Every wondered where highly successful leaders get their inspiration? Look no further. Self-made billionaire Richard Branson has overseen more than 60 businesses and he's worth an estimated $5.1 billion, according to Forbes. Branson has a history of sharing his leadership tips. In March, Branson wrote an emotional farewell letter after announcing the closing of the Virgin America brand in 2019. The letter contained three key lessons all business leaders can learn: "Know when to fold 'em, love the journey and stay positive." The serial entrepreneur once again discussed what inspires him to be a great leader in a recent blog post. "At Virgin it's all about putting your people first and having a desire to want to change the world of business for the better," says the billionaire. But the lessons don't end there. The business magnate explains that his company has focused on the "leadership theme" for the month of September. This got him thinking about his favorite quotes from some of the world's most "inspiring change-makers," who run the gamut from historical figures to technological pioneers. Here is the full list of Branson's top 10 quotes on inspiring leadership: 1. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." – Thomas A. Edison 2. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." – Barack Obama 3. "Leadership is not just about giving energy ... it's unleashing other people's energy." – Paul Polman 4. "Inexperience is an asset. Embrace it." – Wendy Kopp 5. "Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services." – Mark Zuckerberg 6. "Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." – Seth Godin 7. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." – Steve Jobs 8. "We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children." – Kofi Annan 9. "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence." – Sheryl Sandberg 10. "Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else." – Sara Blakely
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Hollywood’s legendary playboy Hugh Hefner died of natural causes on Sept. 27, 2017. Known for his love of silk robes, black loafers and Playboy bunnies, the 91-year-old lived much of his life surrounded by beautiful, scantily clad women — and envied by men across the globe.
While the Playboy founder kept a low profile during the final years of his life, he spent decades hosting raucous parties at the Playboy Mansion and setting the bar for a lavish lifestyle that many continue to aspire to or emulate today. His legacy lives on in his genius branding and marketing that solidified his place in media and business history.
In memory of the creator of the original world’s best-selling men’s lifestyle magazine, take a look at Hef’s life and money.
Hugh Hefner Net Worth: $50 Million Hugh Hefner’s net worth might come as a surprise to many because the Playboy Mansion, his long-time Holmby Hills, Calif., home sold for $100 million in 2016. Hef didn’t own the property at the time of the sale, however. Playboy Enterprises held the deed to the 29-room estate, and Hefner had been paying rent. At the time of his death, Hef was paying the new owner, his next-door neighbor Daren Metropoulos, $1 million per year to rent the home. Although the rabbit head logo makes Playboy Enterprises one of the most easily recognized brands in the world, the company that pioneered its famous approach to adult entertainment and licensing now fights to compete in a highly saturated market. Depending on how its brand, holdings and subsidiaries are evaluated, the company has been estimated to be worth between $200 million — when it went private in 2011 — and $500 million, when it was considering a sale in 2015, at which time Hefner owned approximately a one-third stake in the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hefner’s $50 million net worth was accumulated not only through Playboy Enterprises but also through lucrative business deals that furthered his reputation as the ultimate playboy. From his “Little Black Book” and other book royalties to income from his TV show and other companies, Hef’s net worth reflects his business savvy.
At its peak, the company had expanded from being a publisher to a full family of businesses leveraging the Playboy brand for merchandising and other revenue-generators, including a modeling agency, music and film production companies, and a limousine service. As of the day Hefner passed, Playboy Enterprises stock had a share price of $12.69, according to Nasdaq.
Over the years, Hefner appeared as himself in television shows and films, racking up more than 250 credits to his name. One of his most high-profile efforts was reality show “The Girls Next Door,” which chronicled his life in the Playboy Mansion with then-girlfriends Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. Most recently, he appeared in the 2017 documentaries “American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story” and “What Ever Happened to Norma Jeane?”
Hugh Hefner’s Awards and Philanthropy
As a cultural icon, it’s no surprise that Hef has received many awards for his work. Some of his most notable honors include the International Publishing Award from the International Press Directory in 1996, an induction into the Hall of Fame of the American Society of Magazine Editors in 1998 and an honorary induction into the New York Friars Club in 2001. Also a philanthropist, he established the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation in 1964 to assist organizations that support civil rights and civil liberties. He also donated millions to film programs at UCLA and the University of Southern California.
