Gulf Business
UAE rolls back tax on gold, diamonds, precious metals
The country’s gold and jewellery market has endured a sales slump following the introduction of value added tax
Robert Anderson
Wednesday 02 May 2018
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The UAE Cabinet has adopted a law to roll back the application of a 5 per cent value added tax on the gold, diamond and precious metals market.
State news agency WAM said the step was intended to maintain the country’s ranking on ease of doing business indicators and stimulate transactions in the three categories.
The VAT reversed mechanism will apply to “precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, used in trade in accordance with internationally accepted standards with a purity of 99 per cent or more” at the wholesale level but not at the retail level.
However, it is still expected to lead to lower prices in stores, which previously enjoyed a price advantage over neighbouring markets like India.
The UAE’s gold and jewellery market has gone though a particularly difficult period in the opening months of the year with reports that gold sales are down 30-40 per cent from a year ago.
Prior to this, the market still remained weak despite a sales surge ahead of the tax’s implementation on January 1.
The World Gold Council said in its 2017 report that gold jewellery demand had hit a 20-year low in the country.
Purchases were down 2 per cent from 43.4 tonnes in 2016 to 42.8 tonnes last year, the fourth consecutive annual decline, according to the organisation.
Read: UAE hits 20-year low for gold jewellery demand
The gold, diamond and precious metals sector is one of the most important for the country’s economic diversification and is expected “to witness significant growth in the coming period as part of the UAE’s diversification objectives”, according to WAM.
The UAE introduced the 5 per cent value added tax alongside Saudi Arabia on January 1. It applies to most goods and services including groceries, fuel and utility bills.
Read: Revealed: Goods and services subject to VAT in the UAE
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Wednesday, 2 May 2018
The Week UK: Government makes U-turn on tax haven transparency laws
The Week UK
UK News
Government makes U-turn on tax haven transparency laws
May 2, 2018
Theresa May accepts public ownership registers for overseas territories to stave off Commons defeat
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Carl Court/Getty Images
The Government has performed a U-turn by agreeing new measures aimed at increasing transparency in offshore tax havens, after a backbench revolt and defeat in the Commons.
See related
Panama Papers: EU to force big firms to disclose tax details
EU ‘tax haven’ blacklist labelled a ‘whitewash’
Putin and the Panama Papers: The Kremlin's web of cash
Twenty Conservative MPs backed a cross-party amendment to force British overseas territories to publish public ownership registers. They will show how the global super-rich hide their funds in offshore tax havens, making it easier to uncover corruption, money laundering and tax dodging, campaigners claim.
The measures will cover major UK tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, but will not include Britain’s crown dependencies, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
In an earlier bid to stave off the amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, the Foreign Office had pledged to work internationally to introduce public registers “as the global standard by 2023”.
However, this was dismissed as too little too late by Andrew Mitchell, the former Conservative International Development Secretary leading the revolt. The Government threw in the towel in the face of a clear majority for the amendment in the House.
Fourteen British overseas territories will now be required to set up “beneficial ownership” registers by the end of 2020, or have them imposed from Westminster.
Bloomberg says the Government has faced “mounting pressure” on the issue, especially after the British Virgin Islands were caught up in the scandal triggered by a leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which came to be known as the Panama Papers.
It has also been in the spotlight since the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in March, an attack blamed on the Kremlin. The killing led to calls for ministers to do more to tackle the web of offshore shell companies investing in the UK and crackdown on illicit Russian assets passing through British overseas territories.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who put forward the amendment along with Mitchell, told the BBC that with the new measures: “We would know who owns what and where and we would be able to follow the money. We would be able to root out corruption and crime.”
Citing an estimated £68bn which has flowed out of Russia into the overseas territories over the past ten years she said: “This secrecy allows you to hide your money and then transfer it, if it is corruptly secured, into the legal system by doing things like buying properties.”
While the U-turn was welcomed by MPs and transparency campaigners, British overseas territories which will be affected by the changes hit back.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lorna Smith, interim executive director of British Virgin Island Finance, accused supporters of the legislation of “colonialism”, adding that the British Virgin Islands had “done nothing wrong” and were deemed largely compliant on transparency by international bodies.
She went on to say that her major concern was one of “constitutional infringement”, arguing that: “If this bill goes through, it’s like Scotland feeling that Westminster is legislating for Scotland. It’s simply not right.”
The Guardian has also cited representatives of the territories who have argued that “the disclosure requirement would be expensive to implement at a time when countries in the Caribbean were recovering from the impact of Hurricane Irma”.
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UK News
Government makes U-turn on tax haven transparency laws
May 2, 2018
Theresa May accepts public ownership registers for overseas territories to stave off Commons defeat
google+
Carl Court/Getty Images
The Government has performed a U-turn by agreeing new measures aimed at increasing transparency in offshore tax havens, after a backbench revolt and defeat in the Commons.
See related
Panama Papers: EU to force big firms to disclose tax details
EU ‘tax haven’ blacklist labelled a ‘whitewash’
Putin and the Panama Papers: The Kremlin's web of cash
Twenty Conservative MPs backed a cross-party amendment to force British overseas territories to publish public ownership registers. They will show how the global super-rich hide their funds in offshore tax havens, making it easier to uncover corruption, money laundering and tax dodging, campaigners claim.
The measures will cover major UK tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, but will not include Britain’s crown dependencies, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
In an earlier bid to stave off the amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, the Foreign Office had pledged to work internationally to introduce public registers “as the global standard by 2023”.
However, this was dismissed as too little too late by Andrew Mitchell, the former Conservative International Development Secretary leading the revolt. The Government threw in the towel in the face of a clear majority for the amendment in the House.
Fourteen British overseas territories will now be required to set up “beneficial ownership” registers by the end of 2020, or have them imposed from Westminster.
Bloomberg says the Government has faced “mounting pressure” on the issue, especially after the British Virgin Islands were caught up in the scandal triggered by a leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which came to be known as the Panama Papers.
It has also been in the spotlight since the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in March, an attack blamed on the Kremlin. The killing led to calls for ministers to do more to tackle the web of offshore shell companies investing in the UK and crackdown on illicit Russian assets passing through British overseas territories.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who put forward the amendment along with Mitchell, told the BBC that with the new measures: “We would know who owns what and where and we would be able to follow the money. We would be able to root out corruption and crime.”
Citing an estimated £68bn which has flowed out of Russia into the overseas territories over the past ten years she said: “This secrecy allows you to hide your money and then transfer it, if it is corruptly secured, into the legal system by doing things like buying properties.”
While the U-turn was welcomed by MPs and transparency campaigners, British overseas territories which will be affected by the changes hit back.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lorna Smith, interim executive director of British Virgin Island Finance, accused supporters of the legislation of “colonialism”, adding that the British Virgin Islands had “done nothing wrong” and were deemed largely compliant on transparency by international bodies.
She went on to say that her major concern was one of “constitutional infringement”, arguing that: “If this bill goes through, it’s like Scotland feeling that Westminster is legislating for Scotland. It’s simply not right.”
The Guardian has also cited representatives of the territories who have argued that “the disclosure requirement would be expensive to implement at a time when countries in the Caribbean were recovering from the impact of Hurricane Irma”.
Advertisement
Read more: UK News
British Virgin Islands
tax avoidance
tax evasion
Panama Papers
Paradise Papers
Advertisement
Advertisement
You are here:
HomeGovernment makes U-turn on tax haven transparency laws
Related Articles
The price of beer and cider in Scotland has gone up dramatically
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Protesters in mock celebration as part in a demonstration against tax evasion in London in 2016
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Who was Jack the Ripper?
Voters could soon be asked to bring photo ID to polling stations under planned reforms
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Read more
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Who are the Illuminati and what do they control?
Entertainment
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Americas
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World News
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UK News
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Tuesday, 1 May 2018
The Washington Post/Aaron Blake: The 7 most intriguing questions Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump
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The Fix Analysis
The 7 most intriguing questions Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump
by Aaron Blake May 1 at 8:00 AM Email the author
Now we know what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wants to ask President Trump (at least in part).
The New York Times reported Monday evening questions the special counsel's team has previewed with Trump's lawyers as they negotiate whether the president will sit for an interview. And although many of them are unsurprising — going over key events in the investigations of obstruction and Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign and what Trump knew about them — some hint at points of emphasis, previously unknown angles and mysterious subplots.
Below are seven questions that caught my eye.
1. “What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?”
That middle clause is the one that sticks out: “including by Paul Manafort.” Why specify him and only him?
Until a few weeks ago, Manafort wasn't widely considered a key figure in the collusion investigation. He was mostly seen as someone who might flip on Trump because of the dozens of criminal charges he faces. But a court filing last month revealed that Mueller had sought authorization to expand his inquiry into allegations that Manafort “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials.” And another filing shortly before that described a Manafort business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, as having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign. (It has previously been asserted that Kilimnik had ties to Russian intelligence, but not necessarily during the campaign.)
Manafort is hardly the only person linked to possible collusion. Others include Donald Trump Jr., longtime informal adviser Roger Stone and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior aide. The fact that Manafort is explicitly mentioned, when combined with these two recent filings, can't help but raise eyebrows.
2. “How was the decision made to fire Mr. Flynn on Feb. 13, 2017?”
This sounds routine, but it could mean that Mueller is interested in a tweet sent from Trump's account in December that said Trump fired former national security adviser Michael Flynn “because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.”
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
That was important because shortly after firing Flynn, Trump approached then-FBI Director James B. Comey about seeking leniency for Flynn, according to Comey. That plea would be more problematic from an obstruction of justice standpoint if Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI and was in legal jeopardy because of it. It would suggest Trump wanted to help Flynn to protect himself.
Trump's legal team quickly went into cleanup mode. Then-attorney John Dowd said that he was responsible for the sloppily worded tweet and that Trump was only generally aware of Flynn's conversations with the FBI. Mueller wants to know Trump's version of how that went down.
3. “What did you think and do in reaction to the news that the special counsel was speaking to Mr. Rogers, Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Coats?”
This is a real mystery. The Washington Post reported last year that Trump asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats if he could intervene to get Comey to back off Flynn, with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo present at the meeting. (The other official mentioned here is National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers.) But this isn't that.
Lots of questions on the Times's list are very general and clearly refer to things that have been reported publicly, but this seems to refer to a specific episode about which we don't really know anything. Exactly what it is is anybody's guess.
Robert Mueller, left, on June 19, 2013, and President Trump on December 15, 2017 (Saul Loeb and Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
4. “Did you discuss whether Mr. Sessions would protect you, and reference past attorneys general?”
Trump is big on loyalty, he has expressed frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and he has spoken glowingly how Barack Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., “totally protected” Obama. But whether he has tied all those things together is another thing.
This suggests that Mueller wants to know whether Trump has directly asked Sessions for protection. We don't know, of course, whether that's because someone told Mueller that Trump did, or just because Mueller thinks it's logical that he may have.
5. “What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the news of the appointment of the special counsel?”
Another mystery is why Mueller's own appointment is in the questions he wants to ask Trump. You'd expect Mueller to be interested in Trump's efforts to fire him — and other questions deal with that — but this one is a head-scratcher.
Again, is there a specific event Mueller is aware of that he wants to ask Trump about? Or is this just a general inquiry?
6. “What discussions did you have regarding terminating the special counsel, and what did you do when that consideration was reported in January 2018?”
The second part is the key. Trump seemed to publicly deny that he tried to fire Mueller, calling it “fake news.” This may suggest that Mueller is interested in whether Trump misled the American public about his own actions, or could allude to something else Trump did that we, again, don't yet know about.
As I wrote at the time, misleading public denials were cited in special counsel Kenneth Starr's report on President Bill Clinton, even as the president wasn't under oath.
7. “During a 2013 trip to Russia, what communication and relationships did you have with the Agalarovs and Russian government officials?”
Trump boasted in 2015 that he met with high-level Russian business executives, including Aras Agalarov, and government officials during his 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. “I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals and top-of-the-government people,” he told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I can't go further than that, but I will tell you I met the top people.”
