Part time Business Travel in London - Travel Weekly Part time Business Travel in London - Travel Weekly

Friday, May 18, 2012

Part time Business Travel in London - Travel Weekly

Part time Business Travel in London - Travel Weekly
Part Time Senior Business Travel Consultant needed in London. Do you only want Part Time hours but want to keep a foot in the door of the fast paced business travel industry? Only experienced Business Travel Consultants need apply for this rare part time opportunity for a leading business travel company. Sabre preferred for this business travel company.


JOB DESCRIPTION
As A Senior Business Travel Consultant you will be required to manage travel across most major worldwide destinations for their traveller's. This is a busy account, but for the right candidate, it's a great opportunity to work with a world renowned client. We are looking for an experienced individual who is comfortable handling all types of reservations requests, who is confident working in a client facing environment as part of a very busy and sociable team of 14
You will be responsible for handling all aspects of Business Travel - able to effectively manage a range of travel bookings including, rail, and hotel, domestic and multi-sector international air.

IDEAL CANDIDATE
You will be highly motivated, confident and enthusiastic individual, who is pro-active, has exceptional interpersonal skills and thrives when providing truly excellent customer service.
Sabre CRS experience. Ideal candidates will be able to demonstrate proven experience of handling a discerning, multi-national client and hold VA Fares and Ticketing 1 & 2 or equivalent.

PACKAGE
Salary range is very competitive and this client offers an excellent benefits package.
You are required to work 3 days a week on a shift rotation hours from 0830-1830hrs

INTERESTED
Please call Nicki on 0207 347 5060 or click on APPLY NOW



Spanish stocks fall amid turmoil - Belfast Telegraph
Concerns that Europe's debt crisis could drag down parts of the continent's banking system have hit most global markets though social network Facebook's imminent flotation buoyed sentiment on Wall Street.

Spain's main stock index recovered 1.34% from heavy losses on Thursday, thanks mainly to a bounce back in the shares of state-controlled lender Bankia, which had plummeted on reports of an increase in deposit withdrawals. They rose 22%, making up for a similar drop the previous day.

Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria were up more than three points in mid-morning trading.

The level of bad loans on the books of Spain's banks has risen to an 18-year high, the country's central banker reported, increasing concern for the stability of Spain's financial sector and the country's place in the fragile eurozone economy.

The Bank of Spain reported that lenders' and savings banks' bad loan ratio had risen in March to 8.36% from 8.15% the previous month.

News of the increase followed a downgrading by credit ratings agency Moody's of the country's banking industry.

Spain is in the eye of the storm of the eurozone debt crisis amid worries that its banks are overexposed to an imploded property bubble and the government, fighting recession and a nearly 25 % jobless rate, could not afford to bail them out if it needed to.

By midday in Europe, stock exchanges managed to slightly reverse their earlier losing streaks with Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.5% to 5,311, Germany's DAX was up 0.4% to 6,333 and France's CAC-40 rose 0.6% to 3,030.

Worries over Spain were reignited by the prospect that Greece might leave the euro currency. Anti-bailout political parties made huge gains in general elections on May 6, though that ballot proved inconclusive. Another election will be held on June 17, and the radical left party Syriza, which rejects the international bailout, is forecast to make gains, possibly becoming the biggest party.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 3% to close at 8,611.31, its lowest finish in four months as signs of weakness in the US, a critical export market for Japanese companies, battered some of the country's behemoth manufacturers. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.3% to 18,951.85 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 2.7% to 4,046.50. South Korea's Kospi tumbled 3.4 % to 1,782.46. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand also fell.



Harvard Business School For The Facebook Age - The FINANCIAL

The FINANCIAL -- Innovation and real startup companies are front and center at the newly re-engineered HBS. The venerable institution hopes to prepare budding entrepreneurs--with inspiration from the one that got away.

 

Harvard Business School is buzzing. In part, it’s because students are working in “hives,” new circular, collaborative workspaces. But also because the hives are part of a radical rethink happening here—of everything from the storied school’s established curriculum, its pedagogy, student profiles, and outcomes, to its brand identity and physical spaces. Inspiration for the hives, for example, comes from a company founded by Harvard’s most famous dropout--they have “the look and feel of Facebook’s offices,” Dean Nitin Nohria tells Fast Company.An inestimably influential institution and iconic brand, Harvard Business School for some has become a symbol for what is wrong with business and education today: stodgy orthodoxy; ivory tower learning; American elitism and entitlement; and bloated Wall Street salaries. HBS’s makeover aims to change all that with a focus on the kind of real-world risk-taking, sweaty hard work and tinkering, and spirited collaboration that lured Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg away from Cambridge to the wild tech innovation happening out west.