Hugh Hefner’s Wives and Personal Life
At the time of his death, Hef was married to his third wife, Crystal Hefner — the December 2009 Playboy Playmate of the Month. Despite their 60-year age gap, the couple wed in 2012. He was previously married to Kimberley Conrad — the January 1988 Playmate of the Month — from 1989 to 2010, but the couple was estranged for the last 11 years of their union. His first wife, Mildred Williams, was his college sweetheart. They were married from 1949 to 1959. The Playboy legend is survived by four children: daughter Christie and son David from his first marriage and sons Cooper and Marston from his second marriage. By Laura Woods
Along with yesterday’s announcements of a half-dozen new gadgets, including new Echo devices, Amazon also detailed some of Alexa’s new abilities, due to arrive in the near future.
One of the more interesting additions, arriving this fall, is something called “Routines.” Designed primarily for those interested in automating their smart home with simpler commands, routines will allow Alexa users the ability to trigger multiple actions at the same time – like turning off the lights, locking the door, and turning off the television – with a command like, “Alexa, good night.”
The larger idea here is to make controlling smart home devices through Alexa easier by automating several tasks at once. In this sense, Amazon is playing catch-up with Apple whose Home app already supports the idea of “Scenes” – a series of changes to smart home accessories that can be enabled by asking Siri.
But in Amazon’s case, it’s taking the idea of combining tasks a bit further. Instead of only working with smart home devices – like thermostats, lights, smart locks, and other connected devices – Routines can include other actions, like Alexa’s Flash Briefing, or your weather and traffic updates. That means you could create a Routine like “Alexa, good morning” that would switch on your lights, start your connected coffee pot brewing, then give you the latest news via your personalized briefing, and your daily forecast.
The combination of several tasks into a single command is also the first step towards making interacting with Alexa simpler. Instead of having to remember how to launch a skill, or ask for each item you need (news, weather, traffic) as separate voice commands, you’ll be able to use fewer words to kick Alexa into action. That’s something that would make sense to expand even further beyond the smart home in the future.
For example, you should be able to ask about your day and get answers referencing your calendar appointments and meetings, upcoming trips from a travel planner, general reminders, a readout of your messages (like those that came in via Alexa’s messaging system) or social apps, updates on your Amazon shipments, reminders to shop for an upcoming birthday, or other items that you need to hear about on a daily basis, as imported from other skill. Or you could ask Alexa for some “me time,” and have the lights dimmed, the blinds shut, and then a third-party meditation skill launched. With Routines, there’s also a need now for multiple, custom flash briefings – a morning one for important news and stockers, perhaps, and an evening one that’s more entertainment focused, or includes sports updates. Unfortunately, third-party Alexa Skill developers outside the smart home space won’t be able to tap into Routines at this time. But it sounds like that’s something Amazon may consider in the future. “We’ve received positive feedback from our developer community around Routines,” a company spokesperson said, when we asked about its future plans in this space. “As we do with all of our features, we will continue to improve and evolve them over time.” Vague, but promising? The spokesperson also noted that automating the smart home was a “logical first use case” for Routines.
All smart home devices that are compatible with Amazon Alexa will support Routines automatically, without any additional work on the developers’ part, we understand.
When the feature goes live, Alexa users will be able to create Routines using the Alexa companion app. In addition to Routines, Amazon is also improving Groups which will also make it easier to control smart home devices as you’ll no longer need to remember their specific names. To use this option, you’ll place your Echo devices into smart home groups. That way, you’ll be able to use a simpler command like “Alexa, turn on the lights” when you enter the kitchen, instead of “Alexa, turn on the kitchen overhead lamp.” It’s the sort of change that imagines a future where customers have their home blanketed in Alexa-powered devices (some already do, of course.) But with the launches of the new Echo, the smart home-focused Echo Plus, the Echo Spot alarm clock, to complement the existing Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Echo Look, Amazon is making a big bid to be computing platform for the home as well as the control center for all the home’s devices. An updated Alexa Smart Home Skill API is available now for developers looking to support Alexa’s newer smart home experiences, and those to come in the future. However, the new consumer-facing features will not become available until next month, says Amazon.
With the launch of leather goods brand LONB London, former Labelux chief executive Reinhard Mieck and partner Melissa Morris have begun laying the foundations of For the One, a company they hope will become a modern-day version of the age-old luxury conglomerate.
