In The News

First-Class Brand, But Will it Travel?

Ellie Paynter September 7, 2004
Expanding business operations to foreign markets presents many challenges, and in the image-conscious fashion industry, marketing is essential. With the opening of a store in Saudi Arabia, and plans for future locations in Hong Kong and Dubai, luxury store Harvey Nichols has its sights set on international brand recognition. The UK retail group, which allots 40 percent of its budget to public...

The Trek Abroad Quickens Pace

Anke Bryson September 3, 2004
The US is not the only country tackling the issue of jobs moving overseas; a recent study reports that German companies continue to shift operations to other countries. Despite labor agreements from Siemens and Daimler Chrysler to preserve some domestic operations, the industrial exodus may reach a peak this year. Further complicating matters, foreign investment in German industry has...

Volkswagen Risks Clash with Union

Anke Bryson August 27, 2004
Labor strife in Germany continues, as Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, proposed a plan to reduce personnel costs by US$2.4 billion dollars. The proposal, which includes among its provisions a two-year pay freeze for VW employees, has fanned the flames in an already heated environment. Earlier this summer, both Siemens and Daimler Chrysler, after turbulent negotiations, forged deals with...

Fighting Over the Best and the Brightest

Carsten Germis August 20, 2004
Losing one’s intelligentsia is not just the bane of developing countries. Germany, which boasts the largest economy of Europe, has sent so many of its sons and daughters to America in academic capacities that now Germans make up the third-largest group of foreign academics in the US. In raw numbers, that puts Germany’s US academic expatriate community at 20,000, with three out of four...

Report Reveals London's Sex Slaves

Simon Jeffery August 19, 2004
A recent report provides a snapshot of London's off-street prostitution, claiming that more than 8,000 women are working in brothels, saunas and massage parlors across the city, as well as businesses that put up ads in newspapers and websites. A closer look at the nationalities of these women, however, finds that three quarters of them are non-British, coming mostly from eastern Europe and...

A Question of Identity

Hasan Suroor August 17, 2004
The million-strong Indian community in Britain is expressing concerns over being lumped together with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis by media and government. The generic term “Asian,” they argue, obfuscates the facts when used to describe social problems such as honor killings or the Bradford riots, because most of the perpetrators were non-Indian. Hasan Suroor, the author of this opinion piece in...

The Metrosexual Superpower

Parag Khanna August 16, 2004
Europe is a “metrosexual” superpower, writes Parag Khanna, a fellow in global governance at the Brookings Institution; just as modern metrosexual men mix traditional masculine traits such as strength with an eye for style, Europe wields influence around the globe through soft power and finesse. Instead of overt displays of military strength, Europe has racked up diplomatic success through doling...