Under the leadership of Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and Nohria, the school has implemented this year an ambitious creative destruction project. HBS wants to reinvent the MBA and birth a new generation of entrepreneurs, innovation, and startups.

Learning by doing is a central tenet of the new FIELD curriculum which supplements its venerated case method core with a required leadership, global immersion and entrepreneurship “module” for all 900 students. HBS has taught courses on entrepreneurship for decades; but now all first year MBAs will do it by building 150 real businesses which are graded by real markets.

“HBS has long been a leader and innovator in business education,” Faust tells Fast Company. “The field of organizational behavior began at Harvard in the late 1920s. The first course in entrepreneurship was taught at Harvard just after World War II, and the case method was developed here just to name a few. I think FIELD and other innovations by HBS faculty will have a similar impact.”

Before FIELD, HBS had a credible innovation story. Decorated professor Clayton M. Christensen wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma which “deeply influenced” Steve Jobs and coined the term “disruptive innovation.” It was the first school to dedicate faculty and facilities specifically to entrepreneurship. HBS established a Research Center in Silicon Valley back in 1997 to bring both faculty and students closer to emerging technology business cases.  According to Harvard Business School, its star-studded list of alumni who founded or lead successful startups and major global tech companies is hard to match.

Despite this pedigree, Nohria says that other business schools are more often top-of-mind in the areas of entrepreneurship and venture capital; he’s working to change that perception, which "lags reality,” he says. Stanford University of course is nearly synonymous, if not incestuous with the Silicon Valley scene. But even in its own Boston backyard, HBS tends to be overshadowed on entrepreneurship by schools like MIT Sloan School of Management and Babson.

Raj Kapoor, Managing Director at Mayfield Fund on Sand Hill Road, is an HBS ’96. In 2005, he sold the company he cofounded, Snapfish, to Hewlett-Packard for $300 million. He says HBS tends to be more famous, or infamous, for minting bankers, consultants, and captains of Fortune 500 companies than entrepreneurs. Kapoor tells Fast Company he's noticed a change in the HBS culture building; there is a new attitude now with “more students wanting to create new values-based companies versus just manipulating markets.” In the past, entrepreneurship had a stigma at HBS. “This is what people did when they couldn’t get a job,” he says.But the mantra in the FIELD 3 module is that failure is good learning and expected for most of the 150 startups ultimately judged on May 14, “IPO Day” at HBS. Every first year student is evaluated on the “microbusiness” they jointly conceive, form, and fund, then launch and commercialize. Unlike the Business Plan Contest, which has been growing at HBS since the 1990s, FIELD 3 business-building is a non-elective. The microbusiness teams are not self-selected but rather chosen by faculty based on factors such as student interests and diversity. The FIELD 3 ventures are graded less on slick PowerPoints and more on market results--actual sales and stock prices from a financial market simulation made up of non-conflicted student shareholders; input from a panel of VCs, entrepreneurs and faculty also factors into the final judging and report cards.

HBS is far from alone among business schools in revamping its curriculum to focus on entrepreneurship and “action-learning.” But the sheer pace and scale of implementation, and requirement that all 900 students be immersed globally at 150 established companies and then, a few months later, build from scratch 150 businesses and sell their products--is unprecedented, say Nohria and Alan MacCormack, FIELD 3’s co-director who previously ran an entrepreneurship “experiential learning” program at MIT Sloan.

But FIELD 3 does not have an explicit goal of launching successful startups, MacCormack says. In fact, the school encourages those students with the best IP to save those ideas for post-graduation. But several microbusiness teams have already heard from VCs including the winner IvyKids, which is an iPad application that teaches children about everyday experiences. The market reality is that a handful of the 150 startups will become successful businesses, MacCormack says. Long range Nohria expects HBS to produce “more entrepreneurs, more action-oriented, better trained students who put ideas into practice more quickly, versus just analytical thinkers.” By adding FIELD to its case foundation, “the soul of the school," and the HBS experience, we “continue to put distance between us and others,” Nohria says.

Still, a debate simmers about whether Stanford or Harvard can claim the b-school entrepreneurship mantle; it goes something like this: HBS has more outcomes and dedicated faculty and buildings; Stanford and its students have multi-disciplinary innovation in their DNA and form the fabric of Silicon Valley; name brand alumni entrepreneurs and tech titans are referenced by each.

