Author: Scott Hodges

Hotel of the Future Comes to Japan

Posted on by Scott Hodges
Have you ever considered staying at a hotel staffed by robots? That’s the plan for the Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park that is modeled after the Netherlands in Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture. They plan to open a hotel that is staffed by robots and filled with advanced technology.
The hotel will be called, appropriately, Henn-na Hotel, which means Strange Hotel. The first phase plans to open on July 17 with 72 rooms and the second phase will be finished in 2016 with another 72 rooms.
The hotel plans to have three actroids, which are robots that have strong human likenesses, as receptionists. Then, there will be four service and porter robots and others that will do menial tasks like clearning. As Huis Ten Bosch president Hideo Sawada said, “We’ll make the most efficient hotel in the world. In the future, we’re hoping to build 1,000 similar hotels around the world.” s
Other technology in the hotel will include facial -recognition doors rather than keys, radiation panels that will detect body heat in rooms and adjust the temperature, solar power and more.
Another interesting and unusual feature is the pricing. Rather than having fixed pricing, the room rates will depend on guests who bid for rooms during peak season. The hotel says that, at the time of the opening, the fees will range from $60 for a single room to $153 for a triple room.
You can already reserve your room and get ready for an interesting experience!

Cross-Cultural Meeting for Medical Advancement

Posted on by Scott Hodges
In a cross-cultural exchange, Changzhou City Mayor Gaoyun Fei recently met with Israeli scientist Professor Shlomo Ben-Haim. Also at the meeting were MicroPort Scientific Corporation Chairman Zhaohua Chang and Blue Sail Medical Co. Ltd. Chairman Zhenping Li.
According to Mayor Gaoyun Fei, biomedicine is advancing in the area at an accelerated pace. By meeting with these three people including Professor Shlomo Ben-Haim, he hoped that they could further strengthen cooperation with Changzhou in the healthcare field with professional education and training, among other things.
Professor Shlomo Ben-Haim expressed his admiration for the innovative environment that has been cultivated in Chanzhou. He has accepted the government’s invitation to be a Changzhou Scientific Advisor and to bring his experience, with 180 patents behind him, to their area.
Read about the meeting between Changzhou City Mayor Gaoyun Fei and Professor Shlomo Ben-Haim in the Chinese press.

Staying Above the Pack: Lindt Chocolates

Posted on by Scott Hodges

Lindt chocolates appear to be ahead of the chocolate pack, avoiding the cocoa price rise that has made many other chocolate makers have to raise their prices. With their North American expansion and their focus on the premium segment of the population, they have managed to boost their sales in 2014.

Their full-year sales are up 10%, far ahead of other chocolate makers in the market. As Chief Executive and Chairman Ernst Tanner told Reuters in a telephone interview on Tuesday, “I’m confident sales will continue to grow 6 to 8 percent in the future. Russell Stover should also be able to generate similar growth rates, but we first have to fully integrate them.”

Lindt paid approximately $1.3-$1.5 billion for their Russell Stover take over last year and were able to secure a third place standing in the US. Lindt’s operating margin should rise by 20-40 basis points in 2014. 

Google Setting Its Sites on the Kid Market

Posted on by Scott Hodges
Google has reported that it plans to refine its search for children next year, creating specific versions of its products such as YouTube and Chrome. Google won’t offer a specific timetable but they did say that it’s going to be a fulltime effort.

Certainly, this idea will not come without controversy. Will Google to mining younger user information without parental consent? Will Google be helping young children, who don’t necessarily belong online, to become more tech savvy and to find information they don’t need to have more easily?

As Marc Rotenberg, president of the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center said, “The prospect of audio-based advertising targeting our children is very real, and that’s significant when you’re talking about an age group that is very susceptible to manipulation. The FTC will have to step up on this. I don’t think we want a world where our kids are sold things they don’t need.”
Pavni Diwanji, VP of engineering at Google, who is in charge of leading Google’s upcoming initiative to make things more kid-friendly, said, “We want to enable supervision but not be regimental. But that’s challenging because no two parents are alike. I have friends who are helicopter parents and others are even more liberal than me, but everyone has to be accommodated by whatever we create.”

She continued, “This is perhaps one of my greatest challenges. We want to lay the foundation right, and then make sure every single part of Google is great for kids. They are the future, so why not give them the tools to let them create it.”

Burger King Comes to India

Posted on by Scott Hodges

Burger King Worldwide is opening 12 outlets in India in the next 60-90 days. This is according to the chief executive of the India unit, Rajeev Varman. The chain has changed its menu in India and will sell mutton, chicken and veggie sandwiches.

