The Photofinishing Industry Faces Significant

Today, the photofinishing industry faces significant, but not insurmountable hurdles. Not only are we in the midst of a major industry transition to personal publishing, or as I like to call it, ‘social picturing,’ but at the same time we are in the midst of a challenging international economic environment. While the headlines paint a grim picture for businesses large and small alike, the New Year also brings new possibilities and new resolve. Like most of you, in college I was forced to study all kinds of useless stuff. Something from those studies has been running through my mind lately. It is a quote from the British poet Anne Bradstreet. She said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Together, let’s welcome that prosperity. I for one am sick of the adversity. Here are my ideas for 2009. 1. Increase creative sales. Did you realize that in 2008, ninety percent of orders were non-creative and 10 percent were creative? And the average non-creative sale was $17 while the average creative order was $37? Clearly, creative is how we will get back to prosperity. In 2009, the industry should strive to move creative orders from 10 percent to 15 percent. Creative is not only more profitable, it’s what consumers want. With the digital revolution, consumers have gained greater control over their personal content, including pictures. The photo book has gained traction, but consumers are quick learners and soon they’ll be looking beyond the photo book for new creative products to use to express themselves and share their memories. If you’re not already on board the creative train, it’s time to get an express ticket. Give me a call. 2. Push the personal publishing revolution forward. In the 80’s, the industry experienced the minilab revolution as retailers shifted to 1-hour photo. Today, we’re in the middle of a revolution to the brave new world of social picturing. Consumers no longer walk in and out of your store simply dropping off rolls of film. They are exploring the plethora of new in-store and online possibilities and many of them are looking to you for guidance. Be prepared to walk them through the Long Tail of personal publishing. Need help? Give me a call or visit www.Lucidiom.com. 3. Focus on the consumer, not the technology. Photo finishing at retail has been going through a shift for some time. The consumer used to spend about 5 minutes in your store for every roll of film. With digital they started spending more time; the kiosk became a vital tool for your success. The trend has been to find the best technology in all sectors, massage it to meet your needs, and then find more technology. This is the year that needs to shift. The focus needs to be on the customer not the technology. How can you help her find what she is looking for? How can you help him express how he feels? How can you help your customer explore the possibilities of social picturing? It’s also more important now to find a technology partner you can trust so you can forget about technology. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” as they say in the Wizard of Oz. Focus instead on your customers, marketing and the amount of your average sale (reminder – creative orders have a higher average sale!). 4. Focus on the up-sell. The most difficult thing to do in running your business is to attract new customers. Customer retention and up selling are much more lucrative in the short run. Since attracting customers will be tougher this year, bundling and up-selling will play important roles in maximizing the sale. Don’t just promote folded cards; show your customers how they can create a complete set of event stationery from that favorite photo or set of photos. If they’ve come in to create a personalized birthday party invitation, encourage them to add custom photo wrapping paper, a poster to hang at the party, customized party favors and thank you notes to send out afterwards. 5. Invest smart. The fight or flight instinct certainly comes out during tough economic times and while it might be tempting to flee or hibernate, now is not the time to stop moving forward. I am not saying you need to invest like you did in the past. If you used to spend $150,000 on new technology every year, just don’t take the budget to zero. Find out what is really important to your customers, then figure out if there are smart investments that can pay off this year. If you don’t invest in the future at all, you’ll come out weaker than you started. Invest wisely and you’ll come out stronger. Drive through it and most of all market into it. Your brand is vital to your success. Let your customers know that you are still moving forward and are bringing their stories to life at your store.

Noritsu America Corporation and Lucidiom Inc.

Noritsu America Corporation and Lucidiom Inc. recently announced a letter of intent signaling the first step in Noritsu's official acquisition of Lucidiom. The announcement came the day before PMA 2009 opened, so throughout the show the Noritsu and Lucidiom booths were buzzing with questions from attendees, press and customers. In case I missed you at the show, here's what the pending deal means for you. Most simply put, Lucidiom will stay Lucidiom. This means we will stay the course as the industry's most open, flexible and brand agnostic imaging solutions provider. Although we'll be part of Noritsu once the deal is finalized later this spring, Lucidiom will continue to develop our full product line and will continue to support third party printers and other equipment. More than 55,000 Lucidiom APM licenses are deployed worldwide and we realize we've achieved this level of success in 8 years largely because of our willingness to work with each and every customer to find just the right solution for their particular business. We remain committed to these company ideals. The Lucidiom team will remain intact as well, so the only noticeable change for our customers will be the expanded offerings, service and support made possible by our new affiliation with respected global leader Noritsu. Becoming part of Noritsu will allow us to deliver our company's award-winning technology beyond where we could have taken it solo. We're bullish about the possibilities now before us. We at Lucidiom have always prided ourselves on pushing the industry forward - first with offering enlargements alongside standard print sizes, then with the “Beyond 4x6” Long Tail revolution and now with social picturing. Consumers have turned the imaging experience into a social phenomenon via the Internet and Lucidiom is busy building money-making technologies to help photofinishers capitalize on the experience. Our latest photo kiosk software, APM version 7.0, is one such technology. This latest award-winning software version, which we demonstrated at PMA 2009, features connectivity between the kiosk and the customer's Photo Finale Web account. From the kiosk, consumers now can upload photos to or download photos from, a Photo Finale account. As well, we have added an enhanced product finder and a helping hand for retailers in tough economic times - a unique up-sell engine at the end of each kiosk order that suggests complementary products. But my favorite new feature is our new RSS feed. This means the customer updates his photos on Photo Finale Web, and any RSS device, like an iPhone, Facebook or even a digital picture frame, picks up that live link and shows the new photos. The best part about this for the retailer is a little Order button under each photo, that will link back to your PF site for easy ordering. This type of full circle access for customer and retailer alike is the key to the industry's success going forward and we're proud to be at the forefront of it all. We're the same smart technology company with the same people, entrepreneurial spirit and passion for the business of printing emotions. Lucidiom's EQ (emotional quotient) remains our customers. We will continue to deliver the industry's best in-store and online imaging solutions so that you don't have to think twice about the technology driving your business. We understand your EQ is your own customers. So go get 'em - we've got your technology covered.

Publish Photos Instantly

Move over sliced bread - there's a new best thing in town. Sharing pictures without having to do any work! Picture this: A grandfather is receiving an email on his mobile phone right now that includes the latest photos of his grandson. A grandmother is sitting in her living room and notices that her WiFi picture frame just refreshed with new photos of her daughter and grandkids. A mom just uploaded photos and the dad sees them instantly in his Outlook inbox. Sound interesting? It's reality with Lucidiom's new RSS photo feeds on Photo Finale Web. When customers visit a retailer's Photo Finale site today, they'll notice little orange RSS feed icons in the top right-hand corner of each page. These allow the retailer's Photo Finale site members to publish photos instantly via RSS feeds that can be subscribed to by friends and family around the world. Of course, users can still share images via email, but the RSS feed satisfies the instant gratification we can feel when we're dying to share that great shot with the world. There are no web links to cut and paste or remember, no emails to proactively send - with Photo Finale's RSS feeds, it's all automatic the minute photos are uploaded. And, the best news of all for the retailer is that all of this is possible on YOUR website. As with all Lucidiom products, Photo Finale is branded with your name, not ours. Your customers will be raving about your RSS feeds and their friends and family will be coming to you for orders. Extend your brand, extend your customer reach, extend your business. That beats a slice of bread any day.

Eastman Kodak Company

Eastman Kodak Company has introduced the Kodak Pic Flick App, a new, free Apple iPhone and iPod touch device that enables consumers to upload pictures to a Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame or print them wirelessly on the Kodak ESP 5250 All-in-One (AiO) WiFi-enabled printer, which, Kodak explains, saves consumers an average of $110 a year on ink and offers the lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry.“Pictures are a way of sharing the unique moments in our lives,” said Randy Brody, Vice-President of Marketing Inkjet Systems, Eastman Kodak Company. “The Kodak Pic Flick App provides a fast, easy and fun way to print, display and share within seconds of capturing a moment at home or away from home. Consumers can simply upload pictures to a nearby Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame or send them to the Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer using their Apple iPhone or iPod touch.”The Kodak Pic Flick App features include: Dual purpose for printing and sharing: Consumers can print pictures on a Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer or share them on the wireless Kodak W1020 Wireless Digital Frame directly from their Apple iPhone or iPod touch Device; Wirelessly print and share images within the users’ WiFi network range; Print photos from 2x3 to 8.5x11 inches on the Kodak ESP 5250 AiO Printer.