It seems Mueller wants him to go further than that.
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Democracy Dies in Darkness
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The Fix Analysis
The 7 most intriguing questions Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump
by Aaron Blake May 1 at 8:00 AM Email the author
Now we know what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wants to ask President Trump (at least in part).
The New York Times reported Monday evening questions the special counsel's team has previewed with Trump's lawyers as they negotiate whether the president will sit for an interview. And although many of them are unsurprising — going over key events in the investigations of obstruction and Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign and what Trump knew about them — some hint at points of emphasis, previously unknown angles and mysterious subplots.
Below are seven questions that caught my eye.
1. “What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?”
That middle clause is the one that sticks out: “including by Paul Manafort.” Why specify him and only him?
Until a few weeks ago, Manafort wasn't widely considered a key figure in the collusion investigation. He was mostly seen as someone who might flip on Trump because of the dozens of criminal charges he faces. But a court filing last month revealed that Mueller had sought authorization to expand his inquiry into allegations that Manafort “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials.” And another filing shortly before that described a Manafort business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, as having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign. (It has previously been asserted that Kilimnik had ties to Russian intelligence, but not necessarily during the campaign.)
Manafort is hardly the only person linked to possible collusion. Others include Donald Trump Jr., longtime informal adviser Roger Stone and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior aide. The fact that Manafort is explicitly mentioned, when combined with these two recent filings, can't help but raise eyebrows.
2. “How was the decision made to fire Mr. Flynn on Feb. 13, 2017?”
This sounds routine, but it could mean that Mueller is interested in a tweet sent from Trump's account in December that said Trump fired former national security adviser Michael Flynn “because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.”
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
That was important because shortly after firing Flynn, Trump approached then-FBI Director James B. Comey about seeking leniency for Flynn, according to Comey. That plea would be more problematic from an obstruction of justice standpoint if Trump knew Flynn had lied to the FBI and was in legal jeopardy because of it. It would suggest Trump wanted to help Flynn to protect himself.
Trump's legal team quickly went into cleanup mode. Then-attorney John Dowd said that he was responsible for the sloppily worded tweet and that Trump was only generally aware of Flynn's conversations with the FBI. Mueller wants to know Trump's version of how that went down.
3. “What did you think and do in reaction to the news that the special counsel was speaking to Mr. Rogers, Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Coats?”
This is a real mystery. The Washington Post reported last year that Trump asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats if he could intervene to get Comey to back off Flynn, with then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo present at the meeting. (The other official mentioned here is National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers.) But this isn't that.
Lots of questions on the Times's list are very general and clearly refer to things that have been reported publicly, but this seems to refer to a specific episode about which we don't really know anything. Exactly what it is is anybody's guess.
Robert Mueller, left, on June 19, 2013, and President Trump on December 15, 2017 (Saul Loeb and Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
4. “Did you discuss whether Mr. Sessions would protect you, and reference past attorneys general?”
Trump is big on loyalty, he has expressed frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and he has spoken glowingly how Barack Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., “totally protected” Obama. But whether he has tied all those things together is another thing.
This suggests that Mueller wants to know whether Trump has directly asked Sessions for protection. We don't know, of course, whether that's because someone told Mueller that Trump did, or just because Mueller thinks it's logical that he may have.
5. “What did you think and what did you do in reaction to the news of the appointment of the special counsel?”
Another mystery is why Mueller's own appointment is in the questions he wants to ask Trump. You'd expect Mueller to be interested in Trump's efforts to fire him — and other questions deal with that — but this one is a head-scratcher.
Again, is there a specific event Mueller is aware of that he wants to ask Trump about? Or is this just a general inquiry?
6. “What discussions did you have regarding terminating the special counsel, and what did you do when that consideration was reported in January 2018?”
The second part is the key. Trump seemed to publicly deny that he tried to fire Mueller, calling it “fake news.” This may suggest that Mueller is interested in whether Trump misled the American public about his own actions, or could allude to something else Trump did that we, again, don't yet know about.
As I wrote at the time, misleading public denials were cited in special counsel Kenneth Starr's report on President Bill Clinton, even as the president wasn't under oath.
7. “During a 2013 trip to Russia, what communication and relationships did you have with the Agalarovs and Russian government officials?”
Trump boasted in 2015 that he met with high-level Russian business executives, including Aras Agalarov, and government officials during his 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. “I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals and top-of-the-government people,” he told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I can't go further than that, but I will tell you I met the top people.”
It seems Mueller wants him to go further than that.
Most Read Politics
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Analysis The 7 most intriguing questions Robert Mueller wants to ask Trump
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3
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Business.com/Chad Brooks: Is Your Business Ready for Expansion? 1-800-GOT-JUNK's CEO Can Help
Business.com
Is Your Business Ready for Expansion? 1-800-GOT-JUNK's CEO Can Help
By Chad Brooks
Business.com / Entrepreneurship / Last Modified: March 26, 2018
Share this
Brian Scudamore has launched three new businesses in eight years and he has some ideas that may help you scale up your business.
Knowing when it is time to take your business to the next level is one of the more difficult questions entrepreneurs face. Rushing the process could spell doom for your company, while not moving ahead at the right time can result in lost revenue.
As the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Brian Scudamore knows all about how to grow and scale businesses. Scudamore launched 1-800-GOT-JUNK in 1989 at the age of 18. In the nearly three decades since, the business has grown to nearly 200 locations in three countries. In addition, Scudamore has expanded his brand by launching three new businesses in the last eight years – Shack Shine, You Move Me and WOW 1 DAY PAINTING.
We recently spoke with Scudamore about the best ways to expand and scale your business, and how to find the right people to help you do it.
Q. What is the difference between scaling and expanding a business?
A. Expanding is when your business starts to pick up speed; customers are flowing in, the flywheel is kicking into high gear, and you need to grow your team just to keep up. Scaling levels it up: It's about operational efficiency and creating replicable systems that can be applied on a massive scale. This is especially important in a franchise system like ours, with hundreds of decentralized businesses in three countries.
When 1-800-GOT-JUNK? first started to grow, we were adding franchises one by one – that's growth. When we started to scale, we were able to add franchises exponentially. We developed tried-and-true systems for everything: sales, operations, marketing, etc. They're easy to teach so we can just as quickly train 10 new franchise partners as we can train one.
This process has been so successful that we've since applied it to three more brands. We'll continue to leverage our systems as we add more brands to our family of home services.
Q. How do you know when you are ready to scale and/or expand?
A. For me, it was a gut feeling. I believed that 1-800-GOT-JUNK? could be scaled, so I took the risk … even though every franchising expert told me not to. It was easier with our next brands, since we had already developed repeatable best practices. Our COO has a more practical approach, though – never scale until you're confident in your revenue model.
Both of these things are important, but first you need to have confidence in your people. With the right team in place, you can achieve incredible things. You need to take the time to recruit and invest in people who are totally aligned with your vision, values and culture.
Q. What steps should you be taking to ensure your business is prepared when the time does come to start growing?
A. Systematize everything. Establishing systems is the main reason we've been able to scale to the magnitude we're at today, and how we'll continue to scale in the future. We've got our sights set on our first billion-dollar year in 2020. This goes beyond operations; if you want to scale, you need systems for hiring, firing, marketing, sales, finances, training – everything. This way, everyone will be set up for success.
As a franchisor, having systems means anyone can run one of our businesses. A new franchise partner who joins our family is stepping into a turnkey operation. We've created replicable best practices so that our franchise partners can get up and running in no time. Our businesses aren't really about painting or hauling junk; it's about giving people access to a proven framework and a network to help them grow a successful business.
Q. When you do start to expand or scale, how do you know if you are growing too fast?
A. The quickest way to tell if you're growing too fast is to look at your culture. A big pitfall of growth is that you need to expand your team quickly to keep up with demand. Sometimes, you end up loosening your hiring practices, which allows the wrong people to slip into your organization.
In the early days of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we dealt with this all the time. I literally needed bodies in trucks to serve our growing customer base. I was less concerned with cultural fit and my criteria for new hires was, "Can you lift at least 50 pounds?" If the answer was yes, that was good enough for me.
This helped us grow, but it wasn't scalable in the long term and our culture started to suffer. It forced me to reassess my vision for the future and create a system for how we hire. Now, our franchise partners' and employees' cultural fit with the organization is top priority.
Q. As the leader of a growing company, should you keep all the responsibility of running and driving the company forward or should you bring on others to share in those responsibilities? How do you know when the right time is to bring someone else on board?
A. Strong leaders know how to let go. They also know how to admit when they need help. I used to try to do everything myself – I was the sales guy, the operations guy, and the PR guy, all rolled into one. It was too much for one person to handle alone. I had to face the fact that there are certain things I'm simply not good at. I needed a COO who would complement my strengths to share the responsibility of running the company.
For me, it took a harsh reality check to make me realize I needed help. On top of the emotional stress, our franchise partners started questioning if I was the right person to lead the company. I learned that if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Being doubted as a leader forced me into deep self-reflection that changed the future of our business.
Q. If you are hiring a second-in-command, what type of traits should you be looking for?
A. The answer will be different for everyone. It's not really about finding a specific type of person – it's about finding the person who's right for you. My strengths are vision and culture. When I was looking for a COO, I wanted an implementer with the know-how to scale. Finding the perfect No. 2 entirely depends on your self-awareness and acceptance of your weaknesses.
Q. You started your first business at such a young age, just 18 years old, what advice can you share with other young budding entrepreneurs who think they are ready to launch their own business?
A. Just do it, honestly. There's no right time to start a business, and if you keep waiting, you'll never try. Entrepreneurs need to be willing to fail and to be comfortable in the unknown. It's scary at first, but there's no better way to learn about business than by running one yourself.
Chad Brooks
Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based writer with more than 15 years in media. A 1998 journalism graduate of Indiana University, Chad began his career with Business News Daily in 2011 as a freelance writer. In 2014, he joined the staff full time as a senior writer. Before Business News Daily, Chad spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Chad has also worked on the other side of the media industry, promoting small businesses throughout the United States for two years in a public relations role. His first book, How to Start a Home-Based App Development Business, was published in 2014. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Chicago suburbs.
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This site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information about business practices and strategy, not to provide specific business advice. Information provided on the Business.com website should not be used as a substitute for legal, accounting, real estate, business, tax, or other types of professional advice.
Is Your Business Ready for Expansion? 1-800-GOT-JUNK's CEO Can Help
By Chad Brooks
Business.com / Entrepreneurship / Last Modified: March 26, 2018
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Brian Scudamore has launched three new businesses in eight years and he has some ideas that may help you scale up your business.
Knowing when it is time to take your business to the next level is one of the more difficult questions entrepreneurs face. Rushing the process could spell doom for your company, while not moving ahead at the right time can result in lost revenue.
As the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Brian Scudamore knows all about how to grow and scale businesses. Scudamore launched 1-800-GOT-JUNK in 1989 at the age of 18. In the nearly three decades since, the business has grown to nearly 200 locations in three countries. In addition, Scudamore has expanded his brand by launching three new businesses in the last eight years – Shack Shine, You Move Me and WOW 1 DAY PAINTING.
We recently spoke with Scudamore about the best ways to expand and scale your business, and how to find the right people to help you do it.
Q. What is the difference between scaling and expanding a business?
A. Expanding is when your business starts to pick up speed; customers are flowing in, the flywheel is kicking into high gear, and you need to grow your team just to keep up. Scaling levels it up: It's about operational efficiency and creating replicable systems that can be applied on a massive scale. This is especially important in a franchise system like ours, with hundreds of decentralized businesses in three countries.
When 1-800-GOT-JUNK? first started to grow, we were adding franchises one by one – that's growth. When we started to scale, we were able to add franchises exponentially. We developed tried-and-true systems for everything: sales, operations, marketing, etc. They're easy to teach so we can just as quickly train 10 new franchise partners as we can train one.
This process has been so successful that we've since applied it to three more brands. We'll continue to leverage our systems as we add more brands to our family of home services.
