DOCSLIB.ORG

HSBC Holdings Plc 2012 Investor Day – Strategy Update Introduction Edited Transcript 17 May 2012

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
HSBC Holdings Plc 2012 Investor Day – Strategy Update Introduction Edited Transcript 17 May 2012 abc HSBC Holdings plc 2012 Investor Day – strategy update Introduction Edited transcript 17 May 2012 Douglas Flint, Group Chairman . Fifth, add to liquidity and preserve a balance sheet Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our update on the funding structure which is underpinned by core strategy that we laid out almost exactly one year ago deposits. today. First, can I draw your attention to the statement on forward-looking information, but I think you’re all . Sixth, position the Group to take advantage of a very familiar with this by now. My role today is simply noticeable retreat by peer banks to their home bases, to set the scene and provide a context from the promoting trade finance which aligns well with perspective of the Board on how we set and judge the governments’ export priorities. performance of the Executive team, which Stuart leads. Seventh, concentrate our incremental capital In summary, let me say from the outset that the Board is allocation to the faster growing markets, which are very satisfied with progress made to date on delivering both our heritage and our future. the strategy that it endorsed one year ago, and that satisfaction was reflected in the scorecards that we . And eighth and probably most importantly, stick published in the remuneration report in last year’s with HSBC’s historic strengths and risk appetite. annual report and accounts. The judgments that were made on performance were possible because there was a Our progress to date has been strong in many areas, in clear framework for evaluating progress and delivering particular in reshaping and simplifying the Group. The the strategy, and that informed the Board’s calibration Board recognises we remain on a journey, of outcome against its own expectations. It’s also very encouragingly on track at this juncture to reach our reassuring that the benefits foreseen in the underlying financial targets. Recognising that expectations are strategy of moving capital towards organic growth changing in a more integrated and sophisticated world, opportunities in priority markets have been reinforced the Board exercises particularly strong oversight on the by the delivery to date. definition and application of Group standards to preserve and enhance our reputation. HSBC aspires to As you are well aware, we set our strategy against an lead our industry in implementing the most robust evolving and uncertain landscape in terms of the global standards and controls, and this means in practice capitalisation, the shape and, therefore, the future adopting the highest regulatory and compliance profitability of our industry. So, against this backdrop, standards applying to any part of the Bank in every part what were the priorities put forward by management of the Bank. This costs money, but falling short costs and endorsed by the Board to prepare HSBC for this much more in terms of reputation, on top of inevitable uncertain world? fines and compensation payments. This is, in today’s world, a never-ending job requiring intelligence, . First, put the right team in place, and this is now stamina and imagination. Good intentions will never be complete and functioning very well. enough as illicit actors today are technically aware, well-resourced and tireless. Second, simplify the structure of the Group by eliminating non-core or subscale businesses. 28 I won’t go through this slide in detail – you’re all aware transactions have been announced since the of how the economic, regulatory and political beginning of last year. landscapes have changed since we articulated our strategic objectives a year ago. None of these impacts . Third, address cost efficiency through our strategic direction or our ambition, but they will organisational design and de-layering. impact tactical decisions along the way, which is a very good point at which to hand over to Stuart and his team . Fourth, strengthen our capital position through to address these points, take you through the strategy retention and set out a pro forma model as to how update in detail, and remind you of the distinctive post-tax profits should be allocated. As you have strengths and capabilities of HSBC that underpin that seen, that was calibrated during last year as 50% to strategy. Thank you. Stuart? retention, 35% to dividends, and 15% to performance-related pay. 1 © Copyright HSBC Holdings plc 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED abc HSBC Holdings plc 2012 Investor Day – strategy update Group Strategy Edited transcript 17 May 2012 Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive But we also acknowledged that we face substantial Thanks, Douglas. We’re going to take a slightly challenges because a lot of our businesses were different approach this year to last, in the sense that we delivering a return on equity below our cost of equity, won’t give you nine and a half hours of