BizResearch

Top 500 Islamic financial institutions

The October issue of The Banker presents its second Top 500 Islamic financial institutions (TIFI) listing.  This 2008 report shows that the Sharia-compliant assets of the Top 500 have grown by 27.6% since November last year to reach $639.1bn, continuing the healthy expansion of Islamic institutions of recent years. The 2007 report showed 29.7% annual growth in SCAs, reaching $500.5bn.

This second listing reflects not only critical growth in assets but also important improvement in the level of disclosure. While disclosure still has a long way to go across all types of Islamic financial institutions, the number of firms reporting Sharia-compliant assets rose by 57 to 280 this year.  The key developments in Islamic finance over the past year have been the growth in new institutions, especially Islamic investment banks, in the Gulf and also in London. Institutions such as Noor Islamic Bank in Dubai and Al Hilal Bank in Abu Dhabi, both opening with large capital bases, are providing the new face of Islamic finance. But the influence of this new financial form is spreading well beyond the Middle East and Muslim countries. Not only are there new institutions, such as European Finance House and Gatehouse Bank, setting up in London but HSBC Amanah, the Islamic subsidiary of global giant HSBC, has jumped to 10th place in The Banker's table, from 14th last year, after a significant 56.2% rise in SCAs.

The leading countries remain broadly the same as last year: Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and the UK are the next five in the listing.  Iranian banks dominate the leading positions, accounting for 10 out of the leading 25 institutions, which are led again by Bank Melli Iran, with SCAs of $48.5bn. The big mover among the top players in the report is Kuwait Finance House, which increased its SCAs by a huge 70.3% to $37.2bn to move into second position. Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank moves up into third place with growth of 18.7% to $33.3bn.

This supplement can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement

Alternatively, current London Business School students, faculty, staff and alumni can access the supplement online using Factiva (via the A-Z list of library databases on Portal)

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Sacred Destinations

And the best executive MBA programs in 2008 are..........

London Business School's EMBA-Global with Columbia University was ranked number 13 in the Wall Street Journal's first ever survey of Executive MBA programmes. Working with Management Research Group and Critical Insights, the rankings were based on three components; how a school scored in a survey of EMBA students; how it fared in a survey of companies familiar with EMBA programs; and how well it imparted management and leadership skills identified as crucial in the student and company surveys. The survey questions were specifically designed to measure how well schools do in helping to shape and build strong managers and leaders. The result is a ranking of 26 schools world-wide.
 
The student survey included 4,060 students and recent graduates from 72 executive MBA programs at 53 business schools in nine countries. The survey also asked 455 human-resources and executive-development managers at companies across 23 industries, about the value of the education provided by EMBA programs. More than 200 officials completed the survey, with a response rate of 44%.
 
In order to gauge how well these programs are meeting both employers' and graduates' expectations, the survey also measured what employers wanted out of the programs. For employers it was largely, improved management and leadership skills such as managing change and strategic thinking. Students were asked how well their programs delivered those skills, and their responses were then weighted to arrive at a final score for the 2008 ranking.
 
Click here to read the full article

Inc. 5000 ranking

The September issue of Inc magazine includes the results of The Inc. 5000, an expansion of the annual  Inc. 500 ranking which the magazine first introduced in 1982. The Inc. 5000 offers a comprehensive look at the entrepreneurial activity that’s driving the US economy.  To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2004, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be US-based, privately held, for profit, and independent -- not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies -- as of December 31, 2007 (a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired since that date).  Revenue in 2004 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2007 must have been at least $2 million. Full-time and part-time employees are included in the head count; independent contractors are excluded. The ranking can be viewed by growth, revenue and industry.  The company taking the number one spot in this years ranking is Senior Whole Health, with a three-year growth of 31,525.4%.

Click here to see the full ranking

Alternatively the latest issue of Inc magazine can be found on the magazine rack located on the first floor of the library

InformationWeek 500

The InformationWeek 500, now in its 20th year, identifies companies using technology in innovative ways in order to improve business. Unique among corporate rankings, it spotlights the power of innovation in business technology, rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders. To qualify for the InformationWeek 500 list, a company must have a minimum revenue of $500 million and must demonstrate a pattern of technological, procedural, and organizational innovation. The ranking methodology is based on a proprietary weighting system created by InformationWeek. On average, the companies included in the ranking allocate around 2.8% of their revenue to IT. This means that the average respondent devotes $354 million to IT; approximately half of which is spent on products and services, and one-third on staff. The balance goes to R&D and "everything else."

Even with the current economic conditions these companies are investing huge amounts in technology, spending an average of 39% of their IT budgets on new projects. Web 2.0 is proving to be one of the hottest ideas in technology; this year’s list shows a 70% increase in the use of Web 2.0 collaboration tools such as wikis, blogs, and social networking. Meanwhile, adoption of more tactical technologies, such as WAN optimization has exploded in the past year.

Click here to see the full ranking

Alternatively, the latest issue of InformationWeek can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

Best Global Brands 2008

Interbrand have just released there annual 100 Best Global Brands ranking. The 2008 list sees Coca-Cola retaining the number one spot for the eighth year running. IBM moved up to second place knocking Microsoft down to No.3 and Google moved into the top 10 after ranking at No. 20 last year.

