady increase in the use of renewable sources for generation and the potential for much greater use of natural gas. A further trend that seems set to continue over the medium term is the inexorable rise in the cost of electricity, while the future of nuclear power looks increasingly uncertain.

Highlights from report

• Combined cycle gas turbine plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) are the cheapest of the conventional base-load technologies, with an estimated cost of £900–1,000/kW.
• Geothermal power in the UK is relatively expensive at £4,700/kW, whch is partly a reflection of the fact that deep drilling and rock fracturing are required to exploit the resource.
• Offshore wind has an estimated levelized cost of $167/MWh. Solar pV costs fell from $5,879/kW in 2010 to $4,474/kW in 2011.

This report is available to Current London Business School students, faculty and staff from Datamonitor 360 which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases within Portal

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: www.TheEnvironmentalBlog.org

Insurance Industry 2012

Source: Key Note

Executive Summary

This Key Note Market Report examines the market for insurance in the UK, focusing on both the general insurance and long-term insurance sectors. The market for insurance has experienced prolonged difficulties of late, with some significant declines in value witnessed in recent years. The market contracted year-on-year between 2007 and 2010, and Key Note is predicting that a further decline in value will be seen in 2011, when the market is expected to have fallen by a further 0.7% from £144.6bn in 2010 to an estimated £143.63bn in 2011.

The long-term insurance sector has been hit the hardest, and much of the decline in the industry’s value is down to the value of the long-term insurance sector falling from £185.38bn in 2007 to £108.42bn in 2011, an overall fall of 41.5%. The occupational pensions sector is the largest subsector of long-term insurance and this has been hit particularly hard by the recession, mostly due to the high levels of unemployment, meaning so many fewer workers are part of such schemes. Income protection insurance and annuities have also fallen fairly considerably from their 2009 peak.

Although the general insurance sector declined in value between 2007 and 2009, growth returned in 2010 and Key Note is predicting further growth in 2011, when the sector will grow by 3.2% from £34.12bn to £35.22bn. The rising cost of car insurance, the largest subsector of the general insurance sector, is a major driving factor behind the increase. Growth in motor insurance was strong in 2010 and Key Note is predicting stronger growth for 2011. More modest increases were also seen in the accident and health subsector, and in private medical insurance, which was more than enough to offset declines seen in general liability and property insurance.

This report is available to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from Key Note Online which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal.

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: By jasleen_kaur

Global Private Equity Report 2012

Source: Bain & Company

As 2012 began, the outlook for private equity was shrouded in uncertainty: Buyers and sellers finding it hard to agree on value. Anemic exit markets. Ominous signs for fund-raising. An industry awash in commitments, with nearly $1 trillion in dry powder. Almost $2 trillion worth of assets still on general partners’ books, more than 75% of them valued below carry hurdle rates.

But as we show in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2012, the contours of a new future for PE are finally coming into sharp focus. In this report, we explain the new realities and describe what PE firms that want to continue to produce top-tier returns will need to do to prepare.

This report provides a timely look at every major aspect of private equity, with fresh data and insights from surveys and interviews with leading industry insiders. We also bring to bear the experience and judgment that Bain & Company derives from its unparalleled position as the leading adviser to the private equity industry and its stakeholders

Click here to download the report (Pre-registration required)

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Mytudut

What do CEOs Do?

Source: Centre for Economic Performance

CEP Discussion Paper No 1145

Abstract: We develop a methodology to collect and analyze data on CEOs’ time use. The idea - sketched out in a simple theoretical set-up - is that CEO time is a scarce resource and its allocation can help us identify the firm’s priorities as well as the presence of governance issues. We follow 94 CEOs of top-600 Italian firms over a pre-specified week and record the time devoted each day to different work activities. We focus on the distinction between time spent with insiders (employees of the firm) and outsiders (people not employed by the firm). Individual CEOs differ systematically in how much time they spend at work and in how much time they devote to insiders vs. outsiders. We analyze the correlation between time use, managerial effort, quality of governance and firm performance, and interpret the empirical findings within two versions of our model, one with effective and one with imperfect corporate governance. The patterns we observe are consistent with the hypothesis that time spent with outsiders is on average less beneficial to the firm and more beneficial to the CEO and that the CEO spends more time with outsiders when governance is poor.

Click here for the full report

World of Work Report 2012

Source: ILO (International Labour Organization)

The World of Work Report 2012 provides a comprehensive analysis of recent labour market and social trends, assesses risks of social unrest and presents employment projections for the next five years. The report emphasizes that while employment has begun to recover slowly, job quality is deteriorating and there is a growing sense of unfairness. Moreover, given the pressure on governments to rein in expenditure, policy efforts have focused on structural reforms to boost employment creation. However, if policy instruments are not carefully designed, they could exacerbate the employment situation and aggravate further equity concerns, with potentially long-lasting adverse consequences for both the economy and society.

The report addresses the following questions:

• To what extent has the slow recovery aggravated social conditions, including falling incomes, deepening poverty and worsening inequality?
• Have countries gone too far, too fast with fiscal consolidation? How should they support recovery while meeting fiscal goals in the medium term?
• What can be expected from recent labour market reforms?
• How can investment be boosted so as to ensure a long-lasting recovery in both the economy and jobs?
• What have been the barriers to implementing a more job-centred and equity-enhancing policy approach?
• Why has the business-as-usual scenario maintained its centrality despite the increasing risk of social unrest?

This report calls for a carefully designed policy approach that takes into consideration the urgent need to create quality jobs while at the same time laying the ground for a more productive, fairer economy and labour market.

Click here to read the full report

Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Rob Brewer

The @Work State of Mind Project: Engaging the Most Engaged

Source: Forbes Insights

Summary: The @Work State of Mind means that most global business decision makers are on, irrespective of time or location. Reaching them successfully requires an understanding of more than how they blur the lines between work and personal time in terms of their usage of technological devices, time slots or locations. To communicate with @Work State of Mind decision makers, it’s imperative to understand their motivations, emotional attitudes and levels of satisfaction with round-the-clock, all-device messaging. This report was designed to explore the new @Work world and start a conversation about devising the most effective messaging.

For this study, Forbes Insights, in association with gyro, the global ideas shop, surveyed 543 executives and conducted dozens of one-on-one interviews. Respondents described themselves as decision makers, with most focused on business operations and strategy. Forty-seven percent worked for companies with revenues of more than $1 billion, including the single largest grouping (19%), who worked for firms with revenues above $10 billion. The geographic breakdown included 316 respondents in the US, 105 in the U.K. and 122 in Continental Europe.

Click here to download the study (registration required)

Photo from Creative Common: Flickr: Jeni Rodger