presentations on our costs had moved up to US$41 billion – it had grown HSBC. We’ll try and end this by lunchtime. So, today, $4 billion in the previous three years, without any you’ll get a presentation from myself, from Sean and revenue being generated – and, obviously, the from Iain, but, actually, all of the key people running the regulatory environment was also continuing to require key global businesses and geographies are in the front us to hold more and more capital. So, we basically set two rows, so, when we get to the Q&A session, we’ll out to illustrate how we were going to manage the firm a involve everyone. And also, therefore, you’ll get the little bit better and we set out a report card, where we chance to meet up with the top management team during said that we would, in future, look at all of our capital the coffee break and over lunch. The idea also is that deployment using the five filters, which, if you will we’ll go through the presentations and take all the recall, the first two filters are: questions in a bloc at the end, so I want to, basically, be able to flow through the presentations. Is the economy really going to be of any size and scale in the future? So, essentially, I’m going to go through three chunks. First of all, the report card. We set out a report card last . Does it connect to the other countries in which we year that said what we were going to do with the firm, operate? And that connectivity is incredibly and so I’m going to talk in some detail about what we important; it explains the geographic footprint of the have actually achieved during the course of the year, to firm. give you an update on the report card. We’ll also then set out what our end-state vision for HSBC actually is. If a country gets through those first two, is its return And then, thirdly, we’ll talk about what the priorities are on equity above our cost of equity? for this year and, effectively, set a new report card. Is its cost efficiency ratio within or trending towards So, if I go back to where we were last year, you will that range of 48-52%? recall that we made the point, which you will have all noticed, that HSBC was, basically, regarded as a default . Does it provide funding to the Group? defensive stock. So, it went up less than others in the good times but it went down less than others in the bad So, if we look at, first of all, capital deployment and the times, and people owned us more because we were May ’11 report card metrics, which are on the left-hand defensive than because they actually endorsed any side of this slide, we have completed 28 disposals business model that we had. So, what we set out to do during the course of the year, and these have released was to make an investor case to yourselves, which, about $55 billion in risk-weighted assets and we’ll try essentially, looked at HSBC’s rather unique competitive and throw around 15,000 headcount to the new advantages and then set out a journey for us to be able acquiring institutions. to capture and take advantage of those competitive advantages, which really comes from the observation We’ve also made good progress on working towards our that the centre of the world’s economic growth, actually, $2.5-3.5 billion of sustainable cost saves by 2013 by we think, has already moved from west to east and north simplifying and de-layering the firm. So, we have to south, and that we will capture those opportunities already got $2 billion of sustainable saves identified. through our network, which will then be driven into and They’re not audited by KPMG, but, when we say trade and capital flows captured through Global sustainable saves, it’s not that we’ve made it up; they Banking and Markets and Commercial Banking, and are verifiable sustainable saves and we’ve got $2 billion through the enormous wealth creation that’s taken part of those already flowing through. in those emerging markets through the Retail Banking and Wealth Management proposition. And that also represents itself or manifests itself, to some extent, in 14,000 – and this is in addition to the 2 © Copyright HSBC Holdings plc 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED abc 15,000 figure above – people leaving the firm through the changes that we’re making – the organisational effectiveness changes – and I’ll talk about that in a bit But the important point I want to make about more detail. acquisitions is we, effectively, have done three: we’ve invested in BoCom and topped up our shareholding in Then, very importantly, we’ve actually started to BoCom, so we weren’t diluted; we’ve merged our demonstrate how we’ve managed to invest in the fast- operation in Oman with Oman International Bank; and growing businesses.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time: How Apple, Ford, IBM, Zappos, and Others Made Radical Choices That Changed the Cour