Movement in the Best Global Brands 2008 ranking confirms that the credit crunch is affecting some of the leading financial services brands, with Merrill Lynch (No. 34) and Citi (No. 19) both moving down the list. However, some strong industry leaders have survived such as HSBC (No. 27) and credit card companies such as Visa (a new entrant at No. 100) and American Express (No. 15).  Other brands that fell significantly on the 2008 list are Ford (No. 49) and Gap (No. 77). Some notable newcomers include H&M (No. 22), Thomson Reuters (No. 44), BlackBerry (No. 73), Giorgio Armani (No. 94), Marriott (No. 96), FedEx (No. 99) and Visa (No. 100).

Emerging market growth has had a significant impact on this year’s ranking. Luxury brands are doing particularly well with companies such as Porsche (No. 75), Ferrari (No. 93) and Prada (No. 91), experiencing great success in the world’s emerging markets.

To read the full report click here

The Forbes 400

The latest Forbes 400 list, which brings together America’s wealthiest, sees little movement as the price of admission remains at $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. This years ranking sees Bill Gates retain his place at the top with a net worth of $57 billion. Newcomers include Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking site Facebook, who debuts with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. Sheldon Adelson, casino mogul saw the biggest losses, with his fortune falling by $13 billion in the past 12 months. Two-thirds of the members of The Forbes 400 have fortunes that are entirely self-made, while only 19% of the group inherited their entire fortunes. This year there are 42 women on the list with an average net worth of $4.2 billion, with Oprah Winfrey increasing her wealth from $200 million to $2.7 billion.

In terms of putting the list together, Forbes try to value everything, including stakes in publicly traded and privately held companies, real estate holdings and investments in art, yachts and planes. They also interview employees, competitors, customers, attorneys, ex-spouses and securities analysts and look through Securities & Exchange Commission documents, court records, probate records and newspaper articles.

To see the full list click here

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Leo Reynolds

The Central Europe (CE) Top 500

The Central Europe (CE) Top 500 is a ranking of the 500 largest companies in the region. Compiled by Deloitte, the ranking is based on company revenues. This year sees little change with the energy sector continuing to dominate the ranking. Revenue growth for the companies at the top of the list has been relatively slow, and comes mainly from foreign expansion or acquisitions at home. Meanwhile, the companies from the lower end of the list are reporting higher revenue growth, suggesting that it is the smaller companies which are moving faster to exploit the opportunities the region offers. This could mean big changes in the CE Top 500 as many of these dynamically growing companies move up the list. The table also shows that the region’s private companies are coping better than state-owned enterprises.  However, despite privatisation programmes being carried out in many countries, the share of state-controlled companies in the ranking remains the same. Last year there were 120 state controlled companies and their revenues made up a fifth of those generated by all the companies on the list.

The market overview which accompanies the CE Top 500 shows that Central Europe has managed to avoid many of the after-effects of the sub-prime crisis. Gross domestic product (GDP) in the region grew 6% in 2007 and is expected to reach 5% this year. Strong inflationary pressures are beginning to appear in the wake of rising food and oil prices, but unemployment has fallen, and the scarcity of workers is in fact becoming a serious problem. Indeed, it threatens to undercut one of the region’s former attractions for investors, which was the relatively low cost of its workforce.

The full report and rankings are available from the Deloitte website (pre-registration is required)

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Leo Reynolds

The celebrity 100

The results of the Forbes Celebrity 100 list for 2008 have just been published. The magazine has branded this year's list as the ‘Year of the tween’, as a number of under-18s make their debut. Amongst the new entries is pop star Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana), actor Daniel Radcliffe who played the  Harry Potter character and Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical .

The Celebrity 100 ranking measures two things: money and fame. So not only are earnings taken into consideration but other factors such as media metrics like Google hits, press mentions as compiled by Factiva, TV/radio mentions from Lexis/Nexis and includes the number of times a celebrity appears on the cover of more than 50 consumer magazines. Earnings estimates are for June 2007 to June 2008 and consist of dollars earned solely from entertainment-related income. Management, agent and attorney fees are not deducted.

This year Oprah Winfrey keeps her place at the top of the list, despite weakening television ratings and magazine circulation. J.K. Rowling (9th on the rankings) topped the biggest earner category with $300 million making her the richest author in the world. Not much of a surprise when you take into account her last ever Harry Potter book sold 44 million copies since it was published in July 2007. Actress Angelina Jolie not only made third place in the rankings but took the number one spot in the web rankings category. Coming in 6th, the highest-ranking actor was Johnny Depp earning $72 million last year.

The full ranking is available from the Forbes website

Barrons top 100 independent financial advisers

Barrons magazine have published their annual top 100 US independent financial advisers, as identified by the securities-industry consulting firm Winner's Circle. The ranking process starts with a survey of top securities firms, insurance companies, banks, independent financial advisory practices and other organisations that employ Series-7 registered financial advisers. In order to qualify these firms must promote objective and independent advice using open architecture access to financial products and services. Qualitative criteria used in the rankings includes: professionals with a minimum of seven years financial services experience; acceptable compliance records; and client retention and customer satisfaction reports. Advisers are then quantitatively assessed on their share of the revenues and profits generated. Additional qualitative measures used include: in-depth interviews and discussions with senior management, peers and customers. As individual client portfolio performance varies and is typically un-audited, a heavy emphasis is placed on customer satisfaction and quality of advice.