Planning A Catering Career

When I moved to New York City from Calcutta, I wasn't planning a catering career. I had come to earn a master's degree in lighting design from Parsons the New School for Design. But as a foodie, I was dismayed by the city's Indian eateries: The good ones were pricey, while the more affordable restaurants served two-day-old curries.
It didn't take a genius to spot a market opportunity for good, low-priced Indian food. I focused on Indian-style sandwiches, which few restaurants were offering. After graduating, I took night classes in restaurant management. In late 2003 I partnered with a former classmate, Rupila Sethi, to open the Indian Bread Co., a cafe in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. We sold flat breads stuffed with fillings or rolled like wraps -- an adaptation of traditional Indian street food.
Business was good from day one, and we soon began to provide catering services. In fact, we catered the Republican National Convention in 2004. But by the end of that year, Rupila wanted to move on to other projects, so I bought her out. Sales rose for the next several years, and I even started negotiations to franchise the cafe concept.
Then the recession hit. Business slowed, and the franchising deal fell through. In February 2009 cafe sales fell 25% to $9,689, from $12,873 a year before. But even though I was losing money, I refused to give up on a proven concept.
Seeking investors, I pitched my cafe to contacts in the restaurant industry. I took on two equal partners: Surbhi Sahni, a pastry chef at Devi, a top Indian eatery in New York City; and Rajiv Tanwar, a lawyer and restaurateur. Surbhi contributed sweat equity, helping me revamp the kitchen and change the menus. Rajiv invested $75,000, which we used to fund improvements.
First we relaunched and rebranded the cafe. To make it stand out, we focused on Mumbai street food. The new name became Aamchi Pao -- "my bread" in Marathi, a language spoken in Mumbai. And we simplified the menu by replacing naaninis, grilled items that take up to five minutes to prepare, with eight kinds of wraps and sandwiches.
We also gutted the kitchen, replacing the grill and the panini press with a simple griddle. The overhaul took two weeks and cost less than $20,000. I handled a lot of the Mumbai-themed interior design myself. I also cut costs by bartering my catering services for logo design work from a local graphic design studio. (I still run the Indian Bread Co. as a catering firm -- we catered the Slumdog Millionaire film premiere in 2008.)
Until the relaunch I had been running the restaurant, handling everything from inventory control to menu planning. But management wasn't my strong suit, and it distracted me from growing the business. So we hired a full-time manager. That freed me up to pursue my strengths: marketing, networking and strategizing.
Our May reopening received good local press coverage, which helped bring back our old customers and attract many new ones. The changes have been effective: Customers spend less time waiting in line, and the kitchen runs more smoothly, which reduces wasted inventory. Although some guests throw tantrums when they hear we no longer serve naaninis, we can usually persuade them to try something else.
And revenues are back up. We project 2009 sales of $315,000, about double last year's revenues.
I've always believed in this company, but it took a recession to make me see that I could turn it into a better business.

DNA Software Won A $1.5 Million

In 2001, DNA Software won a $1.5 million, three-year grant from the state of Michigan to develop computer programs for genomics researchers. Four years later, the eight-employee Ann Arbor company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
What happened? On paper DNA Software had been living every startup's dream. The government was "very supportive of what we were trying to do," recalls CEO Don Hicks. The grant paid the company in annual installments in exchange for preferred shares with no controlling interest.
But as three years' worth of steady money rolled in, looming problems at DNA went undetected. The cash cushion allowed executives to focus almost entirely on product development, without giving much thought to sales or marketing. Until the grant money dried up, they failed to realize that they had grossly overestimated the potential market for DNA's highly specialized services.
In 2005, with his company on the verge of collapse, Hicks took a 50% pay cut and started targeting potential customers with courtesy calls and demonstrations. DNA was forced to run on cash from its own operations. That required executives to "hunt only what we could kill," says Hicks.
During the next three years he brought DNA Software back to profitability. Since 2005 the company has doubled its staff, and it is on track to bring in $1.5 million in revenue this year.
Despite the current clamor for loans, business owners would do well to remember that money is not the mother of invention. On the contrary, capital constraints often spur innovation. Historically, scarce capital has forced many businesses that were founded during downturns -- such as HP (HPQ, Fortune 500), which debuted in 1939 during the Great Depression, and FedEx (FDX, Fortune 500), launched in the oil crisis of 1973 -- to eschew debt and remain agile.
Small business owners should do as much as they can without relying on other people's money, recommends Jim Anderson, an Orange County, Calif. counselor for SCORE, a national nonprofit organization that teams successful small business owners with entrepreneurs who are seeking advice.
"People who self-finance generally don't become sloppy," he says. "There is a tendency for people who have borrowed a big chunk of money to relax."
Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Obsidian Launch, a Boonton, N.J., consulting firm that invests in small startups, admits that external funding gave him the flexibility to ignore sound business practices -- and reality -- when he founded his first business, Olmec Systems, in 1996. The company, which set up computer networks for financial firms, swung from profitability to losses of as much as $50,000 in a single month after securing a $250,000 SBA-backed loan. Michalowicz blew the dough on office furniture and unnecessary administrative and sales-support staff, not to mention a new BMW Series 7 sedan.
"My explanation to myself was that if I had a lot of employees and a beautiful car, people would know I was successful and want to do business with me," he says. "Once I was out of cash, I had to get back to doing business the right way: servicing clients well and working hard."
Michalowicz ditched the expensive furniture and renegotiated his rent. In three years he had paid back his loan and sold the company for six figures.
Some entrepreneurs can take on loans without losing their innovative edge, particularly if they're armed with specific plans for spending the cash and generating enough revenue to pay it back. For everyone else, the era of lazy borrowing is over.
"In most cases we're telling people, 'You'd better have the capital,'" says Anderson. "It's tough times ahead."
In the end, a loan is a debt, not an excuse to let your hair down and party. Note to Wall Street: That advice isn't just for entrepreneurs.

Companies And Industries

All companies have a corporate culture. Some cultures are good; others are bad. Some are productive, some destructive.
My business grew from one employee (me) in the beginning to more than 100 today. I didn't give the culture question much thought until I started hiring people from different companies and industries. Pretty soon I noticed that employees sometimes brought with them old habits that didn't work in my environment.
After one management meeting, my new marketing director mentioned to me that she wasn't sure she agreed with a point that I had made in the meeting. I asked her why she hadn't brought it up at the meeting so we could all discuss it. She replied that she had wanted to be respectful. Then it dawned on me: In the big business environment that she had come from, questioning the boss in a meeting could mean career suicide.
Respect the Mission. I told her that if she really wanted to be respectful, she should never concern herself about being respectful to a position. Instead, be respectful to the mission. Throw it out there. We'll discuss it, we might argue, and we might laugh at each other. No one will cry, no one will have hurt feelings, and we'll come up with a solution that works for us.
I frequently get my mind changed in these discussions. But we always find the best decision for the company, so I always win.
Go the Extra Mile. So what is corporate culture? There are several aspects to consider.
How far will you go for a customer? Most companies claim that they will do whatever is necessary to make a customer happy. But going beyond lip service means you have to train employees rigorously and empower them to solve problems. In a mail-order business, you might have to spend extra money on airfreight to make sure that a shipment reaches the customer on time. In a restaurant it could mean showing up at a customer's house with part of a takeout order that wasn't put in the bag.
Treat One Another Well. How much do you expect from employees? Do salaried staffers regularly work 40 hours a week? 50? 60? 70? What happens when the need to take care of a customer conflicts with an employee's needs?
How do your people treat one another? I came to a conclusion that I will not employ anyone who is disrespectful to others. That might sound simple, but it isn't.
Rock from the Top. What kind of performance is accepted at the company? Is a 5% error rate okay? Is 3% sales growth accepted as a fact of life?
Changing your corporate culture requires more than holding workshops or sending memos. It means taking inventory of your values, both personally and as a company.
When I first started in business, I thought I should like everyone who worked for me. Then I went through a period when I figured that I didn't need to like everyone as long as they were doing their jobs.
Now I'm back to requiring 100% likability. Why? If I don't like them, other staffers probably don't like them either, and we can't all be wrong. Today my employees are all nice, responsible and dedicated. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Building a strong culture requires hiring the right people, firing the wrong people and managing the work environment. There's an old saying: "A fish rots from the head down." Corollary: It also rocks from the top.
Jay Goltz employs 104 people at Artists Frame Service, Chicago Art Source and Jayson Home & Garden, all based in Chicago. He is the author of The Street-Smart Entrepreneur (Addicus Books).