Q. How do you know when you are ready to scale and/or expand?
A. For me, it was a gut feeling. I believed that 1-800-GOT-JUNK? could be scaled, so I took the risk … even though every franchising expert told me not to. It was easier with our next brands, since we had already developed repeatable best practices. Our COO has a more practical approach, though – never scale until you're confident in your revenue model.
Both of these things are important, but first you need to have confidence in your people. With the right team in place, you can achieve incredible things. You need to take the time to recruit and invest in people who are totally aligned with your vision, values and culture.
Q. What steps should you be taking to ensure your business is prepared when the time does come to start growing?
A. Systematize everything. Establishing systems is the main reason we've been able to scale to the magnitude we're at today, and how we'll continue to scale in the future. We've got our sights set on our first billion-dollar year in 2020. This goes beyond operations; if you want to scale, you need systems for hiring, firing, marketing, sales, finances, training – everything. This way, everyone will be set up for success.
As a franchisor, having systems means anyone can run one of our businesses. A new franchise partner who joins our family is stepping into a turnkey operation. We've created replicable best practices so that our franchise partners can get up and running in no time. Our businesses aren't really about painting or hauling junk; it's about giving people access to a proven framework and a network to help them grow a successful business.
Q. When you do start to expand or scale, how do you know if you are growing too fast?
A. The quickest way to tell if you're growing too fast is to look at your culture. A big pitfall of growth is that you need to expand your team quickly to keep up with demand. Sometimes, you end up loosening your hiring practices, which allows the wrong people to slip into your organization.
In the early days of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we dealt with this all the time. I literally needed bodies in trucks to serve our growing customer base. I was less concerned with cultural fit and my criteria for new hires was, "Can you lift at least 50 pounds?" If the answer was yes, that was good enough for me.
This helped us grow, but it wasn't scalable in the long term and our culture started to suffer. It forced me to reassess my vision for the future and create a system for how we hire. Now, our franchise partners' and employees' cultural fit with the organization is top priority.
Q. As the leader of a growing company, should you keep all the responsibility of running and driving the company forward or should you bring on others to share in those responsibilities? How do you know when the right time is to bring someone else on board?
A. Strong leaders know how to let go. They also know how to admit when they need help. I used to try to do everything myself – I was the sales guy, the operations guy, and the PR guy, all rolled into one. It was too much for one person to handle alone. I had to face the fact that there are certain things I'm simply not good at. I needed a COO who would complement my strengths to share the responsibility of running the company.
For me, it took a harsh reality check to make me realize I needed help. On top of the emotional stress, our franchise partners started questioning if I was the right person to lead the company. I learned that if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Being doubted as a leader forced me into deep self-reflection that changed the future of our business.
Q. If you are hiring a second-in-command, what type of traits should you be looking for?
A. The answer will be different for everyone. It's not really about finding a specific type of person – it's about finding the person who's right for you. My strengths are vision and culture. When I was looking for a COO, I wanted an implementer with the know-how to scale. Finding the perfect No. 2 entirely depends on your self-awareness and acceptance of your weaknesses.
Q. You started your first business at such a young age, just 18 years old, what advice can you share with other young budding entrepreneurs who think they are ready to launch their own business?
A. Just do it, honestly. There's no right time to start a business, and if you keep waiting, you'll never try. Entrepreneurs need to be willing to fail and to be comfortable in the unknown. It's scary at first, but there's no better way to learn about business than by running one yourself.
Chad Brooks
Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based writer with more than 15 years in media. A 1998 journalism graduate of Indiana University, Chad began his career with Business News Daily in 2011 as a freelance writer. In 2014, he joined the staff full time as a senior writer. Before Business News Daily, Chad spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Chad has also worked on the other side of the media industry, promoting small businesses throughout the United States for two years in a public relations role. His first book, How to Start a Home-Based App Development Business, was published in 2014. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Chicago suburbs.
How Does Your Business Stack Up? Get a Free Business Report Card!
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Should You Choose Business Opportunity Ownership Over Franchising?
Why National Small Business Week Matters Now More Than Ever
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Chief Visionary Officer at Crimcheck.com
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Owner at Rose Coaching
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©2018 Purch
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This site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information about business practices and strategy, not to provide specific business advice. Information provided on the Business.com website should not be used as a substitute for legal, accounting, real estate, business, tax, or other types of professional advice.
Business.com/Matt D'Angelo: Former Apple CEO John Sculley Says AI is the Future of Marketing
Business.com
Former Apple CEO John Sculley Says AI is the Future of Marketing
By Matt D'Angelo
Business.com / Strategy / Last Modified: April 5, 2018
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Sculley has helped build some of the largest brands on the planet, and he now believes that artificial intelligence is going to change the face of small business and marketing.
Marketing and advertising are two rapidly changing fields. The days of targeting wide swaths of people are waning. Instead, businesses are beginning to hone in on more specific audience groups.
Part of that transition involves embracing artificial intelligence. AI is expected to become a $30 billion industry by 2025, according to Statista.
John Sculley is someone at the forefront of this change. As the former CEO of Apple and former President of Pepsi, Sculley helped build corporate empires through innovative marketing strategies and strong leadership. Now he's applying those lessons to the current business landscape – as the co-founder of Zeta Global, Sculley is embracing AI technology and its market potential.
We recently spoke with Sculley about artificial intelligence, person-based marketing and the changing small business marketing landscape.
Q: How has artificial intelligence already changed the business landscape?
A: There are three different types of AI: Assistant Intelligence, like Waze, the smart GPS that has been incorporated into Google Maps. [It's] very task specific and already indispensable.
Then there is Autonomous Intelligence like self-driving automobiles ... where many sensors are giving the AI system instant feedback to self-navigate. [It's a] perfect example of machine learning from other machines. Still, more development is needed before full commercialization.
[Finally] there is Augmented Intelligence, where an AI system can do things that humans couldn't do on their own. New drug discovery is an example.
Q: How can small businesses and entrepreneurs implement artificial intelligence today?
A: Many marketing services are now embedding machine learning technology into their solutions. Many consumer companies are making the transition to personalized marketing. AI will be foundational for consumer products and services that want to target a specific consumer based on detailed personal data and match it with predictions of what might appeal to them. Oil and electricity fueled the 20th century world. Now smart data is the fuel for the 21st century world.
Q: What impact does artificial intelligence have on small business marketing?
A: [It's] still early days with AI for small business. I expect small businesses will rapidly become big users over the next few years. Costs of AI are dropping. Ten years ago, the iPhone was new. So was Facebook, YouTube and many other disruptive products and services that we can hardly imagine how we could live life without [now]. In time, AI will become pervasive just like these other transformative innovations.
Q: What is person-based marketing?
A: Traditionally, marketers created advertising campaigns based on broad-themed selling propositions that targeted demographically defined audiences. Personalized marketing is entirely different. It starts by analyzing massive amounts of personalized data and scores a consumer's likes and dislike behavior to make predictions on what is the best marketing message for each individual consumer [to] motivate a potential customer to buy your product or service. Cloud-based computing and machine learning together have made it possible to customize marketing messages and instantly measure their effectiveness. If the first try doesn't do the job, then the system instantly recalculates and adjusts the offer.
Q: How is Zeta Global using AI to define the future of marketing?
A: When [CEO] David Steinberg and I co-founded Zeta Global 10 years ago, our vision was to revolutionize consumer marketing. Zeta Global now has 750 million profiled names and thousands of data points for each individual. We never sell personalized data. What we do is to enable some of the largest and most successful marketers with a powerful solution to maximize their marketing dollar investment. We are one of the largest and fastest growing personalized marketing companies in the world. AI is an important foundation within our platform.
Matt D'Angelo
Matt D’Angelo is a B2B Tech Staff Writer based in New York City. After graduating from James Madison University with a degree in Journalism, Matt gained experience as a copy editor and writer for newspapers and various online publications. Matt joined the Purch team in 2017 and covers technology for Business.com and Business News Daily.
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©2018 Purch
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This site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information about business practices and strategy, not to provide specific business advice. Information provided on the Business.com website should not be used as a substitute for legal, accounting, real estate, business, tax, or other types of professional advice.
Former Apple CEO John Sculley Says AI is the Future of Marketing
By Matt D'Angelo
Business.com / Strategy / Last Modified: April 5, 2018
Share this
Sculley has helped build some of the largest brands on the planet, and he now believes that artificial intelligence is going to change the face of small business and marketing.
Marketing and advertising are two rapidly changing fields. The days of targeting wide swaths of people are waning. Instead, businesses are beginning to hone in on more specific audience groups.
Part of that transition involves embracing artificial intelligence. AI is expected to become a $30 billion industry by 2025, according to Statista.
John Sculley is someone at the forefront of this change. As the former CEO of Apple and former President of Pepsi, Sculley helped build corporate empires through innovative marketing strategies and strong leadership. Now he's applying those lessons to the current business landscape – as the co-founder of Zeta Global, Sculley is embracing AI technology and its market potential.
We recently spoke with Sculley about artificial intelligence, person-based marketing and the changing small business marketing landscape.
Q: How has artificial intelligence already changed the business landscape?
A: There are three different types of AI: Assistant Intelligence, like Waze, the smart GPS that has been incorporated into Google Maps. [It's] very task specific and already indispensable.
Then there is Autonomous Intelligence like self-driving automobiles ... where many sensors are giving the AI system instant feedback to self-navigate. [It's a] perfect example of machine learning from other machines. Still, more development is needed before full commercialization.
[Finally] there is Augmented Intelligence, where an AI system can do things that humans couldn't do on their own. New drug discovery is an example.
Q: How can small businesses and entrepreneurs implement artificial intelligence today?
A: Many marketing services are now embedding machine learning technology into their solutions. Many consumer companies are making the transition to personalized marketing. AI will be foundational for consumer products and services that want to target a specific consumer based on detailed personal data and match it with predictions of what might appeal to them. Oil and electricity fueled the 20th century world. Now smart data is the fuel for the 21st century world.
Q: What impact does artificial intelligence have on small business marketing?
A: [It's] still early days with AI for small business. I expect small businesses will rapidly become big users over the next few years. Costs of AI are dropping. Ten years ago, the iPhone was new. So was Facebook, YouTube and many other disruptive products and services that we can hardly imagine how we could live life without [now]. In time, AI will become pervasive just like these other transformative innovations.
Q: What is person-based marketing?
A: Traditionally, marketers created advertising campaigns based on broad-themed selling propositions that targeted demographically defined audiences. Personalized marketing is entirely different. It starts by analyzing massive amounts of personalized data and scores a consumer's likes and dislike behavior to make predictions on what is the best marketing message for each individual consumer [to] motivate a potential customer to buy your product or service. Cloud-based computing and machine learning together have made it possible to customize marketing messages and instantly measure their effectiveness. If the first try doesn't do the job, then the system instantly recalculates and adjusts the offer.
Q: How is Zeta Global using AI to define the future of marketing?
A: When [CEO] David Steinberg and I co-founded Zeta Global 10 years ago, our vision was to revolutionize consumer marketing. Zeta Global now has 750 million profiled names and thousands of data points for each individual. We never sell personalized data. What we do is to enable some of the largest and most successful marketers with a powerful solution to maximize their marketing dollar investment. We are one of the largest and fastest growing personalized marketing companies in the world. AI is an important foundation within our platform.
Matt D'Angelo
Matt D’Angelo is a B2B Tech Staff Writer based in New York City. After graduating from James Madison University with a degree in Journalism, Matt gained experience as a copy editor and writer for newspapers and various online publications. Matt joined the Purch team in 2017 and covers technology for Business.com and Business News Daily.
How Does Your Business Stack Up? Get a Free Business Report Card!
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Related Articles
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9 answers
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Taylor Perras
Community Manager at Business.com
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Asif Razzaq
Founder at MarkTechpost.com
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CEO/President at Profit Now Business Coaching
See Profile
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©2018 Purch
All Rights Reserved.
This site is made available for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information about business practices and strategy, not to provide specific business advice. Information provided on the Business.com website should not be used as a substitute for legal, accounting, real estate, business, tax, or other types of professional advice.