As much of the data that Winner’s Circle gathers is confidential e.g. advisers’ revenues, they are not included on the table but the table does indicate each adviser’s approach to the business, as well as the size of the firm.  This year John W Rafal from Essex financial Svcs stays at the top for a second year running.

To see the full ranking and commentary are available from the Barron's website

Winning Circle also help to produce the Barron’s top 100 US women financial advisers published in June this year and the Top 100 US financial advisers from brokerages and banks published in April.

 

Environmental markets rankings survey

The summer 2008 issue of Environmental risk (a quarterly supplement to Energy Risk magazine) has published the results of its first Environmental markets rankings survey.  Respondents were asked to vote for their preferred companies covering a range of categories including: emissions; renewables; renewables supply & investment; biofuels; clean technology; carbon sequestration; energy efficiency; and finance. 

Over the past few years green energy markets have become big business, according to New Energy Finance, clean energy projects attracted around £150 billion in investments in 2007.  The World Bank estimated that the cash value of the global carbon trading market in 2007 was $64 billion, up 106% on 2006’s carbon market cash value of $31 billion. That translates to 2.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) traded in 2007, up from 1.7 billion CO2e tonnes traded in 2006

The survey also asked respondents questions on a range of market issues and revealed that the majority (62.4%) believe that concern over climate change is a bigger driver of green investment than high oil prices. Over half the respondents (53%) felt that investor interest in green markets would lessen if public opinion and concern over climate change waned. Emissions trading was identified as the green market that will provide the best return on investment over the next ten years, with energy efficiency coming second, wind power third and clean tech and solar power both fourth.

The full rankings and analysis are available from the magazines website

Alternatively, the summer 2008 issue of Environmental risk can be found with Energy risk magazine, on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr:Jervetson

Asia's best companies

The winners of the annual best management poll for Asian companies can be found in the June issue of Finance Asia

The companies are listed by country and then under the following categories:

best managed, best corporate governance, best investor realtions, most committed to a strong dividend policy, best mid-cap, best small cap, best CFO.

The Libary has a print subscription to this title - you will find it on open access, filed among the journals in the basement.

If you are interested in following the Asian markets use Article Finder in Portal to discover which electronic full text titles we have. We have for example Asian Banker and Asiamoney.

Portal>Library>Top Research Tools>Article Finder

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Fortune Global 500

Fortune magazine have released their annual Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies. Collectively, the giants grew 13% to a staggering $23.6 trillion. Companies must now produce a record $16.7 billion in revenues to make the list. The falling dollar has definitely been an advantage for non-US companies and this year sees the fewest American businesses making the list. That said Wal-Mart, with $379 billion in revenues, stay at the number one spot for a second year running. Staying in second place is Exxon Mobil, who made $40.61 billion, or nearly $78,000 per minute last year, topping its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006. Brazil, Russia and India did well this year thanks to an inflow of cash from oil and mining metals. India’s Tata Steel made is debut (No 315) with $25.7 billion in sales, making it the largest revenue increase (353%) on the list. But this year China has shinned with an unprecedented total of 29 companies on the list, which is as many as Italy, Spain and Australia combined. Twenty companies on the list finished last year in the red including General Motors and Wall Street brokerage firm Merrill Lynch whose subprime mess came in at $23 billion in 2007, causing a $7.8 billion net loss for the year.

The full list is available from the Fortune magazine website

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: mag3737

Asia’s 100 richest families

FinanceAsia magazine have published their annual ranking of Asia’s 100 richest families which this year finds their combined annual dividend income reaching $7.1 billon, a rise of 12.4% over the previous year. The rankings are based on the dividend income streams through the listed companies, with data sourced from annual reports and Bloomberg. As data is only taken from listed companies this does mean that wealth from companies that aren’t listed, or indeed companies that have been voluntarily de-listed is not taken into account. So owners of companies that are profitable but do not pay dividends do not make they way onto the list.

This year’s ranking shows no change at the top, Taiwan’s Wang Yung-Ching, Hong Kong’s Kwok brothers and Li Ka-shing. For the first time ever the top 10 includes three Indian family business leaders (Tata group 4th, Wipro, the cooking oil company 7th and Reliance industries 10th) proving that the ranks of the super wealthy are becoming increasingly more diversified. The top 10 families continue to account for a disproportionate share of dividend payouts, pocketing 40% of the total dividend payout of the entire list. One of the main difficulties in compiling the list is definition of family. For first generation wealth the magazine looks at the tycoon in question, for second, third or fourth generation wealth the family holdings are counted as single block.  The main challenge comes when family businesses splits, for example the Ambani brothers broke up the Reliance business empire which they inherited from their father and since 2006 are ranked separately.

The full rankings are in the latest issue of FinanceAsia which can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

The Top 50 US brands for customer loyalty

The latest WARC report by Stephen Whiteside discusses the results from the Brand Keys’ 2008 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index Rankings. The annual survey, first carried out in 1997, examines consumer’s relationships with 382 brands across 57 different categories. Based on a sample of 26,000 US citizens aged 18-65, split evenly between men and women and drawn from the country’s nine census regions. The survey interviews use psychology-based questions designed to provide an insight into consumer needs, values and brand perceptions and identify brand loyalty based on what consumers actually think, rather than what they say they think. The psychological assessment looks at both consumers’ in-market behaviour and also what they are willing to believe about a brand. The second area of assessment relates to the importance consumers attach to a particular category, and the attributes, benefits and values they attach to it. This helps establish how consumers view a particular category, how they will compare brands, and which brands will attract their loyalty.