Fortune Small Business

Like many retailers, Jim Hobart knows the value of a good testimonial.
The online store he co-founded, AlpacaDirect.com, always offered a page full of cherry-picked customer comments raving about the site's alpaca sweaters, socks and yarn. But recently Hobart, 47, decided to take the idea a step further: He hired PowerReviews, whose software lets shoppers write their own product reviews directly on the retailer's Web site.
It was a risky move for the four-year-old company, based in Brentwood, Calif. Hobart was effectively paying to host bad press -- such as posts by customers who described AlpacaDirect's golf cardigan as "kinda sweaty" and a "poor fit." Both awarded the cardigan three out of a possible five stars.
But a month after installing the PowerReviews service, Hobart saw sales climb 23% on items that had customer reviews (even that cardigan, which garnered an average of four stars).
"People are really researching their purchases," he says. "We knew our customers liked our products, and we wanted them to tell one another."
Online reviews have been spreading ever since Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) pioneered them in 1997. Witness the rise of "social shopping" Web sites like Kaboodle and ShopWiki and of consumer review sites, including Yelp and Judy's Book. But today's customer feedback software is growing more sophisticated, more personal and more affordable for small businesses.
Consumers are becoming used to searching for reviews when they shop online. Internet shoppers rank reviews as the most desired feature of a Web site, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research. "People want to talk among themselves," says Jacqueline Anderson, a senior consultant at Forrester.
Adds Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results, which provides customer satisfaction surveys for Web sites: "If they leave your site to look for reviews, they most likely won't come back."
Finding good review software isn't easy, as Hobart discovered. He was turned on to the idea in 2006 after offering 2,200 AlpacaDirect products via Amazon, where he noticed that products with customer reviews typically sold better. He investigated free review software but decided not to use the programs because they required extensive customization by an IT professional.
Hobart was turned away when he first called San Francisco-based PowerReviews in 2007. At the time, PowerReviews focused on the enterprise market, customizing $1,000- to $2,000-a-month review software for larger retailers such as REI and Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500).
But four months later the company called Hobart back, saying it had changed its mind. A stream of small businesses had been asking for inexpensive, easy-to-install software. "We now think this is a very big market," says PowerReviews vice president Darby Williams.
Hobart currently pays $80 a month for PowerReviews Express. The software sends e-mails to customers who have made purchases and invites them to submit reviews. The feedback system includes a text box for comments and the all-important five-star rating system. PowerReviews' staff members read every review and remove posts they deem obscene or libelous. Otherwise, everything is fair game.
It's important that site owners resist the temptation to edit or delete reviews they don't like. "If everything is positive, that raises a red flag among consumers," says Forrester's Anderson. According to market research firm Keller Fay Group, 87% of consumers tend to write reviews when they have positive things to say.
And even negative reviews can be beneficial. When one customer grumbled that a photo of a yarn spool misrepresented its shade of green, Hobart responded by posting a new photo. He also appended a comment to the negative review saying that the problem had been dealt with.
Ultimately, says Hobart, reviews retain customers. The vast majority of AlpacaDirect's customers return, so it's crucial to snag first-timers. "Reviews help build that initial trust," he says. "They are key to the long-term success of our company."

Cadbury Emphatically Rejected

Cadbury said it had "emphatically rejected" what it saw as the "derisory" offer, which will now be put directly to its shareholders.Kraft offered a mixture of cash and shares for each Cadbury share - the same terms it proposed in September. As Kraft shares have dropped in value since then, the bid is now worth less than the original £10.2bn approach. "Kraft's offer does not come remotely close to reflecting the true value of our company, and involves the unattractive prospect of the absorption of Cadbury into a low growth conglomerate business model," said Cadbury chairman Roger Carr.
Kraft offered 300p in cash and 0.2589 new Kraft shares for each Cadbury share.
Cadbury shares dipped slightly after Kraft made its new offer, but soon recovered to close up 3 pence at 761p. John Cadbury, a Quaker, opened shop in Birmingham in 1824, selling tea, coffee and hot chocolate - as an alternative to alcohol Dairy Milk brand introduced in 1905, with Milk Tray coming 10 years laterMerged with Schweppes drinks business in 1969. Its drinks arm was spun off in 2008. Employs about 45,000 people in 60 countries.In contrast, Kraft shares slipped 32 cents to $26.53 in New York. Under Takeover Panel rules, Kraft had until 1700 GMT on Monday to make a new offer or it would have been blocked from making an approach for six months. Many investors had expected Kraft to increase its offer to tempt the board to back the proposal.
Weekend reports had said that some Cadbury shareholders thought 820p a share would be a "starting point" for discussions with Kraft.
"If shareholders get a sniff of £8.20 they will be obliged to sit down and talk about [the offer]," said David Buik at BGC Partners.
"If we do get to £8.20, then I think [a takeover] is a good thing," he added.
Multiple brands
Shares in Cadbury have risen about 30% since late August.
Cadbury has 50,000 private shareholders. The largest is US investment management firm Franklin Resources, which owns just over 8%. Legal & General holds 5.2% of the firm.
Kraft will have 60 days from the posting of its offer document to gain shareholder's support for the bid unless a competitor enters the frame.
As well as Dairy Milk, Cadbury also owns the Green & Black's chocolate brand, Halls lozenges, Trident and Dentyne gum brands and liquorice allsorts maker Bassett's.
It spun off its drinks division as a separate business last year.
Kraft's brands include Kenco and Maxwell House coffee, Oreo biscuits, Jacobs, Terry's Chocolate Orange and Toblerone, as well as cheese products such as Philadelphia and Dairylea.
Kraft chairman Irene Rosenfeld questioned Cadbury's continued ability to stand alone.
"We believe that our proposal offers the best immediate and long-term value for Cadbury's shareholders and for the company itself compared with any other option currently available, including Cadbury remaining independent," she said.

Asian Stockmarkets

Gold claimed another record high on Monday as the dollar resumed its downtrend and Asian stockmarkets put in a solid performance.
European bourses are slated to open at or close to new peaks for the year after Wall Street successfully navigated a potentially tricky session on Friday.
Spreadbetting groups are pointing to the FTSE 100 in London opening at about 5,320, a gain of about 28 points and the highest level for the London benchmark since September 2008.
Germany’s Dax may open 28 points higher at 5,714.
Indices are likely to receive propulsion from commodity stocks after gold hit a new high of $1,130.25. It was later trading at $1,128.30, up 0.8 per cent.
Oil also rebounded, up 1.3 per cent to $77.34 a barrel.
Commodities were buoyant on global growth hopes but also renewed weakness in the dollar. The greenback had enjoyed a sudden bounce last Thursday, but this respite has not lasted long. It again fell back on Monday to the 75 point mark on a trade-weighted basis, down 0.4 per cent.
Against the euro the dollar was again flirting with $1.50, down 0.3 per cent at $1.4973. In addition, it was close to parity with the Swiss franc, falling 0.3 per cent to Sfr1.0086.
The resumption of dollar weakness encouraged investors to add to bets in the carry trade, whereby the US unit is apparently sold to purchase riskier assets such as stocks and commodities.
At the moment this looks like transferring to Wall Street, with US futures suggesting the S&P 500 would open higher by about 7 points to also challenge last week’s yearly highs.
Wall Street’s measure of investor anxiety, the Vix index, had dipped on Friday by 3.63 per cent to 23.36 as traders became more sanguine in the light of the market’s ability to finish higher by 0.6 per cent despite some weak consumer sentiment figures.
Stockmarkets in Asia made gains, though Tokyo struggled in the face of some big fundraisings. The Nikkei 225 eked out a 0.2 per cent rise to 9,791.2.
Chin

