Posts published in “Asides”

The clean-energy utility has surpassed ExxonMobil in market capitalisaion—and shows no signs of slowingTO MANY INVESTORS, backing an American oil company looks only slightly shrewder than stuffing cash in a blender. Facing covid-19 and old concerns over low returns, the industry is scrambling to boost efficiency. On October 19th ConocoPhillips said it would pay $9.7bn…

A Italian staple is a pandemic favouriteSUPERMARKET SHELVES stripped bare by stockpilers were familiar scenes as anxious shoppers loaded up with toilet rolls and pasta when lockdowns were first imposed. The taste for long-lasting dried food has been a boon for Italy, a country in deep recession. Although Italians remain the biggest eaters of pasta…

The new boss deserves credit for largely sticking with a successful strategyCHRIS KEMPCZINSKI is anything but supersized. One year into his tenure, the CEO of McDonald’s is a lean-framed 52-year-old who runs marathons. Hard to believe, then, that he eats a McDonald’s meal twice a day, five days a week. “There are days when I’m…

HERE IS A test. Assign a score of 1 to 5, where 1 is “strongly agree” and 5 is “strongly disagree”, to the following statement: “I really care about my work.” If you have answered that kind of question before, you have probably applied for a job at a large company. Psychometric tests, as they…

The death of its patriarch leaves South Korea’s biggest conglomerate with familiar challengesIN THE SPRING of 1995 word got to Lee Kun-hee that a batch of Samsung’s brand-new mobile phones, which it had doled out as new-year gifts, did not work. Incensed, the group’s chairman ordered employees at the factory that had made the offending…