    The Greatest BUSINESS DECISIONS of All Time HOW APPLE, FORD, IBM, ZAPPOS, AND OTHERS MADE RADICAL CHOICES THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF BUSINESS. By Verne Harnish and the Editors of Fortune Foreword by Jim Collins . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When you delve into the great decisions chronicled in these pages, you’ll find that in most instances it was the people involved that really mattered. The same holds true for producing this book. First, we want to thank Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer, who, displaying the vision and entrepreneurial spirit we’ve long admired him for, green-lighted this project in the same meeting in which we pitched it and then provided support all along the way. Fortune art director Emily Kehe, working with Time Inc.’s talented Anne-Michelle Gallero, applied their usual elegant sense of style to the design. Carol Gwinn, our copyeditor par excellence, used her superb language skills to save ourselves from ourselves. Steve Koepp and Joy Butts at Time Home Entertainment Inc., the book’s publisher, worked creatively behind the scenes to make this project a reality, and for that we’re truly grateful. And we extend our thanks and admiration to Jim Collins for providing such an insightful foreword to the book. Last, a big bow to the writers and editors on Fortune’s staff who used their in-depth knowledge of business and their nonpareil writing skills to make this book what I hope you’ll find to be a wonderful, informative read. TO DECISION-MAKERS WHO KEEP MAKING THE TOUGH CALLS . TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword BY JIM COLLINS Introduction By VERNE HARNISH Chapter 1 Apple Brings Back Steve Jobs By ADAM LASHINSKY Chapter 2 How Free Shipping Saved Zappos By JENNIFER REINGOLD Chapter 3 Why Samsung Lets Its Stars Goof Off BY NICHOLAS VARCHAVER Chapter 4 At Johnson & Johnson, the Shareholder Comes Last BY TIMOTHY K.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Markets Institute a Survivor's Guide to Disruption
    GLOBAL MARKETS A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE INSTITUTE July 2019 TO DISRUPTION Steve Strongin Amanda Hindlian Sandra Lawson Sonya Banerjee Dan Duggan, Ph.D. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Survivor’s guide - the short form 3 Chapter 2: Disruption’s evolutionary roots 9 Chapter 3: Perfecting Platforms 19 Chapter 4: Niche after niche - Organizers 32 Chapter 5: The competitive value of data 44 Chapter 6: Concluding thoughts 56 Appendix A: Considering communities 59 Bibliography 61 Disclosure Appendix 62 The Global Markets Institute is the research think tank within Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research. For other important disclosures, see the Disclosure Appendix. 2 Survivor’s guide - the short form Chapter 1: Survivor’s guide - the short form We examine how companies can reshape themselves to better compete in today’s Everything-as-a-Service (EaaS) economy1. In this new economy, firms can use services provided by other businesses to grow faster, while using less capital and fewer people than would otherwise be possible. Industries are reorganizing in response to these dynamics, and companies must adapt or risk falling behind. EaaS can be thought of as an extreme form of outsourcing. In the past, firms would selectively outsource business functions to reduce costs, for example by outsourcing ancillary functions like operating a cafeteria within an office or by outsourcing labor-intensive but simple manufacturing processes. Over time, however, the high degree of standardization that has emerged across manufacturing, communications, data systems and user interfaces, among other areas, has made it possible to outsource virtually any business function.
    [Show full text]
  • The Competitive Value of Data
    GLOBAL THE COMPETITIVE MARKETS INSTITUTE May 2019 VALUE OF DATA Steve Strongin Amanda Hindlian Sandra Lawson Sonya Banerjee [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute Table of Contents Executive summary 3 The learning curve 5 Data-driven learning strategies 10 The four-part test 15 Disclosure Appendix 16 9 May 2019 2 Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute Executive summary Data is now the lifeblood of many firms, particularly in the modern economy in which companies tend to focus on their narrow area of expertise while outsourcing the rest1. From organizing and optimizing complex multi-vendor production processes to customer acquisition, service and retention – these modern firms are almost entirely dependent on data. Naturally, trying to use data to establish a competitive edge has therefore become big business. Anecdotes about data-driven successes abound, but experience suggests that it is actually quite difficult for businesses to use data to build a sustainable competitive advantage. In fact, pinpointing examples of companies that have successfully used data to maintain a competitive edge is a challenging task. This begs the following two questions: 1) why haven’t more companies been able to build a sustainable competitive edge using data, and 2) when can data serve this purpose? We address these two questions by building a conceptual framework that we refer to as the “learning curve.” The learning curve helps us assess the factors that underpin when a company can use data to create a competitive edge – and perhaps more importantly, when it cannot.