Relations Between Britain And France

In little over two hours, Britons can swap central London for lovely food and wine in an atmospheric Parisian bistro.
While French travellers coming in the opposite direction can perhaps enjoy a pint or two in a branch of UK pub chain Wetherspoons, or maybe visit an Aberdeen Angus steakhouse.
But not before the French visitors had - until two years ago - first arrived at Waterloo Station, named after the nearby bridge over the Thames that was so called to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo - Britain's 1815 victory over France.
Leaving Anglo-French history to one side, although it remains easier for people in other parts of the UK to continue to fly to Paris, the convenience of the Eurostar service for passengers in or near London is obvious.
Instead of having to check in at an airport two hours before your flight, you simply have to arrive half an hour before your Eurostar departure - setting off since 2007 from the impressively renovated St Pancras Station - and the train takes you directly to Gare du Nord in the centre of Paris.
And if Paris doesn't tickle your travel fancy, you can instead take the Eurostar to Brussels, the capital of Belgium, or Lille in northern France.
Rival providers
Celebrating its 15th anniversary on Saturday, Eurostar's success is borne out by its passenger numbers. Since services first started on 14 November 1994, more than 100 million people have travelled on Eurostar, with 10 million expected to do so this year.
To put this into context, Eurostar now accounts for 80% of all rail or air passengers travelling directly between London and Paris, while London's airports share the remaining 20% between them.
This success has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of rail companies across Europe - and from 1 January 2010, passenger train services through the Channel Tunnel are being opened up to competition.
But travellers looking forward to trying out a rival provider will probably have to wait a few years, simply due to the logistics of getting the specific rolling stock needed to gain the strict safety clearances to go through the Channel Tunnel.
"We are very much victims of our own success," says Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown. "We have proven that it is a very attractive proposition.
"Who will likely become our competitors? We don't know - they won't be telling us beforehand.
"What we do know is that it isn't going to happen quickly. It is a big job to start up - you need to get the trains, you need to recruit staff.
"In our opinion, we certainly won't have a rival next year, and I also don't think so in 2011."
'No plans'
Commentators agree that Eurostar's most likely first competitor will be Germany's state-run railway company, Deutsche Bahn. Press reports going back to 2007 have said Deutsche Bahn would like to run direct services from London to German cities such as Frankfurt and Cologne.
The company itself is far more reticent.
"We have no plans in the next year or so," says spokesman Andreas Fuhrmann.
Instead, he says, Deutsche Bahn's continuing focus at present is to ensure that its timetables from Brussels to Frankfurt and Cologne fit in with Eurostar's arrivals, to ensure that waiting times for customers continuing on to Germany are as short as possible.
The Netherland's state-run railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, has also been named as a possible provider of services through the Channel Tunnel from London to Amsterdam.
Yet it, too, said its current focus was "establishing a high-quality and smooth connection" between Eurostar services in Brussels and its trains to and from the Netherlands.

FSA Given Extra Clout To Pnish City Crime

Errant financial companies are set to be prohibited from engaging in certain business lines under new enforcement powers to be given to the Financial Services Authority.
The new measures will be unveiled in this week’s Queen’s Speech as part of a broader financial services bill granting the City regulator more punch in tackling wrongdoing and excessive bonuses.
Alistair Darling, chancellor, will propose strengthening the FSA’s power to punish individuals and banks that break rules, including imposing suspensions on certain forms of business, a measure used to great effect in Japan. Currently the UK regulator can only pull authorisations for risk reasons.
To bolster efforts to contain City pay, Mr Darling will add a legal right for the FSA to “tear up” employment contracts for bankers if the terms encourage excessive risk-taking or include multi-year guarantees.
Other proposed enforcement powers include enhancing the FSA’s ability to hold executives personally responsible for misconduct, by giving the regulator four years rather than two to bring cases against individuals. The regulator would also be allowed to discipline individuals who perform key “control” functions without the necessary regulatory approval, rather than just fining the company involved.
The moves are part of a broad effort to strengthen FSA enforcement and make it a “credible deterrent” against financial crime by bringing more criminal cases and imposing tougher penalties on the regulatory side. Just last week, a new law giving the FSA the power to grant immunity to whistleblowers and other co-operating witnesses received royal assent.
Margaret Cole, FSA enforcement director, welcomed both the new immunity law and the government’s proposals to give the FSA additional powers, saying they helped to gave her division a “full tool kit”.
“We have really changed the landscape in this agency about the use of enforcement,” said Ms Cole. “Everyone is now keen to use it to send a message.”
The UK changes come against a global backdrop of stepped-up prosecution of white-collar crime, with a particular focus on insider trading. Ms Cole said the new immunity powers could be particularly helpful in the FSA’s efforts to go after more complex insider-trading rings.
“We have some people beginning to co-operate with us as part of a bigger story . . . We have a number of cases under investigation where you would expect to see charging in the near future,” she said.
The regulator is also toughening up its civil enforcement. The FSA is already proposing to triple many fines, and suspension power would add to its options.
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Rainforests Could Be Traded On World Market

American Electric Power and BP invested in the pilot project alongside environmental groups such as the Nature Conservancy to find out if protecting forests compensates for their own pollution.
The burning of tropical forests emits more carbon dioxide every year than all the cars, planes, and boats on the planet - about 17% of global emissions.
A deal at Copenhagen could mean both governments and businesses paying billions to keep the forests standing.
With agreement looking unlikely on many other areas, some negotiators feel preventing deforestation may be the most concrete outcome from the talks.
Valuing a forest
Professor Geoffrey Heal is working out how this money would be spent.
The Columbia University economist used to advise Opec on how to manage the oil market. Now he teaches courses on corporate social responsibility and energy to Business MBA students.
In 2004, he was approached by a student who knew the prime minister of Papua New Guinea. The student had been sent to New York on a mission.
"Deforestation was a big issue there," he says. "The prime minister had asked him when he was in New York to look into whether there was any way to make money from the forests without cutting them down."
The Rainforest Coalition - a loose grouping of more than 20 nations - grew up in response to that question.
Their first task was to find a way to reward nations for not cutting down their forests.
"Basically the mechanism we've come up with is the following; countries reduce their rates of deforestation below what they historically have been and in exchange for that, they get carbon credits which they can sell on world carbon markets," says Heal.
To work out exactly how much money each country would get, they needed to calculate how much carbon was released by burning their forest. They get paid for every tonne they keep trapped.
Different forests contain different amounts of carbon.
So teams of conservationists turned economists are being dispatched around the world to work out a forest's value.
"It is possible to calculate the amount of carbon in a hectare of rainforest to a reasonable amount of precision," he says.
Data from numerous plots is then combined with satellite imagery of the forest.
Once the carbon stock is calculated, satellite pictures are used to track the impact of any deforestation.
Nations would be paid from annuities - the money would only keep coming if the forest kept standing.
Creating a market
Valuing the forest is complex - finding the money to pay for it even harder.
The movement has turned biologists into entrepreneurs. Andrew Mitchell is one. He wrote the Little REDD Book, on plans to fund forest protection.

The French seem to put it best: "deja vu" or "plus ca change..."
All changed yet little has changed at all.
Passengers arriving at King's Cross station for Saturday's inaugural East Coast service from London to York were bemused at the sight of TV cameramen chasing Transport Secretary Lord Adonis along the platform.
They almost certainly missed the new company logo adorning the train they were about to board.
Peeled off was the National Express sticker and in its place was the imaginatively titled East Coast logo, which took over the running of the east coast rail line from midnight.
For the rest though, it's much the same. Same timetable, same prices, routes, same staff and same food.
The one notable change will be the scrapping of the hated £2.50 reservation fee if you want to be assured of a seat in Standard class.
New company
The erstwhile franchisee National Express simply couldn't afford to run the service from London to Scotland's east coast any longer.
It had paid too much - £1.4bn over seven years - and then suffered a further double whammy of soaring fuel prices and a deep recession.
We've asked about 6,000 passengers who use the East Coast route at the moment what they'd like to see improved and we're getting back a very clear message
Anthony Smith,Chief executive of Passenger Focus
So last summer a new state run company, Directly Operated Railways - trading as East Coast - was set up to arrange the orderly but temporary handover of control from National Express, which came into effect on Saturday.
The state will benefit by pocketing the money from ticket sales without having to pay a penny for the franchise, and few have complained about the government (ie taxpayers) earning money off the back of rail commuters - at least until the east coast franchise return to private control in two years.
The key question though is whether passengers will notice any improvement in services over the next 24 months.
"We've asked about 6,000 passengers who use the East Coast route at the moment what they'd like to see improved and we're getting back a very clear message," said Anthony Smith, chief executive of Passenger Focus.
"Number one is keeping pressing on performance - keep getting more trains to arrive on time.
"Number two is value for money - people are very conscious about some of the fares they have to pay and these have in some cases really rocketed over the last years.
"And thirdly more capacity - more seats so that passengers don't have to stand on shorter journeys and are more comfortable when the trains are getting a bit more crowded".
Balancing act
The government has to tread a difficult line in how this re-nationalised east coast line is to be run.
If it's too good, there will be strong calls for the rest of the rail network to be operated by the state.
If it's too poor, the government and the Department for Transport in particular will be heavily criticised for incompetence, though it's playing down any talk of further nationalisation.

