Category Archives: Economy

ECS Federal Acquired by On Assignment

Companies, Economy, , ,

In recent news, ECS Federal has been acquired by On Assignment. The deal is said to have come to $775 million and brings On Assignment into the federal market. As Roy Kapani, ECS’ majority owner and founder said,

“This is a terrific outcome for our company, partners and talented employees.”

ECS CEO George Wilson said, “Same strategy, same management team, more resources.”
On Assignment has big plans with the acquisition. They will change their name when the deal finishes to be ASGN Inc. They hope that ECS will become a $1 billion platform by the target date of 2021. ECS will now have access to digital, creative and life sciences; while On Assignment will have access to ECS’s development capabilities and cloud, cyber and artificial intelligence.

The acquisition is an interesting example of a commercial company that is turning its attention to the federal market. As investment banker Jean Stack of Baird explained,
“This is illustrative of strong buyer interest in companies with scale and demonstrated growth, with priority national security customers, and in growth markets like cyber, analytics and IT modernization.”

Alibaba & Malaysia Forming an Interesting Partnership

China, Companies, Economy

Last year, Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak launched an “e-hub” facility. One of their goals was to remove trade barriers for smaller locations and emerging nations. Now, Alibaba plans to set up a traffic control system that would use artificial intelligence for Kuala Lumpur. This would be their first time offering a service of this sort outside of China.

They plan to make live traffic predictions and recommendations by looking at the data they collect from video footage, traffic bureaus, public transportation systems and other locations. The technology will be integrated into 500 inner city cameras by May and Alibaba will work with the state agency Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Kuala Lumpur city council to implement these changes.

A similar system in the Chinese city of Hagnzhou has reported traffic violations with as much as 92% accuracy, an increase in traffic speed of 15%, and an ability for emergency personnel to reach their destinations in half the previous time.

 

 

Hope for the Best and Plan for the Worst in 2018

Economy, , , , ,
Courtesy of Iecs.

The world economy has been booming.  Bloomberg says the world economy is approaching its best year since 2011.

On the other hand, there are always things that can go wrong. Here are a few possible events that could put the brakes on continued, unencumbered growth.

Korea

Though all-out war seems unlikely, other tension can exert serious negative pressure on world economy, mostly because South Korea makes up 2% of the entire world’s gross domestic product.

China

Rapidly rising debt and slow economic growth forced credit rating agencies to downgrade China as an investment opportunity, for the first time in 30 years. The country did announce economic reforms for the coming year, but analysts feel that if the reforms come too late, there could be serious de-stabilization in the Chinese economy.

US Protectionism

Donald Trump’s “America First” policies could backfire and cause our biggest trade partners, especially China to retaliate with some “protectionism” of their own. This could then lead to an unpredictable global business climate and unstable operating costs.

NAFTA

The uncertainty caused by President Trump’s threat to pull out of the North American Trade Agreement, which has been operational since 1994, could disrupt markets, reduce credit growth, and have many other dire consequences to our best trading partners, Mexico and Canada.

European Union

The EU had more economic growth in 2017 than the US, but that is not a guarantee that such a state of affairs will continue. The rise of the far-right in the East, Brexit, immigrants and more can all lead to destabilization and uncertainty in the Eurozone marketplace.

Doug Band of Teneo Discusses the Empowerment of Women in the Business World

Economy, , , , , ,

President of the global strategic advisory firm Teneo, Doug Brand examines the great potential and opportunity empowering women has for the world economy.

Citing a study by Care International, Band asserts that although women are doing 66% of the world’s work (formal and informal) and producing half the world’s food, they are only earning 10% of the world’s income, and own only 1% of the world’s property. Instead of feeling hopeless or helpless about these figures, Band says numbers like this should inspire us to provide more opportunities for the girls and women of the world, not just to improve their lives, but to stimulate entire economies that will benefit all the citizens of the world. The Booz & Co’s Third Billion Index shows that if the employment rates for women were similar to that of men, economic growth around the world could reach an astounding 34%.

In 2005 Band worked with the Clinton administration to create the Clinton Global Initiative. Part of the initiative included women’s issues which are included in the core strategies of a broad range of businesses. Two such ideas prompted by the initiative are WEConnect International and Vital Voices. These programs are designed to bring together an assortment of participants to incorporate more women-owned businesses into corporate supply chains. The goal of the initiative is to increase spending on women-owned businesses by a minimum of $1.5 billion per year by 2018. Such a result would make a great difference on families and economies all over the world.

Band says that efforts to help women attain economic empowerment have been  implemented for decades, and we are now beginning to see some of the positive outcomes. In at least 45 countries around the world there are more girls in secondary school than there are boys. In college women outnumber men in 60 countries worldwide. In the past three decades over 500 million women have entered the workforce, adding significantly to the number of women doing paid work.

Band points out that there is still a lot to do to meet the world economy’s ultimate potential. He believes society is more prepared to meet this challenge now than ever before. We should continue to implement the programs that work, and change the beliefs and attitudes that hold women’s empowerment back.

Inventories Up: Economy Moving Forward

Economy, , ,

June’s data show that US business inventories realized their largest increase in seven months as retailers continue to re-stock at an accelerated pace in reaction to an increase in demand for goods at home.

According to the Commerce Department business inventories climbed by 0.5 percent after an unrevised increase of 0.3 percent in May.

Inventories are considered an important component of the country’s gross domestic product. Retail inventories did even better, rising by 0.6 percent in June and the same percentage in May.

Stock of motor vehicles surged by 0.7 percent after an even higher rise of 1.2 percent in May.

Retail inventories, not including cars, which are included in the calculation for GDP, went up 0.5 percent, up from 0.2 percent in May.

Inventory investment did not have an impact on the 2.6 percent annualized growth rate of the second quarter of this year, after severing off 1.46 percentage points at the beginning of the year.