In April 2023, the long-anticipated new and modernized PERM Form 9089 was introduced to the public by the U.S. Department of Labor, Foreign Labor Certification (FLC) unit. The PERM process permits an employer to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States. The FLC unit held two webinars on April 19 and April 20 to provide information on the changes to the form and instructions on how to fill out the new PERM applications. The recordings of these webinars are available on the DOL’s webpage.

Petitioners and their attorneys can start filing PERM Applications using the new forms on June 1, 2023, through the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) portal, which is also used for filing Labor Condition Applications (LCA) for H-1B petitions and wage requests for PERM, H-2A, H-2B and CW-1 petitions. The sunset date for filing PERM Applications through the legacy PERM portal system is May 31, 2023.

By Tasneem Zaman via Littler

Read full article

Brazil’s economy likely surged back to growth in the first quarter of the year, powered by record-breaking crops and solid crude oil output that more than offset the drag of subdued manufacturing activity, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

Strong exports by commodities-producing sectors were seen adding to resilient private consumption in lifting gross domestic product (GDP), despite the negative effects of high interest rates and a worrying rise in government debt.

GDP is forecast to increase 1.3% in January-March over the fourth quarter, after a 0.2% contraction in the last three months of 2022, according to the median estimate of 18 forecasts taken between May 24 and 30. The data is due on Thursday.

By Gabriel Burin via Reuters

Read full article

A decline in labour growth and expected fall in the working age population will be a drag on emerging economies already suffering from fading growth prospects, BlackRock’s Global Head of Emerging Markets Amer Bisat told Reuters.

Global population growth over the past five decades fuelled a surge in labour and a rapid increase in gross domestic product in many emerging economies but Bisat said demographics were no longer a boon for the countries.

The changing demographics come against a backdrop of higher global interest rates and levels of debt which add to pressure on developing economies, with capital accumulation in emerging markets set to be “tough”, said Bisat, who leads a team managing approximately $35 billion at the world’s largest asset manager.

By Jorgelina Do Rosario and Karin Strohecker via Reuters

Read full article

Former Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes is preparing to launch a “green” investment fund along with prominent bankers and other members of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The fund is expected to launch in July, the sources said, aiming to attract domestic and international investments in Brazil’s energy transition, natural resource preservation and industries tied to renewable energy sources.

The new government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has prioritized green economic development and stewardship of the Amazon rainforest after Bolsonaro faced global criticism for overseeing a surge in deforestation and illegal mining.

By Marcela Ayres via Reuters

Read full article

No mês do orgulho LGBTI+, levantamento HRC Equidade BR certifica 57 empresas com base em políticas, compromissos públicos e ações para a inclusão

Às vésperas de junho, mês do orgulho LGBTQIA+, a HRC (Human Rights Campaign), em parceria com o Instituto Mais Diversidade e o Fórum de Empresas e Direitos LGBTI+, divulga a segunda edição do ranking Equidade BR, com as melhores empresas para profissionais LGBTQIA+ trabalharem no Brasil.

Na primeira edição, 38 empresas foram reconhecidas entre as 60 participantes. Nesta segunda edição, houve um aumento de pouco mais de 50% na participação, com 91 empresas participantes e 57 reconhecidas, que obtiveram a pontuação máxima da pesquisa.

Entre as certificadas este ano, 18% são do setor de tecnologia, 16%, de consultoria, gestão e serviços e 11%, financeiro.

By Redação via Forbes Brasil

Read full article

Brazilian banks are being asked to meet minimum information requirements to help combat illegal deforestation when offering credit lines to meat processors, the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) said on Tuesday.

The group said the move is tied to rules approved by its self-regulation council to foster “sustainable finance” in Brazil, the world’s biggest beef exporter.

Banks that agree to participate in the scheme will be required to ask meat processors in the legal Amazon and Maranhao regions to implement a traceability and monitoring system that will allow them to demonstrate by December 2025 that their cattle purchases don’t come from areas of illegal deforestation.

