Business, finances, forex

Takeover attempt sets up battle between Asian investors in Canadian oil sands

A product with the “Made in the USA” tag is more than a slogan, as it represents the manufacturing capability of the country. And according to an infographic from Standard Textile, US manufacturing drives more innovation than any other sector in the country.

The infographic is titled, “Advanced U.S. Manufacturing: Strengthening Communities and the Economy.” And it points out how quality manufacturing using advanced technologies affects the overall economy and gives US companies a competitive edge.

This competitive edge comes in the form of consumer preference. According to the infographic, 80% prefer products with the “Made in USA” tag. So much so, 60% of Americans said they are willing to pay 10% more for products made in the country.

One of the reasons for this preference is quality. Sixty-six percent of Americans said they associate “Made in the USA” with high quality.

Compared to the US, China had more than double the number of product recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2016 China had 179 and the US 73.

Innovation, Jobs and Investment

Advanced manufacturing in the US is responsible for more than 75% of all private sector R&D, which drives more innovation. These innovations, in turn, create new high paying manufacturing jobs, with an average of $26 per hour.

Overall, US manufacturing employs 8.5% of the workforce with a total of 12.5 million people which include jobs for workers without college degrees.

When it comes to return on investments, manufacturing adds $1.89 for every dollar spent in the sector. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAN) says the total multiplier effect for manufacturing is $3.60 for every $1.00 of value-added output. It goes on to say one manufacturing employee generates another 3.4 workers elsewhere.

Small Business Manufacturing

According to the NAM, the vast majority of manufacturers are small firms. Of the 251,774 manufacturing companies, only 3,813 are large enterprises. In fact, the NAM says three-quarters of the firms have less than 20 employees.

For these small firms, the implementation of new technologies and innovative manufacturing processes are essential for being able to compete globally.

You can look at the rest of the data on the Advanced U.S. Manufacturing: Strengthening Communities and the Economy from Standard Textile below.

Image: Standard Textile

This article, “60% of Americans Would Pay More for Made In America, Report Says (INFOGRAPHIC)” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Moon’s push to phase out atomic power is undermining the sector at home and abroad

Cases of unauthorized persons stealing or accessing sensitive small business data like intellectual property, employees’ personal information or even financial records have been rising.

What’s sad is that when a data breach occurs, companies take an average of 191 days to realize it has happened, according to a recent report highlighted by TekMonks, a global enterprise software development and IT services company.

This slow response to cyber-attacks is alarming. It puts small businesses in a precarious position and demonstrates a dire need for cyber-security awareness and preparedness in every business.

Slow Response to Cyber-Attacks Hurting Small Businesses

“If your firm isn’t top of cybersecurity, you never know when the next attack is coming and what they will steal,” writes TekMonks on its company blog.

In 2017, there was a total of 1,579 publicly disclosed data breaches, adds the software and IT services firm co-headquartered in Toronto, ON, Canada and Chicago, IL, USA, in a neat infographic the company created pointing out alarming cybersecurity facts.

Of the data breaches reported last year, 75% of them were caused by external sources.

A total of 1,946,181,599 records containing personal and other sensitive data were compromised, costing businesses an average of $3.62 million in damages, per TekMonks’ figures. The time cost for businesses was an average of 66 days to fully contain a data breach.

What are you doing to protect your small business from costly data breaches?

Alarming Facts, Data Breach Statistics, and Tips on Cybersecurity – Infographic

Ginni Rometty, president, chair and CEO of IBM, is quoted as saying cyber-crime is the greatest threat to every company in the world. She’s probably right considering that anyone connected to the internet, from top executives to junior employees, are vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

As a small business owner, you need to take steps to protect your business, including implementing secure communication methods, watching out for phishing emails and buying cyber liability insurance. Reports indicate 60 percent of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyber-attack.

Check out TekMonks’ insightful infographic below to learn more about other shocking cybersecurity facts that show why a data breach is such a big threat to your small business.

Image: Tekmonks

This article, “It Takes 191 Days for a Company to Realize There’s Been a Data Breach, Report Says” was first published on Small Business Trends

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A month after announcing the redesign of its Groups platform, LinkedIn unveiled Groups Experiences to build a shared space for professional communities.

LinkedIn Groups Relaunch

On its blog, LinkedIn said the new platform was built from the ground up after hearing how important Groups was for its users. The improvements will bring connectivity, communications, and collaboration tools the company has been developing front and center in the website and app.

The integration of these tools will give the 562 plus million users on LinkedIn more ways to find the resources they need and be part of groups they are interested in.

For small business owners, Groups offers a private space where likeminded individuals with similar industry affiliations can share experiences, new skill sets, developments and more. It is also a valuable resource for finding good candidates for businesses looking to make their next hire.

The New Group Experiences

One of the most requested feedbacks was to have more ways to carry out engaging conversations. Group administrators wanted better ways for their members to communicate and participate with each other.

