Finance

Minor International is a hospitality industry powerhouse. Based in Bangkok, Minor operates more than 530 hotels in 56 countries, with a large presence in Asia (where it operates chains across the region, including the Anantara luxury hotel brand), Europe (where it runs the NH chain of hotels), and Africa. The company also owns brands in the well-being and lifestyle sectors and runs 2,300 restaurants. Founded in 1967 by American William Heinecke, who was then 17 years old (hence the name Minor), the company began as an advertising and cleaning business. A decade later, Minor began its journey into hospitality, opening…

The benchmark Nifty50 index had hit the 8,000 mark for the first time in September 2014. It took the index over six years (1,613 trading sessions) to scale the 13,000-mark— a gain of more than 60 per cent. On an average, every 1,000-point milestone took about 270 trading sessions. Even the latest 1,000 point increase took nearly 18 months—the Nifty had first topped the 12,000 mark in June 2019. However, the index has managed to chart the same path nearly 10 times faster this year. The Nifty had slipped below the 8,000 mark on March…

November 24, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Every time the world experiences an unprecedented shake-up, things evolve quickly, and a lot is expected of us all. In the middle of 2019, Covid was still unforeseen. But it has since become a defining feature of the world and business at large. Historically, such times are critical and often see Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory come into play. In the past, multi-million-dollar businesses have been upended during pandemics, wars, and plagues. One lesson stands out from this history: only a business that learns how…

The much-awaited rally 2.0 in emerging-market stocks may already be under way. Investors’ risk appetite got a boost after Joe Biden’s US presidential win and successes in vaccine development, pushing the benchmark MSCI gauge toward its best month since March 2016. The emerging-market equity rebound since the coronavirus rout in March is now worth $8.3 trillion, meaning more shareholder wealth has been added in the past eight months than in the two- year rally beginning 2016. When the earlier advance was halted by US-China trade tensions in January 2018, most money…

November 23, 2020 4 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The pandemic is resulting in underlying structural changes to the U.S. economy. That obviously includes a tectonic shift towards ecommerce. In August, ecommerce spending grew 42 percent year-over-year to $63 billion (according to Adobe Analytics) as Americans stayed home and bought products on the web. Consumer spending comprises 70 percent of the economy. Sellers, distributors and marketers face lucrative opportunities to sell in-demand goods and services. A quick and effective way to get conversions is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, although there are risks to avoid. Here’s how…

The corner office. The water cooler. The cubicle farm. So many of our place-based work clichés feel suddenly anachronistic in a world of remote work and Zoom fatigue. Many people will be happy never to return to the office, and some organizations will be OK with that. And as we navigate toward the new normal, it isn’t just where we work that will change — how people work together will evolve, too. We’ve also redefined what it means to be an essential worker. Clerks, technicians, health aides, and others once dismissed as a low-skill, high-turnover segment of the workforce have…

Equity benchmarks made a winning start to the week on Monday as positive results from another Covid-19 vaccine candidate bolstered investor confidence globally. After touching a record intra-day high of 44,271.15, Sensex ended 194.90 points or 0.44 per cent higher at 44,077.15. Similarly, the broader Nifty rose 67.40 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 12,926.45. ONGC was the top performer on the Sensex chart, surging 6.84 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, HCL, and TCS. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries climbed…

November 12, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Branding is the most commonly used phrase in business circles, but is also often the least understood. For Jonathan Jadali, CEO of Ascend Agency, a PR form that works with top Fortune 500 companies, a brand is not a tangible thing. As he told me in a recent conversation, it is “a strong feeling that a business creates in the minds of its customers, that creates an emotional bond and passion for their businesses and produces loyalty.” Here are some more insights into Jadali’s three-step approach…