Rolls-Royce In $2bn Engine Orders

The orders were announced on the first day of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday.
The $1.5bn Air China order involves providing Trent 700 engines to power 20 A330 aircraft that will be delivered from 2011.
And the $480m Ethiopian order covers Trent XWB engines for 12 A350-900 XWB planes that will begin service in 2017.
It came after Ethiopian Airlines announced a $3bn aircraft order with Airbus.
The airline made an initial draft request for the dozen extra-wide bodied A350-900s in July and confirmed the deal at the air show, the biggest in the Middle East.
Best-selling engines
Airlines have been hit hard during the recession, so the order for engines is welcome news for Rolls-Royce, which has factories in Derby and Bristol making engines, and one in Sunderland making aero-engine components.
In addition, the Rolls-Royce Inchinnan factory, which opened in October 2004 close to Glasgow Airport, also manufactures aeroplane engine components.
The Ethiopian order means Rolls-Royce has sold more than 1,000 of its best-selling XWB engines.
The firm has said the XWB is the most fuel efficient and environmentally sensitive large engine design on the market, with fuel efficiency ratings 28% higher than pre-Trent generation engines.
In the summer the firm said it was on track to meet its full-year financial targets, but warned that delays on the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 wide-body programmes had added an element of uncertainty.
However, the delays have created more demand for existing wide-body products, where it has a strong position.

'Reckless' Bankers Face Bonus Cut

City minister Lord Myners said banks must be "more secure", with taxpayers "never again" bailing them out.
The Tories called the measures, which would give more powers to the Financial Services Authority, "headline-chasing".
The British Bankers' Association warned that these changes could threaten the UK's future as a major global centre for finance.
The Financial Services Bill will be part of the Queen's speech - which sets out legislative plans for the coming year - later this week.
'Voided'
Lord Myners said the changes would not involve setting a cap on bankers' bonuses.
But the FSA would get the power to stop excessive payments and to cancel any pay packages which appear to reward undue risk-taking.
The measures would apply only to future contracts.
Lord Myners told the BBC: "We cannot accept the situation in the future where the incentives system in banks was leading them to do reckless things.
The public will be asking what this announcement means for the bonuses that are due to be paid this Christmas - and the answer is nothing at all
Philip Hammond, Conservatives
"So we have to take this action to make the banking system more accountable, more secure and ensure that it never again has to call on the taxpayer to bail it out."
He added: "We are going to make it very clear that contracts which contain bonuses clauses which will add to risk or contracts which guarantee bonuses for several years are no longer acceptable and, if those contracts are written, they will be voided under law."
Last month the Centre for Economics and Business Research said City bank bonuses would hit £6bn this year, up from £4bn in 2008, because of rising profits and less competition.
This caused outcry among some businesses, who urged an improvement in the level of lending available to them.
'Wider context'
Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers' Association, told BBC Radio 4's World This Weekend: "The UK has already taken some very strong steps as far as remuneration is concerned, putting the whole remuneration structure into regulation in a way that other countries may talk about but have not yet done.
"The banking industry are at the table for change. We recognise the issues and the need for culture change. The party says this will release up to £20bn for lending to individuals and business.
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond said the Financial Services Bill looked like "yet more headline-chasing from the government".
He said: "Over a year ago the FSA said they had the power to sign off on the framework and structure of bonuses.
"The public will be asking what this announcement means for the bonuses that are due to be paid this Christmas - and the answer is nothing at all.
"When we announced plans to stop significant cash bonuses being paid this year, the government were quick to criticise before eventually agreeing with us."
'Struck off'
He added: "The Bank of England should be put in charge and that is what we shall be pushing for as this Bill goes through Parliament."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: "Obviously it is right that if bankers put the country at risk through their behaviour, they should be struck off in the same way that doctors are struck off in cases of professional misconduct.
"Liberal Democrats want much more substantial reform including full disclosure of bonuses and bankers' remuneration packages. Anything above £200,000 should be fully disclosed as it already is for directors."
The Financial Services Bill would also bar financial institutions from encouraging customers to borrow more than they can afford by sending out unrequested credit card cheques.
It would enable bank customers to join forces in class actions to demand compensation for excessive bank charges.
"But looking at legislation, we have to look at the wider context, and that is the UK as the big global centre for international banking that it is, and how it will impact there."
The Conservatives have proposed putting a temporary cap of £2,000 on cash bonuses for staff working for High Street banks.

Virgin Galactic

You are going to hear a lot in the next few weeks about Virgin Galactic, not least because on 7 December the company will unveil SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave Desert, California.
This is the rocket plane Sir Richard Branson will use to take fare-paying passengers on sub-orbital flights in the coming years.
In this posting, however, I want to concentrate on another Galactic project which is now gathering pace - the LauncherOne sat I reported on early discussions between the Branson outfit and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford.
SSTL is a world leader in the production of low-cost small satellites, and it was keen to explore the possibility of working with Virgin Galactic on a way to get these spacecraft into orbit much more cheaply than is currently possible.
The concept would be somewhat similar to the US Pegasus system, which uses a former airliner to lift a booster to 40,000ft, before releasing it to make its own way into space.
Virgin Galactic's aim is to provide an air-launched system which is faster, cheaper, and more flexible.
It would use SpaceShipTwo's mothership, "Eve", as the launch platform.
Dr Adam Baker, then at SSTL, was hoping for some money from the UK government to do a small feasibility study. The hope was that if things came together, LauncherOne could be a UK-built rocket despatched by Eve running out of a British airport somewhere.
Well, the money wasn't immediately forthcoming and Dr Baker has now moved across to Virgin Galactic to lead its own in-house efforts to give the project momentum.
So where are we? Dr Baker has been in post little more than a month. He's speaking to anyone and everyone, from those who might be interested in helping to build such a launcher to those who might want to use it to put a payload into orbit.
Certainly, there's a compelling need for a cheaper, more flexible launch system for small satellites.
At the moment, companies like SSTL are in a less than satisfactory position.
They often have to wait on the availability of converted Soviet-era missiles, such as Dnepr. This can add months to the timeline of a project.
Sometimes, the launches can get bumped by "more urgent" Russian military payloads, or have to wait while a problem on a satellite co-passenger is resolved (small satellites on a Dnepr are launched in batches).
The issue for LauncherOne, of course, is cost.
At the moment, a small satellite wanting to get into space may have to pay something like $5m-$10m. Virgin Galactic really has to get that down to $1m-$2m for this venture to make financial sense.
And to make that happen, Dr Baker believes the development cost of the rocket to first flight also needs to be kept the right side $100m:
"The less we can spend developing this, the easier it is going to be to recoup the cost, and the lower the launch price can be. "Historically, rockets that have been developed from scratch have cost a lot more than $100m. We want to take as much advantage from all the previous 50 years of effort in designing launch vehicles to get the best from the market."
The British imperative is still there. If this vehicle can come out of UK, so much the better, says Dr Baker. He'd love nothing better than for LauncherOne to be a UK-led initiative. But Virgin will not be overly sentimental about this. It's a business.
Interestingly, feasibility studies have been done in this field before in the UK, including on the possibility of using a Vulcan bomber as the platform for an air-launched satellite service. At least one small assessment has found the economics don't stack up.
Perhaps Virgin Galactic and British industry can show otherwise.
Who'd have thought before Brian Binnie and Mike Melville made their historic flights in SpaceShipOne that trips on a civil spaceliner would soon be possible?ellite system.

