patthe
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The collapse in world trade has stopped, but there is no sign of a recovery
WORLD trade has been one of the worst casualties of the global economic slowdown and the source of some particularly startling figures. Towards the end of last year trade all but collapsed. According to the World Bank, the value of exports from a sample of 65 countries accounting for 97% of world trade rose by 20.2% in September, compared with a year earlier. But by November exports were worth 17.3% less than a year earlier, before slumping by a whopping 32.6% in the year to January. In March the managers of South Korea’s Busan port, long one of the world’s busiest, said that it had run out of space to store nearly 32,000 empty containers. The Baltic Dry Index, which measures demand for the ships that transport bulk goods such as iron ore or coal, fell from 11,793 at the end of May last year to a pitiful 663 in early December.
Estimates by the World Trade Organisation suggest that trade volumes will shrink by around a tenth this year. But recent figures from big economies give reasons to hope that the worst of the slump may now be past. Even in May, the value of trade was nearly a third lower than a year earlier. But the recent awful figures mask the fact that exports and imports have held more or less steady since January.
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Month-on-month changes in exports give a better sense of the decline, and these point to a slump in trade that was particularly dramatic at the turn of the year but which has since hit bottom. The World Bank estimates that the value of exports for the 44 large economies (which together account for three-quarters of world trade) plunged by 7.4% in October and then by 15.4% in November, before holding steady in December and then shrinking by another 12.2% in January this year. Since then, however, the value of trade has more or less held steady.
Other indicators have also improved, though they are still well below pre-crisis levels. The Baltic Dry Index has recovered from its pitiful low, creeping back up to 3,345 on July 24th. The monthly import cargo volume at big retail container ports in America exceeded 1m TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) for the first time in four months during May, according to the National Retail Federation.
It is too early, however, to conclude that trade will bounce back. One reason for the rapid fall was that retailers, faced with falling demand, ran down their stocks. With those gone, new orders must be placed to meet demand. This partly explains the end of the collapse. So does the fact that governments have pumped vast sums of money into economies as part of fiscal and monetary expansions. For now, this is propping up global demand for traded goods.
But for a sustainable recovery in trade, global demand has to recover on its own steam. It is not clear where demand might come from. American consumers have lost much of their astonishing appetite for goods ranging from clothes to iPods to computers. American households are now saving 5% of their incomes, up from essentially nothing a year ago. Unemployment in America and elsewhere will continue to rise. The International Labour Organisation estimates that the global jobless tally will increase by between 21m and 50m this year.
More people out of work will mean a further fall in global demand. China's boom (GDP grew by 7.9% in the second quarter) is fuelled by government investment and by the stimulus, not a rise in private consumption. Nor are other consumers stepping in. Without a move towards more private consumption in countries such as Germany and China, the world is in for a prolonged period of slow growth and correspondingly sluggish trade.
Over the past two decades the spread of a global supply chain has allowed trade to grow exceptionally fast, and the benefits have been shared more widely than in earlier eras. Luckily, the more open world trading system which allowed trade to thrive has not collapsed. If open trade survives, trade could recover smartly when the world economy does. But given the fundamental problem of deficient demand still facing the world economy, a recovery in trade is likely to be some time coming.
E
patthe
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Heikki Sorsa joins Bond Outerwear Pro Team.
Heikki Sorsa joins Bond Outerwear Pro Team.
Bond Outerwear is pleased to announce the addition of Heikki Sorsa to it's professional team. Heikki is currently in Mount Hood where he is at High Cascade Snowboard Camp doing his Signature Session with campers from across the world. "To put it simply, I'm stoked! Life is very good right now." said Sorsa Tuesday over one of many Cobra Dogs in beautiful downtown Government Camp, Oregon.
Sorsa has been in the spotlight for his entire career doing everything from the Olympics, to stadium events, to rail contests, to progressive video parts and he is excited to keep doing so with his new setup in the years to come. "Christian and I have known Heikki for a long time now, and to have the opportunity to work together is amazing. We all have a lot of great ideas and are really excited to have him involved with the brand. He will definitely have a hand in shaping it for years to come." added Dan McNamara, co-founder of Bond Outerwear.
Heikki joins TJ Schneider on Bond's professional team. Bond Outerwear ships it's debut season this August to retailers worldwide.
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Bond finds its inspiration in many places. Finding just as much fun on a random trail curb cut, a cat trip, or even the ride to the mountain, we use all of these influences and experiences to help make the most inspired, innovative and unique outerwear possible. Bond utilizes a top down sustainability model in its operations, and is a carbon neutral company.
patthe
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Flexibility Management
In a business context, flexibility can refer to a number of different ideas. Today its most common usage is in the workplace where it refers to such things as flexi-time, variable hours and extended periods of leave. But the word has a longer pedigree in the area of strategy, where it generally refers to a firm’s ability to respond to changes in its environment both rapidly and at low cost. In the (limited) sense that strategy is an unchanging commitment to something, it is the antithesis of flexibility.