Business.com/Chad Brooks: Want to Boost Employee Engagement? ADP Executive Has Some Tips
Business.com
Want to Boost Employee Engagement? ADP Executive Has Some Tips
By Chad Brooks
Business.com / Strategy / Last Modified: April 6, 2018
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HR professional Tara Wolckenhauer, who has two decades of experience, offers her insights to help small business owners spark engagement among employees.
Your employees play a critical role in the success of your business. That's why having an engaged workforce is critical. In fact, a Harvard Business Review report found that more than 70 percent of executives believe employee engagement is very important to achieving organizational success.
Having worked in human resources for more than two decades, Tara Wolckenhauer knows the importance of an engaged workforce. Wolckenhauer currently serves as a division vice president of enterprise-wide HR functions at ADP.
We recently spoke with Wolckenhauer about employee engagement and what steps you can take to boost it among your staff.
Q. How do you define employee engagement?
A. Employee engagement, to me, means an all-around commitment by employees to their work, the values of the company and its people. Engaged employees are all in and feel they are part of something bigger. They understand that the job is hard sometimes, but because they love their job and are engaged in the work, they feel connected to the company's mission, products, and people.
Q. What are the benefits of keeping employees engaged?
A. The biggest benefit of an engaged workforce is having employees that are committed to the company and the work product. Engaged employees are active contributors and pursue proactive work. They are the idea generators. Engaged associates also stick around. They are usually the top talent on teams that companies want to retain.
According to a study from the ADP Research Institute, the work itself, work hours and flexibility are among the top reasons people stay with a company. Knowing that, managers need to make sure employees have clearly defined goals when it comes to their work, that employees feel supported and know they can turn to their supervisor for coaching and help.
Q. What are the dangers that come from an unengaged staff?
A. With a disengaged staff, you run the risk that people just don't care – they are not committed to the company, its values or its financial well-being.
Associates that are not engaged often feel hopeless and that their work doesn't matter. They may not seek to advance their career and lack the feeling that they are part of something bigger. They are also the people looking to leave. The number of flight risks increases when employees don't feel that sense of connection to your company or its mission.
Q. How do you know if you have employees who are engaged? What signs should you look for?
A. Sometimes it's tough to tell who is and who is not engaged, but there are signs that employers and managers should look for.
When employees are engaged, they show up to work on time and want to be involved. They ask questions, volunteer, attend extracurricular activities and raise their hands for extra assignments.
Engaged employees also express interest in their career paths and what comes next. They ask their managers what they should do more of to advance their careers and are always learning how to better themselves.
Q. What tips do you have for businesses trying to increase employee engagement?
A. To increase engagement, businesses really need to know their associates and understand what makes them tick. What makes them happy? A common misconception I see is companies adding items like ping pong tables to offices, but does that really make their employees happy? In some cases, based on the company culture, it does; other times, I don't believe it helps in the way they think it does.
Engagement can be activated through the type of work, growth opportunities or other activities outside the office that allow employees to get to know each other.
Employers should solicit ideas regularly from their associates to make sure they are meeting their people's needs. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a lunchtime picnic or a yoga class.
Once companies know what people like, it is easier for managers to ensure that employees are sharing in the journey and are a part of the greater solution.
Q. Whose responsibility is it to ensure employees stay engaged? Is it upper management, direct supervisors, the employees themselves? All of the above?
A. A lot of the responsibility falls on managers, but it's also on employees to make sure they are showing up in the right way. Employees need to ask themselves, "Am I in the right job? Am I asking for the right work?"
A lot of this is also on managers to ensure that employees are asking themselves these questions. Managers should make sure that they are being as honest as possible when recruiting candidates, such as in job descriptions, to ensure that candidates are clear on what they are signing up for.
Q. Are there any tools you should use to monitor or boost employee engagement?
A. At ADP, we recently started using StandOut, Powered by ADP, which is a talent-activation solution that helps people identify where their strengths lie and then enables them to work with their team leader to do more of what they love. [Related: Interested in HR Outsourcing Services?Check out our best picks.]
The key to engagement and performance is enabling your people to play to their strengths every day. With StandOut, team leaders and associates have frequent, regular check-ins to ensure alignment on top priories and connect individual strengths to those priorities.
In addition to tools like StandOut, I think the most effective method is still the one-on-one check-ins between managers and associates. These conversations are key to understanding whether employees are engaged.
Competition for talent is high right now, which can lead to lower employee loyalty. When you consider that job hopping is at an all-time high, that 42 percent of employees are open to the idea of a new job, and 66 percent are actively looking, it's now more important than ever that organizations focus on ways to develop and engage their top talent.
Ensuring that managers have these touchpoints regularly, even if it's just for 15 minutes a week, allows them to keep a better pulse on employee engagement.
Chad Brooks
Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based writer with more than 15 years in media. A 1998 journalism graduate of Indiana University, Chad began his career with Business News Daily in 2011 as a freelance writer. In 2014, he joined the staff full time as a senior writer. Before Business News Daily, Chad spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Chad has also worked on the other side of the media industry, promoting small businesses throughout the United States for two years in a public relations role. His first book, How to Start a Home-Based App Development Business, was published in 2014. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Chicago suburbs.
How Does Your Business Stack Up? Get a Free Business Report Card!
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Related Articles
See All Strategy Articles
5 Ways to Incentivize Your Employees Without Spending a Dime
Should You Choose Business Opportunity Ownership Over Franchising?
How to Convince Your Company's CEO to Invest in Innovation
More Related Articles
Related Advice
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Want to Boost Employee Engagement? ADP Executive Has Some Tips
By Chad Brooks
Business.com / Strategy / Last Modified: April 6, 2018
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HR professional Tara Wolckenhauer, who has two decades of experience, offers her insights to help small business owners spark engagement among employees.
Your employees play a critical role in the success of your business. That's why having an engaged workforce is critical. In fact, a Harvard Business Review report found that more than 70 percent of executives believe employee engagement is very important to achieving organizational success.
Having worked in human resources for more than two decades, Tara Wolckenhauer knows the importance of an engaged workforce. Wolckenhauer currently serves as a division vice president of enterprise-wide HR functions at ADP.
We recently spoke with Wolckenhauer about employee engagement and what steps you can take to boost it among your staff.
Q. How do you define employee engagement?
A. Employee engagement, to me, means an all-around commitment by employees to their work, the values of the company and its people. Engaged employees are all in and feel they are part of something bigger. They understand that the job is hard sometimes, but because they love their job and are engaged in the work, they feel connected to the company's mission, products, and people.
Q. What are the benefits of keeping employees engaged?
A. The biggest benefit of an engaged workforce is having employees that are committed to the company and the work product. Engaged employees are active contributors and pursue proactive work. They are the idea generators. Engaged associates also stick around. They are usually the top talent on teams that companies want to retain.
According to a study from the ADP Research Institute, the work itself, work hours and flexibility are among the top reasons people stay with a company. Knowing that, managers need to make sure employees have clearly defined goals when it comes to their work, that employees feel supported and know they can turn to their supervisor for coaching and help.
Q. What are the dangers that come from an unengaged staff?
A. With a disengaged staff, you run the risk that people just don't care – they are not committed to the company, its values or its financial well-being.
Associates that are not engaged often feel hopeless and that their work doesn't matter. They may not seek to advance their career and lack the feeling that they are part of something bigger. They are also the people looking to leave. The number of flight risks increases when employees don't feel that sense of connection to your company or its mission.
Q. How do you know if you have employees who are engaged? What signs should you look for?
A. Sometimes it's tough to tell who is and who is not engaged, but there are signs that employers and managers should look for.
When employees are engaged, they show up to work on time and want to be involved. They ask questions, volunteer, attend extracurricular activities and raise their hands for extra assignments.
Engaged employees also express interest in their career paths and what comes next. They ask their managers what they should do more of to advance their careers and are always learning how to better themselves.
Q. What tips do you have for businesses trying to increase employee engagement?
A. To increase engagement, businesses really need to know their associates and understand what makes them tick. What makes them happy? A common misconception I see is companies adding items like ping pong tables to offices, but does that really make their employees happy? In some cases, based on the company culture, it does; other times, I don't believe it helps in the way they think it does.
Engagement can be activated through the type of work, growth opportunities or other activities outside the office that allow employees to get to know each other.
Employers should solicit ideas regularly from their associates to make sure they are meeting their people's needs. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a lunchtime picnic or a yoga class.
Once companies know what people like, it is easier for managers to ensure that employees are sharing in the journey and are a part of the greater solution.
Q. Whose responsibility is it to ensure employees stay engaged? Is it upper management, direct supervisors, the employees themselves? All of the above?
A. A lot of the responsibility falls on managers, but it's also on employees to make sure they are showing up in the right way. Employees need to ask themselves, "Am I in the right job? Am I asking for the right work?"
A lot of this is also on managers to ensure that employees are asking themselves these questions. Managers should make sure that they are being as honest as possible when recruiting candidates, such as in job descriptions, to ensure that candidates are clear on what they are signing up for.
Q. Are there any tools you should use to monitor or boost employee engagement?
A. At ADP, we recently started using StandOut, Powered by ADP, which is a talent-activation solution that helps people identify where their strengths lie and then enables them to work with their team leader to do more of what they love. [Related: Interested in HR Outsourcing Services?Check out our best picks.]
The key to engagement and performance is enabling your people to play to their strengths every day. With StandOut, team leaders and associates have frequent, regular check-ins to ensure alignment on top priories and connect individual strengths to those priorities.
In addition to tools like StandOut, I think the most effective method is still the one-on-one check-ins between managers and associates. These conversations are key to understanding whether employees are engaged.
Competition for talent is high right now, which can lead to lower employee loyalty. When you consider that job hopping is at an all-time high, that 42 percent of employees are open to the idea of a new job, and 66 percent are actively looking, it's now more important than ever that organizations focus on ways to develop and engage their top talent.
Ensuring that managers have these touchpoints regularly, even if it's just for 15 minutes a week, allows them to keep a better pulse on employee engagement.
Chad Brooks
Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based writer with more than 15 years in media. A 1998 journalism graduate of Indiana University, Chad began his career with Business News Daily in 2011 as a freelance writer. In 2014, he joined the staff full time as a senior writer. Before Business News Daily, Chad spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Chad has also worked on the other side of the media industry, promoting small businesses throughout the United States for two years in a public relations role. His first book, How to Start a Home-Based App Development Business, was published in 2014. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Chicago suburbs.
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GROHE rolls out ‘Turn Water into Food’ program in Jordan
Hand in hand with the Jordanian Food Bank, the initiative transforms water saved into much needed food parcels
AMMAN, Jordan, May 1, 2018/ -- GROHE (www.GROHE.com), the world’s leading German manufacturer in sanitary fittings, in collaboration with the Jordanian Food Bank (JFB) and the Food Banking Regional Network will implement ‘Turn Water into Food’ in Jordan. This initiative aims to raise awareness of water scarcity by saving water in public areas with high consumption levels. Jordan will be the third country in the Middle East to host the award-winning project following its successful launch in Saudi Arabia in 2015 and in Egypt in 2016.
Striving to highlight the vital importance of preserving water at schools, which are among the highest public spaces in terms of water consumption, GROHE replaced the taps at Al Juwaida High School for Girls in Jordan with its water-saving faucets. The amount of water saved will be converted into food parcels distributed by JFB to underprivileged families in Amman neighborhood of Juwaida.
Underlining sustainability as a corporate value at GROHE, Lina Varytimidou Director of PR and Communications, Middle East, Africa and East Mediterranean commented: “As the world’s leading supplier of water fittings, we are committed to optimizing sustainability and addressing water issues responsibly in each market on an ongoing basis. We are using state-of-the-art technologies to introduce water-saving products with no compromise on user experience. Through partnerships with local NGOs, we can help reduce average water consumption and promote natural resources sustainability. Initiatives like ‘Turn Water into Food’ resonate naturally with GROHE’s global mission”.
