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Business term of the day - Term for July 15, 2013: "Awayday "

An Awayday is the term used in British business for a meeting, often of a whole department, project or sales team, which takes place off-site and away from the participants' regular office surroundings, usually for a whole day or sometimes a weekend.
The intention is to allow the meeting to focus on the particular task at hand without the participants being distracted by the demands which, if the meeting were held in the workplace, would normally be made on their attention by virtue of their positions.
The term derives from the name given to a cheap day return railway ticket (a substantially reduced two-way fare for off-peak travel) after pricing by time of travel was introduced on the British railway network in the 1960s.
It is also used in reference to a Football team playing a game away from their home ground, and the fans making the journey to the game refer to it being an 'Awayday' due to the fact they are planning their day around the away Football game.

Business term of the day - Term for July 14, 2013: "Averch–Johnson effect"

The Averch–Johnson effect is the tendency of companies to engage in excessive amounts of capital accumulation in order to expand the volume of their profits. If companies profits to capital ratio is regulated at a certain percentage then there is a strong incentive for companies to over-invest in order to increase profits overall. This goes against any optimal efficiency point for capital that the company may have calculated as higher profit is almost always desired over and above efficiency

Business term of the day - Term for July 13, 2013: "Average Daily Rate"

Average Daily Rate (commonly referred to as ADR) is a statistical unit that are often used in the lodging industry. The number represents the average rental income per paid occupied room in a given time period. ADR along with the property's occupancy are the foundations for the property's financial performance.
ADR is one of the commonly used financial indicators in hotel industry to measure how well a hotel performs compared to its competitors and itself (year over year). It is common in the hotel industry for the ADR to gradually increase year over year bringing in more revenue. However, ADR itself is not enough to measure the performance of the hotel. One should combine ADR, occupancy and RevPAR (revenue per available room) to make a sound judgment on hotel performance. Recently, some hotels have adopted a new concept called BAR [best available rate] in addition to ADR.
Average Daily Rate formula is rooms revenue earned divided by number of rooms that earned revenue. House use and complimentary rooms are excluded from the denominators. 'House Use' rooms or those occupied by hotel employees or management are excluded as they are not available for sale and not generating income. Complimentary rooms are excluded since they don't have an easy to calculate sale value.

Business term of the day - Term for July 11, 2013: «Authorized Service Provider»

An authorized service provider (ASP) is a person or company that has been cleared to work on a product that is still under warranty by another company without voiding the warranty. In order to become an ASP, they would have had to complete a certification test administered by the company of the product that they would be servicing, i.e. Hewlett-Packard, Apple, IBM, Microsoft etc.

WikiLeaks’ Money Trail: How It’s Raising Money for Snowden & Assange

Thankfully for WikiLeaks, its latest cause célèbre, Edward Snowden, is raking in some much-needed cash for the whistle-blowing organization. Snowden sympathizers have been donating generously since WikiLeaks decided to take on the NSA leaker’s case—and the organization desperately needs every dollar it can raise to stay in the black and pay for the legal fees and living costs of founder Julian Assange and now Snowden.
The money WikiLeaks has raised—nearly $90,000 in 2012, with about $1,300 coming in each day since it took Snowden under its wing—comes from people around the world, some of whom give just a few dollars to do their part in making the world a more transparent place.
Assange and his team still say they need a...Read more »»»

China Exports Unexpectedly Drop; Imports in Economy Drag

China’s exports and imports unexpectedly declined in June, underscoring the severity of the slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy as Premier Li Keqiang reins in credit growth.
Overseas shipments fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the most since the global financial crisis, data from the General Administration of Customs showed in Beijing today, compared with the median estimate of a 3.7 percent gain in a Bloomberg News survey. Imports dropped 0.7 percent, while the median projection was for a 6 percent increase.

Exports to the U.S. and European Union declined for a fourth straight month while the drop in imports resulted in part from falling commodity prices. Weaker global and domestic demand, highlighted by China’s biggest shipyard outside state control seeking a government bailout, increases pressure on Li to support growth that’s at risk of...Read more on Bloomberg »»»

Business hiring may anticipate better economy

The better-than-expected June job gains reported last week raise a pointed question: Why are businesses hiring so many workers in a weakening economy?
Employers added 195,000 jobs in June and a monthly average of about 200,000 so far this year, according to a Labor Department survey of establishments. That's up from 183,000 in 2012 and on pace for the strongest annual payroll increases in the four-year-old recovery.
Meanwhile, the government recently cut its estimate of the economy's first-quarter growth to a tepid 1.8% annual rate from 2.4%. Measures of manufacturing and service-sector activity have dipped in recent months amid federal budget cuts and economic troubles overseas. Corporate sales and profits have risen only modestly this year.
Many economists expect even more anemic growth in the second quarter — 1% to 1.5%. Typically, economic growth of more than 3% is needed to generate 200,000 jobs each month.
One explanation is that the employment picture isn't as rosy as it seems. Many of the jobs created recently have been low-wage, part-time slots in industries such as...Read more on usatoday »»»