By Paula Arend Laier via Reuters

Read full article

Mon – Fri, May 29 – Jun 2, 2023 5:00 PM BRT (4:00 PM ET)

Na 1ª Semana da Sustentabilidade da PwC Brasil, vamos aprofundar a conversa sobre esse e outros temas  importantes que transformam a nossa sociedade, nosso dia a dia, e que impactam cada vez mais os negócios.

 

Program:

29.05 às 17h00 | PwC |  Transição energética: tendências e desafios

Speakers: Célio Fernando, Economista e Vice-presidente da Apimec Brasil e secretário-executivo de Regionalização e Modernização da Casa Civil do Governo do Estado do Ceara; João Marques da Cruz, CEO da EDP; Solange Ribeiro, Vice-Presidente da Neoenergia e Vice-presidente do Conselho do Pacto Global das Nações Unidas

Com Adriano Correia (sócio, PwC) Link de inscrição

30.05 às 17h00 | PwC |  Relatórios de sustentabilidade: ferramenta para estratégia e compliance regulatório

Speakers: Priscila Grecco, CFO Itaúsa; Rafaella Dortas, Diretora Executiva responsável por ESG no BTG Pactual, Ariane Ramalho, Gerente PwC, especialista em Sustentabilidade

Com Maurício Colombari (sócio, PwC) Link de inscrição

31.05 às 17h00 | PwC |  Desafios da logística reversa no contexto atual e futuro da política nacional de resíduos sólidos

Speakers: Gui Brammer, Fundador da Boomera Ambipar, Tamiris Benassi, Gerente sênior PwC especialista em Sustentabilidade e ESG

Com Rodrigo Damiano (sócio, PwC) Link de inscrição

01.06 às 17h00 |  Inovações e tecnologias no processo de descarbonização no agronegócio

Speakers: Mônica Hirsch de Melo Alcântara, Head de ESG na Agrogalaxy; Bruna Dias, Gerente PwC, especialista em Sustentabilidade; Fábio Passos, Diretor LatAm do programa Pro Carbono da Bayer

Com Mauricio Moraes (sócio, PwC) Link de inscrição

02.06 às 17h00 |  Justiça climática: elemento central do desenvolvimento social

Speakers: Marcelo Rocha, Diretor Executivo do Instituto Ayika; Juliana Sá, especialista em Sustentabilidade Empresarial

Com Leandro Ardito (sócio, PwC) Link de inscrição

Brazil’s government said on Friday the United Nations has confirmed the Amazonian city of Belem as the host of the COP30 climate change summit in November 2025.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made the announcement in a video alongside his foreign relations minister and the governor of Para state, where Belem is located.

“I’m convinced it is going to be a great event,” said Lula, who had previously pledged to try to bring the U.N. climate talks to a city in the world’s largest rainforest.

Via Reuters

Read full article

Private economists in Brazil have lowered their expectation for the country’s inflation index, with a new central bank survey on Monday showing they now forecast it to hit 5.80% at the end of this year.

The new median forecast comes down from 6.03% in the previous week and might ease some concern from policymakers, who have highlighted rising inflation expectations as one of the reasons for high interest rates in the country.

Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told reporters after the poll was released that market forecasts were now “in line” with projections from the ministry’s economic policy secretariat.

Via Reuters

Read full article

The U.S. Embassy in Brasília, Brazil, published a video teaching the “importance” of using gender-neutral pronouns, including “xe/xem” and “ze/hir.”

The video was posted to the Embassy’s social media on Wednesday for the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The video description said there is a “range of gender identities beyond male and female” and that it is not possible to know a person’s gender based on appearance.

The speaker in the video, who said his name is Mark, noted that his pronouns are he and him before explaining why people should not assume someone else’s pronouns.

By Landon Mion via Fox News

Read full article

Brazil’s government created on Wednesday an interministerial committee to develop a framework for issuing “sustainable sovereign bonds” aiming to launch a bond later this year.