Jordan is an important market for GROHE. This is clearly translated in launching several initiatives in collaboration with big organizations and NGOs. ‘Turn Water into Food’ is a continuity of the ‘Green School’ and ‘Water for Life’ initiatives implemented at the Sharhabeel bin Hassneh EcoPark in partnership with Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) in 2013, which provided water to local Bedouin families.
JFB will be responsible for preparing and distributing food packages to registered underprivileged families. “We will distribute food parcels with a value equivalent to the amount of water saved to a needy families registered in Food Bank database,” said Engineer Kawthar Al Qatarneh, representative of the JFB. “Together with the private sector, we can reduce hunger, achieve food security and save our precious resource; water. We are glad to partner with GROHE on their ‘Turn Water into Food initiative, this certainly raises awareness on two crucial levels: water and hunger,” added Al Qatarneh.
Ms. Samira Lafi, principal of the Al Juwaida High School for Girls, commented on this partnership: “The instalment of water-saving faucets in the school will considerably decrease the hefty financial burden the school undertakes in water bills. We are glad to have the platform to promote water-efficient practices to our students and instil the principles of water preservation as natural resources. Such programs aim at ensuring smarter consumption of water especially in public places”.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GROHE.
View multimedia content
Media Contact
Chief Communications Officer
Thorsten Sperlich
E-Mail: Media@GROHE.com
Press Office
Edelman.ergo GmbH
Medienpark Kampnagel, Barmbeker Str. 4, 22303 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 356 206 045| Fax: +49 (0)40 372880
M: GROHE@Edelmanergo.com | W: www.Edelmanergo.com
Notes to Editors:
GROHE (www.GROHE.com) is the world’s leading provider of sanitary fittings. With its global GROHE brand, the company has relied on its brand values of technology, quality, design and sustainability for decades to deliver “Pure Freude an Wasser”. GROHE has a global workforce of around 6,000 people. There are about 2,400 employees working in Germany. GROHE runs three production plants in Germany as well as several plants in other markets. In 2014, the company generated consolidated sales of €1.2 billion with its comprehensive product portfolio for bathroom and kitchen. Some 85 percent of its sales are currently generated outside Germany. GROHE was taken over by the LIXIL Group and the Development Bank of Japan in January 2014. The LIXIL Group, which is organized as four technology business units, is the global leader in the building materials and housing equipment industries. GROHE is part of the LIXIL Water Technology business unit and led as an independent brand.
SOURCE
GROHE
AMMAN, Jordan, May 1, 2018/ -- GROHE (www.GROHE.com), the world’s leading German manufacturer in sanitary fittings, in collaboration with the Jordanian Food Bank (JFB) and the Food Banking Regional Network will implement ‘Turn Water into Food’ in Jordan. This initiative aims to raise awareness of water scarcity by saving water in public areas with high consumption levels. Jordan will be the third country in the Middle East to host the award-winning project following its successful launch in Saudi Arabia in 2015 and in Egypt in 2016.
Striving to highlight the vital importance of preserving water at schools, which are among the highest public spaces in terms of water consumption, GROHE replaced the taps at Al Juwaida High School for Girls in Jordan with its water-saving faucets. The amount of water saved will be converted into food parcels distributed by JFB to underprivileged families in Amman neighborhood of Juwaida.
Underlining sustainability as a corporate value at GROHE, Lina Varytimidou Director of PR and Communications, Middle East, Africa and East Mediterranean commented: “As the world’s leading supplier of water fittings, we are committed to optimizing sustainability and addressing water issues responsibly in each market on an ongoing basis. We are using state-of-the-art technologies to introduce water-saving products with no compromise on user experience. Through partnerships with local NGOs, we can help reduce average water consumption and promote natural resources sustainability. Initiatives like ‘Turn Water into Food’ resonate naturally with GROHE’s global mission”.
Jordan is an important market for GROHE. This is clearly translated in launching several initiatives in collaboration with big organizations and NGOs. ‘Turn Water into Food’ is a continuity of the ‘Green School’ and ‘Water for Life’ initiatives implemented at the Sharhabeel bin Hassneh EcoPark in partnership with Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) in 2013, which provided water to local Bedouin families.
JFB will be responsible for preparing and distributing food packages to registered underprivileged families. “We will distribute food parcels with a value equivalent to the amount of water saved to a needy families registered in Food Bank database,” said Engineer Kawthar Al Qatarneh, representative of the JFB. “Together with the private sector, we can reduce hunger, achieve food security and save our precious resource; water. We are glad to partner with GROHE on their ‘Turn Water into Food initiative, this certainly raises awareness on two crucial levels: water and hunger,” added Al Qatarneh.
Ms. Samira Lafi, principal of the Al Juwaida High School for Girls, commented on this partnership: “The instalment of water-saving faucets in the school will considerably decrease the hefty financial burden the school undertakes in water bills. We are glad to have the platform to promote water-efficient practices to our students and instil the principles of water preservation as natural resources. Such programs aim at ensuring smarter consumption of water especially in public places”.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GROHE.
View multimedia content
Media Contact
Chief Communications Officer
Thorsten Sperlich
E-Mail: Media@GROHE.com
Press Office
Edelman.ergo GmbH
Medienpark Kampnagel, Barmbeker Str. 4, 22303 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 356 206 045| Fax: +49 (0)40 372880
M: GROHE@Edelmanergo.com | W: www.Edelmanergo.com
Notes to Editors:
GROHE (www.GROHE.com) is the world’s leading provider of sanitary fittings. With its global GROHE brand, the company has relied on its brand values of technology, quality, design and sustainability for decades to deliver “Pure Freude an Wasser”. GROHE has a global workforce of around 6,000 people. There are about 2,400 employees working in Germany. GROHE runs three production plants in Germany as well as several plants in other markets. In 2014, the company generated consolidated sales of €1.2 billion with its comprehensive product portfolio for bathroom and kitchen. Some 85 percent of its sales are currently generated outside Germany. GROHE was taken over by the LIXIL Group and the Development Bank of Japan in January 2014. The LIXIL Group, which is organized as four technology business units, is the global leader in the building materials and housing equipment industries. GROHE is part of the LIXIL Water Technology business unit and led as an independent brand.
SOURCE
GROHE
Investopedia/Euny Hong: How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
Investopedia
How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
By Euny Hong
Updated February 27, 2018 — 5:25 AM EST
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Cryptocurrency mining is painstaking, expensive, and only sporadically rewarding. Nonetheless, mining has a magnetic draw for many investors interested in cryptocurrency. This may be because entrepreneurial types see mining as pennies from heaven, like California gold prospectors in 1848. And if you are technologically inclined, why not do it?
Well, before you invest the time and equipment, read this explainer to see whether mining is really for you. We will focus primarily on Bitcoin. (Related: How Bitcoin Works and our helpful infographic, What is Bitcoin?)
Why should I mine?
By mining, you can earn cryptocurrency without having to put down money for it. That said, you certainly don't have to be a miner to own crypto. You can also buy crypto using fiat currency (USD, EUR, JPY, etc); you can trade it on an exchange like Bitstamp using other crypto (example: Using Ethereum or NEO to buy Bitcoin); you even can earn it by playing video games or by publishing blogposts on platforms that pay its users in crypto. An example of the latter is Steemit, which is kind of like Medium except that users can reward bloggers by paying them in a proprietary cryptocurrency called Steem. Steem can then be traded elsewhere for Bitcoin.
In addition to lining the pockets of miners, mining serves a second and vital purpose: It is the only way to release new cryptocurrency into circulation. In other words, miners are basically "minting" currency. For example, as of the time of writing this piece, there were about 17 million Bitcoin in circulation. Aside from the coins minted via the genesis block (the very first block created by Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto himself), every single one of those Bitcoin came into being because of miners. In the absence of miners, Bitcoin would still exist and be usable, but there would never be any additional Bitcoin. There will come a time when Bitcoin mining ends; per the Bitcoin Protocol, the number of Bitcoin will be capped at 21 million. (Related reading: What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million are Mined?)
How much can a miner earn from mining Bitcoin?
Bitcoin are mined in units called "blocks." As of the time of writing, the reward for completing a block is 12.5 Bitcoin. At today's price of about $10,000 per Bitcoin, this means you'd earn (12.5 x 10,000)=$125,000.
When Bitcoin was first mined in 2009, mining one block would earn you 50 BTC. In 2012, this was halved to 25 BTC. in 2016, this was halved to the current level of 12.5 BTC. In 2020 or so, the reward size will be halved again to 6.25 BTC.
If you want to keep track of precisely when these halvings will occur, you can consult the Bitcoin Clock, which updates this information in real time.
(Source: Bitcoinclock.com)
How many blocks have been mined so far?
A number of sites, including Blockchain.info, will give you that information in real time. At the time of writing, we are at block #509504.
What are miners doing that's so important that they get free Bitcoin?
Miners are getting paid for their work as auditors. They are doing the work of verifying previous Bitcoin transactions. This convention is meant to keep Bitcoin users honest, and was conceived by Bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. By verifying transactions, miners are helping to prevent the "double-spending problem."
Double spending means, as the name suggests, that a Bitcoin user is illicitly spending the same money twice. With physical currency, this isn't an issue: Once you hand someone a greenback $20 bill to buy a bottle of vodka, you no longer have it, so there's no danger you could use that same $20 to buy lotto tickets next door. With digital currency, however, as the Investopedia dictionary explains, "there is a risk that the holder could make a copy of the digital token and send it to a merchant or another party while retaining the original."
Let's say you had one legit $20 and one really good photocopy of that same $20. If someone were to try to spend both the real bill and the fake one, someone who took the trouble of looking at both of the bills' serial numbers would see that they were the same number, and thus one of them had to be false. What a Bitcoin miner does is analogous to that--they check transactions to make sure that users have not illegitimately tried to spend the same Bitcoin twice. This isn't a perfect analogy--we'll explain in more detail below.
Once a miner has verified 1 MB (megabyte) worth of Bitcoin transactions, they are eligible to win the 12.5 BTC. The 1 MB limit was set by Satoshi Nakamoto, and is a matter of controversy, as some miners believe the block size should be increased to accommodate more data.
Note that I said that verifying 1 MB worth of transactions makes a miner eligible to earn Bitcoin--not everyone who verifies transactions will get paid out.
1MB of transactions can theoretically be as small as 1 transaction (though this is not at all common) or several thousand. It depends on how much data the transactions take up.
So after all that work of verifying transactions, I might still not get any Bitcoin for it?
That is correct.
In order to earn Bitcoin, you need to meet two conditions. One is a matter of effort, one is a matter of luck.
1) You have to verify ~1MB worth of transactions. This is the easy part.
2) You have to be the first miner to arrive at the right answer to a numeric problem. This process is also known as a proof of work.
What do you mean, "the right answer to a numeric problem"?
The good news: No advanced math or computation is involved. You may have heard that miners are solving difficult mathematical problems--that's not true at all. What they're actually doing is trying to be the first miner to come up with a 64-digit hexadecimal number (a "hash") that is less than or equal to the target hash. It's basically guess work.
The bad news: Because it's guesswork, you need a lot of computing power in order to get there first. To mine successfully, you need to have a high "hash rate," which is measured in terms of megahashes per second (MH/s), gigahashes per second (GH/s), and terahashes per second (TH/s).
That is a great many hashes.
If you want to estimate how much Bitcoin you could mine with your mining rig's hash rate, the site Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator.
What equipment do I need to mine?
Either a GPU (graphics processing unit) miner or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner. These can run from $500 to the tens of thousands. Some miners--particularly Ethereum miners--buy individual graphics cards as a low-cost way to cobble together mining operations. The photo below is a makeshift, home-made mining machine. The graphics cards are those rectangular blocks with whirring circles. Note the sandwich twist-ties holding the graphics cards to the metal pole. This is probably not the most efficient way to mine, and as you can guess, many miners are in it as much for the fun and challenge as for the money.
(Source: Shutterstock)
The ELI5 ("Explain It Like I'm Five") version of what Bitcoin miners do
Example: I tell three friends that I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100, and I write that number on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. My friends don't have to guess the exact number, they just have to be the first person to guess any number that is less than or equal to the number I am thinking of. And there is no limit to how many guesses they get.