Jason And The Quest For Funding

We're a month away from a decision on a very important future space mission and I thought I'd post about it now if only to mark the calendar.
It also happens to pick up on a theme I raised in yesterday's entry about turning scientific satellites into ongoing operational programmes.
The future satellite is Jason-3. It would be the fourth incarnation of an altimeter spacecraft that has already returned a remarkable 17-year data-set on sea-level height.
The funding situation (that is, whether there is enough) will be determined at a December council meeting of Eumetsat, the organisation that looks after Europe's meteorological satellite service.
Jason-3 is something of a test case. It will test how serious nations are about maintaining continuous, long-term, cross-calibrated data on key environmental parameters... in the midst of a credit crunch.
Everyone you speak to says this is a really important mission, but the issue as ever, is who is going to pay for it. And there is a nice little UK dimension to all of this which I'll go into shortly.
To explain Jason's significance to those not aware of the programme, it is the series of spacecraft that has detailed the recent steady rise of global waters by about 3mm per year.
Critically, because each succeeding spacecraft in the series was able to match its measurements directly against its predecessor in orbit, the data is "gold standard". It is this quality of continuity that enables scientists to discern real trends.
The story goes back to 1992 and the launch of the Topex/Poseidon mission. The data quest was then taken up by the Jason-1 satellite (launched in 2001) and by Jason-2 (launched in 2008).
Jason-1 is still working but it will fail; all satellites eventually fail. This would leave just Jason-2 in orbit. That being the case, preparation for its successor must begin soon if the space baton is not to be dropped when the digits eventually flip on Jason-2.
Knowing ocean surface elevation has many and varied applications, both short-term and long-term.
Just as surface air pressure reveals what the atmosphere is doing up above, so ocean height will betray details about the behaviour of water down below.
The data gives clues to temperature and salinity. When combined with gravity information, it will also indicate current direction and speed.
The oceans store vast amounts of heat from the Sun; and how they move that energy around the globe and interact with the atmosphere are what drive key elements of our weather and the climate system.
Put simply, to understand climate you have to understand the oceans, and one of the best ways to understand the oceans globally is to measure surface elevation.
All good stuff, but back to the Jason-3 budget.
In the past, Jason has been led by the US and France. That will continue to be the case.
Its importance though to meteorologists has meant that Eumetsat has become involved in a big way; as has the EU because of its Earth monitoring project called GMES.
The total cost of the mission is of the order of 252m euros, of which Europe will cover about 146m. (One of the big contributions from the US will be the provision of a launcher.)
The numbers then stack up like this: the European Commission will provide 26m, the European Space Agency will put in 7m; and the French, as one of the senior partners, will sign off almost 49m. The French, for example, will build the satellite platform.
That leaves just over 63m from Eumetsat. The organisation is looking for a commitment in December of 90% of that figure to get the Jason-3 project up and running.
Now, here's the point of all this. Jason-3 is not a mandatory programme within Eumetsat; it is an optional programme. If a member state decides it likes the project, it "chooses" to subscribe.
Usually, although not always, the subscription is made at the comparative Gross National Income (GNI) level of the member state within Eumetsat.
For the UK, for example, the GNI Eumetsat figure is 16.173%. It is a large figure because Britain is one of the richest nations in Europe.
You can see straightaway, therefore, that if the Jason-3 programme is going to clear the 90% bar in December, the decision the London government makes on funding could be critical.
I mentioned Jason-3 to the British science minister Lord Drayson when I saw him a couple of weeks ago in the Palace of Westminster and he confirmed that discussions within government were ongoing.
It would be wrong to suggest that Jason-3 hangs on the British. Other Eumetsat delegations will play their part.
What it does emphasise, however, is the need to find ways of funding ongoing flagship programmes like Jason that don't involve protracted re-negotiation every five years

Europe's Proposed Sat-nav System

Most people have had a pop at Europe's proposed sat-nav system, Galileo, down the years. Let's face it, it's been an easy targHow not to implement a large-scale infrastructure project" is the criticism you often hear. "The Common Agricultural Policy in the sky" also became a popular jibe for a while.
Galileo will be at least five years late on its original timescale and hugely over budget.
It should have been fully operational by now and have cost the European taxpayer no more than 1.8bn euros.
As it is, only a partial Galileo system will be up and running by the end of 2013 (the current target date) and the projected total cost to the taxpayer is looking north of 5.5bn euros [PDF].
But things are at least now moving. The ground segment is coming along - see the picture on this page of the shiny control centre in Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany.
And you'll have seen this past week my report on the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) models, the four satellites that will prove the system.
The payloads are nearing completion in Portsmouth, UK, and will soon be despatched to Rome, Italy, for integration with the rest of their spacecraft elements.
The first IOV pair is booked for launch on a Soyuz rocket in November 2010; the second pair in early 2011.
Friday was the deadline day for the satellite consortia to submit their Best and Final Offers (BAFOs) - the final prices at which they are prepared to build the remaining spacecraft needed to operate Galileo.
The satellite segment is just one of six so called "work packages" (WP) that divide up the job of implementing Galileo.et. We're expecting very soon - before the year's end - contract announcements on three of these packages:
On System Support, to bring all the elements of the project together; on the Space Segment, to build the satellites themselves; and on Launch Services, to provide the rockets that will loft the spacecraft.
In 2007 when the whole programme was re-shaped, Galileo was given the target of being "fully operational" by 2013; and by that, one would normally mean 27 satellites in orbit. That's not going to happen.
The spacecraft cannot be made fast enough (a Galileo satellite will take two-and-a-half to three years to build) and the launchers are unlikely to be available even if they could.
The primary rocket for the job, a Soyuz, will launch only two Galileo satellites at once; an Ariane 5 will probably be used to loft a few batches of four.
Sixteen satellites plus the four IOVs is the figure now being talked about. Whilst not a full constellation, it is a number that would make a significant difference to anyone using GPS-and-Galileo-enabled receiving equipment.
Nonetheless, EuropeGPS has been an immense wealth creator. Anyone who has any doubt about that should go and have a look at the Forbes Top 400 wealthiest people in the USA. Check out the billionaires Gary Burrell and Min Kao.
If you're not sure who these men are, join the first three letters of their names - "Gar" and "Min" - and you'll understand what I'm talking about.
The next generation of sat-nav has the potential for even bigger returns, for the simple reason that location functionality is now becoming ubiquitous in mobile phones.
The improved availability and accuracy of fixes, allied to databases that can be rapidly passed over the cellular networks, means that sat-nav will increasingly be used to do many more interesting things than just finding your way down a motorway.
There is money to be made in the coming years. There are plenty of sharp entrepreneurs out there who realise this and are preparing for it now.
If Europe doesn't grab the chance to exploit the opportunities that are coming, others most certainly will. had better keep up the momentum if it wants a slice of what could be an exciting future.

Amrican College Of Surgeons

Lutheran Hospital has been verified as a Level II Trauma Center and a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center by the Committee on Trauma (COT) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This achievement recognizes a trauma center's dedication to providing optimal care for injured patients.Established by the ACS in 1987, the COT's Verification/Consultation Program for Hospitals promotes the development of trauma centers in which participants provide not only the hospital resources necessary for trauma care, but also the entire spectrum of care to address the needs of all injured patients. This spectrum encompasses the prehospital phase through the rehabilitation process."Achieving verification as a Level II Trauma Center for both adult and pediatric patients clearly demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing the highest quality trauma care," says Joe Dorko, chief executive officer of Lutheran Hospital. "Successfully completing this voluntary process is yet another example of Lutheran's belief that we need to measure ourselves against external standards in order to continue improving the care we deliver to patients. As the regional leader in specialized care, we have an important responsibility to utilize our talents and resources to their fullest extent."Verified trauma centers must meet the essential criteria that ensure trauma care capability and institutional performance, as outlined by the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma. An important step towards verification is the appointment of a trauma medical director, a requirement that was fulfilled at Lutheran in 2007 when Donald N. Reed, Jr., MD, joined the medical staff."This verification process is rigorous and personnel requirements extend well beyond having trauma-trained surgeons as the medical directors of both adult and pediatric trauma centers," says Dr. Reed. "The total hospital commitment includes specially-trained emergency room physicians and nurses; surgical and medical specialists who meet very particular administrative and educational requirements; dedicated nurses in the pediatric and adult intensive care units; not to mention the many dedicated technicians in various departments. I have been impressed by our progress over the past couple of years and the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons has now officially recognized that, as well."