These new bonds will be “instruments of public debt backed by federal government budget allocations for sustainable development,” including actions and projects related to environmental and social themes, according to the Finance Ministry.

While there is no specific date for the framework’s release, the ministry expects the process to be completed in time for sustainable bonds to be issued later this year, it said in a statement.

Via Reuters

Read full article

A measure of debt across the globe rose in the first quarter to almost $305 trillion, and the rising cost to service that debt is triggering concern about the financial system’s leverage, a widely tracked study showed.

The Institute of International Finance, a financial services trade group, said on Wednesday global debt rose by $8.3 trillion in the first three months of this year compared to the end of 2022 to $304.9 trillion, the highest since the first quarter of last year and second-highest quarterly reading ever.

“Global debt is now $45 trillion higher than its pre-pandemic level and is expected to continue increasing rapidly,” said the IIF in its quarterly Global Debt Monitor.

By Rodrigo Campos via Reuters

Read full article

The world is now likely to breach a key climate threshold for the first time within the next five years, according to the World Meteorological Organization, due to a combination of heat-trapping pollution and a looming El Niño.

Global temperatures have soared in recent years as the world continues to burn planet-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. And that trend shows no sign of slowing. In its annual climate update, the WMO said that between 2023 and 2027, there is now a 66% chance that the planet’s temperature will climb above 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.

As temperatures surge, there is also a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years – and the five-year period as a whole – will be the warmest on record for the planet, the WMO reported.

By Laura Paddison and Jessie Gretener via CNN

Read full article

 

Brazil’s retail sales smashed market estimates in March, growing more than the highest forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, in a positive reading for the country’s broader first-quarter economic performance despite high interest rates.

Retail sales rose 0.8% in the month compared with February, data from statistics agency IBGE showed on Wednesday, largely beating consensus of a 0.8% drop in a Reuters poll of 13 economists, which had a 0.2% gain as maximum expectation.

Via Reuters

Read full article

More than 1,000 new business books are released each month in the United States alone. The good ones represent original contributions to theory and practice or provide meaningful extensions or applications of those theories and practices. The others tend to present recycled and superficial treatments of those original contributions. So how can you ensure not only that you’re reading a book that’s worth your time, but that you’re getting the most out of that time? The author presents eight ways to allocate your reading time to your greatest advantage through careful selection based on need, triaging the mode of consumption, and harvesting the takeaways for application.

Reading a business book is an exercise in efficiency, not literary aesthetics. You’re trying to maximize the return on time invested. For the executive, time allocation is as important as capital allocation. So, in approaching any business book, there are two goals: First, determining if the book can help you do your job; second, figuring out the quickest way to extract that value. In writing several business books — and reading more than I can count — I’ve found that, for books worth reading, the process consists of three steps: compression, absorption, and application.

By Timothy R. Clark via Harvard Business Review

Read full article

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras approved a new fuel pricing policy for gasoline and diesel that will sharply lower costs for motorists, it announced on Tuesday, ditching a more market-based policy in favor of greater flexibility to smooth price swings.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva celebrated the new policy for Brazil’s millions of motorists in a post on social media later on Tuesday, declaring it “a victory for the people.”

The new pricing system scraps a so-called fuel import parity policy that more closely aligned prices at the pump with the oil market and exchange rates. Lula, as the leftist leader is known, had promised to change that to make fuel cheaper.

By Gabriel Araujo and Marta Nogueira via Reuters

Read full article

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said it “strongly supports” Brazil’s efforts to improve the country’s fiscal position, while also commending the country’s “ambitious agenda” to have a sustainable, inclusive, and green economy.

“Enhancing Brazil’s fiscal framework, broadening the tax base, and tackling spending rigidities would support sustainability and credibility,” the leader of an annual mission to the country, Ana Corbacho, said in a statement after the Fund’s visit.

Brazil’s finance ministry in late March unveiled new fiscal rules to balance limits on spending growth under the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to boost social programs and public investment.