Let's say I'm thinking of the number 19. If Friend A guesses 21, they lose because 21>19. If Friend B guesses 16 and Friend C guesses 12, then they've both theoretically arrived at viable answers, because 16<19 and 12<19. There is no "extra credit" for Friend B, even though B's answer was closer to the target answer of 19.
If B and C both answer simultaneously, then the ELI5 analogy breaks down.
In Bitcoin terms, simultaneous answers occur frequently, but at the end of the day there can only be one winning answer. When multiple simultaneous answers are presented that are equal to or less than the target number, the Bitcoin network will decide by a simple majority--51%--which miner to honour. Typically, it is the miner who has done the most work, i.e. verifies the most transactions. The losing block then becomes an "orphan block."
Now imagine that I pose the "guess what number I'm thinking of" question, but I'm not asking just three friends, and I'm not thinking of a number between 1 and 100. Rather, I'm asking millions of would-be miners and I'm thinking of a 64-digit hexadecimal number. Now you see that it's going to be extremely hard to guess the right answer. (See also: What is Bitcoin Mining?)
What the hell is a "64-digit hexadecimal number"?
Well, here is one:
0000000000000000057fcc708cf0130d95e27c5819203e9f967ac56e4df598ee
The number above has 64 digits. Easy enough to understand so far. As you probably noticed, that number consists not just of numbers, but also letters of the alphabet. Why is that?
In order to understand what these letters are doing in the middle of numbers, let's unpack the word "hexadecimal."
As you know, we use the "decimal" system, which means it is base 10. This in turn means that every digit has 10 possibilities, 0-9. I will be rather alarmed if these do not look familiar to you:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
"Hexadecimal," on the other hand, means base 16, as "hex" is derived from the Greek word for 6 and "deca" is derived from the Greek word for 10. In a hexadecimal system, each digit has 16 possibilities. But our numeric system only offers 10 ways of representing numbers (0-9). That's why you have to stick letters in, specifically letters a, b, c, d, e, and f. In a hexadecimal system, these are the values of each digit:
The above chart is just for background. If you are mining Bitcoin, you do not need to calculate the total value of that 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to calculate the total value of a hash.
Thanks a lot. So what do "64-digit hexadecimal numbers" have to do with Bitcoin mining?
Remember that ELI5 analogy, where I wrote the number 19 on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope?
In Bitcoin mining terms, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is called the target hash.
What miners are doing with those huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the target hash. Miners make these guesses by randomly generating as many "nonces" as possible, as fast as possible. A nonce is short for "number only used once," and the nonce is the key to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about. In Bitcoin mining, a nonce is 32 bits in size--much smaller than the hash, which is 256 bits. The first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equal to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that block, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC.
In theory you could achieve the same goal by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to arrive at random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do that?
The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all this information together at a glance. You are looking at a summary of everything that happened when block #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The target hash is shown on top. The term "Relayed by: Antpool" refers to the fact that this particular block was completed by AntPool, one of the more successful mining pools. As you see here, their contribution to the Bitcoin community is that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you really want to see all 1768 of those transactions for this block, go to this page and scroll down to the heading "Transactions."
(source : Blockchain.info)
OK so how do I guess at the target hash?
All target hashes begin with zeros--at least eight zeros, and up to 63 zeros.
There is no minimum target, but there is a maximum target set by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be greater than this number:
00000000ffff0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Here are some examples of randomized hashes and the criteria for whether they will lead to success for the miner:
(Note: These are made-up hashes)
How do I maximize my chances of guessing the target hash before anyone else does?
You'd have to get a fast mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a group of miners who combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members buy lottery tickets en masse and agree to share any winnings. A disproportionately large number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners.
In other words, it's literally just a numbers game. You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on previous target hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the chance of any given nonce producing a hash below the target is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion.
How do I decide whether Bitcoin will be profitable for me?
The aforementioned site Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator that allows you to plug in numbers such as your hash speed, electricity costs etc. to estimate the costs and benefits.
(Source: Cryptocompare)
I've done the math. Forget mining. Is there a less onerous way to profit from the Crypto boom?
Sure. As discussed, the easiest way to acquire Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the "pickaxe strategy". This is based on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the smart investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to make the pickaxes used for mining. Or, to put it in modern terms, invest in the companies that manufacture those pickaxes. In a crypto context, the pickaxe equivalent would be a company that manufactures equpiment used for Bitcoin mining. You can look into companies that make ASICs miners or GPU miners.
Companies that manufacture these products include AMD and Nvidia. (Related Reading: AMD vs. Nvidia: Who Dominates GPUs?)
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author held no positions in any of the companies mentioned in this piece. Investopedia does not make recommendations about particular stocks.
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How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?
By Euny Hong
Updated February 27, 2018 — 5:25 AM EST
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Cryptocurrency mining is painstaking, expensive, and only sporadically rewarding. Nonetheless, mining has a magnetic draw for many investors interested in cryptocurrency. This may be because entrepreneurial types see mining as pennies from heaven, like California gold prospectors in 1848. And if you are technologically inclined, why not do it?
Well, before you invest the time and equipment, read this explainer to see whether mining is really for you. We will focus primarily on Bitcoin. (Related: How Bitcoin Works and our helpful infographic, What is Bitcoin?)
Why should I mine?
By mining, you can earn cryptocurrency without having to put down money for it. That said, you certainly don't have to be a miner to own crypto. You can also buy crypto using fiat currency (USD, EUR, JPY, etc); you can trade it on an exchange like Bitstamp using other crypto (example: Using Ethereum or NEO to buy Bitcoin); you even can earn it by playing video games or by publishing blogposts on platforms that pay its users in crypto. An example of the latter is Steemit, which is kind of like Medium except that users can reward bloggers by paying them in a proprietary cryptocurrency called Steem. Steem can then be traded elsewhere for Bitcoin.
In addition to lining the pockets of miners, mining serves a second and vital purpose: It is the only way to release new cryptocurrency into circulation. In other words, miners are basically "minting" currency. For example, as of the time of writing this piece, there were about 17 million Bitcoin in circulation. Aside from the coins minted via the genesis block (the very first block created by Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto himself), every single one of those Bitcoin came into being because of miners. In the absence of miners, Bitcoin would still exist and be usable, but there would never be any additional Bitcoin. There will come a time when Bitcoin mining ends; per the Bitcoin Protocol, the number of Bitcoin will be capped at 21 million. (Related reading: What Happens to Bitcoin After All 21 Million are Mined?)
How much can a miner earn from mining Bitcoin?
Bitcoin are mined in units called "blocks." As of the time of writing, the reward for completing a block is 12.5 Bitcoin. At today's price of about $10,000 per Bitcoin, this means you'd earn (12.5 x 10,000)=$125,000.
When Bitcoin was first mined in 2009, mining one block would earn you 50 BTC. In 2012, this was halved to 25 BTC. in 2016, this was halved to the current level of 12.5 BTC. In 2020 or so, the reward size will be halved again to 6.25 BTC.
If you want to keep track of precisely when these halvings will occur, you can consult the Bitcoin Clock, which updates this information in real time.
(Source: Bitcoinclock.com)
How many blocks have been mined so far?
A number of sites, including Blockchain.info, will give you that information in real time. At the time of writing, we are at block #509504.
What are miners doing that's so important that they get free Bitcoin?
Miners are getting paid for their work as auditors. They are doing the work of verifying previous Bitcoin transactions. This convention is meant to keep Bitcoin users honest, and was conceived by Bitcoin's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. By verifying transactions, miners are helping to prevent the "double-spending problem."
Double spending means, as the name suggests, that a Bitcoin user is illicitly spending the same money twice. With physical currency, this isn't an issue: Once you hand someone a greenback $20 bill to buy a bottle of vodka, you no longer have it, so there's no danger you could use that same $20 to buy lotto tickets next door. With digital currency, however, as the Investopedia dictionary explains, "there is a risk that the holder could make a copy of the digital token and send it to a merchant or another party while retaining the original."
Let's say you had one legit $20 and one really good photocopy of that same $20. If someone were to try to spend both the real bill and the fake one, someone who took the trouble of looking at both of the bills' serial numbers would see that they were the same number, and thus one of them had to be false. What a Bitcoin miner does is analogous to that--they check transactions to make sure that users have not illegitimately tried to spend the same Bitcoin twice. This isn't a perfect analogy--we'll explain in more detail below.
Once a miner has verified 1 MB (megabyte) worth of Bitcoin transactions, they are eligible to win the 12.5 BTC. The 1 MB limit was set by Satoshi Nakamoto, and is a matter of controversy, as some miners believe the block size should be increased to accommodate more data.
Note that I said that verifying 1 MB worth of transactions makes a miner eligible to earn Bitcoin--not everyone who verifies transactions will get paid out.
1MB of transactions can theoretically be as small as 1 transaction (though this is not at all common) or several thousand. It depends on how much data the transactions take up.
So after all that work of verifying transactions, I might still not get any Bitcoin for it?
That is correct.
In order to earn Bitcoin, you need to meet two conditions. One is a matter of effort, one is a matter of luck.
1) You have to verify ~1MB worth of transactions. This is the easy part.
2) You have to be the first miner to arrive at the right answer to a numeric problem. This process is also known as a proof of work.
What do you mean, "the right answer to a numeric problem"?
The good news: No advanced math or computation is involved. You may have heard that miners are solving difficult mathematical problems--that's not true at all. What they're actually doing is trying to be the first miner to come up with a 64-digit hexadecimal number (a "hash") that is less than or equal to the target hash. It's basically guess work.
The bad news: Because it's guesswork, you need a lot of computing power in order to get there first. To mine successfully, you need to have a high "hash rate," which is measured in terms of megahashes per second (MH/s), gigahashes per second (GH/s), and terahashes per second (TH/s).
That is a great many hashes.
If you want to estimate how much Bitcoin you could mine with your mining rig's hash rate, the site Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator.
What equipment do I need to mine?
Either a GPU (graphics processing unit) miner or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner. These can run from $500 to the tens of thousands. Some miners--particularly Ethereum miners--buy individual graphics cards as a low-cost way to cobble together mining operations. The photo below is a makeshift, home-made mining machine. The graphics cards are those rectangular blocks with whirring circles. Note the sandwich twist-ties holding the graphics cards to the metal pole. This is probably not the most efficient way to mine, and as you can guess, many miners are in it as much for the fun and challenge as for the money.
(Source: Shutterstock)
The ELI5 ("Explain It Like I'm Five") version of what Bitcoin miners do
Example: I tell three friends that I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100, and I write that number on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. My friends don't have to guess the exact number, they just have to be the first person to guess any number that is less than or equal to the number I am thinking of. And there is no limit to how many guesses they get.
Let's say I'm thinking of the number 19. If Friend A guesses 21, they lose because 21>19. If Friend B guesses 16 and Friend C guesses 12, then they've both theoretically arrived at viable answers, because 16<19 and 12<19. There is no "extra credit" for Friend B, even though B's answer was closer to the target answer of 19.
If B and C both answer simultaneously, then the ELI5 analogy breaks down.
In Bitcoin terms, simultaneous answers occur frequently, but at the end of the day there can only be one winning answer. When multiple simultaneous answers are presented that are equal to or less than the target number, the Bitcoin network will decide by a simple majority--51%--which miner to honour. Typically, it is the miner who has done the most work, i.e. verifies the most transactions. The losing block then becomes an "orphan block."
Now imagine that I pose the "guess what number I'm thinking of" question, but I'm not asking just three friends, and I'm not thinking of a number between 1 and 100. Rather, I'm asking millions of would-be miners and I'm thinking of a 64-digit hexadecimal number. Now you see that it's going to be extremely hard to guess the right answer. (See also: What is Bitcoin Mining?)
What the hell is a "64-digit hexadecimal number"?
