Business Markets

McDonald’s, whose contract runs out after this year’s London Olympics, and IOC officials will meet in Austria during the Innsbruck Youth Olympics starting Friday to finalize details.

“The situation is positive and I don’t see any obstacle. We are very close,” IOC marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg told Reuters. “We will meet in Innsbruck and finalize everything. Hopefully we will sign the contract there.”

Heiberg said the new, four-Games deal would include the 2020 summer Olympics, which have yet to be awarded to a host, as well as the 2014 winter Games in Sochi, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics.

McDonald’s is one of 11 top sponsors who contribute an estimated 100 million each for every two-Games package of one winter and one summer Games though the IOC does not release details on individual deals.

The company has been an official sponsor since 1976.

Dow Chemical Co.

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« Facebook is Good, but Personal Face Time is Better, Say MIT Sloan MBAs By razavi | January 3, 2012

From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movements, 2011 witnessed an incredible expansion of the use of the internet for social activism and change. But less frequently reported are the increasing cyber-attacks on human rights activists. From communications blackouts, to Denial of Service attacks, to the use of Western technology to track down political dissidents, activists of all stripes were at incredible risk in 2011, according to a new report released today by Access titled “Global Civil Society At Risk: An Overview of Some of the Major Cyber Threats Facing Civil Society.” ()

“The events over the past year should serve as a global wakeup call to human rights activists and their allies. Civil

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Dear readers,

I wanted to share these tips I saw in Tom “Big Al” Schreiter’s Fortune Now newsletter. With a few extra additions on effective business cards from me.

6 Tips for effective business cards design

1. Put your picture on your business card. People will remember you more easily. And you appear more approachable.

2. Use big print. As people get older , their eyes get weaker. You want them to be able to read your phone number and email address.

3. Use both sides of your business card. Don’t let that extra advertising space go to waste. Maybe you can make the back of your card into a coupon or introductory special.

4. VistaPrint.com always has introductory specials. Great place for business cards in small quantities.

5. Put your best foot forward. Prospects don’t care about your company name, they care about the benefit to them. Put your

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Holiday shopping traffic may be light so far this year, but purchases are up, says one retail developer. And the shift is now turning from self purchases to holiday gift shopping.

“People are getting more serious about their shopping,” said Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman for the Taubman Group, which owns 25 shopping centers around the country including Metro Detroit malls Fairlane Town Center, Twelve Oaks Mall, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets and The Mall at Partridge Creek.

Jennifer Skalecki and her friend Nicole Hadrian, both of Roseville, did some shopping Saturday afternoon at Eastland Mall in Harper Woods. Hadrian shopped for herself at Macy’s while Skalecki bought Christmas presents for her boyfriend.

Skalecki said she’s already finished shopping for her children. Her purchases included lots of toys and bicycles for the kids, as well as shoes, cologne and clothes for her boyfriend.

“The prices are up a lot more than last year,” she said. “I noticed that.

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Massachusetts added 5,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, according to the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Unemployment, which stood at 7.3 percent the previous month, is now the lowest it’s been since December 2008. It’s also well below the national rate of 8.6 percent.

The biggest employment gains came in the leisure and hospitality industry, which added 4,300 jobs, and trade, transportation and utilities, which added 3,000. Construction and manufacturing each lost 1,400 jobs, though both industries are still significantly up from last year.

The state also revised its estimate of October jobs gains upward, from 10,800 to 11,900.

In December you can count on snow, nostalgic looks back over the year and the inevitable predictions for the future.  One of the more interesting trends that seems to be garnering quite a bit of chatter is the notion of screen time and how touch screens are going mainstream.

Check out this video by Corning on how we’re going to interact differently with glass.  Some of this may seem pretty far out there…but it’s right around the corner.

Did you notice how many different ways there were to communicate in this “new” world?  And how many of those could be commandeered for marketing messages?  Pretty soon we’ll be using them to order at restaurants, customize merchandise and interact with billboards.  You’ll even be able to watch live sports while you grocery shop. (check it out here)

What does all of this mean to the average business owner?  It means that technology is continuing to change consumers’ expectations and experiences.  And yo

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Technology giant Atos boss, Thierry Breton, plans ban internal emails by 2014. These surprisingly bold plans have met with applause and derision in equal measure by business and technology commentators. But Breton, former French minister of economy, finance and industry, claims banning internal email would be a massive step in the right technological direction and plans to change the way we communicate in business.

Breton, 56, says workers are distracted by masses of internal email which takes up valuable and costly data storage space for businesses already struggling to manage a mass of business critical data.

His plans to stop internal email are the result of research that showed employees were getting as many as 100 emails a day, only 15 of which were useful, or needed their immediate attention or action. They were also spending between 15 and 20 hours a week checking their own personal email at home.

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