By Brendan O’Boyle and Carolina Pulice Via Reuters

Read full article

Experiência de um curto período sabático na Universidade de Columbia em Nova York

Por sugestão de colegas da Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce N.Y. repasso aos demais membros minha visão sobre as vantagens que tal período pode proporcionar a uma Empresa que busque preparar seus executivos para uma boa entrada na arena internacional de negócios. Trata-se de meu estágio como “Visiting Scholar” no “Center on Global Economic Governance” da “School of International and Public Affairs” na “Columbia University N.Y” no período 2019-2020.

https://cgeg.sipa.columbia.edu/

Esclareço que não tenho qualquer interesse em tal atitude, apenas o de evitar um desperdício de oportunidade aos colegas da Câmara em não passar vantagens dessa experiência.

A Escola de Assuntos Públicos e Internacionais – School of International and Public Affairs – da Universidade de Columbia em Nova York, através de seus seminários, palestras e cursos de curta duração, pode proporcionar a um(a) executivo(a) na iminência de entrar para a Alta Administração de sua Empresa com escopo Internacional, a tranquilidade de palestrar e negociar em meio a aspectos sensíveis como geopolíticos, étnicos, psicossociais e legais.

A abordagem técnica, mas cuidadosa, quase diplomática, nas primeiras tratativas com ministros de países, CEOs, em ocasiões frequentes em Congressos, Missões Empresariais etc., podem facilitar desdobramentos que concretizem negócios lucrativos para a Empresa. A par dos conhecimentos e experiencia intrínseca do(a) executivo(a), inclusive simpatia, senso de humor etc., há que se agregar um conhecimento dos condicionantes político-socioideológicos que permeiam as tratativas.

O Centro de Governança Econômica Global – Center on Global Economic Governance – CGEG – proporciona tal aprimoramento, via conexão adicional com outros centros da SIPA como de América Latina, Eurásia, África, Energia, além da Law School e da Business School, vizinhas dentro do Campus, com palestras e seminários de alto nível por professores muitos detentores de Prêmios Nobel.

Esta “imersão” consiste num período sabático de 6 a 12 meses, orientado pelo CGEG ou outra fonte, ficando o(a) interessado(a) livre para se inscrever em palestras, cursos, seminários de acordo com sua estratégia de desenvolvimento. Não há controle de frequência, podendo o(a) interessado(a), subsidiariamente, cuidar de assuntos de sua empresa.

O credenciamento formal à Universidade possibilita também um avançado curso de Inglês no Teacher’s College, no campus, acesso às bibliotecas, computadores etc., bem como uma série de sugestões de ambientação a um(a) eventual acompanhante, incluindo conexões com diversas atividades culturais em Nova York.

Há uma taxa a ser paga à Universidade, sendo a manutenção e hospedagem em NYC por conta do(a) interessado(a).

O colega da Câmara ou outro indicado pode obter informações diretamente no site acima ou contatar-me.

Fernando Cariola Travassos
+5521 99101 0900
fernando.travassos@yahoo.com

Brasil tem 54 instituições de ensino superior entre as 2 mil mais bem classificadas pelo Center for World University Rankings; USP, Unicamp e UFRJ são as melhores colocadas

Entre as 54 universidades brasileiras classificadas na lista das 2 mil melhores do mundo pelo CWUR (Center for World University Rankings), 29 tiveram queda em suas posições em relação ao ranking do ano passado. A Universidade de São Paulo lidera como a melhor universidade da América Latina, mesmo tendo caído da 103ª posição para a 109ª neste ano. Assim, nenhuma instituição de ensino superior brasileira está entre as 100 melhores do mundo.

O CWUR, que avaliou mais de 20 mil universidades ao redor do mundo, também ranqueia as instituições de acordo com educação, empregabilidade, docência e pesquisa. As universidades brasileiras tiveram maior queda no âmbito de pesquisa, principalmente pelos cortes de financiamento de bolsas de pesquisa e do orçamento das instituições. Nesse quesito, por exemplo, a UFRJ (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) caiu 14 posições, enquanto a Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista) teve queda de 5.