This year sees Hertz takes the top spot followed closely by Avis. Online giants Google and Amazon both make the top five, with Yahoo, AOL and MSN also all in the top 30.  Cosmetics and beauty products make up over 20% of the top 50, with Mary Kay and Maybelline the joint most popular brands (sharing sixth position) and Estée Lauder also making the top ten. Beauty products retail chain Sephora also features in the top 50.

Click here to see the 2008 brands listed by category

Current students, faculty and staff can access this report from the WARC database which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases via Portal

Banker's Top 1000 World Banks

With all the speculation about the likelihood of a full-scale global recession this year the annual Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks rankings indicate that the banking industry is far more resilient than crisis headlines suggest. Figures (based around end-2007 results) show a definite slowdown, but certainly not a collapse; aggregate profits dipped $5.5bn overall to $780.8bn, still well above the levels of two years ago. And although aggregate bank profitability (pre-tax profits to Tier 1 capital) suffered, it still hit a 20.0%: down on last year’s record 23.4% but above the 19.9% in the 2005 rankings. And despite the bleak economic picture at the end of 2007, there was still substantial growth in aggregate Tier 1 capital and aggregate total assets as the banking sector across the globe strengthened capital as balance sheets kept expanding.

Citigroup, UBS and some other big banks showed some heavy losses in their 2007 results, this was largely compensated for by banks unaffected by the subprime crisis, especially in Asia.  Taking a closer look at this years rankings, there were 83 new entrants, with China Everbright Bank heading the newcomers. In terms of the fastest movers, 79 banks moved up more than 100 places in the listing led by Nigeria’s Oceanic Bank, which leapt a staggering 565 places to 310th place. The 2008 rankings show that the banking bonanza, which began in 2002, is still alive and kicking.  It also shows that the traditional banking landscape which has been dominated by the US and Europe, is finally shifting

The latest issue of the Banker can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement.

Alternatively, current students, staff, faculty and alumni can access the July issue of the Banker electronically using Factiva, which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Daniel Y Go

Superbrands 2008/2009

Google is Britain’s most popular brand according to the 2008/09 Superbrands rankings. The annual list, which is independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis, defines a superbrand as the following: ‘A Superbrand has established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and tangible advantages over other brands, which (consciously or sub-consciously) customers want and recognise.’  The key stages of the selection process for the ranking are as follows: a comprehensive database of the UK’s leading brands is compiled from a wide range of sources, from sector reports to blogs. From the thousands of brands initially identified, approximately 1,350 brands are short-listed. Next a voluntary council of experts scores this list, with members individually awarding each brand a rating from 1-10. Council members are not allowed to score brands with which they have a direct association or are in direct competition to. The lowest-scoring brands (approximately 50%) are then eliminated. The final stage is a YouGov panel consisting of around 2,200 nationally-representative, UK consumers who are asked to vote on the surviving brands. Of these, the 500 highest ranking brands are awarded ‘Superbrand’ status.

To see the full list click here

Doing Business Project

 The Doing Business Project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 178 countries and selected cities at both subnational and regional level. Economies are ranked using the Ease of Doing Business Index, created by the World Bank.  A country with a high ranking means that the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. This index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The project also produces a number of subnational and regional reports which capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across locations in a single country or region. They provide data on the Ease of Doing Business rankings for each location and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. Selected cities can compare their business regulations with other cities in the country or region and with any of the other countries in the ranking. These reports also identify ongoing reforms and existing good practices. Doing Business data and reports can be downloaded for free from the website. Visitors can also subscribe to email alerts for new features or publications added to the website.

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Design week's Top 100 Consultancies - 2008

According to Design week magazine’s annual Top 100 survey, 2007 turned out be a buoyant period for UK design. The overall fee-income of the top 100 was up 12% to, collectively, £375m, with a high proportion expecting growth of 10% or more for 2008. The average size of consultancies in the Top 100 is bigger this year, and inevitably this has had an affect on the positioning of many of the smaller groups.  For example Uniform and 300million were ranked 98 and 100 in the 2007 rankings, but despite reporting growth of 24 % and 41% respectively, neither made it onto the list this time round. Consultancy firm Imagination continues to dominate the table, retaining their No.1 spot a second year running with fee-income of £31m.  Moving up from 5th position to the No.2 spot is Loewy Group reported 166% growth. If Loewy continues to grow at this rate it could well be challenging Imagination’s position as the largest independent design group next year.

The full list and accompanying articles are available from the Design week website

The Top 100 consultancy survey supplement can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library

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25 most desirable MBA employers

Fortune has just published a list of the 25 most desirable MBA employers for 2008. The list is compiled from an annual survey conducted by Universum, which asks MBA candidates from leading US business schools where they'd most like to work. Results are presented for the population as a whole and then broken down into 4 main categories: location; gender; pay; and industry.