    [Show full text]
  • Blockbusters
    BLOCKBUSTERS HIT-MAKING, RISK-TAKING, AND THE BIG BUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT ANITA ELBERSE HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK 14 BLOCKBUSTERS sector's most successful impresarios are leading a revolution, trans­ forming the business from one that is all about selling bottles— high-priced alcohol delivered to "table customers" seated at hot spots in the club—to one that is just as much about selling tickets Chapter One to heavily marketed events featuring superstar DJs. But I'll also point to other examples, from Apple and its big bets in consumer electronics, to Victoria's Secret with its angelic-superstar-studded fashion shows, and to Burberry's success in taking the trench coat digital. As these will show, many of the lessons to be learned about blockbusters not only apply across the entertainment industry— they even extend to the business world at large. BETTING ON BLOCKBUSTERS n June 2012, less than two weeks after the news of his appoint­ ment as chairman of Walt Disney Pictures had Hollywood in- siders buzzing, Alan Horn walked onto the Disney studio lot. The well-liked sixty-nine-year-old executive ("I try to be a nice person almost all the time, but next to Alan Horn I look like a com­ plete jerk," actor Steve Carell had joked during Horn's good-bye party at Warner Bros.) was excited about joining Disney, which he described as "one of the most iconic and beloved entertainment companies in the world." But he also knew he had his work cut out for him, as Disney Pictures had posted disappointing box-office results in recent years.
    [Show full text]
  • Business Intelligence and Geographic Information System Lifecycle Architecture Using Cloud Computing for Smart Community
    North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship Theses Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 Business Intelligence And Geographic Information System Lifecycle Architecture Using Cloud Computing For Smart Community Rawan Sendi North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.library.ncat.edu/theses Recommended Citation Sendi, Rawan, "Business Intelligence And Geographic Information System Lifecycle Architecture Using Cloud Computing For Smart Community" (2015). Theses. 267. https://digital.library.ncat.edu/theses/267 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of Aggie Digital Collections and Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Business Intelligence and Geographic Information System Lifecycle Architecture using Cloud Computing for Smart Community Rawan Sendi North Carolina A&T State University A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Department: Computer System Technology Major: Technology Management Major Professor: Dr. Ibraheem Kateeb Greensboro, North Carolina 2015 ii The Graduate School North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University This is to certify that the Master’s Thesis of Rawan Sendi has met the thesis requirements of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Greensboro, North Carolina 2015 Approved by: Dr. Ibraheem Kateeb Dr. Evelyn Sowells Major Adviser Co-advisor Dr. Clay Gloster Dr. Naser El-Bathy Committee Member Committee Member Department Chair Dr. Sanjiv Sarin Dean, The Graduate School iii © Copyright by Rawan Sendi 2015 iv Biographical Sketch Rawan Sendi was born and raised in a small industrial city in the west region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where she spent her childhood.
    [Show full text]
  • TROUBLING SIGNS IBM Head Ginni Rometty Cannot Find a Way to Stimulate Growth IBM COMPANY
    TROUBLING SIGNS IBM head Ginni Rometty cannot find a way to stimulate growth IBM COMPANY LITTLE BIG BLUE IBM The turnover of the US technological icon has been shrinking for years. If superbrain Watson fails to bring about the turnaround, CEO Virginia Rometty will probably have to go. For Virginia Marie Rometty (59), called Ginni, the domination of the world is only a matter of time. At the end of October, at her in-house exhibition in Las Vegas, the chief executive of IBM announced that in five years her computer technology will influence “every decision” on this planet. The task for IBM's superbrain Watson is clear – it must solve “the biggest problems of the world.” In a few years, this market, called Cognitive Computing, is expected to be worth an incredible two trillion dollars. Rometty claims that more than one billion people will be using the in-house “moonshot” technology as early as 2017. The magic word is Artificial Intelligence (AI). With such a pitch a techie from the Silicon Valley would certainly have the chance for a life-sustaining venture capital shot. But IBM is not a new company – even though Rometty likes to describe her Big Blue as a “105-year old start-up.” ► JANUARY 2017 manager magazin 65 PHOTO [M]: BEN BAKER / REDUX / LAIF / / REDUX BAKER [M]: BEN PHOTO COMPANY IBM The large corporation lacks the most of HP, the other US technological Rometty has pursued this goal important criterion for this type of legend. It was disrupted personally. using all available means. After all, company – dynamism.
