Global Briefing

  • Glossary
    Jump the Shark...
    ...in TV-industry jargon is what a show does when it pulls an outrageous stunt in a desperate attempt at a ratings boost — and usually suffers a terminal decline instead. The term, which the creators of jumptheshark.com say they coined, was inspired by the Happy Days episode in which a water-skiing Fonz jumps over a shark. Lately the term is being adopted in business to describe the point at which a once strong company or brand begins to slide. AutoWeek's review of the new turbocharged Volkswagen Beetle, for instance, says the car "threatens to jump the shark."

    Investing in Bad Habits
    You've heard of so-called socially responsible mutual funds; now comes one that's just the opposite, with its holdings concentrated in alcohol, tobacco, gambling and military contracting. Mutuals.com , a money manager based in Dallas, calls its new investing vehicle the Vice Fund. And its strategy is no joke. Over the past five years, stocks from the sectors represented in the Vice Fund have, in aggregate, appreciated about four times as much as the S&P; 500--and nearly 11 times as much as those in the Domini 400 index of socially responsible stocks. While more than 90% of the Vice Fund's holdings will be in battleships, blackjack, booze and butts, its managers plan to hedge a bit into stocks like Harley-Davidson. "It's not really a vice," fund co-manager Dan Ahrens, 36, admits. "But I think the Harley Hogs probably like drinking and smoking." --By Bill Barol

    Executive Bus Travel
    Four times a day, business travelers shuttle between Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pa., in oversize leather seats while nibbling on deli sandwiches and sipping their choice of eight gourmet coffees. But they're not flying first class; they're taking the bus. The 27-seat motor coaches offer an alternative to airport-security hassles and delays, says Dale Bunce, CEO of ExecConnect America, the Aiken, S.C., company that operates the service. The trip costs $129 round trip and takes 2 hr. 40 min. (vs. $614 for a 1-hr. flight in coach). Bus travelers can watch cable TV and use Internet-access ports at each seat. And there's an attendant on board who gladly makes hotel and dinner reservations. According to Bunce, ExecConnect will expand to the Northeast and Southeast within a month — and to other routes that a bus can traverse in 5 1/2 hr. or less.

    Update: A Hot Chinese Firm Gets Chilled
    Our january cover package in time global business included a feature about Haier, the leading appliance maker in China and sixth largest in the world, with revenues growing 49.7% in 2001, to $7.4 billion. But Haier's halo is slipping. In July the company sued Yicong Chen, 25, a Beijing-based securities analyst for a government-owned company who had written a critical research report. Haier then announced a 45% decline in first-half profits, largely because of weak sales of air conditioners — a segment that Chen's report covered. Chen nonetheless agreed to a court-supervised apology for the "distorted content" of the report. Michael Jemal, 37, president of Haier America, says the home office's p.r. problems have not affected U.S. sales, which he says are up 200% so far this year.

    The Bilbao Of Business Schools
    The new home of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, is an eye-catcher that's also suited to its purpose. Architect Frank Gehry crafted the exterior in the warped-metal style he made famous with his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Gehry designed the interior to mimic real-world business environments. An oval classroom is reminiscent of a corporate conference room. The classrooms are interspersed among faculty offices and meeting areas so the "bosses" and the "workers" can bump into one another. The school also boasts a high-speed computer network with ports at each desk, teleconferencing hookups and large projection screens for those inevitable PowerPoint presentations.

    Executive Summary: How Women Learn to Earn
    Earning high pay isn't genetic. Just ask Barbara Stanny, author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life. She's the daughter of Richard Bloch, co-founder of H&R; Block, the nation's largest tax service, yet she writes that she has always been "a card-carrying underearner." For her new book, Stanny interviewed 150 women whose annual earnings ranged from $100,000 to $7 million to distill the secrets of their success. Stanny says that the high earners were almost universally passionate about their jobs; the money was just a fortunate by-product. The women became successful by brushing off the gender bias and sexual harassment that other women experience and plunging ahead. Stanny believes some women unwittingly collude with bosses who pay them poorly; they have a "high tolerance for low pay" because they "believe in the nobility of poverty." --By Andrea Sachs