Management consulting and financial services remain popular among MBAs, with 20% seeking work in consulting and 19% in financial services. Among women, companies with recognizable brand names like Apple (ranked no. 3 by women, vs. no. 6 by men), Disney (7 vs. 14), Nike (9 vs. 13), and Starbucks (10 vs. 28) ranked higher. Among men, however, finance and consulting firms like JPMorgan (ranked no. 7 by men, vs. 13 by women) General Electric (8 vs. 16) and Morgan Stanley (10 vs. 19) tended to be more popular. In terms of pay, the survey found that female MBA candidates expect to earn $91,142 and male candidates $98,324. The company to take first place for the second year running is Google. Second and third places went to  management consultant McKinsey & Co., appearing on 15.84% of students' wish lists, and investment bank Goldman Sachs selected by 14.98%.

The full list is available from the Fortune website

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The PEI 50 2008

Private Equity international magazine has just released its second annual PEI 50, a ranking of the fifty largest private equity firms in the world. The ranking is compiled using an apples-to-apples methodology i.e. the amount of private equity direct-investment capital raised or created over the past five years. The list covers a broad range of dedicated private equity investment platforms, from private managers of blind-pool limited partnerships to publicly traded investment firms. There are eleven new entries to this year's list and only one firm that didn’t change position - Carlyle Group still retains the No. 1 spot. Altogether the PEI 50 has raised an aggregate of $810 billion over the past five years, a notable increase from the amount raised in the five-year window ending a year ago.

The ranking, along with profiles of each of the PEI 50 firms and detailed information of the methodology can be found in the May issue, which can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Leo Reynolds

The World's most innovative companies - 2008

This weeks BusinessWeek presents the 2008 BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group ranking of the World's most innovative companies. The 50 companies that make up this annual ranking are companies  that nurture cultures that support, value and encourage creative people in good times and bad. They achieve this by developing a diverse portfolio of projects that helps them weather the bad ideas. The survey participants are drawn from three specific regions: Asia, Europe and North America. This year’s repeat winner is Apple, a company that can boast sales of over 150 million iPods since 2001. The launch of the iPhone has also seen phenomenal success, reaching the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market after only nine months on sale. New entries to this years ranking include the Tata Group. The Mumbai-based conglomerate jumped into sixth place fueled by its $2,500 “Nano” car. The car is the world’s cheapest, thanks partly to a distribution model that sells the auto in kits to entrepreneurs who assemble them for buyers. Also straight in at No.19 is Reliance Industries, the Indian petrochemicals giant who are primarily engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas in India and abroad and also refine and market petrochemical products.

To see the full list click here

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Millward Brown Optimor’s BrandZ Rankings - 2008

The 2008 BrandZ ranking, which identifies the most valuable global brands, has just been released.  The primary research data for the rankings comes from BrandZ, the world’s largest repository of brand equity data.  This data is based on annual studies conducted by Millward Brown, who interview more than one million consumers globally and cover 50,000 brands worldwide.  Both business and consumer brands are included as are predictive metrics of future brand performance. Market performance metrics and financial data were obtained from Datamonitor and Bloomberg respectively.

This year’s results show that once again, Google is the globe's most valuable brand worth an estimated $86.1 billion.  Apple experienced the biggest increase in overall value in the Top 100 over 2007, up $30 billion.  Although US operations dominate the top ten brand rankings, the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) remain a key source of value growth. China now has four entries in this year’s rankings - China Mobile, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and ICBC. Russian mobile phone operator MTS also makes the list, the first brand from the country to do so.

To see the complete BrandZ ranking report with category and regional breakdowns as well as additional analysis click here

Top 75 hedge funds

Barron’s top 75 hedge funds is a ranking of top-performing funds from around the globe that posted strong  returns over a three year period. Excluding funds that invest in a single sector, country or region, criteria for inclusion was a minimum fund size of $300 million in assets. According to Jack Willoughby in his introductory article, playing the short side of the sub-prime mess has been a winning strategy for funds like Passport II Global, Balestra Capital Partners and Whitebox Hedged High Yield. Other winning strategies were related to either commodities and emerging markets or short on specific stocks or markets. With the exception of short-equity strategies and some global macro investments, virtually no hedge-fund plan performed well in the first quarter. The flow of money into hedge funds dropped from $39 billion to $13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. Many funds are imposing restrictions on investor withdrawals but this may not be enough to stem an outflow this year.

The full list can be found in the latest issue of Barron’s, located in the newspaper area on the first floor of the library

Alternatively, the leading article and profiles of some of the top performing fund strategies are available from Factiva (via the A-Z list of library databases in the library area of the Portal)

Africa's top 200 companies 2008

African business magazine have published their annual top African company ranking for 2008. Selecting the criteria for inclusion to the rankings is not without its problems. In a globalised world, base  nationalities of companies are often blurred. For example, should mining giant BHP Billiton, listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange as well as in the UK and Australia, be included on the list?  There is also great difficulty in obtaining information on unlisted companies and the fact that reporting standards across the continent are not standardised makes company information difficult to verify.  In terms of this year’s list, it will probably come as no surprise to see that South African companies dominate, yet there are real signs of progress for the rest of the continent. Nigeria’s banking reforms have pushed its financial services companies up the table and steady growth in North Africa has also seen Egyptian and Moroccan firms break the South African monopoly.