For years, three European conglomerates — LVMH, Kering and Richemont — have dominated the luxury market, with many of their brands reporting double-digit growth even as the category as a whole has all-but-flattened. The benefits of the conglomerate model are clear: sourcing synergies help to reduce costs, a diversified portfolio mitigates risk and, in the best-case scenario, healthy competition between brands leads to product innovation. Others have tried to build groups to one day rival the Big Three. In Italy, there is Renzo Rosso’s OTB Group, which owns Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni and others. In the United States, Coach, Inc. is gathering steam with its acquisition of Stuart Weitzman and a strategy aimed at bringing more likeminded brands into the fold. (Most recently, the company was reportedly in talks to acquire Kate Spade & Co., although the deal has yet to materialise.)
Whether or not any of these entities will transform into serious competitors to Europe’s most powerful luxury conglomerates remains to be seen, but it hasn’t stopped yet another fighter from entering the ring. Reinhard Mieck, the former chief executive of Labelux, and co-founder creative director Melissa Morris are aiming to build a modern-day version of the age-old luxury conglomerate with their two-year-old UK-based venture For the One, a budding group to be made up of newly established, heritage-free labels.
“We've seen this opportunity in the market,” Mieck says. “The industry became too fast; brands and companies are basically forced to constantly bring lots of new products to market, which leaves little time to really consider perfecting the product. This is why we’ve chosen go into timeless luxury goods — and not fashion.” The duo’s first brand, LONB London, has been in development for two years. LONB’s first physical outpost — a 1960s wood-paneled box inspired by vintage Porsches and watches that reflect the masculine, if not male, feeling of the brand — opened at 59 South Audley Street in early April. The collection, which is sold direct-to-consumer only and will be available online at Lonb.com starting April 24, is made up of travel-inspired leather goods for both men and women. The idea for LONB could be boiled down to effortless jetsetting. Different pouches and zip-cases snap together or one can be nestled in another, making it easy to compartmentalise items. A slim attaché clutch, for instance, can be used alone or snapped into a tote or carry-on. The materials and colourways — including smokey greys, browns and maroon — are decidedly anti-fashion but feel less cold than that of a traditional luggage maker. For instance, the signature pattern was finely stippled by a Parisian artist, with six thousand dots making up every diamond. (The brand name — which stands for “Love or Nothing Baby” — appears etched into the diamonds at random.)
“The luxury bags that are well-made lack the functional consideration. On the other side, you have bags that are well-considered functionally, like the Tumi and Samsonites, but they lack the soul and craftsmanship,” Mieck explains. “So we are trying to really marry these together.”
While prices reach well over the thousand-pound mark, Mieck and Morris say that they are considerably lower than they would be if there was a wholesale component to the business. “The three values of the group are customer centricity, perfected craftsmanship and signature aesthetic,” Morris adds. “In LONB’s case, it’s a very specific aesthetic, but for the group, as we create different brands, there might be different codes for the brands.” In some ways, Mieck has been here before. From January 2010 to December 2014, he served as chief executive of Labelux, the short-lived luxury subsidiary of Luxembourg's JAB Holdings, whose portfolio includes Coty (of which it owns a majority stake) as well as several restaurant chains, including Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee as well as Krispy Kreme donuts. At Labelux, Mieck oversaw brands including Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff, as well as Derek Lam, whose namesake founder bought back his label in 2012. In July 2014, JAB announced that it had decided to do away with Labelux and would instead directly manage the brands through the main company, with Mieck exiting as chief executive. “We had completed the mission,” Mieck says of JAB’s strategy. “We had hired industry veterans for all the large brands to lead them forward, and had established a global business service platform providing resources for IT, finance, logistics across the brands.” Mieck’s statements echo those of JAB’s. At the time, the company said that directly managing the luxury brands showed its “increasing commitment to luxury goods as a key pillar in the JAB Holdings portfolio.”
But the move also underscored the challenges of ramping up a luxury goods group. Over the past 30 years, LVMH has assembled more than 70 brands across six different categories. Kering, which entered the luxury goods sector in the late 1990s with an investment in the Gucci Group — of which it had acquired 99.4 percent by 2004 — owns a diverse range of brands, from menswear stalwart Brioni to current growth engines Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. Richemont, which operates apparel companies including Chloé and Alaïa, has long dominated the hard luxury space with its ownership of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget.