Matthew Prince, HBS ’09, tells Fast Company “all the VCs I know are either Harvard or Stanford MBAs.” He and classmate Michelle Zatlyn came up with the idea behind hot San Francisco-based startup CloudFlare, which won the HBS Business Plan Contest in 2009. Prince thinks HBS’s generalist requirement served to better prepare him to be an entrepreneur than would have Stanford’s “choose you own adventure” approach. He cites a “remarkable list” of companies started by his ‘09 classmates that “have created easily over a billion dollars in value.”Bob Sutton, a professor of management science and organizational behavior at Stanford’s engineering school who also teaches at Stanford’s Institute of Design and business school, welcomes HBS’s new FIELD approach and downplays the Harvard-Stanford competition. “If you blend evidence, experience and vivid cases, you get a more complete understanding and better prepared students. That is what the best of Stanford aims for, and it appears the best of HBS is going that way,” he says. Sutton views FIELD as a supplement and enhancement to the HBS cases, which he uses, not a replacement. He’s not sure how HBS will make up for the loss in revenues as a reduced case focus means less cases sold.Nohria, who greatly admires Stanford’s cross-university collaboration and teaching involving the d.school, has plans for the “FIELD method, not just the HBS experience” to become a widely imitated, shared, and distributed learning product. “That is our measure of success, the only one really,” he says. The overarching goal is “to improve the education of business leaders, not just at HBS, but wherever they are taught in the world.”

While the speed, size and institutional acceptance of FIELD have been impressive, Prince sees some pitfalls and challenges with the new program. He wonders if the more formalized FIELD faculty-led immersion trips will end up stifling innovation long-term with the decline of informal, student-led forays which define spirited, bootstraps-style entrepreneurship. Prince is disappointed that a core course on negotiation was cut to make room for FIELD. He also fears that HBS students will ultimately end up running up debt to pay for the ambitious program--fueled in part by “the arms race” with Stanford--thus limiting their ability to be entrepreneurial.

HBS wants to be a catalyst for the nascent Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem. Stopping short of envisioning a Silicon Yard, Harvard Hub, or Cambridge Corridor that rivals Silicon Valley, both Faust and Nohria see a thriving innovation and tech scene that is born and stays in Boston with Harvard as a “sparkling node.” Nohria points out that in the 1980s, nearby Route 128) and Silicon Valley were roughly on a par for technology innovation. His long view of history says life sciences and biotechnology may be the next big wave of innovation--post-information technology/Internet age; Boston and Harvard are well positioned for that, he says.

 

Last November, on the campus of HBS, Faust and Nohria opened Harvard’s gleaming new iLab facility which is designed to spur innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration across the Harvard University campus. iLab is housed in the old WGBH studios building where the innovative Sesame Street ”learning product” was born and first broadcast across the country. HBS’s hives take up the two floors above the iLab.

“The iLab is designed to be an incubator for new ideas where students and faculty from across the University can meet and develop innovative ideas and learn how to translate them into entrepreneurial ventures," Faust says. "It is also a place where people from the community can receive advice on new ventures.  These two facets make it an important contributor to Boston’s reputation as a hub of innovation.”

One can only imagine the impact that the iLab might have had were it available for Mark Zuckerberg. It’s impossible to ignore the timing of HBS’s overhaul with the record-breaking, landscape-changing $104 billion IPO of Facebook, and it’s hard not to imagine whether its founder and CEO would have stuck it out at Harvard if he had the iLab at his disposal. The iLab’s director, Gordon Jones, tells Fast Company that Zuckerberg was wowed by the facility while attending its opening recently. ”This is really cool,” Jones recalls him saying. “This really is a lot like Facebook.”

 

 



Reuther family rebuilds business while pursuing justice - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Janet Reuther-Schopp doesn't like to remember what happened to Reuther Automotive Group three years ago this week.

Her family's 53-relationship with the Chrysler and Jeep brands came to an abrupt end during Chrysler's government-orchestrated bankruptcy. Thinking about it still makes Reuther-Schopp sad and angry, so she'd rather talk about the positive things that have happened since May 14, 2009.

The former new-car dealership in Creve Coeur has remade itself as a used car sales and service business. Reuther has found new sources for financing and parts and has built relationships with nearby employers, which authorize it to pick up employees' vehicles for service. It also has relied on longtime niche businesses like snowplow maintenance.

The business has 19 employees, down from 100 in the new-car days. “We're getting by, which is better than some of the dealers in our situation,” Reuther-Schopp says. “I just get up each morning and say, 'Today is a new day; let's see where this one goes.'”

