Let the (business negotiation) games begin - Howzit Howard

What do the CEOs of Toyota, Nestle, Cisco Systems and Citibank have in common??They're all attending the Olympics. The Daily Telegraph newspaper describes the dozens of executives in London this week as "the kind of people who make the decisions on where to locate new factories."

"With major global investors in town for the games, I am embarking on a gigantic schmooze-a-thon," said London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Britain, in its deepest recession since the Great Depression, is spending tens of billions of pounds to the host the games, in part to show what a vibrant, sophisticated, well-policed and well-surveilled place it is. Just the place for your new factory.

Foreign investment in Britain before the 2008 market meltdown was four times what it is today, and Britain could really use an influx of capital. An Ernst & Young report this summer says Britain is about to fall into second place behind Germany as the leading place to invest in Europe.

British Finance Minister David Osborne has been dropping hints that the case for Britain, in meetings with captains of industry, will be that the pound is safer than the euro these days, and British officials are resolute about controlling their spending, even though it was deficit reduction that triggered Britain's recession.

"There are particularly acute dangers on appearing to waver," Osborne said, and financial markets would drop on Britain "like a tonne of bricks" if it did. A tonne is a metric ton, which is even heavier than a regular ton of bricks, so no wonder he's concerned.

Something else that should concern him is that foreign ministers of many other countries will also be at the games, presumably with access to some of the same CEOs. In fact, 4,000 executives and ministers will attend 17 business summits scheduled to coincide with the games.

?

?

?

?

Source: http://blogs.hawaiinewsnow.com/howard/2012/07/let-the-business-negotiation-games-begin.html

lewis black kirkwood chris brown and rihanna nightline brady quinn brady quinn bloom box