Together, these three companies generated 2016 revenues of €61 billion (about $65 billion at current exchange) or about 25 percent of the total global market for personal luxury goods. However, it took decades to grow brands like Louis Vuittonand Gucci into the powerhouses they are today. But Mieck and Morris — who most recently oversaw the women’s team at Belstaff while her partner was leading Labelux — believe that their competitive advantage is a blank slate. “I think it’s important at the start of a new brand to make sure that it has a very clear, very focused vision, with not too many people trying to impact this vision,” Mieck says, who is currently self-funding the venture. “Looking forward, if we’re seeing that we want to fuel the growth by entering new markets, for instance, we will look for capital.” But less capital typically equals slower growth. There is also the added challenge of basing the company in post-Brexit London, where the duo recently relocated from Berlin. A March 2017 report released by the British parliament stated that trade-reliant industries like fashion could face “serious” harm if the UK fails to reach a comprehensive trade agreement with the European Union, where many luxury goods and materials are manufactured and sourced. The UK will also need to establish new trade agreements with other countries outside of the EU. On the other hand, some British-based luxury goods brands, such as Burberry, are currently benefiting from the weak pound.
For Mieck and Morris, the UK was the only choice. “I signed the 10-year lease for the store one day after the Brexit vote,” Mieck says. “London is a city where our customer comes through all the time. It’s a stop off for the global traveller. We believe it’s the right place.”
As for all the other challenges that come with establishing a luxury goods group that could rival the stalwarts? Mieck and Morris plan to push ahead by thinking about luxury differently. For instance, they’re more interested in hotels and experiences than fashion when thinking about what sort of brand they might build next. “It’s very difficult to create the perfect product in a competitive market,” Mieck says. “We decided to do it because we just felt we have a clear inspiration.” Studies On Macau Suggest More Moderately Wealthy Chinese To Travel Abroad Over Next Decade9/26/2017
The growing wave of Chinese tourists will break across the world with unprecedented force and in unexpected ways over the next decade. Some of that future is taking shape in Macau, which will likely remain a bellwether for these emergent trends. That’s the message from a pair of new studies, one peeking over the horizon and one peering deeply into today’s mainland China gambler in Macau.
Investment advisor Sanford Bernstein is issuing a series of reports under the heading of China Abroad, examining the cross-sector impacts of increased outbound Chinese travel. Bernstein’s team of more than a dozen analysts on three continents forecasts that overseas trips from mainland China will grow from 135 million last year to 260 million by 2025, 100 million of those incremental trips to destinations beyond Hong Kong and Macau.
Chinese travelers will spend US$411 billion and remain the world’s largest consumers of luxury goods. After all, Chinese visiting the Hermes flagship store in Paris today seeking a place on the purported secret waiting list for leather goods may not receive their Birkin or Kelly handbag until 2025. Ordering that bag in person, and thus avoiding value added taxes in both France and China, means their trip to Paris is effectively free, or at least feels that way.
Bernstein suggests that China may seek to bring more of that spending home by cutting luxury taxes, a policy sure to find favor with the vast numbers of designer outlets in the mainland. But the sheer number of travelers and the snob appeal of having Gucci loafers from the original Florence shop or a Tiffany necklace from Fifth Avenue, where Holly Golightly or Melania Trump may have tried it on, will ensure China dominates global luxury sales. The real change will be Chinese travelers moving “from the middle cabin to the middle seat,” as Bernstein puts it. Today, Chinese travel beyond Hong Kong and Macau is dominated by ultrahigh net worth consumers, the type who travel business class and wear designer clothes. Bernstein estimates they earn at least four times the US$9,000 average annual income of the top fifth of mainlanders. The new travelers will also come from China’s top income bracket, but at the less wealthy end of that pool.
Macau, which last year registered 20 million mainland arrivals, one in seven of the global total, previews how some of these trends will play out. Morgan Stanley’s annual survey of 1,000 mainland Chinese gamblers in Macau and the U.S., finds that while Macau’s overall number of mainland arrivals has held steady, the number of unique visitors has dramatically increased, from 4.7 million in 2015 to 8.7 million this year.