The full list and commentary can be found in the April issue of African business, located in the journals collection in the library basement.

2008 BusinessWeek 50

Business Week has just published the 2008 BusinessWeek 50, a ranking of top performing companies across the 10 sectors that make up the S&P 500.  Companies were ranked using two key metrics: return on investment and sales growth over the past three years, and for financial-service firms, their returns on equity and growth in assets. Given the three-year measurement period for the list, the BusinessWeek 50 includes a number of companies that are riding the crest of different macroeconomic or business cycles, resulting in the 2008 list including seven companies that have benefited from a surge in energy prices, plus ten companies that gained from the housing boom.  Coach, a New York based handbag maker and retailer took the number one spot, with average sales growth of 24% over the last three years while generating a 61% average return on invested capital. The 2008 ranking includes the largest spread of international companies since the list was first published back in 1997.

The full list and company profiles can be found on the BusinessWeek website

Alternatively, the latest issue of BusinessWeek can be found at the library desk.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr:Leo Reynolds

Hoover's Index

The Hoover's Index is a free, monthly index that tracks the leading public and private companies, non-profits and associations that are driving US and international commerce. The ranking is compiled from searches conducted on both Hoover's paid and free web sites, along with general Internet search and advertising data. Instead of relying on gross search volume, the index bases its rankings on a company's movement above or below a 52-week-average for that company's search volume. The index provides business executives, public relations managers, financial analysts and investment professionals with a useful tool for gauging which companies are capturing the interest of the global business community.

The March Index sees the ‘people-focused’ car company Saturn take the number one spot. A subsidiary of General Motors, Saturn makes a range of compact and midsize cars, including the Vue and Outlook compact SUVs, Astra sedan, and Sky roadster. To see the full list click here

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The world’s most admired companies

The Most Admired list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. Working with the Hay Group, using the Fortune Global 500, executives, directors and analysts are asked to rate companies from their own industries on nine criteria, covering investment value to social responsibility. The top 20 is based on a separate vote across all industries, in which all respondents to the survey were asked to rank their top ten firms. A total of 358 companies covering 27 industries were surveyed. Due to an insufficient response rate, the results of 13 companies in the energy industry are not reported. This year sees Apple move up four places to take the number one spot. To see the list in full click here

Alternatively, the latest issue of Fortune magazine can be found at the library desk

The world's billionaires

Forbes magazines's annual ranking of the World's Billionaires sees Bill Gates finally knocked from his No 1 spot after thirteen years by Warren Buffett. No doubt riding on the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, Buffett is worth an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from last year. Following close at  his heels is the Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu now the world's second richest person with a net worth of $60 billion. Still with an estimated fortune of $58 billion don’t feel too sorry for Gates who drops down to the third place. The youngest entry to the rankings is tech's newest golden boy and founder of  Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who at the age of 23  has a net worth of $1.5 billion.

Click here to see the list in full.

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KMWorld 100 companies that matter in knowledge management 2008

So why do these companies matter? Not necessarily because they are the most innovative, but that's a factor. Not because they are ahead of the curve on Enterprise 2.0 initiatives, but that's also a factor.Not because they are the most financially successful (that's not a factor), and not because they have the most efficient marketing engines—that's not a factor either.We have long held that the true essence of knowledge management is an attitude, a single-minded commitment to improvement.
The article will appear in the Volume 17 issue 3 March 2008 issue of KM World which is avaialable on Business Source Complete. (Currently not yet loaded.)

To read the list click here.

The 20 best-paid investment banks

The latest issue of Bloomberg markets unveils the Bloomberg 20, a ranking of the top performing investment banks by deal fees instead of volume. Other rankings include the top fees for M&A, stock and bond underwriting and CDO deals. The issue also highlights the people who make it happen – the five key individual M&A advisers, bond and equity underwriters from the top five banks.

The Bloomberg 20 list is compiled using the fees that investment banks collect for underwriting securities and advising on mergers and acquisitions worldwide. For the equity ranking, fees from both equity and equity-linked securities were included.  The bond ranking included bonds with minimum maturities and minimum no-call periods of 18 months. Municipal bonds were excluded. As M&A fees are rarely disclosed and vary from transaction to transaction, rankings were based on fees disclosed in about 600 M&A transactions going back to 2005.

The latest issue of Bloomberg markets can be found in the finance zone

Commodity rankings survey 2008

The February issue of Energy risk magazine includes the Energy risk/Risk commodity rankings survey results for 2008. Now in its 12th year, it is the industry benchmark for dealers and brokers of energy commodities. The survey polls nearly 2,000 people for their opinion of the best dealers and brokers across 61 categories covering crude oil, oil products, jet fuel, natural gas, coal, electricity, weather, emissions and freight. The survey also covers metal commodities. This year sees Morgan Stanley topping the rankings, while UBS win the metal categories.

The latest edition of Energy risk magazine can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

Campaign magazine's top ad agencies list - 2008

The latest edition of Campaign magazine includes their annual top 100 agencies list. Compilation of the  list is an ongoing process. Three months prior to publication, agencies on the Nielsen Media Research databases are emailed and asked to update their billings and give details of their account moves. Media measured in all the tables include television, display press, radio, cinema and outdoor.  This year Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO retain their number one spot on the above-the-line list, billing £386 million. MediaCom, head the Media agency table, coming close to becoming the first UK media agency to register £1 billion in billings. The supplement includes the full lists plus profiles of the UK’s most influential agencies.