Well, here is one:
0000000000000000057fcc708cf0130d95e27c5819203e9f967ac56e4df598ee
The number above has 64 digits. Easy enough to understand so far. As you probably noticed, that number consists not just of numbers, but also letters of the alphabet. Why is that?
In order to understand what these letters are doing in the middle of numbers, let's unpack the word "hexadecimal."
As you know, we use the "decimal" system, which means it is base 10. This in turn means that every digit has 10 possibilities, 0-9. I will be rather alarmed if these do not look familiar to you:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
"Hexadecimal," on the other hand, means base 16, as "hex" is derived from the Greek word for 6 and "deca" is derived from the Greek word for 10. In a hexadecimal system, each digit has 16 possibilities. But our numeric system only offers 10 ways of representing numbers (0-9). That's why you have to stick letters in, specifically letters a, b, c, d, e, and f. In a hexadecimal system, these are the values of each digit:
The above chart is just for background. If you are mining Bitcoin, you do not need to calculate the total value of that 64-digit number (the hash). I repeat: You do not need to calculate the total value of a hash.
Thanks a lot. So what do "64-digit hexadecimal numbers" have to do with Bitcoin mining?
Remember that ELI5 analogy, where I wrote the number 19 on a piece of paper and put it in a sealed envelope?
In Bitcoin mining terms, that metaphorical undisclosed number in the envelope is called the target hash.
What miners are doing with those huge computers and dozens of cooling fans is guessing at the target hash. Miners make these guesses by randomly generating as many "nonces" as possible, as fast as possible. A nonce is short for "number only used once," and the nonce is the key to generating these 64-bit hexadecimal numbers I keep talking about. In Bitcoin mining, a nonce is 32 bits in size--much smaller than the hash, which is 256 bits. The first miner whose nonce generates a hash that is less than or equal to the target hash is awarded credit for completing that block, and is awarded the spoils of 12.5 BTC.
In theory you could achieve the same goal by rolling a 16-sided die 64 times to arrive at random numbers, but why on earth would you want to do that?
The screenshot below, taken from the site Blockchain.info, might help you put all this information together at a glance. You are looking at a summary of everything that happened when block #490163 was mined. The nonce that generated the "winning" hash was 731511405. The target hash is shown on top. The term "Relayed by: Antpool" refers to the fact that this particular block was completed by AntPool, one of the more successful mining pools. As you see here, their contribution to the Bitcoin community is that they confirmed 1768 transactions for this block. If you really want to see all 1768 of those transactions for this block, go to this page and scroll down to the heading "Transactions."
(source : Blockchain.info)
OK so how do I guess at the target hash?
All target hashes begin with zeros--at least eight zeros, and up to 63 zeros.
There is no minimum target, but there is a maximum target set by the Bitcoin Protocol. No target can be greater than this number:
00000000ffff0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Here are some examples of randomized hashes and the criteria for whether they will lead to success for the miner:
(Note: These are made-up hashes)
How do I maximize my chances of guessing the target hash before anyone else does?
You'd have to get a fast mining rig or, more realistically, join a mining pool--a group of miners who combine their computing power and split the mined bitcoin. Mining pools are comparable to those Powerball clubs whose members buy lottery tickets en masse and agree to share any winnings. A disproportionately large number of blocks are mined by pools rather than by individual miners.
In other words, it's literally just a numbers game. You cannot guess the pattern or make a prediction based on previous target hashes. The difficulty level of the most recent block at the time of writing is 2,874,674,234,416, i.e. the chance of any given nonce producing a hash below the target is 1 in 2,874,674,234,416--less than 1 in 2 trillion.
How do I decide whether Bitcoin will be profitable for me?
The aforementioned site Cryptocompare offers a helpful calculator that allows you to plug in numbers such as your hash speed, electricity costs etc. to estimate the costs and benefits.
(Source: Cryptocompare)
I've done the math. Forget mining. Is there a less onerous way to profit from the Crypto boom?
Sure. As discussed, the easiest way to acquire Bitcoin is to buy it on an exchange like Coinbase.com. Alternately, you can always leverage the "pickaxe strategy". This is based on the old saw that during the 1848 California gold rush, the smart investment was not to pan for gold, but rather to make the pickaxes used for mining. Or, to put it in modern terms, invest in the companies that manufacture those pickaxes. In a crypto context, the pickaxe equivalent would be a company that manufactures equpiment used for Bitcoin mining. You can look into companies that make ASICs miners or GPU miners.
Companies that manufacture these products include AMD and Nvidia. (Related Reading: AMD vs. Nvidia: Who Dominates GPUs?)
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author held no positions in any of the companies mentioned in this piece. Investopedia does not make recommendations about particular stocks.
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Investopedia/Mark P. Cussen: Ethical Issues For Financial Advisors
Investopedia
Ethical Issues For Financial Advisors
By Mark P. Cussen, CFP®, CMFC, AFC
Updated April 30, 2018 — 8:00 AM EDT
Share
Honest financial planners can face real dilemmas when trying to do the right thing for their clients. Read on as we explore some common dilemmas investment professionals may face, and help provide guidance on how you can tackle them.
Ethical Issues Today
A generation ago, both the tax code and the financial products and services available were simpler than they are today. For example, if someone wanted to buy stock, a stockbroker would place the trade. If someone needed permanent life coverage, a whole life policy was issued. But now, planners must decide if this traditional approach is better, or whether the client would be better off buying any number of the diverse modern products available.
The modern product maze means that every financial planner faces an ethical dilemma when trying to do the right thing for a client.
Ethics for CFPs®
In light of these quandaries, the Certified Financial Planner® Board of Standards has issued a substantial revision and upgrade of the ethical requirements for its certificants, such as the fiduciary requirement of 2007:
All financial planning services must be accorded the care of a true fiduciary, as opposed to merely acting in the client's best interest. This also constitutes a major step up in terms of responsibility, as fiduciaries have a strict set of rules and guidelines that must be followed at all times. For clients this means that their planners are held to a higher legal standard of care than before.
The CFP Board breaks down the fiduciary standard of care, highlighting how investment advisors and broker-dealers were held to different standards before: "It is important to recognize that a financial recommendation that is 'suitable' for a client (as legally required for broker-dealers) may or may not be a financial recommendation that is in the client’s best interest (as legally required for investment advisers)."
Fees Vs. Commissions
Regardless of what legal or moral standard they are held to, one of the biggest ethical dilemmas planners face is choosing a method of compensation. The methods of compensation for both sales-driven practitioners and planners are often interchangeable, since each can charge either fees or commissions for their services (provided that they are licensed to do so). However, this flexibility can often present a moral dilemma for planners who must choose one method of compensation over another.
A fee-based planner – one who charges clients based on a percentage of their assets – will increase his or her compensation simply by making the client's assets grow. If the planner charges the client a fee of 1% of assets under management, then the annual fee collected from a $100,000 portfolio will be $1,000. Therefore, if the planner is able to make the portfolio grow to $150,000, his or her compensation will increase accordingly. This type of compensation could motivate the planner to employ more aggressive investment strategies than would a traditional commission-based broker.
A commission-based planner, on the other hand, is compensated for each transaction, regardless of portfolio gains or losses. These brokers face the temptation to use transactions as a means of revenue, even if they manage to avoid the technical definition of "churning."
In this sense, each type of compensation presents its own set of ethical issues. Ultimately, planners must be willing to subordinate their own benefit to that of their clients, regardless of what business model is used. Take for example a planner that can work on either an hourly fee or a commission basis.
If the planner meets with a client that has $2 million earmarked for retirement, then charging by the hour would result in a total fee of perhaps $5,000 – on the very high end. On the other hand, choosing to charge the client a commission-based fee for investing the $2 million in a variable annuity could pay as much as a 7% commission, which would earn the planner $140,000. This extreme variance in compensation could easily sway even the most stalwart planner. The key thing to remember is that you must act in the best interests of your client, not your wallet.
Sales vs. Advice
The boundaries between sales and advice in the financial industry are becoming increasingly blurred, as new platforms and methods of doing business continue to emerge. What this usually boils down to is getting clients to do the right thing for the right reason.
Many clients will base their financial decisions on emotions rather than what their planner advises. Suppose a 60-year-old woman has her entire savings of $100,000 in certificates of deposit (CDs), and is terrified of risking her principal. If she lives for another 25 years, her savings will likely be depleted long before she dies, since these low-risk investments pay a tiny rate of return that will be offset by inflation over time.
As a planner, you obviously need to get your client to diversify her holdings with a sensible asset allocation, or at least to consider some sort of immediate annuity option. But how far should you go in encouraging her to do this? Is it OK for you to use aggressive, fear-based sales tactics, or even bend the truth a little, in order to help this client? After all, it clearly is in her best interest to do this. Besides, if no action is taken, you could be held legally liable for failure to provide adequate advice.
In this case, the definition of 'fear-based' sales tactics is also somewhat subjective. If the planner shows the client a graphic illustration revealing how she will be bankrupt in less than 10 years, is that using fear as a tactic, or is it merely a revelation of reality? The argument can be made that it is both at once.
Luckily, planners do have help in these types of situations. If a client refuses to take your advice, you can present them with a written disclaimer stating that the client or prospect has refused to follow the recommendations presented by the planner. If your 60-year-old client wants to stick to her CDs and she's signed this disclaimer, then you are in the clear.
Problems with the System
The fact is that there is no central ethical resource that is available for all types of financial planners. Commission-based brokers can consult their supervisors or compliance departments on certain matters, but they are likely to get 'corporate' answers to many of their questions – answers that may allow the planner to create a profitable transaction without incurring liability, but may not address what is truly best for the client.
CFP® practitioners may consult the CFP® Board with ethical questions, and other accredited planners may have ethical codes of conduct to refer to as well. Yet non-credentialed planners are essentially on their own for all practical purposes, as the rules imposed by the regulatory agencies are not designed to address many day-to-day issues that planners face as part of their jobs.
The Bottom Line
Despite the onslaught of legislation and regulations aimed at curbing unethical practices (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), financial planning in today's world depends more than ever on understanding a client's individual situation and objectives, and being willing to do the right thing for them. The correct application of ethics in modern financial planning essentially boils down to having the client understand exactly what they are doing, and why, with full knowledge of the costs and risks involved.
An ethical transaction occurs when a client truly understands the ramifications of the advisor's recommendations, and is willing to go forward, assuming that all pertinent laws and regulations are being obeyed. After all is said and done, ethics can still be viewed as simply knowing what the right thing to do is, and then doing it.
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Ethical Issues For Financial Advisors
By Mark P. Cussen, CFP®, CMFC, AFC
Updated April 30, 2018 — 8:00 AM EDT
Share
Honest financial planners can face real dilemmas when trying to do the right thing for their clients. Read on as we explore some common dilemmas investment professionals may face, and help provide guidance on how you can tackle them.
Ethical Issues Today
A generation ago, both the tax code and the financial products and services available were simpler than they are today. For example, if someone wanted to buy stock, a stockbroker would place the trade. If someone needed permanent life coverage, a whole life policy was issued. But now, planners must decide if this traditional approach is better, or whether the client would be better off buying any number of the diverse modern products available.
The modern product maze means that every financial planner faces an ethical dilemma when trying to do the right thing for a client.
Ethics for CFPs®
In light of these quandaries, the Certified Financial Planner® Board of Standards has issued a substantial revision and upgrade of the ethical requirements for its certificants, such as the fiduciary requirement of 2007:
All financial planning services must be accorded the care of a true fiduciary, as opposed to merely acting in the client's best interest. This also constitutes a major step up in terms of responsibility, as fiduciaries have a strict set of rules and guidelines that must be followed at all times. For clients this means that their planners are held to a higher legal standard of care than before.
The CFP Board breaks down the fiduciary standard of care, highlighting how investment advisors and broker-dealers were held to different standards before: "It is important to recognize that a financial recommendation that is 'suitable' for a client (as legally required for broker-dealers) may or may not be a financial recommendation that is in the client’s best interest (as legally required for investment advisers)."