Even though high rollers are leading Macau’s gaming revenue recovery, the growth in numbers, according to Morgan Stanley analysts led by Praveen Choudhary and Thomas Allen, is coming from the so-called grind mass segment, tourists who gamble, not gamblers who travel, taking advantage of bargain rates on dramatically expanded guest room supply. Retail has also had growth spurt in supply, and, along with the usual luxury suspects, features more fast fashion and even mid-market names like Marks & Spencer. Individual gamblers are visiting Macau less frequently – down from 4.4 trips in 2015 to 2.5 this year – and trying other destinations, a trend Morgan Stanley sees accelerating. However, high end gamblers are the ones most likely going further afield, to Las Vegas, or Australia or Europe, simply because they’re part of that small group that can afford such trips. Even though VIP play is leading Macau’s gaming revenue recovery, Bernstein says mass market play will drive Macau’s growth in the long run, while Morgan Stanley warns of risks to top tier premium mass market gaming. Across the globe, Chinese high rollers will still be there and still matter, but they’ll be swamped by the emerging wave of more moderately rich travelers. The new winners will be destinations that can serve them best, and it will take more than baccarat and Bulgari to win that contest. On September 3rd, hotel heiress Paris Hilton tweeted to her 16 million-plus followers that she was “looking forward to participating in the new @LydianCoinLtd Token,” noting in a hashtag: #ThisIsNotAnAd. It was a high-profile mention for the Signapore-based LydianCoin Pte. Ltd., which aims to raise $100 million through its still-unscheduled token sale. The endorsement was a boon for the little-known firm -- at least until Hilton deleted her tweet a few weeks later. While a $100 million initial coin offering is almost run-of-the-mill these days, the LydianCoin ICO is noteworthy for both what it had—high-power celeb endorsement—and what it lacks. Tokens that might be worth investing in typically represent some sort of technological advance, but LydianCoin itself states that its tokens aren’t much more than a way to pre-pay the company for the services of its parent company, ad tech firm Gravity4. And, like many tokens entering the market, LydianCoin faces uncertainty around which types of tokens the Securities and Exchange Commission might rule to be securities, and thus subject to a raft of SEC regulations. Further complicating matters are the ongoing legal issues facing the head of Gravity4 and LydianCoin, Gurbasksh Chahal — an Indian-American Horatio Alger who sold his first company at age 18 for $40 million (or possibly $25 million). In 2014, he pleaded guilty to abusing his then-girlfriend. Now, he not only faces possible jail time for violating probation — after allegedly kicking another woman — but he is also being sued by at least four former employees for harassment and discrimination. Three of those lawsuits name Gravity4 as a co-defendant, citing harassment in the workplace. Chahal has called the allegations against him “baseless” and “frivolous.” Chahal’s entrance into crypto assets — with or without Hilton’s tweeted endorsement — is part of a new digital gold rush, in which separating real companies from scams and get-rich-quick schemes can be increasingly difficult. Right now crypto is a lightly regulated space in which the foolhardy are going into debt to buy new tokens — a few of which have seen their values rise 1,000- to 5,000-fold since their ICOs, but which carry significant risk. [Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.] According to CoinDesk, all-time funding from ICOs, also called token sales, exceeded $1.8 billion by the end of August, up from $295 million at the start of this year -- and the pace is only quickening. And TokenData, which has catalogued 625 ICOs in 2017 in total, says four closed in January, 15 in April, 65 in August, and by month’s end, 132 will have completed in September. In the frenzy, the savvy and the imprudent are transacting with both visionaries and the unscrupulous. Fundraising on Borrowed Time The video LydianCoin uses to advertise the company shows the highlights of Chahal’s life, from smiling with Barack Obama to sitting on Oprah’s couch to audience applause. What it omits are his mug shots after the tech mogul was arrested twice for alleged violence against women. In 2013, Chahal was caught on video hitting his girlfriend 117 times. After he was charged with 47 felonies, a judge ruled that the video was not admissible as evidence because of how police collected it. In April 2014, Chahal pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of battery and domestic abuse. He was sentenced to three years of probation, along with 25 hours of community service and ordered to attend a domestic violence training program. By October of that year, he was arrested again for violating his probation after another woman alleged that he had kicked her multiple times. A representative for Chahal called the police report on the incident “false” and “baseless.” In August 2016 Chahal was sentenced to a year in jail for violating probation, a ruling he immediately appealed. Now a year later, Chahal is running the LydianCoin launch on borrowed time as he awaits a court decision on the appeal for his probation case. If Chahal fails to win the appeal, he will be taken into custody or have a time arranged for his surrender, a San Francisco District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told Forbes. (Chahal and Gravity4 did not respond to requests for comment.) More Legal Hot Water? According to LydianCoin, owners of the tokens, named for the first civilization to use coins, get exclusive access -- but only for a limited time -- to products under development by Gravity4, including MonaChain, described as “a blockchain-driven anti-ad fraud system,” and MonaBrowse, which will provide an ad-free web browsing experience. But the main purpose of Lydian tokens is to pay for Gravity4’s marketing services and products -- which could be done in, well, dollars. As the LydianCoin white paper puts it, “Why Use Lydian To Purchase Services Available for Purchase with Fiat Currency?” (The response is a bunch of words that do not contain the answer.) Chahal’s personal legal challenges aside, his company is now diving into an area where regulations aren’t entirely clear. The rules around the issuance of digital tokens and when they classify as securities are currently being formulated in the U.S. Those classified as securities would be required to register as such with the SEC and include all proper disclosures for investors. Whether or not Lydian tokens are securities would be determined by a judge – and that would happen only if LydianCoin is