Not that she and three business-partner siblings are ready to let go of the past. Their father, Leo Reuther Sr., began selling Jeeps when they were used more as farm trucks than as commuter vehicles, and his children are fighting to be compensated for the loss of that legacy.

Reuther Automotive is one of 140 former Chrysler dealers pursuing a lawsuit against the federal government. They're relying on the Fifth Amendment, which says private property can't be taken for public use without just compensation.

Leonard Bellavia, a Mineola, N.Y., attorney who represents the dealers, says his clients lost more than $500 million.

“The government controlled the Chrysler bankruptcy, in that they made the bailout contingent on filing for bankruptcy and terminating 25 percent of the dealers,” Bellavia said. “The government was using Chrysler as its agent to facilitate the governmental taking of private property.”

Many such “takings” suits are thrown out quickly, but a judge has already rejected the government's attempt to dismiss this one. It's now in the discovery phase, and Bellavia says he believes that emails and other documents from the federal automotive task force will bolster his case.

He intends to subpoena task force officials, including former chairman Steven Rattner, as he seeks justice for Reuther and the other dealers.

The government's dealership strategy was “arrogant and uncaring,” Bellavia says. “I don't want to give you a Fourth of July speech here, but it goes against the idea of working hard and building something that you can hand down to your family.”

Family ties certainly mattered to the Reuthers, but relatives were among those who had to leave the dealership payroll.

“Having a family-run business and having to allow your children to go out and find other jobs, that's not what we had worked all these years for,” Reuther-Schopp said.

If the Reuthers once felt privileged, with a business they expected to pass on to the next generation, they now feel like struggling entrepreneurs. The inventory of 30 or so used cars looks sparse on a five-acre lot that once held 300 vehicles.

Reuther-Schopp says the family has had offers for the land, and might sell for the right price. The current business might be more profitable on a smaller site, she said.

Usually, though, she doesn't allow herself to think that far ahead, just as she tries not to dwell on the injustices of three years ago. “You have to keep your thoughts in the here and now,” she said.



Small Business Awards breakfast honors success - Daily Independent

FLATWOODS — After the 15th annual Northeast Kentucky Small Business Awards breakfast Thursday in Flatwoods, Vincenzo Fressola seemed almost stunned to walk away with the 2012 Main Street Business of the Year honor as well as the title of Small Business Person of the Year.

“I was humbled to be nominated twice in three years, but because I’ve only been here for five years I never imagined I’d be qualified to win it,” Fressola said, later adding he was simply proud to be included in the nominees for the Main Street award.

“I was amongst some quality company, and again, I was just flattered to be honored,” he said. “I’m grateful to God and my family for the energy and support I have. I owe it all to those who have let me be part of the community and collaborated with me in every way.”

The awards ceremony at Advance Memorial United Methodist Church presented the results of a record number of nominations for recognition in a dozen categories. Noting the near capacity crowd representing 66 companies from Boyd, Carter and Greenup counties, master of ceremonies Rob Johnson recalled the first year the awards were presented and there weren’t enough people to fill one room at Chimney Corner CafĂ©.

Drew Scott and Kevin Allen, owners of Decadence “The Unique Boutique,” were presented the 2012 New & Emerging Business of the Year award. Diamond Lewis, Travis Hignite and Sarah Armstrong of Sideburns salon in Ashland were also nominated for the award, along with Mark Jaehnen and Ken Wilburn of Ken Mark Lift Systems in South Shore, C.C. and Julia Gibbs of Gibbs True Value Hardware of Grayson and Jason Bailey, owner of Bailey Family Funeral Home in Flatwoods. Decadence specializes in pageant, prom and formal wear and accessories.

Sarah and Bryan Conley, owners of Soccer Locker Team Sports, were awarded the 2012 Retail/Wholesale Business of the Year award. Also nominated in the category were A Boutique, Holifield Farms in Grayson, Tri-State Industrial Supply in Ashland, Bucksaw Studio in Grayson, Kentucky Automotive Center of Grayson, Stamper’s Carpet Sales in Grayson, The Upstairs Gallery in Ashland, Graf Brothers Flooring & Lumber in South Shore, Portable Solutions Group in Worthington and Tri-City Ice in Ashland.

Arnold and Carolyn Topping, owners of Topping’s Commercial Services in Flatwoods, were presented the 2012 Service Business of the Year award. Other nominees were Championship Fastpitch & M&G Neurophysiology, Speedy Signs & Banners, Wolfe’s Wrecker Service, Johnson Realty & Appraisal, Zanzi’s Pizza, Security Consultants and Solutions and Tres Hermanos Nunez.