Expenditure In The Economy

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- South African credit growth slowed to an annual 1.5 percent in September as consumers cut back on spending and banks curbed loans.Credit expansion eased from 2.3 percent in August, the Pretoria-based central bank said on its Web site today. The median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for credit growth of 2.2 percent.Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of expenditure in the economy, fell for a fourth consecutive quarter in the three months through June, dropping an annualized 5.8 percent, the central bank said on Sept. 3. Banks, including Absa Group Ltd., South Africa’s biggest retail lender, have cut credit to consumers after defaults on mortgages and car loans mounted.The Reserve Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 7 percent last week, after lowering it by 5 percentage points since December. Lower borrowing costs have been slow to spur spending in Africa’s biggest economy with the consumer confidence index dropping to 1 in the third quarter from 4 in the previous three months, First National BOct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell, extending a global sell-off, as companies from PetroChina Co. to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. posted lower-than-estimated profit and China moved to tighten lending rules. The yen rose.PetroChina, the nation’s biggest oil producer, slumped 4.8 percent in Hong Kong. Advantest Corp., the world’s No. 1 maker of memory-chip testers, slid 6.6 percent after posting a wider loss on slumping orders. ANZ Banking dropped 2.1 percent in Sydney as its chief executive officer said the Australian economy is “still fragile.” Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. sank 2.9 percent on government plans to tighten rules on personal loans.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 1.4 percent to 114.79 as of 2:50 p.m. in Tokyo, extending a two-day, 2.9 percent decline. The gauge has climbed 63 percent from a more than five- year low on March 9 amid signs the global economy is recovering from its worst slowdown since World War II. The MSCI World Index lost 0.2 percent, after slumping 2 percent yesterday.“Investors are wise to take some of their money off the table,” said Jonathan Ravelas, strategist at Manila-based Banco de Oro Unibank Inc., which has about $8 billion of assets. “There is a lingering doubt in the market if the corporate earnings we are seeing are being driven by actual demand or is it all because of government stimulus spending.”Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average sank 1.8 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 2.4 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 2.4 percent as BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, slid 3.3 percent after commodity prices declined.New Home SalesSouth Korea’s Kospi Index declined 1.5 percent. Hyundai Steel Co. tumbled 5.5 percent after cutting product prices. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index dipped 0.2 percent as the nation’s central bank said it will wait until the second half of next year before raising interest rates.Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent. The gauge fell 2 percent in New York yesterday, the most in a month, as the Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell 3.6 percent to a level that was lower than the most pessimistic economist’s forecast.Concern the global economic recovery is faltering damped demand for higher-yielding assets. The yen climbed to 132.82 against the euro, its highest since Oct. 14. Treasuries were little changed, with yields near the lowest in a week.Worse Than EstimatedIn Hong Kong, PetroChina dropped 4.8 percent to HK$9.47. The company posted a 24 percent drop in third-quarter profit to 30.8 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) as oil prices slumped from a record. The median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a profit of 35 billion yuan.In Tokyo, Advantest slumped 6.6 percent to 2,065 yen after its second-quarter net loss widened to 3.3 billion yen ($36 million) from 2.8 billion yen a year earlier. NEC Electronics Corp. tumbled 8.7 percent to 685 yen after widening its full- year loss forecast.The MSCI World Index tumbled 42 percent last year and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slumped by a record 43 percent as the global credit crunch dragged economies worldwide into recession. The financial crisis isn’t over, Harvard University professors Kenneth Rogoff and Niall Ferguson said.The Reserve Bank of Australia this month became the first central bank among Group of 20 nations to raise interest rates amid signs of strength in the country’s economy. New Zealand’s central bank maintained the official cash rate at a record-low of 2.5 percent because the economy needs further stimulus as it recovers from a recession.Rising Interest RatesAustralia’s central bank should have waited longer before raising borrowing costs because the economy is “still fragile,” ANZ Bank Chief Executive Officer Mike Smith told reporters in Sydney today.The lender, Australia’s second-biggest provider of business loans, dropped 2.1 percent to A$22.85. Full-year net income fell 11 percent to A$2.94 billion ($2.6 billion), short of the A$3.13 billion analysts in a Bloomberg survey anticipated.Bank of Communications Ltd., China’s fourth-largest lender by market value, declined 6 percent to HK$9.59. The company said third-quarter net income rose 1.5 percent to 7.32 billion yuan ($1.07 billion), missing the 7.45 billion yuan average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.Industrial & Commercial Bank, the world’s largest bank by market value, fell 2.9 percent to HK$6.07. Bank of China Ltd. retreated 1.7 percent to 3.97 yuan in Shanghai.Personal LendingChinese banks also fell on the proposed rule changes to personal lending, which the China Banking Regulatory Commission said are aimed at ensuring loans enter the real economy. Advances exceeding 300,000 yuan ($43,937) will be given directly to the borrower’s counterparty, rather than the borrower, according to a draft rule.“What we might be seeing is just some signaling, as we’re seeing elsewhere, that they might have to take away some of that stimulus in the private sector just to keep things on an even keel,” Simon Godfrey, a senior investment specialist at Fortis Investment Management, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Hong Kong. “There could be some negative reaction here.”In Taiwan, Farglory Land Development Co., decreased 5.1 percent to NT$68.90 after the United Daily newspaper said the central bank asked the island’s state-owned lenders to curb loans used for property investment.Global Stock RallyBetter-than-estimated earnings and economic reports have driven the global stock rally since March. Companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index are valued at 22 times estimated earnings, compared with 17 times for the S&P 500 and 15 times for Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index.The rally has failed to convince investors and analysts that it’s time to take on more risk. Almost 40 percent of the respondents to a poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers say they are still hunkering down. U.S. investors are even more cautious, with more than 50 percent saying they are in a defensive stance.“The market was hoping for some major forecast upgrades that just aren’t coming through as companies are clearly nervous about the second half,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager at Tokyo-based Shinkin Asset Management Co., which oversees the equivalent of $4 billion. “It’s probably better to wait on buying as stocks are likely headed a bit lower.”Oil, Metals SlumpResources companies declined after crude oil for December delivery tumbled 2.6 percent, the most in a month, to $77.46 a barrel in New York yesterday, while the London Metals Index, a measure of six metals, slumped 3.2 percent.BHP dropped 3.3 percent to A$37.13. Rio Tinto Ltd., the world’s second-biggest mining company, slipped 4.9 percent to A$60.98. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s No. 2 oil producer, dropped 3.5 percent to A$46.69. Inpex Corp., Japan’s largest oil explorer, fell 2.7 percent to 749,000 yen. Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil producer, declined 4 percent to HK$11.56.Nippon Mining Holdings Inc. sank 4.7 percent to 389 yen. Japan’s biggest copper producer and an oil refiner said in a preliminary earnings statement first-half net income was 18.8 billion yen, missing its projection by 18 percent amid narrower margins for petroleum products.Hyundai Steel, South Korea’s second-largest steelmaker, slumped 5.5 percent to 77,300 won. The company lowered the price of some products for the first time this year after the cost of steel scrap and competing imports declined.To contact the reporters for this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net; Ian C. Sayson in Manila at isayson@bloomberg.net. ank said on Sept. 30.The broad M3 measure of money supply rose 4 percent in September from a year ago, after expanding 5.5 percent in August, the Reserve Bank said.To contact the reporter on this story: Nasreen Seria in Johannesburg at nseria@bloomberg.net.

Largest Departmeant Store

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Myer Group Pty, Australia’s largest department-store chain, sold shares in an initial public offering that values the company at A$2.4 billion ($2.2 billion), offloading its stock near the bottom of its forecast range.The shares were sold at A$4.10 apiece, Melbourne-based Myer, controlled by buyout firm TPG Inc., said in a statement today. That compares with the A$3.90 to A$4.90 range the company predicted when announcing the IPO on Sept. 28. The IPO prices Myer stock at 15.1 times forecast earnings. David Jones Ltd., Australia’s second-largest department store, is trading at 17 times earnings.TPG and Blum Capital, which teamed up with members of the founding Myer family to buy the retailer in 2006 for A$1.4 billion, sold all of their shares, taking advantage of a 45 percent rise in the benchmark stock index since March. Management will hold about 7.7 percent of the retailer and the Myer family retained a 1.5 percent stake.The Myer chain was founded in 1900, when Sidney and Elcon Myer, immigrants from Russia, opened their first shop in the town of Bendigo in Victoria state. In 1985 it was purchased by G.J. Coles & Coy, creating Coles Myer Ltd., Australia’s biggest retailer and largest publicly traded corporation at the time.Myer, which has 65 stores, plans to open 15 more in the next five years, it said in the prospectus for the share sale.The chain’s owners boosted earnings by opening new stores, refurbishing outlets and increasing its range of more profitable clothing brands.The IPO is Australia’s largest since Boart Longyear Ltd., a provider of drilling services to mining companies, raised A$2.6 billion in April 2007.Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs JBWere and Macquarie Group Ltd. were lead managers for the sale.