Fees Vs. Commissions
Regardless of what legal or moral standard they are held to, one of the biggest ethical dilemmas planners face is choosing a method of compensation. The methods of compensation for both sales-driven practitioners and planners are often interchangeable, since each can charge either fees or commissions for their services (provided that they are licensed to do so). However, this flexibility can often present a moral dilemma for planners who must choose one method of compensation over another.
A fee-based planner – one who charges clients based on a percentage of their assets – will increase his or her compensation simply by making the client's assets grow. If the planner charges the client a fee of 1% of assets under management, then the annual fee collected from a $100,000 portfolio will be $1,000. Therefore, if the planner is able to make the portfolio grow to $150,000, his or her compensation will increase accordingly. This type of compensation could motivate the planner to employ more aggressive investment strategies than would a traditional commission-based broker.
A commission-based planner, on the other hand, is compensated for each transaction, regardless of portfolio gains or losses. These brokers face the temptation to use transactions as a means of revenue, even if they manage to avoid the technical definition of "churning."
In this sense, each type of compensation presents its own set of ethical issues. Ultimately, planners must be willing to subordinate their own benefit to that of their clients, regardless of what business model is used. Take for example a planner that can work on either an hourly fee or a commission basis.
If the planner meets with a client that has $2 million earmarked for retirement, then charging by the hour would result in a total fee of perhaps $5,000 – on the very high end. On the other hand, choosing to charge the client a commission-based fee for investing the $2 million in a variable annuity could pay as much as a 7% commission, which would earn the planner $140,000. This extreme variance in compensation could easily sway even the most stalwart planner. The key thing to remember is that you must act in the best interests of your client, not your wallet.
Sales vs. Advice
The boundaries between sales and advice in the financial industry are becoming increasingly blurred, as new platforms and methods of doing business continue to emerge. What this usually boils down to is getting clients to do the right thing for the right reason.
Many clients will base their financial decisions on emotions rather than what their planner advises. Suppose a 60-year-old woman has her entire savings of $100,000 in certificates of deposit (CDs), and is terrified of risking her principal. If she lives for another 25 years, her savings will likely be depleted long before she dies, since these low-risk investments pay a tiny rate of return that will be offset by inflation over time.
As a planner, you obviously need to get your client to diversify her holdings with a sensible asset allocation, or at least to consider some sort of immediate annuity option. But how far should you go in encouraging her to do this? Is it OK for you to use aggressive, fear-based sales tactics, or even bend the truth a little, in order to help this client? After all, it clearly is in her best interest to do this. Besides, if no action is taken, you could be held legally liable for failure to provide adequate advice.
In this case, the definition of 'fear-based' sales tactics is also somewhat subjective. If the planner shows the client a graphic illustration revealing how she will be bankrupt in less than 10 years, is that using fear as a tactic, or is it merely a revelation of reality? The argument can be made that it is both at once.
Luckily, planners do have help in these types of situations. If a client refuses to take your advice, you can present them with a written disclaimer stating that the client or prospect has refused to follow the recommendations presented by the planner. If your 60-year-old client wants to stick to her CDs and she's signed this disclaimer, then you are in the clear.
Problems with the System
The fact is that there is no central ethical resource that is available for all types of financial planners. Commission-based brokers can consult their supervisors or compliance departments on certain matters, but they are likely to get 'corporate' answers to many of their questions – answers that may allow the planner to create a profitable transaction without incurring liability, but may not address what is truly best for the client.
CFP® practitioners may consult the CFP® Board with ethical questions, and other accredited planners may have ethical codes of conduct to refer to as well. Yet non-credentialed planners are essentially on their own for all practical purposes, as the rules imposed by the regulatory agencies are not designed to address many day-to-day issues that planners face as part of their jobs.
The Bottom Line
Despite the onslaught of legislation and regulations aimed at curbing unethical practices (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), financial planning in today's world depends more than ever on understanding a client's individual situation and objectives, and being willing to do the right thing for them. The correct application of ethics in modern financial planning essentially boils down to having the client understand exactly what they are doing, and why, with full knowledge of the costs and risks involved.
An ethical transaction occurs when a client truly understands the ramifications of the advisor's recommendations, and is willing to go forward, assuming that all pertinent laws and regulations are being obeyed. After all is said and done, ethics can still be viewed as simply knowing what the right thing to do is, and then doing it.
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SWI swissinfo.ch: Berset calls for pragmatic approach in EU policy
Front page - SWI swissinfo.ch
Europa Forum
Berset calls for pragmatic approach in EU policy
Foreign Affairs
in depth: Swiss-EU relations
This content was published on April 30, 2018 9:10 PMApr 30, 2018 - 21:10
Alain Berset, interior minister and 2018 president, at the Europa Forum
Berset says the bilateral relations with Brussels have to be taken to a new level, using pragmatic solutions.
(Keystone)
The Swiss president, Alain Berset, says both Switzerland and the European Union have a mutual interest in stable bilateral relations.
Speaking at the Europa Forum in Lucerne external linkon Monday, Berset said it is crucial to develop further the more than 120 treaties as they formed a “good balance between economic and political interests”.
Berset who holds the portfolio as interior minister in the Swiss government, said much of the scepticism of Swiss citizens towards Brussels was the result of the strong Swiss identity and its commitment to institutions.
“We are EU sceptics because we are so European. But we certainly are no anti-Europeans,” Berset said.
He added the only way forward was to define the national interest with tried and tested pragmatism.
Relations between non-EU member Switzerland and its biggest trading partner suffered a setback following voters’ decision in 2014 to curb immigration from the 28-nation bloc.
Attempts to agree on an institutional framework agreement and further bilateral deals have been stalled as the Swiss multi-party government is hoping to present its strategy within the next few months.
+ The challenges of framing the terms of future ties with the EU
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Schwarzer Limousine mit Europa- und Schweizer Flagge.
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SWI swissinfo.ch: Swiss spies track and hack more often
Front page - SWI swissinfo.ch
Monitoring
Swiss spies track and hack more often
Politics
This content was published on April 30, 2018 2:36 PMApr 30, 2018 - 14:36
man on phone
With special permission, the Swiss secret service can listen in on phone calls in the case of a suspected security threat.
(Keystone)
Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service has been making steady use of new surveillance methods, averaging ten special cases per month.
In a report published on Mondayexternal link, the service described how – in special cases requiring permission – it had taken advantage of the option to monitor mobile phones, hack computers and use tracking devices or bugs to watch certain people and places.
+ Since September 2017, the Swiss secret service has had more clout
In the first four months, the service employed such methods 40 times as part of four operations. Two were related to terrorism, and the other two had to do with illegal surveillance.
The monitoring measures must be approved by the Federal Administrative Courtexternal link and Defence Minister Guy Parmelin, who has to discuss them in advance with Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.
The law also provides access to internet communication data, but the technology is still being developed. As Parmelin said in the report’s forward, these forms of surveillance will only be used when there is a serious security threat.
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Swiss intelligence says 100 people pose ‘high risk’ to security
Around 100 people in Switzerland have been identified as a high risk for national security, including jihadists and other extremists, according to ...
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Gulf Business: UAE authority announces Ramadan work hours
Gulf Business
UAE authority announces Ramadan work hours
The holy month is roughly two weeks away
Staff Writer
Tuesday 01 May 2018
The UAE Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) has reportedly announced working hours for the holy month of Ramadan.
Staff will work from 9:00am to 2:00pm during the holy month, Khaleej Times cited the authority as saying.
Workers have been warned to be punctual but federal laws means some officials do not necessarily need to sign in for work.
Any employees as federal agencies or government departments have been told to inform their direct head if they cannot come to the office during Ramadan or require emergency leave.
Astronomers in Sharjah and Kuwait have said they expect Ramadan 2018 to begin on Thursday, May 17.
Read: Kuwait astronomer says Ramadan may be later than expected
Previous predictions had suggested the holy month could start as early as Tuesday, May 15.
In March, Sharjah Centre for Astronomy and Space Sciences also said Ramadan would likely fall on May 17 with Eid Al Fitr, marking the end of the month, expected on June 15.
Read: Ramadan likely to begin on May 17
Bars and restaurants in Dubai will continue to serve food and alcohol during the day for the entire month under special arrangements that have been trialled over the last three years.
Read: Dubai restaurants to serve alcohol, food during the day for third Ramadan
The UAE Cabinet set the current Ramadan work timings in 2012 under an amendment to previous regulation in 2008.
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Copyright © 2018 by Gulf Business.
UAE authority announces Ramadan work hours
The holy month is roughly two weeks away
Staff Writer
Tuesday 01 May 2018
The UAE Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (FAHR) has reportedly announced working hours for the holy month of Ramadan.
Staff will work from 9:00am to 2:00pm during the holy month, Khaleej Times cited the authority as saying.
Workers have been warned to be punctual but federal laws means some officials do not necessarily need to sign in for work.
Any employees as federal agencies or government departments have been told to inform their direct head if they cannot come to the office during Ramadan or require emergency leave.
Astronomers in Sharjah and Kuwait have said they expect Ramadan 2018 to begin on Thursday, May 17.
Read: Kuwait astronomer says Ramadan may be later than expected
Previous predictions had suggested the holy month could start as early as Tuesday, May 15.
In March, Sharjah Centre for Astronomy and Space Sciences also said Ramadan would likely fall on May 17 with Eid Al Fitr, marking the end of the month, expected on June 15.
Read: Ramadan likely to begin on May 17
Bars and restaurants in Dubai will continue to serve food and alcohol during the day for the entire month under special arrangements that have been trialled over the last three years.
Read: Dubai restaurants to serve alcohol, food during the day for third Ramadan
The UAE Cabinet set the current Ramadan work timings in 2012 under an amendment to previous regulation in 2008.
Also from our network
Watch: Ajax score not one, but two stunning free-kicks in the same game
Snapped: Celebrities spotted in the UAE this week
The maker behind Lindsay Lohan's hijab cap tells all about the unique design
Celebrate Pi Day with the new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ - Stuff Middle East
Ten of the best Dubai World Cup outfits
This Dubai-based designer gave one beauty queen a truly fairytale wedding gown
South Africa's Paramount in talks to establish Saudi arms factory - Gulf Business
Saudi women to pay six times more than men for driving lessons - Gulf Business
ALSO READ
UAE announces public sector working hours during Ramadan
UAE announces public sector working hours during Ramadan
UAE Announces Ramadan Working Hours For Private Sector
UAE Announces Ramadan Working Hours For Private Sector
UAE announces Ramadan working hours for private sector
UAE announces Ramadan working hours for private sector
UAE Announces Ramadan Working Hours For Public Sector
UAE Announces Ramadan Working Hours For Public Sector
UAE announces reduced private sector working hours for Ramadan
UAE announces reduced private sector working hours for Ramadan
UAE announces reduced school hours for Ramadan
UAE announces reduced school hours for Ramadan
UAE reveals private sector working hours for Ramadan
UAE reveals private sector working hours for Ramadan
UAE working hours for Ramadan announced
UAE working hours for Ramadan announced
Lists
Top 50 GCC Banks 2017
Top 100 Most Powerful Arabs 2017
Top 100 GCC Companies 2016
Top 50 GCC Banks 2016
Top 50 GCC Banks 2015
Top 100 Powerful Arabs 2015
Advertisement
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Saudi needs 1.2m jobs by 2022 to hit unemployment target
Philippines' Duterte says Kuwait work ban permanent after row
Saudi sets up committee on Saudi Oger debt restructuring
Dubai restaurants to serve alcohol, food during the day for third Ramadan
Top 20 salaries in the UAE 2018
Abu Dhabi's Al Hilal Bank uncovers internal fraud worth up to $173m - report
Revealed: The UAE's top 25 best employers this year
UAE's telecoms regulator in talks to lift Skype, FaceTime ban
Dubai wants Indians to be given UAE visa on arrival
Saudi women to pay six times more than men for driving lessons
Editor's Picks
Revealed: Where Abu Dhabi property prices, rents rose and fell in Q1
Dubai announces major reforms to speed up court cases
Audit finds Saudi Aramco has larger oil reserves than expected
Oman allows students, retirees to work part-time
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