ever sued by an investor or the SEC. In July, the SEC issued a report declaring a now-defunct token called DAO tokens securities. Prior to that, in December 2015, it sued Josh Garza, GAW Miners and Zen Miner for a fraud that included an announcement to launch of Paycoin as a way of prolonging their fraud. (The SEC declined to comment about LydianCoin.) What is known as the Howey test is often used to determine whether an offering is a security; it was cited in the SEC’s main guidance thus far on crypto assets -- the July report on DAO tokens. Peter Van Valkenburgh, a lawyer and the research director at cryptocurrency advocacy organization Coin Center who is well-versed in how securities law applies to these new types of assets, said the LydianCoin could meet all four of the Howey test’s prongs, which would classify it as a security. The four prongs are that the offering be (1) an investment of money in (2) a common enterprise (3) where there is an expectation of profits (4) that comes only from the efforts of the promoter or third party. LydianCoin seems to meet these criteria, said Van Valkenburgh, because, “the economic realities of something with promotional materials like LydianCoin is people believe they’re going to get rich based on the efforts of the person selling them the tokens. The purpose of the [LydianCoin] is to raise money by offering this liquid asset. And it is suggested heavily by the marketing materials that the value of the asset will skyrocket relative to the efforts of the third party. And you should buy them now in order to get in on the ground floor.” Lawyer Stephen Palley of Anderson Kill said of the LydianCoin white paper, “They use the word utility token more than once, and the talismanic usage of a word like utility token doesn’t necessarily mean it’s legal.” A utility token is a coin that has a function beyond just speculative value, similar to the way someone purchasing a Manhattan condo is likely to profit from its value going up, but they’re buying it presumably because of its utility as a habitat. “I’m not saying this thing is legal or not illegal,” said Palley. “I’m just saying that using words like utility token doesn’t guarantee anything.” However, maybe because of the risk that it could be deemed security, even compared to other coins, the Lydian token is carefully structured to obtain what is called safe harbor under rule 506 of Regulation D (and the white paper states they are making this offer “in a manner substantially similar” to that exemption). Under Reg D, the issuer makes an offering that would typically be considered an unregistered security but does so in accordance with certain strictures, such as requiring that U.S. buyers be accredited investors with a net worth of over $1 million or an annual income of $200,000. The risk Chahal runs is, if the company fails to comply with all conditions of the safe harbor provision, he could be found to be issuing an unregistered security. The penalties for that could be as little as a few thousand dollars and as severe as 20 years in jail. And someone found issuing an unregistered security could also be required to hand over all profits from the offering. A Bad Deal For Buyers?
Assuming Lydian meets the conditions for safe harbor, what Lydian token purchasers may not realize is that buyers purchasing securities under safe harbor cannot sell them for a year — a fact not mentioned in the Lydian Coin white paper, though it does ask every purchaser to “represent in writing that it is acquiring the Lydian tokens … not with a view to resell or distribute such securities.” Since many token buyers participate in ICOs in order to sell on secondary markets and turn a profit, this restriction could make Lydian unappealing to them. But even for those buying and holding (or “hodling” in Bitcoin parlance), there isn’t an obvious value to the token. “The promo materials are absolutely vague as to the actual underlying purpose or technology or anything to do with the fundamentals of the project,” said Van Valkenburgh. “From looking at the promotional materials, the fairly nonsensical white paper and the personal history of some of the people involved, I would be extremely skeptical about whether there’s any technology here or just an attempt to raise a lot of money off the hype of the ICO bubble.” As Marco Santori, a partner at law firm Cooley who specializes in law concerning blockchain technology but had not read the LydianCoin white paper, said, “Why would I give you my dollar today for the promise of ac hamburger tomorrow, if I can just pay for the hamburger tomorrow?” he said. He also noted that the secondary market for such a token would be rather flat. “If I just sell a gift card at a dollar for a dollar, like store credit, I don’t know what the investment use case is there,” he said. Palley agrees. Noting that purchasers need to provide identification and verification of their accredited investor status to buy tokens, he concludes, “It’s not the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen. What I come back to is I’m just not sure why you need a token to do this.“ If Gravity4 succeeds in raising money this way, it will create $100 million of liability on its books. And if the company’s founder loses his appeal and ends up serving jail time, and Gravity4 has to pay damages in any of the pending employment-related lawsuits, the company’s ability to deliver the services it has already promised could be in question. A Risky Endorsement While Chahal may have nothing to lose by further tarnishing his already besmirched reputation, being associated with LydianCoin might not be a good look for anyone who endorses it. That may be why Hilton ended up deleting the tweet that she said wasn’t a paid advertisement. During the weeks her tweet was up, the exact nature of her relationship with Chahal and Lydian was unclear. (Her team at Miller PR in Los Angeles did not respond to multiple calls and emails from Forbes asking whether Hilton was a brand ambassador or an investor.) But she may have had second thoughts about endorsing any venture by Chahal, a violent criminal whose past was more thoroughly revealed in a Daily Beast article, “Silicon Valley CEO Called Employees the N-Word and Hit Three Women, New Lawsuit Claims,” last week. Plus, as Fortune noted in a story on celebrity-backed ICOs, Hilton and other big-name backers of cryptocurrencies do so at their own legal risk. And considering the possibility that Chahal could serve jail time, the four lawsuits hanging over him and the narrow tightrope the offering may be walking trying to comply with securities law, LydianCoin investors also bear risk, but of a different kind. Article by Forbe
The consumer-goods giant's purchase of Carver Korea will bolster its position in the world’s fourth-largest skincare market.
