At PwC’s Global Crisis Centre, we deal with crises every day. But as the COVID-19 outbreak has worsened, the volume of calls fielded by our teams has noticeably increased. By the end of February, the phones were ringing off the hook. Business leaders are concerned, and rightly so, for the welfare of their people and their organizations. No crisis is an isolated, neatly contained incident, and the COVID-19 outbreak is exceptional by any standards. It comes with extreme scope and levels of uncertainty. It’s a situation that is well beyond the experience of most business leaders — the median tenure…

Brent crude oil prices hit $31 a barrel, down nearly 30 per cent in trade on Monday and extended their 10 per cent weekend drop as the world’s biggest crude oil producers failed to agree on production cuts, kicking off a price war and sending oil into freefall. Saudi Arabia that slashed prices for April delivery by $4-6 a barrel to Asia and $7 to the United States has far more fire-power than Russia in terms of readily available spare oil production capacity, analysts say, and the action is indeed the start of a price war…

Filing on inventions that aren’t marketable just helps enrich the Patent and Trademark Office. March 5, 2020 6 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Getting a patent issued typically costs at least $10,000 and can easily cost upwards of $20,000. Most inventors who patent their inventions hope to get their money back after their invention begins selling in the marketplace. In reality, it rarely works like that. A very high percentage of patents never recoup their filing costs. Put more bluntly: They never generate any income, let alone what it cost to get the patent in…

India has been facing a broad-based slowdown in economic growth. Private consumption in the first half of FY20 grew at a meagre 4 per cent on year-on-year basis, compared to over 8 per cent in FY17. While this is worrying, the situation has been further exacerbated by the growth in investments being projected at a meagre 1 per cent in the current year—a significant low since FY03. All eyes are now turned to the Union Budget, hoping for a much-needed fiscal nudge that can revive the Indian economy and correct its growth trajectory. Tweak tax slabs:…

The OPEC+ alliance’s dramatic failure to reach an output deal is most obviously being felt in oil futures, which plunged the most since 2008 in London. A look at the less-conspicuous corners of the market reveal the scale of the impact. The potential collapse of the group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia is the latest blow to a market that was already dragged down by fears over the economic damage from the spread of the coronavirus. Global benchmark Brent crude, which was already down 24{bce2ac57dae147ae13b811f47f24d80c66c6ab504b39dda4a9b6e8ac93725942} through March 5, dropped 9.4{bce2ac57dae147ae13b811f47f24d80c66c6ab504b39dda4a9b6e8ac93725942} on Friday after the talks…

The global leader in stock photography and design assets can help expand your brand reach. March 6, 2020 2 min readDisclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Making your brand and content stand out online is more difficult than ever. While more people are online, so are more brands and companies, making it hard to cut through the noise to connect with audiences. If there’s one thing that can…

Management studies are a valuable source of insight for business leaders. But as many more studies are conducted and academics feel increasing pressure to publish, business leaders need to be cautious about the rigor and validity of the findings that they adopt and put to work. A short list of questions can help them choose wisely.…