Business News

Grim signals about consumer spending ripped through the markets Friday, sending stocks tumbling as investors raced for safe havens.The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index ended with losses for October, breaking a streak of seven months of gains. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 250 points, erasing a gain of 200 Thursday and ending the month flat.Drops in key barometers of the health of consumers — what they're spending, what they're earning and how they're feeling — fanned worries that an economic recovery celebrated by the market only a day earlier won't last.The huge reversal in market sentiment reflected how desperate stock investors are to reach conclusions about how the economy is doing, and how quickly they are willing to abandon those convictions.The about-face from Thursday to Friday in the S&P 500 index, the benchmark for many mutual funds, was the sharpest swing for since February."I think you have a market that is ultimately looking for its direction," said Bob Froehlich, senior managing director at Hartford Financial Services. "We really are at the inflection point. You tend to have an overreaction to both extremes."A day after a euphoric rally pushed stocks up the largest amount in three months, on Friday investors fretted that strapped consumers won't be able to carry on a recovery in the economy that has been driven by government spending and companies boosting profits through cost-cuts.The heaviest selling came in areas that have been stalwarts of the market's powerful climb since March: financials, technology, energy and industrials. The safest areas, like health care, consumer staples and utilities, fared somewhat better.Investors fled to safer assets like the dollar and Treasurys.The Dow fell 249.85, or 2.5 percent, to 9,712.73, its lowest close since Oct. 5. It was the Dow's biggest one-day percentage drop since July 2 and left the index with a meager gain of 0.005 percent for the month.The broader S&P 500 index fell 29.92, or 2.8 percent, to 1,036.19, its biggest percentage loss since July 2. The Nasdaq dropped 52.44, or 2.5 percent, to 2,045.11.Six stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, a virtual reversal of the tide that swept stocks higher Thursday when the government said the economy grew faster than expected in the summer.Indicators of investor skittishness surged. The Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index, known as the market's fear gauge, soared 23 percent to its highest level since July.Stocks began skidding after the Labor Department said personal spending fell 0.5 percent in September. The drop was in line with forecasts, but it was also the largest slide in nine months and followed a 1.3 percent jump in August fueled by the government's popular Cash for Clunkers car rebate program.The government also said that personal income, the fuel for future spending, was flat in September compared with August.A drop in the mood of consumers added to the day's bad news. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 70.6 in October from 73.5 in September. The reading was revised higher from an early estimate and was roughly in line with expectations."Until we get to better employment numbers, it's hard to get real income growth and real spending ... and we're just not there yet," said Kurt Karl, chief US economist at Swiss Re.Friday was the end of the fiscal year for many mutual funds. Fund managers often sell some investments to minimize taxes for shareholders.Bank stocks were hardest hit as traders worried about the fate of commercial lender CIT Group Inc. Billionaire investor and bondholder Carl Icahn agreed to support the company's restructuring plan and provide it with a $1 billion line of credit, but investors are still worried that the company could file for bankruptcy protection. The stock tumbled 24 percent.Citigroup fell 22 cents, or 5.1 percent, to $4.09 after a CLSA analyst warned that the bank would write down as much as $10 billion in its fourth quarter.Bank of America Corp. lost $1.15, or 7.3 percent, to $14.58. It was the biggest decliner among the Dow industrials. All 30 Dow stocks fell.For the week, the Dow lost 2.6 percent, its worst drop since mid-June. The S&P 500 index fell 4 percent, its biggest slide since mid-May. It lost 2 percent for October but is still up 53.2 percent from a 12-year low in March.The Nasdaq fell 5.1 percent for the week and 3.6 percent for October.On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold fell, while oil tumbled $2.38 to $77.49 a barrel.Bond prices surged, pushing their yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.39 percent from 3.50 percent late Thursday.Stocks have lost ground the past two weeks as worries about the economy escalated. Without stronger evidence that the labor market is improving and consumers are feeling more comfortable about spending, investors will likely have trouble extending the market's gains.Trading is likely to remain volatile in the coming week amid a flood of major economic news, including the Institute of Supply Management's readings on the manufacturing and services industries, sales reports from major retailers and the Labor Department's October employment report — arguably the month's most important piece of economic data. The Federal Reserve will convene a two-day policy meeting Tuesday.Consolidated volume at the New York Stock Exchange came to 6.8 billion shares compared with 5.7 billion Thursday.In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 17.45, or 3 percent, to 562.77.Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.8 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 3.1 percent, and France's CAC-40 lost 2.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.5 percent.

Geely Holding Group Co.

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Geely Holding Group Co. was named the “preferred bidder” for Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo Car Corp. unit, paving the way for China’s first acquisition of a major overseas automaker.Geely is “very glad to see that we have made progress in the negotiations,” founder Li Shufu said in a statement posted on the company’s Web site yesterday. “If we reach a final agreement, Geely will protect and strengthen Volvo’s traditional status as a world-class brand.”Talks may still stumble as Ford and Geely are yet to resolve protection for intellectual-property rights, a person familiar with the situation said. China’s biggest automaker outside of state control wants to buy Sweden-based Volvo to expand overseas as rising domestic competition crimps margins.“To own Volvo’s brand and technology would certainly be beneficial for Geely,” said Liu Lixi, a Shanghai-based analyst at Northeast Securities Co. “But Chinese automakers don’t have the experience to manage a foreign brand, especially one this big.”Geely has support from Chinese banks for the deal, according to the statement. No specific lenders were named. Geely’s group is prepared to pay about $2 billion for Volvo, less than a third of what Ford paid a decade ago, people familiar with the talks have said.“Geely has the potential to be a responsible future owner of Volvo,” Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company has no plan to retain a stake in Volvo and has “no specific timeline to conclude the discussions.”Hummer, OpelGeely Automobile Holdings Ltd., Geely’s Hong Kong-listed unit, rose 0.7 percent to HK$2.89 at 10:34 a.m. in trading in the city. Geely Automobile isn’t directly involved in the Volvo deal and won’t provide funding, the unit said in a statement last night, adding it may cooperate with Volvo in the future.Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. is also in the process of buying General Motors Co.’s Hummer brand. Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. bid for GM’s Opel unit as Chinese automakers seek to boost margins by selling more expensive models overseas. China’s domestic auto market is dominated by low-cost vehicles, undermining the benefit of a 42 percent jump in passenger-car sales this year.Beijing Auto failed in its bid to buy Opel because of concerns about intellectual-property rights, Chairman Xu Heyi said in July. Ford is also seeking safeguards in the Volvo deal as it will continue to provide components after the sale.Overseas StrugglesA deal “would need to take into account the significant connections between Ford and Volvo in terms of continuing component supply, engineering and manufacturing,” John Fleming, chairman of Ford of Europe and Volvo, said in a statement.Chinese automakers have struggled with previous overseas deals. Ssangyong Motor Co., controlled by SAIC Motor Corp., China’s biggest carmaker, entered receivership in February after sales plunged at the Korean sport-utility vehicle maker.SAIC also bought rights for cars designed by the U.K.’s MG Rover Group Ltd. in 2005 to temper its reliance on partners GM and Volkswagen AG. Last year, GM and Volkswagen vehicles still accounted for more than 90 percent of SAIC’s sales.Geely first approached Ford about buying Volvo in the summer of 2008, people familiar with the matter have said. Ford also talked to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. and the Crown Group, led by former Ford director Michael Dingman, son James Dingman and Shamel Rushwin, a former manufacturing and labor executive at the automaker, the people said.For Related News and Information: Top transportation stories: TRNT Link to Company News: F US CN Ford divisions: F US PGEO Income statement summary: F US FA 16 Chart of revenue by region: F US PGEO 2 CHART