Group members can now post different types of media such as videos and images to enrich their conversations. And when someone comments on your post, you will be notified so you can respond as soon as possible. The notification also applies anytime users request to join your group.

All of these features can be accessed on the LinkedIn Android and iOS app so you can respond no matter where you are. Group admins can message members, accept a request for joining, or delete posts which are not following group rules from their mobile device.

In addition to these features, LinkedIn said coming soon you will be able to navigate to your groups with less effort, keep the conversation going from your LinkedIn Feed, and discover new groups that match your interests easily.

According to the blog, there will be more features in the coming months including new moderation tools for admins.

The new LinkedIn Groups experience is being rolled out now. Groups will be migrated automatically to the new platform on desktop and mobile.

Image: LinkedIn

This article, “LinkedIn Refresh Creates New Professional Communities for Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

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State ownership would get round some conflicts, but at the cost of imposing others

The journey of an entrepreneur is often filled with depressing lows, debt and doubt, but according to Bloomberg, entrepreneurs who fail find more success the second time around. In fact, a recently published infographic by POUND COFFEE clearly shows that some of the world’s most accomplished entrepreneurs failed at least once, if not multiple times, before blazing the trail to success.

Successful Entrepreneurs Who Failed

Below are a few successful entrepreneurs that failed before they ever succeeded.

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel, billionaire investor and venture capitalist, was Facebook’s first institutional investor and was also one of the PayPal founders. But Thiel also failed as anyone else could ever fail. An early hedge fund he co-founded, Clarium Capital, lost ninety percent of its $7 billion dollars in assets. But failure didn’t stop him. Thiel has gone on to co-found several other startups, including Mithril Capital and Valar Ventures.

Sir James Dyson

Sir James Dyson wasn’t always known as the inventor of a wildly successful home product. Dyson worked on more than 5,000 prototypes that all flopped and failed before finding the right one for his Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington wasn’t always the darling of the online publishing world. Before her publication took off, Huffington was rejected by 36 different book publishers before finally getting her second book accepted for publication. She could have easily given up and moved on, but she didn’t.

Christina Wallace

Before ever becoming the vice president of the Startup Institute, Christina Wallace had to deal with the epic failure of her company – Quincy Apparel. The failure led her to stay in bed depressed for weeks, but she bounced back and used some of the lessons she learned from that failure to help the startup community.

Colonel Sanders

While Colonel Sanders requires no introduction today, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken faced his own bout of failures and rejections. His recipe was reportedly rejected over 1,000 times before a restaurant picked it up. Sanders founded KFC when he was 56 years old.

Below is POUND COFFEE’s complete infographic that features eighteen failures from successful entrepreneurs.

Image: Pound Coffee

This article, “The Epic Business Fails of the World’s Top Entrepreneurs (INFOGRAPHIC)” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Reception to IPO will help shape prospects for rival producers lined up to float

Cologne (Germany) (AFP) – Thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Cologne Saturday as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened one of Europe’s largest mosques at the end of his visit to Germany, with police out in force to manage rival rallies.

The inauguration capped a controversial three-day state visit aimed at repairing frayed ties with Berlin after two years of tensions.

During his stay in Berlin, Erdogan met twice with Angela Merkel for talks, with both leaders signalling their interest in a cautious rapprochement.

But the German chancellor stressed that “deep differences” remained on civil rights and other issues.

Before returning home, Erdogan travelled to the western city of Cologne where several thousand critics turned out to protest everything from Turkey’s record on human rights and press freedom to its treatment of minority Kurds.

At one of the rallies on the bank of the Rhine, demonstrators waved banners reading: “Erdogan not welcome”.

Cansu, a 30-year-old student of Turkish origin, came from Switzerland to join the protest.

“I want to be the voice of people who can’t take to the streets in Turkey. Because they have been arrested, killed or otherwise suppressed,” she told AFP.

“Erdogan thinks anything that differs from his opinion is terrorism.”

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Facebook’s recent string of management disasters continued with the social networking giant reporting a major hack on Friday that affected up to 50 million people.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a call with reporters the company “patched the issue last night and are taking precautionary measures” to avoid any further damage.

The hackers were able to steal from 50 million accounts, so-called access tokens used to keep people logged into Facebook so they don’t have to constantly re-enter their passwords, explained Facebook vice president of product management Guy Rosen. With the access tokens, hackers could take control of a person’s account, effectively allowing them to do things like read personal messages, post comments, and share information with other users.

The attack is different from Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which an academic researcher built an app that gleaned information from Facebook, and then gave the data to a political consulting firm, violating Facebook’s policies. Although Cambridge Analytica employees were alleged to have used Facebook user data to send people personalized messages to influence their political beliefs, the firm never actually controlled Facebook user accounts without their knowledge.

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