A firm’s strategic flexibility depends partly on its liquidity, since its ability to respond speedily is inevitably determined by its access to funds. But more importantly it depends on its organisational structure, on the way in which its various units work with each other, and the freedom they have to take decisions on their own initiative.
The trade-off between flexibility and firmness has been a long-running subject of management discussion. Julian Birkinshaw, a professor at London Business School and author of “The Flexible Firm”, wrote an article in the summer 2004 edition of the Sloan Management Review called “Building Ambidexterity Into an Organisation”. In it he says:
For a company to succeed over the long term it needs to master both adaptability and alignment—an attribute that is sometimes referred to as ambidexterity.
For adaptability, read flexibility; and for alignment, read firmness. The balance between the two, ambidexterity, is a term which Birkinshaw claims was first used in this sense in 1976.
Sumantra Ghoshal (see article) put the dilemma slightly differently. In an article in the Sloan Management Review in autumn 2002 he wrote:
One of the most fundamental and enduring tensions in all but very small companies is between sub-unit autonomy and empowerment on the one hand, and overall organisational integration and cohesion on the other.
Autonomy and cohesion; adaptability and alignment; flexibility and firmness. The words are different though the dilemma remains the same.
For most of the past century, firmness has had the upper hand in corporate strategy. Companies have set themselves on a particular course, and it has taken a huge effort to divert them. A big company, wrote one author at the end of the 1990s, “is a bit like an oil tanker. There is no way it can turn on a sixpence”.
In the 21st century companies have come to value flexibility more and more, and have looked for ways in which they could, indeed, turn on a sixpence. Peter Brabeck, when head of Nestlé, set out at the turn of the 21st century to transform the company from being run “like a supertanker” into being more like an “agile fleet” of vessels, a fleet that called into action different business units to seize different market opportunities as and when they arose.
Some, however, felt that the enthusiasm for flexibility went too far. A senior executive at Yahoo! was reported by the Wall Street Journal in December 2006 as having written an internal memo bewailing the fact that:
We lack a focused cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything to everyone…We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We need to boldly and definitively declare what we are and what we are not.
In his book “Does IT Matter?”, Nicholas G. Carr, an editor at Harvard Business Review, found a compromise. Writing of the future, he said:
Successful companies will therefore work to establish and protect distinctive strategic positions even as they use more temporary competitive advantages as stepping stones to new advantages. They will be, so to speak, flexibly inflexible.
patthe
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Acapulco Gold x Vans Moda Hi Sneakers
Here we present an exclusive look into the second part of Vans’ upcoming East vs. West Pack, which will feature design efforts from Los Angeles-based Crooks & Castles and New York natives Acapulco Gold. This latest installment finds AG working on a pair of the newly developed Moda Hi model, fusing the classic SK8-Hi and more fashion-forward Mountain Edition Hi. The kicks boast a mix of suede and leather uppers on a clean white/green colorway, with various Acapulco Gold details throughout. A release is scheduled for March 2010.patthe
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
SUPRA X DUCT TAPE
Duct tape on sneakers is nothing new (see adidas, Saucony et al for recent examples), but leave it to skate legends Supra to bring the freshest of goods to the stickytape table! The clever designers over at the LA skate brand’s HQ have constructed each shoe with a subtle use of duct tape effect as material rather than a sticky adhesive and it comes up trumps. The Skytop, Skylow and Vaider will all be in stores this week!
patthe
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Sixpack x DC Shoes Double Label Project
DC is pleased to announce its partnership with Lyon based Sixpack France for its latest Double Label™ Project. Featuring men’s premium footwear and apparel, the DC x Sixpack Double Label™ collection marks the most extensive collaborative project to date for the DC brand, and is slated as the first of many that will run over several seasons.
Dubbed “Non Merci”, the Sixpack collection draws from inspirations that cross political borders, embrace impossible love and yet harbor deep feelings. Meaning “no thanks” in French, the translation of “Non Merci” can also be interpreted as “I’m over it.” Two DC LIFE silhouettes, the Xander and Sector 7, are detailed with custom Sixpack patterns and logos, and trimmed with pigskin leathers. Clear soles on both shoes are underlain with the Sixpack designed imagery for the collection - the untouchable blonde model.
The DC x Sixpack Double Label™ collection will be available July 1, 2009 at DC flagship stores and select boutiques worldwide.
patthe
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