TIME Global Business/World Briefing

By Sean Gregory Sunday, Mar. 16, 2003
    • COURTESY OF AON

    RISKY BUSINESS: Different factors determine a country's risk level

    Mapping Risk by Country

    For those looking to invest overseas, Russia is safer than ever. But Botswana is safer yet. At least that's the conclusion of AON, the global insurance-and-risk-management firm, which for the first time is offering its Global Credit and Political Risk map to the public, at aon.com/us/politicalrisk . The 2-ft. by 3-ft. map assigns a color to each country that denotes its overall risk of economic downturn, political violence and government intervention in private business. The five levels of risk range from green (low risk) to orange (very high risk). AON considers, among other things, the experiences of its corporate clients and surveys of international trade insurers. Not surprisingly, the 2003 version shows the most risk since the map was started in 2000. Only 14 countries, including Canada, Iceland and Portugal, are green, while the U.S. has held steady at blue (moderate risk). As for Russia vs. Botswana, the former is beige (high risk) largely because of its fragile banking system, the latter, blue, thanks to a thriving diamond trade but a somewhat undiversified economy.

    Wireless Stereo: A Tune for Each Room

    When Mom wants her Celine Dion, Dad wants Placido and Johnny demands Ja Rule, it used to take three stereos to satisfy all. Now comes the Yamaha MusicCast, a wireless, digital home music system, out in June. MusicCast is based on the same Wi-Fi technology that powers many PC networks, using a server, CD player/recorder and hard drive to store hundreds of hours of music. Once downloaded from your CDs, music is sent to as many as seven small receivers, or clients. Five can be wireless, and each can power a pair of wired speakers. MusicCast can simultaneously transmit different music to, say, the kitchen, den and two bedrooms. You can also compile custom CDs from the server to play elsewhere. This family jukebox isn't cheap: list price for the server and one client will be $2,800; additional clients, $600 each.

    FASHION
    Digital doctors. Hip-Hop Sells the Classics

    It was at a 5 a.m. meeting over scrambled eggs after an all-night album-release party when hip-hop mogul Sean (P. Diddy) Combs got a look at a few $300 replicas of old sports jerseys — like a 1970s mustard yellow and brown number from the San Diego Padres. He liked what he saw. Combs wore 10 of the jerseys, sold by Philadelphia-based sports-nostalgia company Mitchell & Ness, at different times during the American Music Awards last year. Rappers like Bow Wow and Snoop Dogg followed, choosing royal blue 1960s L.A. Lakers duds for videos and concerts. Now Reuben Harley, 29, Mitchell & Ness's marketing director (and the man who met with Combs), says the jerseys have helped boost the company's annual sales to $25 million in 2002 from just $2.8 million in 2000. That makes Mitchell & Ness, formerly a little-known supplier of quaint 1930s-era wool baseball jerseys, the latest "urban gear" phenomenon. Other customers include Allen Iverson, the rapper Eve and a growing coterie of buyers in Asia.

    HEALTH CARE
    Digital Doctors

    At most hospitals, one can only hope that caregivers' minds aren't as cluttered as their workplace — what with medical records stacked outside patients' rooms, lab orders pinned to hallway bulletin boards and little sticky notes pasted everywhere. The new $60 million Indiana Heart Hospital will try to avoid such a mess as the world's first paperless, all-digital cardiac facility.

    The sleek-looking, 88-bed, for-profit hospital, which opened in February, uses more than 650 computer stations made by GE Medical Systems to store records, test data and diagnostic images. Bedside terminals are intended to make patient care swifter and more customized — and safer, with mandatory bar-code scanning to cut the chance of a drug mix-up. Of course, the "paperless office" has been touted for years and has seldom materialized. But the hospital says its goals will be met if it can boost productivity 20%.

    UPDATE
    Ryan Soars Above The Airline Slump

    In late 2001, TIME Global Business reported on the success of Dublin-based RyanAir, the upstart airline whose profits had soared 39% in six months, and its jeans-wearing CEO, Michael O'Leary, above. Today it's clear that this budget carrier is no fluke. With high productivity from its workers and high enthusiasm from flyers (willing to bear the inconvenience of second-tier airports in exchange for low fares), RyanAir saw its profits rise 66% in 2002. Already in 2003, passenger counts are up 35%. Both results buck industry trends. In February, RyanAir made its first acquisition, paying $26 million for struggling Dutch discount carrier Buzz. RyanAir has placed orders for 22 Boeing 737s to build up its current fleet of 50.