The latest issue of Campaign magazine can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Videocrab

World's most expensive rental markets

Forbes has compiled a list of the top 10 most expensive rental markets, using data from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.  Results were based on 2007 data for rental properties in the class-A market (a unit in a high-end, unfurnished building in a good part of town). The measures are taken at the median level, so as to exclude the costs of premium apartments in areas like London's Belgravia or Central Park in New York. Last year saw Moscow rents jump by 33% when adjusted for the dollar. And in a market that's still relatively cheap, such as Bangalore, India, rents have increased 87% from last year.  Since 2006, monthly rents in Hong Kong, as measured by Mercer, grew from $4,898 to $6,398. In Moscow, rents rose $1,000, and in London they jumped about $900. The second-most expensive rental market on the Continent, behind Geneva, was Paris.

To see the list in full click here.

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100 best companies to work for - 2008 list

Google has retained its No.1 spot in Fortune's latest 100 best companies to work for list. This extensive  employee survey was carried out in conjunction with the Great Place to Work Institute. Out of 1,500 firms across America, 407 companies participated in this year's survey with nearly 100,000 employees completing a 57-question survey. Most of the company's score (two-thirds) is based on the results of the survey, which is sent to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to employee attitudes about the management's credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company's responses to the Institute's culture audit, which includes detailed questions about demographic makeup,  pay and benefit programs, plus a series of open-ended questions about the company's management philosophy, methods of internal communications, opportunities, compensation practices, and diversity efforts. The list is available in full from the Fortune website.

Alternatively, the ranking is available in the latest issue of Fortune magazine, please ask at library desk

Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards 2007

Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards 2007 

Emerald and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) have announced the winners of the Outstanding Doctoral Research Fund Awards 2007.  They received over 100 applications, from all over the world.  The overall quality of the work submitted this year was deemed to be superb by the judges.

This year there were nine subject categories, sponsored by a selection of Emerald’s journals.  The awards were open to those who had completed examination requirements for a Doctoral Award between 1st June 2005 and 1st October 2007.  As the quality of submissions was exceptionally high this year, the judges have had the very difficult task of scrutinising the applications in order to decide upon whom should be conferred a prestigious award.  One overall winner has been selected from each subject category, and a number of Highly Commended and Special Commendations have been bestowed.  The overall winners will receive a cash prize of 1,500 Euros (or currency equivalent), a certificate and an offer of publication in the sponsoring journal, either as a full paper, or an executive summary at the Editor’s discretion. 

Winners include:

• Knowledge Transfer Effectiveness for Knowledge Workers in Virtual Organizations
• Institutional Change in the Transfer of Climate-Friendly Technology
• Measuring the Performance of Voluntary and Community Organisations

Categories are:

Human Resource Management, Information Science, Interdisciplinary Accounting Research, Knowledge Management, Leadership and Organization Development, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Management and Governance, Marketing Strategy, Operations and Production Management,

Click here for a list of the winners and highly commended.

The Global Innovation 1,000 - largest corporate R&D spenders

In the third Global Innovation 1,000 Survey of the world's largest corporate R&D spenders, Booz Allen Hamilton experts found no correlation between how much companies spend on R& D and their innovation success.

Rather, the most successful companies align their innovation efforts with corporate strategy and listen to their customers every step of the way.

Click here to read the full Resilience Report

101 dumbest moments in business

Fortune has chosen the dumbest of the dumb to produce this end of year list.

From the art of extreme understatement to awesome customer (mis)service the list includes companies from all industries. For some amusement and amazement go to:

Fortune 101 Dumbest Moments

Britain's most admired companies: Marks sparkles

The cover feature in the December issue of Management Today proclaims "stellar M&S outshines Tesco in the only poll that matters".

"With the highest score ever, M&S is a worthy winner of our Most Admired.  Behind every successful company there's an admired leader: Rose at M&S, Leahy at Tesco and Murdoch Jnr at BSkyB.  Meanwhile, retailing's on a roll, but telecoms and banking are glum - Northern Rock was shrewdly assessed by its peers.  And it's a poignant farewell to Hanson and ICI ..."

Read the article on the magazine website or read the December 2007 issue in the Library.

The 2008 A-List

Campaign magazine in association with The Talent Business has just released the 2008 A-List, the who’s who in media, marketing and advertising. The list presents mini profiles of each creative, including a brief career history and questions ranging from what was your most humbling experience to favourite technology!

Click here to read the list in full.

Alternatively, the print version of the list can be found on the magazine stand on the first floor of the library.

 

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: dhammza

2007 Top-earning dead celebrities

Forbes magazine published its seventh annual list of the Top-earning dead celebrities at the end of October. The 13 legends have grossed a combined $232 million in the past 12 months.  This year sees Elvis reclaim top spot on the list with his estate generating a staggering $49 million in the past year. Newcomers to the list include Steve McQueen ($6 million) and the "Godfather of Soul" James Brown ($5 million). 

The ful list is available from the magazine's website.