SEOUL, Korea -- Unilever agreed to buy a South Korean cosmetics maker for €2.27 billion ($2.7 billion) from shareholders including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bain Capital Private Equity, bolstering its position in one of the world’s biggest skincare markets.
Unilever will buy Carver Korea, maker of AHC skincare products, the London- and Amsterdam-based company said in a statement Monday. The company had sales of €321 million last year.
For the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods giant, whose brands include Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Dove soap, the acquisition marks a shift from other recent purchases in niche areas like organic tea and vegan mayonnaise as chief executive officer Paul Polman pursues a commitment to sustainability. The company has also been building up a “prestige” arm within its personal care business, targeting high-end brands founded in developed markets, such as Dermalogica, Ren and Murad.
South Korea is the fourth-largest skincare market in the world and interest in the Asian country’s cosmetics companies has been heating up recently. Bain Capital in April agreed to invest about $816 million in beauty-products maker Hugel Inc. AHC’s products include moisturisers, toners and sun protection.
South Korean cosmetics companies had robust growth in past years, helped by strong Chinese demand, which has weakened recently amid geopolitical disputes in the region. Operating profit of Amorepacific Corp., South Korea’s largest cosmetics company, dropped 58 percent in the second quarter.
Goldman and Bain bought an 80 percent stake in Carver for 430 billion won ($380 million) last year, when the company had earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of €137 million. Last week Unilever agreed to a $900 million asset swap with South African investment company Remgro Ltd. to reorganise its business in that country. Unilever has said investors should expect it to spend between €1 billion and €3 billion on takeovers every 12 months to accelerate its push beyond mainstream products and into healthier or ethically sourced brands. By Thomas Buckley and Jeff Sutherland; additional reporting by Shinhye Kang and Sterling Wong; editors: Eric Pfanner and Thomas Mulier.
British fashion brand Burberry is one of the most recognized luxury clothes labels in the world. Starting in 2006, the company aimed to reinvent itself as an “end to end” digital enterprise. Its strategy was to use Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to boost sales and customer satisfaction.
It does this by asking customers to voluntarily share data through a number of loyalty and reward programs. This information is used to offer personalized recommendations, online and in store. When an identified customer enters a store, sales assistants use tablets to offer buying suggestions based on their customers’ purchase history as well as their social media activity.If Burberry knows that a customer has recently bought a particular coat, for example, then assistants may be encouraged by the app to show them a handbag which is popular with other buyers of the coat.
Products in their 500 stores spread across 50 countries are also fitted with RFID tags which can communicate with shoppers’ mobiles, giving information about how items were produced or recommendations on how they can be worn or used.
This usage of technology and tactics usually confined to online retail in a “bricks and mortar” setting prompted then CEO Angela Ahrendts (now SVP of retail at Apple) to state that “walking through our doors is just like walking into our website”, in 2014. In 2015, the company announced that their investment in personalized customer management programs had resulted in a 50% increase in repeat custom. One specific insight was the impact that product images had on sales of items that performed well in-store but not so well online. By creating new images for products where the data showed this was occurring, the company saw a 100% increase in sales for one particular bag. Cutting edge Always keen to lead the pack rather than follow, Burberry is an earlier adopter of new technology and channels – as well as a vibrant following on social media, the brand was the first in the world to make use of Snapchat’s Snapcode feature. This allows customers to unlock information by scanning barcodes attached to their products.