By Gabriela Guido via Forbes Brasil

Read full article

Brazilian state-controlled lender Banco do Brasil SA (BBAS3.SA) on Monday reported a 29% leap in first-quarter net profit compared with a year ago, boosted by double-digit growth in the value of its loan book.

Banco do Brasil’s adjusted net income reached 8.55 billion reais ($1.71 billion) during the first three months of this year, while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected 8.69 billion reais.

The lender said the results were helped by the performance of its credit portfolio, “which reflects an adequate mix of risk against return.”

By Peter Frontini via Reuters

Read full article

The partnership enables the bank to expand its operations in the carbon credit market with solutions for both the domestic and global markets

BTG Pactual (BPAC11), the largest investment bank in Latin America, signed an investment agreement for acquiring a minority stake in Systemica, a company that structures, develops, and implements projects for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in addition to trading the environmental assets generated. The operation aims to contribute to a transitional economy and join efforts for advancing the carbon credit market, contributing to the integrity, quality and international reputation of carbon projects in Brazil and Latin America.

Demand for a low-carbon economy has been growing internationally, with financial institutions and large companies committing to reduce emissions and structuring strategies for decarbonizing their operations. From 2020 to the beginning of 2023, the number of companies committed to reducing emissions formalized under Science Based Targets (SBTi) — which shows how actions are based on science for combatting climate change — grew more than 10 times, which materializes in terms of ever-increasing volumes of retired carbon credits, according to Trove Research.

Via Yahoo Finance

Read full article

The Group of Seven rich countries needs a stronger pitch to non-aligned nations. A strategy based on peace, prosperity and protecting the planet could work. It would certainly be more effective than delivering lectures on democracy.

Leaders of the world’s rich democracies, who gather later this week in Hiroshima, already have a lot on their plate dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, higher inflation, and the rising challenge from China. Nevertheless Japan, which is hosting the summit, has made “outreach to the global South” one of the gathering’s two priorities along with “upholding the international order based on the rule of law”. This makes sense, partly because the topics are linked.

Many developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have largely stayed on the sidelines during the Ukraine war, even if they initially condemned Russia’s invasion. They are unlikely to impose sanctions on China following an invasion of Taiwan, let alone join any military action to defend the island. But if more developing countries spoke up to condemn violations of international law, the People’s Republic might be more reluctant to contemplate aggression against Taipei.

By Hugo Dixon via Reuters

Read full article

 

Wed, May 17, 2023 9:00 AM BRT (8:00 AM ET)

Programação:

09:00 – 09:10 Abertura/Publicações/Pesquisa
09:10 – 09:20 Palestrante: Catarina Costa
09:20 – 09:50 Palestrante: Fabricio Abbade
09:50 – 10:20 Palestrante: Alvaro Pereira
10:20 – 10:50 Palestrante: Fabio Niccheri
10:50 – 11:00 Perguntas e Respostas (Q&A)
11:00 – 11:15 Prova de Conhecimentos/Encerramento

Speakers:

Carina Costa, PwC Brasil
Alvaro Pereira, PwC Brasil
Fabio Niccheri, PwC Brasil
Fabricio Abbade, PwC Brasil
Rodrigo Guilhen, PwC Brasil
Kieran McManus, PwC Brasil

REGISTER HERE

Laser-based optical frequency combs, originally developed to time atomic clocks, can also perform fast, noninvasive tests for COVID—and potentially other diseases as well

Astronomers and physicists have long used a laser-based sensor called an “optical frequency comb” to study the material makeup of the cosmos and to make timekeeping more accurate. But the COVID pandemic has pushed this versatile tool from the world of space and physics into health care.

By Starre Vartan via Scientific American

Read full article

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged Congress to raise the $31.4 trillion federal debt limit and avert an unprecedented default that would trigger a global economic downturn and risk undermining U.S. global economic leadership.

