This Week's 3 Bells
We highlight 3 things from the world of work and business. And ring 3 bells for you.
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A tax bill the taxman doesn't want to collect
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Imagine being hit with a huge tax bill - that the taxman doesn't want paid! That's what just happened to Apple. The European Commission slapped a bill of €13 billion on the company for unpaid taxes in Ireland. That money is 5% of Ireland's GDP - but it doesn't want it. The Irish, you see, use low taxes to attract multinationals like Apple to create jobs and investment in their country. The EC, on the other hand, sees this as a hidden form of state aid that benefits Apple at the expense of its competitors. To complicate matters further, Apple is an American company whose devices are manufactured mostly in China and sold heavily in Europe. Both Apple and the Irish government are appealing the ruling.
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As the phenomenon of truly global corporations that transcend national boundaries grows, expect much more weirdness to come. Tax and legal systems will have all their work cut out keeping up.
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Samsung's explosive recall
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You have to feel for Samsung. After struggling with sales and profitability in its mobile division for a couple of years, it finally got its groove back with this year's new phones. The flagship Galaxy Note 7, in particular, was released to rave reviews and looked set to break sales records. It was not to be. Incidents of the new phones exploding while charging began to emerge. In today's uber-connected world, Samsung was forced to act very quickly and issued an unprecedented recall of the 2.5 million Note 7s already put into the market. Merely implementing the recall is expected to cost the company in excess of $1 billion.
Why did this happen? I suspect Samsung shortened the product development cycle to rush the new phone into the market before rival Apple's new iPhone 7 was released earlier this week. High-end phone buyers pay handsome premiums for their devices, and timing your launches can be everything. But now the cost of the recall is the least of Samsung's worries; the reputational damage is far worse. Will customers overcome the anxiety the possibility of a phone exploding creates?
Photo credit: Samsung (adjusted)
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Don't rush to get to market before your competitors if you aren't ready. The haste may be your undoing. Samsung will no doubt bounce back, but for now it has handed its rivals a gift.
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How creditworthy are you? Your phone knows
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You know a lot about your smartphone, right? Well, it knows even more about you. That's spooky, but it could also be very good for you. Consider your access to credit. It is very, very difficult for ordinary people in emerging markets to get loans, big or small. If you're a person who should get funding, however, your phone might be your saviour. The BBC recently showcased a bunch of businesses that use rich data off your phone to evaluate whether you are creditworthy. Algorithms that look at your airtime usage, your mobile wallet spending patterns and your social-media activity can assign you a score that is very useful to established financial institutions - if they're awake enough to ask for it.
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That computer that's always in your hand is going to keep coming up with surprising ways of helping you in your life. Businesses need to be alive to the possibilities that the smart device yields through real-time data.
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