It was also the first brand to launch its own dedicated channel on Apple Music, with the aim of connecting with customers by promoting British musical talent.
Another innovative engagement initiative allowed customers to appear alongside celebrities in their own personalized version of one of their TV ads, by filming themselves inside in-store booths. Facebook “chatbots” were used for the first time last year, during London Fashion Week, to share information and updates on new products with customers through the social media site’s chat functions. Since then the offering has been expanded to provide customer services, options for browsing and shopping new collections – and even the possibility to book an Uber ride directly to their store, simply by “chatting”. All these initiatives show that the focus of Burberry’s tech transformation is clearly put on building personalized relationships with individual customers – taking techniques pioneered by online retail giants and applying them to the more intimate world of luxury direct marketing.
Cracking down on counterfeits
Burberry is one of the most counterfeited brands in the world, so it makes perfect sense that this is an area where it has already put AI and machine learning technology to work. The brand uses technology provided by Entrupy which is based around image recognition, and capable of determining from one photograph of a tiny section whether or not a product is genuine. It does this through examination of minute details in the texture and weaving, and can reportedly spot a counterfeit with 98% accuracy. This means retailers offering bootleg products can quickly be shut down and brought to justice. Written By Bernard Marr , Forbe 9.4 MILLION PASSENGERS Located at Glasow International Airport. Investors can now buy airport car parking spaces with a UKtitle deed. Buy single spaces from GBP 25,000. Market Value is GBP 30,250. We have a Special offer of 11% NET guaranteed rental income per year for 2 years with no costs. 30 AIRLINES TO 120 DESTINATIONS WORLDWIDE We can arrange a face to face meeting if you wish. We can also assist you further and answer all your questions on email. The purchase can be done electronically via email with out viewing or with our being located in the UK. "The challenge is not to get disrupted with the noise that's out there," says Reto Klauser, the vice president and general manager of Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. Travel cheap, stay chic. It's an unlikely saying coming from the vice president and general manager of Shangri-La Hotel Singapore but Reto Klauser seems to embody it. According to his team, Klauser rides an electric scooter to work everyday, saving on transportation money as well as helping to save the environment. The Swiss national has enjoyed a lifelong career with the swanky hotel group, which set up its first deluxe outpost in Singapore more than 45 years ago. The circa 1971 accommodation recently underwent developments such as the refurbishment and reopening of its Tower Wing, which was overseen by Klauser. The concept by interior designer Ryoichi Niwata, from Japan-based Bond Design Studio, is to bring an oasis indoor. The result is not only contemporary-chic but engaging. A ceiling art installation in the new lobby is unmissable, with thousands of cascading stylised leaves, reminiscent of a tree canopy. There are also 'squashed' sculptures by Korean artist Yi Hwan-Kwon whose works are modelled after real-life children playing in the lobby-garden, one of whom is his own two-year-old kid. The space is obviously catered to both the young and young at heart. Besides its elegant update, Klauser believes that the hotel's customer-centric culture plays a big part in its long success in Singapore. “I think that we have a very deep understanding of the Asian markets," he says. "Plus, we have been successful with marrying foreign visitors with local markets." But with the perpetual influx of travellers, certain expectations grow, making it harder for hotel businesses in Singapore. As a result, some look for new elements to cater to the latest needs. However, Klauser is adamant on simplicity, reliability and consistency — in other words, he regards a normal switch to be far more effective in improving the guest experience today. Also, the hotel's guest rooms provide to-go cups next to your regular glass cups, allowing guests to leave the area with their cup of coffee. Little details such as these are what he believes is truly effective. "The challenge is not to get disrupted with the noise that's out there. And to make sure we remain completely focused on the true needs of our travellers today," he says.
While it is important to be attractive to both millennials and their parents, Klauser states that the key doesn't lie in change but continuity. "We don't want to change the guests we want to attract. We just want to continue to attract." Klauser recounts: "A very prominent businessman in the region regularly stays with us and in recent years, he's been traveling with his son. He told me that his son told him that he really loves Shangri-La. That, for us, is exactly what we want to hear. "So, we're not trying to attract the entire world but we want to be able to understand it." Klauser advises that everyone should be mindful not to become, as he calls it, an "egg-laying and milk-giving wool-pig" — an animal that does everything that it's not supposed to. |
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