Yellen issued the latest in a series of increasingly stark warnings in remarks prepared for a press conference ahead of a meeting in Japan with her counterparts from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations, as well as India, Indonesia and Brazil.

By Andrea Shalal via Reuters

Read full article

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen highlighted the fight against climate change and other goals shared by the United States and Brazil, in a meeting with Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad in Japan on Thursday.

Japan, chairing the Group of Seven advanced economies this year, invited Brazil to take part in this week’s meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bankers, along with India, Indonesia and the African Union. Brazil will lead the Group of 20 major economies next year.

Yellen welcomed Brazil’s participation, saying the U.S. and Brazil, the largest democracies in the Americas, stood united in upholding their democratic values at home and abroad.

By Andrea Shalal via Reuters

Read full article

Disagreements don’t have to be destructive. They can be opportunities to come up with better ideas. But handling conversations with someone with a conflicting point of view is far from easy. Three strategies, which the authors identified in their research, can help.

From whether to embrace hybrid work to whether to introduce quotas for women or minorities at various levels in the organization, executive leadership teams across different companies we advise have been talking through polarizing issues. In many of those discussions, leaders often engaged in heated arguments with one another that were not that productive. As a result, they left the meetings feeling hurt and dissatisfied.

By Hanne K. Collins, Charles A. Dorison, Francesca Gino, and Julia A. Minson via Harvard Business Review

Read full article

Knocking on doors to check on people’s health and catch problems before they escalate is common practice across Brazil. But could that approach work in the UK?

Comfort and Nahima are on their regular beat around Churchill Gardens, a council estate in the Pimlico neighbourhood of London.

Dressed in blue fleeces with logos, they steadily climb the concrete staircases of each block on the estate.

By Naomi Grimley via BBC News

Read full article

Celebrities and athletes have increasingly been speaking out about their mental health over the last several years, but organizational leaders have only just started. To fully catalyze societal change and normalize mental health challenges and seeking support, workplaces must also play a part. When leaders of all levels share their personal stories, it reduces stigma and normalizes the ups and downs of being human — especially as a high-performing professional. This type of role-modeling positions vulnerability as a strength instead of a weakness and shows it’s possible to succeed and thrive with a mental health challenge. The author presents best practices for how to tell your leader ally story — and why it matters.

More than a decade ago when I had to take a leave of absence due to generalized anxiety disorder and depression, I thought my career was over. I was struggling — drowning in shame, self-stigma, and fear of professional repercussions as I did my best to hide what was happening. What would have given me hope was knowing other leaders had successfully navigated mental health challenges.

By Kelly Greenwood via Harvard Business Review

Read full article

Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4.SA), Brazil’s biggest private bank, reported first-quarter recurring net profit of 8.435 billion reais ($1.7 billion) on Monday, a 14.6% year-on-year rise despite higher provisions for bad loans.

The recurring net income figure, which excludes one-off items, was broadly in line with expectations of 8.42 billion reais in a Refinitiv poll of analysts.

Itau said in a securities filing the result was driven by the “positive effect” of a higher loan portfolio, which coupled with a “gradual change in the mix to loans with better spreads” led to a 20% rise in its financial margin with clients.

Via Reuters

Read full article

Popularizada pelo ChatGPT, da OpenAI, a inteligência artificial tornou-se o principal tema de tecnologia dos últimos meses. Na quarta-feira, 3, o presidente do Senado, Rodrigo Pacheco apresentou um projeto de lei que regulamenta o uso da IA. De acordo com Márcio Chaves, sócio do escritório Almeida Advogados, o PL materializa a tendência mundial de regulamentação do tema inteligência artificial, “de inegável necessidade diante da ausência de regras que ajudem a mitigar os riscos tanto com o atual status da tecnologia, mas principalmente de um futuro a curto e médio prazo que temos com os avanços tecnológicos que são exponenciais.”