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr:watz

100 most influential women in European finance

The October edition of Brummel (a monthly supplement to the Financial news) presents the top 100 most influential female high-flyers in European finance. The women-only list was compiled in response to the annual FN100 ranking of the most influential people in European capital markets, published by Brummell back in June this year. The list contained only 5 women! Criteria for inclusion is based on the candidate’s influence on the market sector; their leadership skills; and performance over the past year and in their career to date.

The latest edition of Brummel can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library

Alpha releases 2007 fund of funds 50 online

Alpha has announced the results of the 2007 Fund of Funds 50.  Please take this opportunity to view the results at http://www.alphamagazine.com

For a limited time you can view all the rankings by clicking on the read more link in the today section.

In addition you can view the winners of the 2007 Top Hedge Fund Service Providers

The print version of Institutional Investor's Alpha is available in the library.

Forbes 400: the richest people in America

Forbes magazine has just published its 25^th edition of the Forbes 400. This year’s list sees the ‘collective net worth of the nation’s plutocrats rise from $290 billion to $1.54 trillion’. It also shows that nearly half of the new 45 members made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity.

To see the list in full visit the magazine’s website.

The latest issue of Forbes can be found at the library desk. Alternatively, use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access.

Top 100 interactive agencies 2007

The latest issue of New media age magazine includes a supplement listing the top 100 UK interactive agency for 2007. The supplement features profiles of the top agencies, rankings by business size, plus analysis of industry trends, consolidations and acquisitions.

Types of agencies included: marketing agencies specializing in online branding and advertising services for clients; design and build agencies that create and design websites; technical agencies that provide technical and infrastructure services; Media planner/buyer agencies specializing in the planning and buying of interactive campaigns (excluding agencies that focus wholly on search marketing). The agencies are ranked by turnover. The full list available from the magazine’s website.

The latest issue can be found on the magazine stand located on the first floor of the library . Alternatively, use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access.

Alpha magazine announces the top equity trading firms ranking

Alpha’s first-ever top equity trading firms ranking is now live on the web.

The results are being released in stages. Today, Monday, September 24, find out which firms excel in two broad functional areas: Algorithmic Trading and Electronic Trading/Direct Market Access. Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 25, Trading Expertise & Market Knowledge and Traditional Execution will be released. On Wednesday, September 26, Alpha will be unveiling the overall winners. Learn which firms emerge at the top when the responses to all of these areas are combined.

Click here to view the rankings: www.iimagazinerankings.com/alphatrading

This feature will be available on their web site free of charge for a limited time only.

Alternatively, Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine is available in the journals collection in the Library basement.

The 2007 TR35

The Technology Review has just released its seventh annual listing of outstanding innovators under the age of 35. This year the TR35 list were selected from more than 300 submissions by the magazine’s editors in collaboration with a panel of judges from leading organizations such Harvard Medical School, IBM, MIT, Novell, Stanford University, Texas A&M, Wikipedia, and Xerox. The winners have been drawn from the areas of medicine, computing, communications and energy. The TR35 winners are profiled in the Sep/Oct issue of the magazine.

The latest issue of Technology Review can be found in the journals collection located in the library basement. Alternatively, use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access. 

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: genewolf

latest Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey

London Business School is ranked third on the latest Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive Business School Survey, international section.

According to their website, the study "provides a well-rounded understanding of recruiter perceptions towards business school talent, and the characteristics they consider most important when hiring graduates". Included is a diagnostic report on the survey.

View the full results, components, methodologies and previous rankings here: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/services/bschools.asp

World's 100 most powerful women

Forbes magazine has just published its latest list, the World’s 100 most powerful women. For the second year running Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany ranks No.1. China's vice premier, Wu Yi comes in second and Cynthia Carroll, Chief executive for Anglo American comes in seventh representing the UK.

The ranking system is based on women who have crossed certain thresholds, with the majority running companies, governments or nonprofits. A small number are included because they have established ‘power bases’ through other means for example through the entertainment industry. The power ranking score is based on a composite of visibility (measured by press citations) and economic impact. To read the full story and view the rankings visit the Forbes website.

Want to read more? The latest issue of Forbes magazine can be found at the library desk. Alternatively, use Article Finder (available via Portal) to find out which of our databases provides full-text access.

Inc.500 survey

The 26^th annual Inc.500 survey of America’s fastest growing private companies has just been published. Criteria for inclusion was based on revenue growth covering the period 2003-2006, with a minimum revenue of $200,000 for 2003 and $2 million for 2006. Additionally, companies must be privately owned, US-based and not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies (during that survey period).

This year's Inc. 500 forms the top 500 of a new expanded list the Inc.5000, which can be found on Inc.com.

The latest edition of Inc magazine can be found on the magazine stand on the first floor of the library. Alternatively, use Business Source Complete (via the Portal) to read this and other articles from Inc.

 

Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Darren Hester

Barron's 400

Barron’s have just released a new stock index designed to collect the most fundamentally sound and attractively priced stocks. The Barron’s 400 index, which is licensed by Dow Jones Indexes, includes a diversified group of US companies that have scored highest according to fundamentals-related rankings. These rankings are calculated by MarketGrader.com, a Miami-based firm that uses a proprietary formula to rate stocks using a companies' growth profile, profitability and stock valuation.

To read this story in full visit Barron’s online

The latest edition of Barron’s can be found in the Newspaper collection on the first floor of the library. Alternatively, use Factiva (via the Portal) to read this and other articles from Barron’s.