    [Show full text]
  • Microsoft, Northern Securities Cases Paved Way for Google Antitrust Sh
    Microsoft, Northern Securities cases paved way for Google antitrust sh... https://www.mlexwatch.com/articles/9714/print?section=ftcwatch MLex US | 1776 I (Eye) St. NW, Suite 260, Washington DC 20006 Have a news tip for FTCWatch? Send an e-mail to [email protected]. [email protected] | Privacy Policy | Cookie Settings Microsoft, Northern Securities cases paved way for Google antitrust showdown By Claude Marx Published on November 9, 2020 in Issue 994 With high risk comes the potential for great reward. That’s a pivotal part of the thought process for senior antitrust officials when they consider suing prominent companies. The Department of Justice’s Oct. 20 announcement that it and 11 states are suing Google for violations of the Sherman Act is the latest in a series of big antitrust cases resembling a high-wire act. Two cases that laid the foundation were the agency’s litigation against Microsoft and Northern Securities Co. Douglas Melamed, the deputy assistant attorney general when the DOJ filed its 1998 lawsuit against Microsoft, recalled in an FTCWatch interview that initially officials knew they had the law on their side. Still, they questioned whether the company crossed the antitrust line and whether the agency had enough witnesses and documents to support its case. “There wasn’t anybody who thought this was a lock. But the feeling was this was important and the right thing to do. In cases like this, you take your chances,” he said. The DOJ and 20 states sued the software giant for using the dominant position of its Windows operating system to force computer makers to exclude a browser made by Netscape on their PCs.
    [Show full text]
  • THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT of KOREAN and JAPANESE BIG BUSINESS GROUPS: a Comparison Study Between Korean General Trading Companies and Japanese Sogo Shoshas
    THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF KOREAN AND JAPANESE BIG BUSINESS GROUPS: A Comparison Study between Korean General Trading Companies and Japanese Sogo Shoshas by IN WOO JUN A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Management The Birmingham Business School The University of Birmingham August, 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This research is an in-depth study of Korean GTCs (General Trading Companies) and Japanese Sogo Shoshas (the Japanese version of General Trading Companies), which are unique big business conglomerates but not well-known in Western countries. It investigates and compares several of their features, such as their history, characteristics, functions, organisational structure, corporate culture, human resource management, their impact on national economic development, strategic management and decision-making process. First, it examines a wide range of literature to show the functions of Korean GTCs and Japanese Sogo Shoshas as transaction intermediaries, information gatherers, project organisers, international marketers, financial providers, etc. With these varied functions, they have played significant roles not only from the macro aspect, but also the micro aspect.
    [Show full text]
  • Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business the Case for Restoring America’S Once Robust Antitrust Policies
    Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business The Case for Restoring America’s Once Robust Antitrust Policies By Stacy Mitchell August 2016 About the Institute for Local Self-Reliance The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a 42-year-old national nonprofit research and educational organization. ILSR’s mission is to provide innovative strategies, working models, and timely information to support strong, community rooted, environmentally sound, and equitable local economies. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, policy makers, and businesses to design systems, policies, and enterprises that meet local needs; to maximize human, material, natural, and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens. More at www.ilsr.org. About the Author Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Community-Scaled Economy Initiative, which produces research and analysis, and partners with a range of allies to design and implement policies that curb economic consolidation and strengthen community- rooted enterprise. She has produced numerous reports and written articles for a variety of publications, including Business Week, The Nation, and Wall Street Journal. She is the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, which Booklist named a top-ten business book of the year in 2007. An engaging speaker, Stacy has been a featured presenter at many national conferences. In October 2012, she gave a provocative TEDx talk on Why We Can’t Shop Our Way to a Better Economy.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER 7 • Movies and the Impact of Images 231 7 Movies