Ainda de acordo com Márcio, o texto tem como principal ponto positivo o estabelecimento de obrigações, que na legislação de hoje ainda são vistos mais como recomendações e boas práticas. “De seguir princípios para o uso seguro e ético da inteligência artificial, avaliando e documentando previamente ao desenvolvimento e ao uso da inteligência artificial, de agir de forma preventiva, pois o remediar pode não ser possível ou suficiente. Mas carece de adequações, como por exemplo a inclusão dentre as hipóteses de limitação da responsabilidade civil por danos causados, para desenvolvedores e utilizadores de inteligência artificial que seguirem as obrigações trazidas pela regulamentação, pois sua ausência poderá desestimular o cumprimento da lei”, conclui Marcio.

By Luiz Gustavo Pacete via Forbes Brasil

Read full article

A Vodafone, segunda maior empresa de telefonia móvel do mundo, iniciou, há alguns anos, um projeto para mapear melhor sua área de cobertura no Reino Unido. Hoje, o que começou como um mapa melhor se transformou em uma duplicata exata da rede física da Vodafone dentro de seus próprios computadores. É uma versão completa e continuamente atualizada de sua infraestrutura no Reino Unido – um gêmeo digital. Com ele, as decisões de negócio da Vodafone passam a ser mais rápidas, com informação muito mais detalhadas e também com uma noção do que pode acontecer no futuro.

O gêmeo digital é um nome modesto para uma tecnologia que, na prática, pode parecer algo saído da ficção científica. É uma forma de fundir o mundo físico – uma rede de cadeia de suprimentos, a rede de ônibus da cidade de Nova York, um porto internacional – com o mundo digital. Não só permite operações mais eficientes e transparentes. Isso nos permite fazer e responder perguntas que seriam difíceis de resolver de outra forma.

By Kathleen Kewley via Forbes Brasil

Read full article

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday announced his country will contribute to the Amazon Fund, a major development for Brazil as the South American nation tries to garner more donors to the initiative aimed at fighting deforestation.

Sunak’s pledge in a meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at 10 Downing Street follows a similar commitment by U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this year, with them joining previous donors Norway and Germany.

“There are so many interests we have in common,” Sunak told Lula at the meeting, mentioning higher trade and the fight against climate change. “I’m delighted to announce we will be investing in your Amazon Fund and I pay tribute to your leadership in this initiative”.

Via Reuters

Read full article

Businesses are bound to make mistakes and disappoint their customers. But how you build your apology message and your careful attention to executing it appropriately can make the difference between losing those customers or increasing their loyalty. When delivered well, your apology message can improve the customer relationship to the point where it is stronger than if the mistake had never happened — a phenomenon known as the service recovery paradox. In this article, the author outlines five steps for writing an effective apology message, and explains why it’s important to share the apology process internally and with external stakeholders. It not only shows vulnerability from the organization, but also shows other customers that the company can be relied upon in times of distress.

A tired employee is updating shipping orders late at night at a textbook brokerage. They make a mistake in the code and accidentally ship outdated management textbooks to an important customer. Three days later, classes have begun, and with demanding course loads, the students already feel behind. Many are seeking immediate replacements. Cue the angry phone calls and emails.

By Tim Riesterer via Harvard Business Review

Read full article

It marks a shift to long-term measures to handle the coronavirus

COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization announced May 5.

The organization pointed to two factors: Dropping COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations, and high levels of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from vaccination or prior infection. While the pandemic is not over, those trends signal that it’s time to transition to more long-term prevention and control of the disease, WHO said in a statement.