As Varman said, “In the long run, India is going to be one of the largest markets globally. Burger King most certainly sees India as one of the biggest opportunities in the future.”

McDonald’s has already been around for almost two decades in India. Burger King is a bit behind the times and is hoping to catch up on this front.

Varman said in a recent email, “Turkey, China and Russia are each growing by around 100 restaurants a year. Here in India, we will set up our first few restaurants and use that to fine-tune our operating model before determining our growth plans.”

Bleak Numbers for America’s Workforce

Posted on by Scott Hodges
The most recent US job report showed that the unemployment rate has fallen to a six year low of 5.9%. However, the number of Americans looking for work hit 13,346,000 in September and this is the highest level since December of 2007 and the start of the Great Recession.
Similarly, the number of underemployed remains quite high with seven million people working part-time out of necessity. The number of unemployed and marginally attached part time workers is at 11.8%.

And the news is even worse for black and Hispanic workers who have unemployment rates of 11% and 6.9% respectively. 

Dreaming of DreamWorks Animation

Posted on by Scott Hodges

There is speculation that Japan’s SoftBank Corp will acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG, the Hollywood studio behind hits such as “Shrek” and “Madagascar.” The talks between the two were first reported by the Hollywood Reporter which quoted a source as saying the buyout would value DreamWorks at $3.4 billion.

Hollywood Reporter said that SoftBank had offered $32 per share for DreamWorks, a dramatic offer when Friday’s closing price was $22.36.

If SoftBank picks up DreamWorks, they will become the second Japanese technology company to buy a Hollywood studio, after Sony Corp bought Columbia Pictures in 1989.

SoftBank has stakes in many large listed companies including US mobile carrier Sprint, internet portal Yahoo Japan and onli8ne game maker GungHo Online Entertainment.

Time will tell if the deal goes through – but it’s certainly worth having our eyes on these two companies.

Retail Sales Up

Posted on by Scott Hodges
Good news for the US retail business. Sales rose in August and consumer sentiment hit a 14 month high in September, according to data that was just released by the Commerce Department. They reported that retail sales, which account for a third of consumer spending, increased .6 percent last month. The only decline that they saw was at the gas pump, but this is more a reflection of declining gas prices which should actually help the economy.
Core retail sales increased .4% in August. This excludes the purchase of cars, gas, building materials and food and corresponds most closely with gross domestic product spending.
Showing similar findings, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 84.6 in early September. This is the highest reading since July of 2013.

The Race Against the Clock in India

Posted on by Scott Hodges
Talk about a strange real estate story. Indian tycoon Subrata Roy is racing against the clock to try to sell the New York Plaza and London’s Grosvenor House in order to raise the $1.6 billion that he needs…for bail.
Roy is currently in Tihar, a New Delhi prison complex that houses 12,000 inmates. He needs to post the 100 billion rupees in cash and bank guarantees to get released. He’s been jailed since March after failing to appear at a contempt hearing in a long-running dispute with the capital markets watchdog over the company’s failure to repay billions of dollars to investors who had outlawed bonds sold to them.
Now, Roy has been given a 600 square feet office space where he can have video conference calls and receive visitors while still in jail. It’s not easy to sell a lavish hotel from a jail cell, and Roy is hoping that now he’ll be able to wheel and deal his way out of the hotels and out of jail.
Time will tell is he manages to pull this off.

Vending Machines: Not Just for Sodas Anymore

Posted on by Scott Hodges

The world is constantly on the go and the business world understands that they simply have to keep up with this pace. To do so, some ingenious businesses have started added unusual vending machines to their repertoire. Here are some examples.


Get your cupcakes here: Sprinkles, a cupcake company in New York, is stocking its vending machine with as many as 750 cupcakes a day. For $4.25 you can choose from cinnamon chocolate, black and white and seasonal specialties such as Irish chocolate and maple bacon. They opened their first cupcake ATM in California in 2012 and now have machines in NY, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas.

Flip-Flopping Away the Day: You never know when you’re going to need new flip-flops. That’s the idea, at least, according to Havaianas which has a flip-flop vending machine in Sydney, Australia’s city center.

Getting Caught in the Rain: It’s rarely fun to get caught in the rain, and the airport in Vancouver understands this. They have a vending machine for umbrellas that allows you, for $5 to get a pocket-sized umbrella.

 Life is Better with Caviar: At least those in Beverly Hills seem to think so. There are actually three caviar machines in Beverly Hills sold by Caviar Automated Boutiques. They offer more than a dozen types of caviar from around the world. Check it out at the Westfield Topanga mall.