    SOUNDS AND IMAGES 7 Movies and the Impact of Images “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . .” So 233 Early Technology begins the now-famous opening credit crawl of and the Evolution Star Wars. The first appearance of those words of Movies was in movie theaters on earth, but the time now 238 is rather long ago: May 25, 1977. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System The space epic changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and 241 The Studio System’s directed by George Lucas, departed from the per- Golden Age sonal filmmaking of the early 1970s and spawned 251 a blockbuster mentality that formed a new primary The Transformation audience for Hollywood: teenagers. It had all of the of the Studio System now-typical blockbuster characteristics, including 255 massive promotion and lucrative merchandising The Economics of the Movie Business tie-ins. Repeat attendance and positive buzz among young people made the first Star Wars the most 262 Popular Movies successful movie of its generation. and Democracy Star Wars has impacted not only the cultural side of moviemaking but also the technical form. In the first Star Wars trilogy, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, Lucas developed technologies that are now commonplace in moviemaking: digital animation, special effects, and computer-based film editing. With the second trilogy (which was a prequel to the narrative of the original Star Wars), Lucas again broke new ground in the film industry. © Lucasfilm Ltd./Everett Collection CHAPTER 7 • MOVIES AND THE IMPACT OF IMAGES 231 7 MOVIES Several scenes of Star Wars: Episode I— creativity across multiple platforms, busi- The Phantom Menace (1999) were shot on nesses, and markets to generate sustained digital video, easing integration with digital growth and drive significant long-term special effects.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dark Ages of AI: a Panel Discussion at AAAI-84
    AI Magazine Volume 6 Number 3 (1985) (© AAAI) The Dark Ages of AI: A Panel Discussion at AAAI-84 Drew McDermott Yale University, New Haven, Comecticut 06520 M. Mitchell Waldrop Science Magazine 1515 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D C. 20005 Roger Schank Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 B. Chandrasekaran Computer and Informatiollal Science Department, Ohio State Ufziversify, Columbus, Ohio 43210 John McDermott Department of Coqmter Scieme, Carnegie-Melloll Ulziversity, Pittsburgh, Penmylvania 15213 Drew McDermott: what extent is it due to naivet6 on the part of the public? In spite of all the commercial hustle and bustle around AI What is the role of the press in this mismatch, and how these days, there’s a mood that I’m sure many of you are can we help to make the press a better channel of com- familiar with of deep unease among AI researchers who munication with the public? What is the role of funding have been around more than the last four years or so. agencies in the future going to be as far as keeping a realis- This unease is due to the worry that perhaps expectations tic attitude toward AI? Can we expect DARPA and ICOT about AI are too high, and that this will eventually result to be stabilizing forces, or is there a danger that they may in disaster. cause people in government and business to get a little To sketch a worst case scenario, suppose that five years bit too excited? Are funding agencies going to continue from now the strategic computing initiative collapses mis- to fund pure research, even if AI becomes a commercial erably as autonomous vehicles fail to roll.
    [Show full text]
  • They Might Be Giants
    They might be giants A special report on banking in emerging markets l May 15th 2010 BankingEmergingMktsSRCOV.indd 1 04/05/2010 14:15 The Economist May 15th 2010 A special report on banking in emerging markets 1 They might be giants Also in this section The bigger and bigger picture The developing world’s banks are ourishing. Page 2 Rambo in cu s Balance•sheets are less powerful than they look. Page 5 Domestic duties CCB, China’s second•biggest bank, exempli• es the size of the task at home. Page 7 Mutually assured existence Public and private banks have reached a modus vivendi. Page 8 We lucky few For Western rms the barriers to entry into emerging•market banking are daunting. Page 10 Emerging•market banks have raced ahead despite the nancial crisis Breaking and entering as their Western colleagues have languished. Patrick Foulis asks how they will use their new•found strength Why it is hard to copy Santander. Page 12 LONG the breezy three•kilometre banks in the developing world now mea• Old friends only Astretch of Mumbai’s Marine Drive you sure up. Not only are they well capitalised To do well in China, Western banks need a pass cricket pitches, destitute people, luxu• and well funded, they are really bigand long history. Page 14 ry hotels, plump joggers and advertise• are enjoying rapid growth. By prots, Tier•1 ments for Indian multinational compa• capital, dividends and market value they All the world’s a stage nies, but almost no bank branches or cash now account for a quarter to half of the machines.
    [Show full text]