By McKenzie Prillaman via Science News

Read full article

Addressing the tension between cost efficiency and customer intimacy is important for companies of any size, but it’s especially important for midsized companies, particularly those upper-middle-market companies with ambitions to rise to the top of their industry. In many cases, they built their brand, and their differentiation from the big guys, on the idea of personalization — of being closer to their customers than their multinational rivals can be — while also offering more sophistication, a broader offering, and more underlying service capability than small businesses can. Herein lies the core challenge: to grow, they need to build customer capabilities that are scalable, but if they do that at the expense of proactive connection with customers, they will lose their identity and a big piece of their competitive edge

The last few years have brought disruption after disruption to bear on the ways companies and customers interact. Arguably, the company-to-customer connection has been more disrupted than supply chains or operations, and more affected by disruptors like Covid and technology than any other key relationship. Think of the rise of e-commerce — which hockey-sticked during the pandemic; or the sudden (or seemingly sudden) ubiquitousness of self-checkout kiosks at grocery stores and pharmacies; or the ever-greater prevalence of voice response systems, to which you must listen closely because the “menu options have changed.” Or, recall the Covid-19 shutdowns and subsequent bounce-back, which altered everything from how diners eat to how sales reps call on B2B customers.

By Jason McDannold and Saurabh Singh via Harvard Business Review

Read full article

A fresh push for bipartisan immigration reforms, coupled with enhanced border security, is emerging in the U.S. Congress, as thousands of migrants amass across the border in Mexico with the end of Title 42 controls next week.

It has been 37 years since Congress passed significant immigration reform, but a persistently high volume of migrants and an acute labor shortage have galvanized lawmakers. At the same time, many Republicans cite the flow of illegal drugs into the United States through ports of entry as reason to harden border areas.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives plans to pass a package of border security measures next week to place tougher constraints on immigrant asylum-seekers, resume construction of a wall along the southwest border with Mexico and expand federal law enforcement.

By Richard Cowan via Reuters

Read full article

Banco vê queda de juros ainda tímida, mas aposta em modelo de crédito com taxas pré-fixadas e consórcio

O banco Santander espera fechar negócios da ordem de R$ 2 bilhões durante a Agrishow, que acontece em Ribeirão Preto (SP), a maior feira de tecnologia para o agro do país. No ano passado, o montante foi de US$ 1,4 bilhão. “A estratégia é trazer o produtor para a tomada de crédito antes dele ir às compras”, disse o economista Ricardo França, superintendente regional de agronegócios do Santander. Em março, a carteira do banco para o setor era de R$ 40 bilhões, com meta de alcançar R$ 50 bilhões até o fim do ano.

De olho na queda da taxa de juros, ainda que tímida para o segundo semestre do ano, de acordo com França, o principal dos negócios fechados na Agrishow será garantido por uma linha de taxa pós-fixada, espelhada ao que pratica o BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social).

By Vera Ondei via Forbes Brasil

Read full article

O setor farmacêutico está em constante transformação e enfrenta novos desafios cibernéticos à medida que surgem novas tecnologias e processos digitais orientados por dados e robotização. O que está em jogo são as pesquisas sobre tratamentos que salvam vidas, patentes, inovação de ponta e propriedade intelectual.

A pandemia de covid-19 impactou a área acelerando a digitização do local de trabalho. Com essa disrupção, vários cibercriminosos aproveitaram o momento para realizar atividades de espionagem e obter ganhos financeiros.

Também cresceu a dependência de fornecedores terceirizados; a adoção da digitização e de tecnologias industriais da Internet das Coisas (IoT, na sigla em inglês); e a transição para ambientes híbridos e “multinuvem”. Essa evolução gerou uma lista crescente de preocupações cibernéticas, como ataques à cadeia de suprimentos, violações de terceiros e configurações incorretas que levam a vazamentos de dados.

Via PwC

Read full article

Regulators seized First Republic (FRC) early on Monday and sold the bulk of the bank’s operations to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in the largest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis.

JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, agreed to assume $173 billion in assets, $30 billion in securities and all of First Republic’s $92 billion in deposits. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sweetened the deal by agreeing to share losses on certain residential and commercial loans, giving JPMorgan some protection if the assets go bad.

The fall of the $229 billion First Republic makes it the biggest casualty yet of the banking system turmoil that began in March, larger than either Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank. Seattle’s Washington Mutual, which went under with $307 billion in assets in September 2008, is still the largest bank failure in US history.

By David Hollerith via Yahoo Finance

Read full article

Chamber Updates Stay connected with Chamber activities