Dr. Jeffrey Lopez of the Tri-State Regional Cancer Center was awarded the 2012 Business Professional of the Year honor. Other nominees were 23 Beadle Dentistry, the Patrick Flannery Law Office, All About Animals Veterinary Clinic, Kentucky Farm Bureau Insurance, Counselor’s Clinical Cottage and McCloud Eye Care Center.

 Quinn and Diana Thompson, owners of Thompson Construction and Utilities, won the Construction/Contracting Business of the Year award. Also nominated were Johnson & Goebel, Tri-State Construction & Enterprise and R&C Services Co.

Vincenzo Fressola Design & Consulting/Walker-Fressola Architects claimed the Main Street Business of the Year award, edging out fellow nominees Fitness Trainers, TSHD Architects, L Style Salon & Spa and Print My Threads.

Nathan E. Parks, owner of High Performance Computer Services, was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Courtney Thompson of Courthead Does Photography and Jacob Crider of Crider’s Lawn Care were also nominated for the award.

Susan Hunt of Community Hospice was presented the Nonprofit/Government Agency of the Year award. Also nominated in that category were the Carter County Public Library, Federated Charities (The Dressing Room), Grayson Project Merry Christmas, Poage Landing Days, Carter County Thunder, Goodwill Industries of KYOWVA Area, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Two Hearts Pregnancy Care Center, Grayson Meals on Wheels and the Olive Hill Historical Society.

Dwane Johnson was named Accounting/Financial Services Advocate of the Year and Teresa Brown was presented the Women/Minority Advocate of the Year award.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.



2-Star Stocks Poised to Plunge: Cablevision Systems? - Daily Finance

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, cable company Cablevision Systems (NYS: CVC) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Cablevision's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Cablevision facts

Headquarters (Founded) Bethpage, N.Y. (1973)
Market Cap $3.3 billion
Industry Cable and satellite
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $6.7 billion
Management CEO James Dolan
CFO Gregg Seibert
Return on Capital (Average, Past 3 Years) 12.8%
Cash/Debt $493.5 million / $11.2 billion
Dividend Yield 4.8%
Competitors Comcast
DirecTV
Verizon

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 33% of the 178 members who have rated Cablevision believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last month, one of those Fools, Allstar13913, succinctly summed up the bear case for our community:

A non-viable cable company that is losing the NYC customer battle to Verizon. Margins will continue to decrease as costs soar and additional infrastructure is needed. In addition, the best assets, namely Madison Square Garden and AMC networks have already been spun off into their own companies.

If you want market-topping returns, you need to protect your portfolio from any undue risk. Luckily, we've compiled a special free report for investors called "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks," which uncovers several other juicy income opportunities. The report is 100% free, but it won't be around forever, so access it now.

Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the new TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.



French speaking business travel in middlesex - Travel Weekly
Contract available for a Senior Business Travel Consultant who wants to work in Middlesex area and speaks French. Have you got experience with dealing with mixed accounts? Are you preferably Sabre trained in business travel? You MUST have a good solid senior business travel background.

Job Description
This role is for a Senior Business Travel Consultant and you will be required to manage travel across most major worldwide destinations for these mixed accounts.
It's a great opportunity and an exciting challenge. We are looking for a confident experienced individual who is comfortable handling all types of reservations requests and who is confident working in this fast paced environment. You will take calls and emails from French and English clients.
You will be responsible for handling all aspects of Business Travel - able to effectively manage a range of travel bookings including, rail, and hotel, domestic and multi-sector international air.

IDEAL CANDIDATE
Highly motivated, confident and enthusiastic individual, who is pro-active and has exceptional interpersonal skills and thrives when providing truly excellent customer service.
CRS experience is preferred for this role.
Ideal candidates will be able to demonstrate proven experience of handling discerning, multi-national clients
Hold VA Fares and Ticketing 1 & 2 or equivalent.

PACKAGE
Salary is DOE
This is a 3-6 month contract only and immediate start.

INTERESTED
Please call Nicki on 0207 347 5060 or nicki@traveltraderecruitment.co.uk
or click on APPLY NOW



Phoney money circulating in Halifax - The Chronicle Herald

Some funny money is circulating in Halifax.

A warning issued by Halifax Regional Police today indicates that they’ve seen four counterfeit bills in one week. Officers believe at least three of the cases are connected.

The bills — three are fake $50s and one is a $20 — are from a discontinued series of bills called the Scenes of Canada.

Police ask citizens to look closely at bills they receive and to contact police if they believe someone is trying to pass phoney bills.

(darsenault@herald.ca)


No comments: