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With sluggish sales market of new cars, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=toyota">Toyota</a> Motor Corporation is now banking on second-hand market. In this regard, the Japanese carmaker will <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=car+auction">auction used cars</a>, a practice it follows globally, to expand business in India. 
 
"Toyota's mission is to make the Indian used-car industry more reliable and transparent to customers. With this in mind, we are launching Toyota Auction Mart in September 2015 in Bengaluru, where every used car from all brands will be inspected by Toyota trained professionals and certified before the auction," a senior company executive told Economic Times. 
 
Toyota auctions vehicles in other countries through its own companies. 
 
Like other carmakers, Toyota also has a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=used+car+business">used-car business</a> operating under Toyota UTrust, which was launched in 2007 and covers 56 markets in 19 states. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=maruti">Maruti Suzuki</a>, Hyundai Motor, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=volkswagen">Volkswagen</a>, Honda and even <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=luxury+cars">luxury carmakers</a> <keyword id="25952" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mercedes-Benz">Mercedes-Benz</keyword>, BMW and Audi have used car businesses. 
 
The auction facility will come up in Bidadi, a town located on the Bengaluru-Mysore expressway, designed for efficient operations. 
 
"The company engineers would be rating all the cars on 203 parameters to assess its worth and price for the auction. This would be different from the current practice of dealers buying older cars and then disposing of them in an unprofessional way," the company executive told ET. 
 
As per industry experts, the used-car business is about 1.3 times bigger than the 2.5 million new cars sold in India every year and growing at a faster rate. 
 
Toyota sales of 141,347 vehicles in FY15 gave it a market share of a little over 5% in India. The company sold 34,300 vehicles in the first quarter, a 9% growth from a year earlier. 
 
In India, the segment is largely underdeveloped and is dominated by the unorganised sector, which corners more than 80% of the used-car business. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

Toyota brings its used-car business to India, first auction to be held in Bengaluru

Greater Noida, Feb 12 () India's flagship motor show Auto Expo came to a close on Wednesday after witnessing over 70 product launches and unveils, recording a total of 6.08 lakh visitors over eight days. This edition of the Auto Expo witnessed over 352 product displays from 108 exhibitors, including eight global premiers, over 70 launches and unveils, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement. Keeping in pace with the trend for eco-friendly vehicles, the expo also saw launch of 35 electric vehicles, while 15 concepts were showcased. New participants included Chinese players such as Great Wall Motors and Haima Automobile along with Olectra. The expo, however, missed the likes of Toyota, Honda, BMW, Audi and two-wheeler majors Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co, which had stayed away from the show. The biennial motor show had kicked off on February 5 at India Expo Mart here under the shadow of coronavirus outbreak as officials of Chinese participants stayed away from pavilions, on a day when China's Great Wall Motor announced an investment of USD 1 billion to tap into the country's auto market. Reflecting on the experience of the latest edition of the expo, SIAM President Rajan Wadhera said, "Auto shows globally have evolved and transformed from being mere static displays to providing a unique and enriching experience for every segment of the society at large. Auto Expo- The Motor Show 2020 saw a great response with an overall footfall of 6.08 lakh, enabling them to Explore The World Of Mobility." Keeping in tune with the changing landscape of the automotive industry globally which has also been reflected in India, major manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Voklswagen and Skoda along with new entrants such as Kia and Hector showcased their range of electric vehicles, concepts and upcoming SUVs during the expo. Like the previous editions, this year witnessed many celebrities who were part of the grand Auto Expo canvas. Some of the names include Shah Rukh Khan, Huma Qureshi, Gul Panag, Narian Karthikeyan, Daler Mehndi, Angad Bedi, Nafisa Ali, Designer Gauri &amp; Nainika, Kusha Kapila, Rahul Singh, Soha Ali Khan and Kat Kristian. SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said the expo "saw an excellent showcase of clean vehicles, safe vehicles, connected vehicles, electric and fuel cell vehicles and futuristic concepts". The auto expo is organised by SIAM with support from the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). RKL HRS

Auto Expo ends with over 70 launches, unveils; records 6.08 lakh visitors

Barry Brecheisen/Invision/APJay-Z.On Monday, Jay-Z announced a 31-date tour in support of his <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/music/444/jay-z">critically acclaimed</a> new album, "4:44." The 4:44 Tour starts on October 27th in Anaheim, California, and makes 29 stops throughout North America before ending on December 21st at The Forum in Los Angeles.Tickets for the tour will go on sale to the general public on July 14th, but Tidal subscribers can buy tickets today at noon through an exclusive pre-sale."4:44" went <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jay-z-album-444-already-certified-platinum-2017-7">instantly platinum</a> upon its release last week, due to Sprint's purchasing a million copies of the album in a partnership with Jay-Z's streaming service, Tidal. The album <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/on-the-charts-dj-khaleds-grateful-repeats-at-number-one-w491493">did not appear</a> on the Billboard 200 album chart this week, however, because the chart disqualified its Sprint-purchased copies. Check out the 4:44 Tour dates below, via <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jay-z-announces-massive-north-american-444-tour-w491529">Rolling Stone</a>:October 27 - Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center October 28 - Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena November 1 - Fresno, CA @ Save Mart Center at Fresno State November 3 - Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Arena November 5 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center Arena November 7 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center November 8 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center November 9 - New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center November 11 - Orlando, FL @ Amway Center November 12 - Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena November 14 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena November 15 - Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena November 16 - Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center November 18 - Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena November 19 - Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena November 21 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre November 22 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre November 25 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden November 26 - Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center November 29 - Washington, DC @ Verizon Center December 2 - Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum December 5 - Chicago, IL @ United Center December 6 - Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena December 9 - Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place December 11 - Vancouver, BC @ Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena December 13 - Seattle, WA @ KeyArena December 14 - Portland, OR @ Moda Center December 16 - Oakland, CA @ Oracle Arena December 17 - Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center December 19 - San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena December 21 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/first-trailer-marvel-inhumans-lockjaw-black-bolt-medusa-abc-2017-6">Here's the first trailer for 'Inhumans' - the Marvel movie that was turned into a TV show</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Jay-Z announced a huge tour for his new album '4:44' - here are the dates and how to buy tickets

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="REUTERS/Danny Moloshok" title_caption="Billions and billions and billions..." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5416fd3aeab8ea80520c3932-960/elon musk, 2x1.jpg"></a>REUTERS/Danny MoloshokBillions and billions and billions...</div></div></div>The Forbes 400 is out, and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is Number 50</a> on the list of America's richest people.
His net worth is listed by Forbes as $9.2 billion, a far cry from Number One, Microsoft c0-founder Bill Gates at $81.2 billion, or even a cluster of Wal-Mart heirs in the $30-million-plus category. At Number Ten, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($34.7 billion) is almost four times richer than Musk.
But in the U.S. auto industry, Musk is the richest by miles. His closest competition in discount tire tycoon Bruce Halle (#107, $4.7 billion). At 43, he's also the youngest automotive billionaire on the list. In fact, the only other billionaire in his forties is Dan Friedkin (#171, $3.3 billion), a Houston-based businessman whose family controls Toyota distribution in several southern states.
Musk earned his first big payout when eBay bought PayPal in 2002. His fortune has surged in the past few years, following the IPOs of both Tesla Motors and Solar City (he's Chairman of the latter). He's also CEO of SpaceX, and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/19/spacex/">rumors have been bubbling</a> of late that suggest that the private space startup could be worth as much as $10 billion.
So he could be set for another massive payday. That said, Tesla and SpaceX have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-loses-17-billion-as-tesla-and-solar-city-shares-tank-2014-9">volatile sources of wealth</a> over the past few months. 
If you look at Musk's path to richness, it's actually fairly impressive. The native of South Africa has essentially tried to re-invent banking, create the first successful electric-car company in human history, revive the species' passion for interplanetary exploration, and wean us from our dependence on fossil fuels as an energy source.
Bill Gates marketed an operating system. Mark Zuckerberg developed a better way for us to like pictures of each other. Fine achievements, to be sure. And both men are sure to move mountains through philanthropy. But they aren't trying to "back up the biosphere" or make humanity "multiplanetary" - two of Musk's ambitious goals.
There's a reason why Musk is such an object of fascination both inside and outside the worlds of wealth and technology.

Elon Musk Is By Far The Richest Person In The Car Business

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Thomas PeterA woman holds a parasol as she stands in a field of fireweed, or Kochia scoparia, on a sunny autumn day at the Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachi, north of Tokyo, October 26, 2015.</div></div></div>Good morning! Here are the 10 things you need to know in markets on Tuesday.Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland over a cyber attack that may have led to the theft of data from among the 4 million customers of British broadband provider TalkTalk. The attack, which took place on Wednesday, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/15-year-old-boy-arrested-in-connection-with-cyber-attack-involving-4-million-people-2015-10">prompted the company to deny accusations of laxity</a> and say its security was "head and shoulders" above that of its competitors.<keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> third quarter GDP growth figures are coming at 9.30 a.m. GMT (5.30 a.m. EST). Economists are predicting a 0.6% rise on the last quarter, a slight slowdown.Asian stock markets are lower ahead of the start of the US Federal Reserve's 2-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei is down 0.90% at time of writing (6.30 a.m. BST/ 1.30 a.m. EST), the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.25%, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.66%.Volkswagen has hired a former CEO of General Motors' European division Opel to run group strategy. Thomas Sedran, interim CEO at Opel in 2012-2013 and head of GM's Chevrolet and Cadillac brands in Europe until June this year, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-volkswagen-hires-former-ceo-of-gms-opel-to-run-group-strategy-2015-10">will take up his role at VW on November 1</a>.US exchange operator ICE is buying Interactive Data (IDC) in a deal worth $5.2 billion (£3.4 billion), as part of an aggressive push into fixed income markets. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16dbd0ac-7bec-11e5-98fb-5a6d4728f74e.html#axzz3peaDiqra">The Financial Times reports</a> that IDC provides analytics and reference data for banks and hedge funds for hard-to-value, off-exchange financial instruments.JPMorgan Chase will soon launch its own competitor to Apple Pay that will allow consumers to pay retailers using their smartphones in US stores. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-jpmorgan-chase-says-it-is-building-a-rival-to-apple-pay-2015-10">Chase has signed a deal with the Merchant Customer Exchange,</a> a group of major retailers including Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, and Best Buy to accept payments through the bank's technology, known as Chase Pay.Volkswagen has lost its position as the world's biggest car manufacturer by sales. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-sold-fewer-cars-than-toyota-in-last-nine-months-2015-10">VW sold a huge 7.43 million cars in the nine months up to September</a>, but that wasn't enough to stay on top, as Toyota sold 7.49 million over the same period.Deutsche Bank is considering scaling back its Italian retail operations by selling branches and cutting jobs. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-deutsche-bank-reviews-future-of-italian-business-2015-10?IR=T">New </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-deutsche-bank-reviews-future-of-italian-business-2015-10?IR=T">CEO John Cryan is under pressure to reform Germany's flagship bank to reduce costs and boost profitability</a>.Lockheed Martin has won a contract worth $260 million (£169.4 million) for the purchase of materials need to build the next batch of 28 C-130J Super Hercules transport planes in fiscal 2016. Lockheed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-lockheed-wins-260-million-for-materials-for-next-c-130j-transports-2015-10?IR=T">reached agreement with the US Air Force on a five-year contract to build up to 83 C-130J planes</a> for the Air Force, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps through 2020, a deal valued at over $6 billion (£3.9 billion).Boeing has been awarded a contract worth $898 million (£585 million) to build 15 more EA-18G Growler electronic fighter jets and associated airborne electronic attack kits for the US Navy. The contract runs through January 2018, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-boeing-wins-898-million-contract-for-15-ea-18g-fighter-jets-2015-10?IR=T">the Defense Department said in its daily digest of major contract awards</a>. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-interesting-men-world-watches-rolex-breitling-jorg-gray-2015-8">These are the watches worn by the smartest and most powerful men in the world</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N3NGJ0djpb_DdQzkXVopAvbq5AmmiuOx" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

10 things you need to know in markets today

There's been a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-versus-fuel-cells-2014-6">virtual civil war</a> happening in the battle to creat the next generation of motor vehicles. The battle is between plug-ins and fuel cells.
You may have heard more about about plug-ins thanks to Tesla, which has single handedly revived the market for a technology that was otherwise going nowhere. Tesla's foe - and indeed, that is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-25/toyota-to-offer-69-000-car-as-musk-pans-fool-cells-.html">how Elon Musk regards</a> the technology - is fuel cell vehicles, which run on hydrogen. 
Fuel cell vehicles have seen their own recent jolt thanks to more established automakers like Toyota, which just got a major boost from the Japanese government in the form of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CB0QFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fjapan-is-betting-against-tesla-2014-6&amp;ei=rZq-U4elLcjjsATc-IDoCg&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQK4Wz1sx_GchCeYUSa-NiYEPhAQ&amp;sig2=qWeL_zEjJBkjHSn9AlrEfQ">fuel-cell vehicle subsidies.</a> At least three other major automakers are plan to release FCVs in the near future. 
Tesla is enjoying lots of momentum - it's shares are up about 50% this year - and the company has embarked on an unprecedented capex odyssey to double the world's supply of lithium ion batteries and expand its charging networks. Can they really be derailed by fuel cells? Or could the two technologies even learn to get along someday? 
Let's back up for a moment.
<h2>What are fuel cells? </h2>
Fuel cells take hydrogen and turn it into electricity. The most common way of doing this involves charging a special material, called a proton exchange membrane, to separate out the proton and electron from a hydrogen atom. The electron gets captured as electricity, then recombines with the proton and a supply of oxygen and comes out as water.
 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2002.web.dir/Garrison_Collette/PEMfuelcell.html">UAF</a></div></div></div>
If you stack a bunch of these guys together, you get a fuel cell. Here's what it looks like in the inside of a car. There's only a motor in the front; the fuel cell is in the middle of the car. 

<h2>Pros and cons</h2>
The principal advantage of fuel cell vehicles is that you don't have to plug them in. Instead you simply go to a fuel station and refill your car with hydrogen. Battery electrics, on the other hand, require you to leave your car at a charging station for more hours (or a little more than an hour in the case of a Tesla). Environmentally, while neither generate direct emissions, creating the hydrogen, and the raw electricity for batteries, requires burning fossil fuels upstream at a power plant. So neither is truly emission free.
However, there remain huge gaps in fuel cells' charging networks, while those for battery electric are much more widespread. Here's the map for the latter:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.plugshare.com/">PlugShare</a>Plug-in electric charging station map</div></div></div>
Here's the equivalent for fuel cells. For what it's worth:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.netinform.net/H2/H2Stations/H2Stations.aspx?Continent=NA&amp;StationID=-1">Netinform.net</a>Fuel cell station map</div></div>
<h2> California battleground</h2>
Despite its Fremont digs, Tesla does not rule the California roost. The state plans to have 25 hydrogen fueling stations operating by fall of next year capable of handling 4,000 new vehicles. A new study <a href="https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/california_stations/#.U77Vt41dWXj">says</a> existing gasoline stations can safely store and dispense hydrogen, which could allow that figure to jump. Governor Jerry Brown recently signed an executive order calling for 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on California roadways by 2025. The state is actually one of eight states that together <a href="file:///Users/robertwile/Desktop/Multi-State%20ZEV%20Action%20Plan%20Press%20Release%205-29-14.pdf">hope to put</a> 3.3 million zero-emission. The program's incentives are fuel source-agnostic. 
If you compare the maps of existing refueling stations, however, it's clear plugin-electrics have an enormous head start. Here's that map, <a href="http://www.plugshare.com/">via PlugShare</a>:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.plugshare.com/">PlugShare</a>Plug-in electric stations in California</div></div></div>
And here's fuel cells, via the California Fuel Cell Partnership:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><a href="http://cafcp.org/stationmap">CAFCP</a>Fuel cell stations in California</div></div>
Getting cheaper ... at least automakers hope so
To date, most fuel cell infrastructure has been directed toward power plants that run on hydrogen. A recent <a href="http://www.navigantresearch.com/newsroom/stationary-fuel-cells-will-reach-40-billion-in-annual-revenue-by-2022">note from Navigant Research</a> indicates more sectors are looking to fuel cells to provide sources of power independent of the grid in case of natural disasters. Fuel cells have also found their way into warehouses - Wal-Mart has been using fuel cells as cost- and labor-saving devices for its forklifts; they allow for lower refueling times.
Fuel cell automakers are hoping all this capacity spills over - Toyota, Ford, GM and Hyundai all plan to roll out new FCVs. Adam Jonas says they don't have much choice: He sees their push as the result of failing to make a good enough plug-in electric. "We are not aware of any recent breakthrough in the field of hydrogen fuel cells," he wrote in a recent note. "What we are aware of, however, is a failure of most EVs to achieve their stated volume targets." He calls their doubling down on fuel cells, "a diversionary tactic to slow down, if not completely reset, a regulatory framework scripted to support mass adoption of EVs that don't appear ready for prime time."

Here's The Technology Of The Future That Could Crush Elon Musk's Dreams

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A drug-using investment banker has allegedly murdered two prostitutes in Hong Kong. It's a pretty jarring headline - a real life American Psycho. But most bankers I know aren't really all that surprised.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8coOHhotXY">People have been calling him Patrick Bateman</a>. Perhaps, he has an alibi and was out returning video tapes. But instead, I see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNRBajLM8_4">Colonel Kurtz</a>. What happens when you take the "Best of the West," presumably well-raised, Cambridge-educated, and well-paid, and you throw him into an alternate reality, a world largely without societal restraints and an industry with its own set of deviant moral benchmarks? For some people, and maybe for Rurik Jutting, things fall apart.
Hong Kong is a tropical Island masquerading as a legitimate city.
To a very large extent, expat bankers in Asia can do whatever they want. As an overhang of colonialism, they tend to get treated better than locals. They can start food fights at The Mandarin Grill, flee the scene of a car crash, or take their pants off and run around Lan Kwai Fong. And if they get so out-of-control that they get banned from 3 bars in one night, the cops will just take them home.
Many of my Chinese friends will speak English when they make dinner reservations or if they walk into a Gucci store, because even acting like an ABC (American Born Chinese) gets them better treatment.
My sense of reality and entitlement got so warped in Hong Kong that when I would come back to the US to visit family, my mother suggested I walk around Wal-Mart just to re-acclimate myself and "be less of an a------."
The alleged murderer, Rurik Jutting, lived in the <a href="http://www.hongkonghomes.com/en/property/rent/list?sch_type=1&amp;keyword=J+Residence">J-Residence building in Wan Chai</a>, one of Hong Kong's seedier and less prestigious areas. At around US$ 4,000 a month, the building is popular with young bankers and (poor) expats who like to be close to Central but cant afford to live in the Mid-Levels or on The Peak.
Rurik lived two blocks away from Lockhart Road, the aorta of Hong Kong's red light district. He couldn't walk home at night without getting propositioned by street walking freelancers and the pros standing in front of the velvet curtain bars. "You very handsome man" and "Just one drink okay la."
It's an entire street filled with bars like Cockeyes, where we once hosted intern drinks (The Princelings loved it), and the now-closed Fenwicks, where we once staked out our regional head of sales, "Dirty Sanchez," until we caught him walking out at 3am on Tuesday with a love monkey on each arm.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Before moving to Asia, I highly doubt Rurik Jutting was ever called handsome by anyone other than his mom. He's what we call a "Twelve" - the term used in Asia to describe an ugly white guy with a young, attractive, usually paid-for Asian girl. He's a two and she's a ten.
It's also been reported that the police also found a small amount of cocaine in his apartment. Now, I have no idea what kind of person Rurik is, but I do know that investment banking is a culture of pervasive deviance, particularly in Asia.
When I first moved to Hong Kong, the first thing one of the outgoing (repatriated) hedge fund sales guys gave me was the number of his drug dealer. "Look, I don't really know you, but trust me, you'll need this for your clients." And everyone knew it when Drug Dealer Joe's not-too-subtle Toyota Supra would show up in front of Cheung Kong Center or ICBC Tower (where Merrill Lynch is) for a delivery.
It's often not even a function of choice. I had a colleague get chastised by our boss for not attending an important client's bachelor party trip to Manila. "You have a pregnant wife at home, so what?" I think it was the non-forwardable Bloomberg message itinerary titled "A Weekend of Debauchery" that scared him off. And he paid a price for not indulging - getting fewer trades than his more willingly deviant counterparts at other banks.
One time I went to a dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse where an investment banking colleague showed up with two prostitutes and proceeded to hold a contest to see which of them could keep their hand on the famously-hot plates the longest.
Even formal closing dinners - a global banking tradition, where the bookrunners an clients celebrate the success of a deal in the private room of some fancy restaurant, get drunk, and hand out tombstones (Lucite deal trophies) and (in the good old days) inscribed Mont Blanc pens as mementos of their greatness - are not immune.
My first closing dinner in Hong Kong was slightly different from those that I have experienced in New York or London. Toward the end of dinner, a senior banker quietly made it known that the CEO wanted the party to continue at a karaoke bar. To avoid creating an embarrassing or awkward scene for the client, the female bankers were asked to discreetly excuse themselves from dinner. The young analyst next to me got a Blackberry message from her boss, "Hey, maybe you should go home now."
One of my counterparts on the deal team - a pretty square, happily married guy - also tried to excuse himself from the evolving festivities. But, the CEO was having none of it. "Where the f--- do you think you're going? I don't think so." And that was it - he knew that future business from this client (and therefore his bonus) depended on it.
To be clear about what karaoke means - it's a large private room where we sit around on couches, singing karaoke, drinking whiskey with iced green tie, and playing a dice version of Liar's Poker. And then, the mama-san parades in at least thirty or forty girls in skimpy dresses, each one wearing a nametag with a number on it. From there, it doesn't take long for the process to get started. "I'll take number 12 and number 34." Or "Dibs on 11." And "Don't be greedy; just get two."
The mama-san also provides drugs, but it's like buying beer at Yankee Stadium, so it's better to bring your own.
At the end of the night, a bill is presented that says something like "Tokyo Otoro Sushi," which is convenient when it comes to expensing it. After all, the tab can be astronomical, especially if people get "take-out."
There are plenty of bankers, especially sales guys who cover hedge funds (which are heavily populated by expats), who conduct regular meetings at massage parlors (during lunchtime) and karaoke joints (at night).
So, Rurik Jutting, depending on how things play out for you, don't forget - Jefferies is still hiring for equities in Asia, although you might be better off in Dallas.
John LeFevre is the creator of the @GSElevator Twitter feed and the author of the soon-to-be-released <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Straight-Hell-Deviance-Debauchery-Billion-Dollar/dp/0802123309">Straight To Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals.</a><div class="feed-footer-wrapper"><div class="feed-footer">

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No One's Surprised If Hong Kong Bankers Get Away With Murder

When Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, airline flights across the Atlantic <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2479">were disrupted for days</a>, and global supply chains for products like fruits and fresh flowers were severely interrupted. When a <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2743">tsunami and nuclear meltdown</a> hit northern Japan in 2011, automakers and electronics manufacturers in Asia and North America lamented that some key suppliers could not comply with their delivery dates, forcing slowdowns in their production scales and frustrating buyers. In these cases and others, many companies have been stymied by the fact that there was no way to forecast where and when the next natural disaster would occur.
What kind of analysis -- and proactive strategic initiatives -- should companies be enacting in order to mitigate their short- and long-term <keyword id="118965" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Supply-chain">supply chain</keyword> risks? What lessons have been learned from the turmoil of the past few years? Spurred by a sharp increase in concern about extreme weather events, leading discussion groups such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Council for Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP) have been intensifying their efforts to create comprehensive frameworks and common standards for evaluating and enacting risk-mitigation initiatives that are pro-active and strategic, rather than reactive or tactical.
The World Economic Forum's Supply Chain Risk Initiative in 2011 began ongoing initiatives to explore the systemic risks and vulnerabilities of global supply chains and transportation networks. Its initial report on that initiative, launched at the 2012 annual meeting of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, examined the possibility of these risks causing serious disruptions to global supply chains, while highlighting the need for companies to shift their focus from a reactive to a proactive stance.
In January, the WEF published <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RRN_MO_BuildingResilienceSupplyChains_ExecutiveSummary_2013.pdf">an overall blueprint for resilient supply chains</a> based on four core components: partnerships, policy, strategy and information technology. The report outlines a series of recommendations aimed at guiding multi-stakeholder engagement. Noting that systemic risks are characterized by "global geographic scope, cross-industry relevance, uncertainty as to how and when they will occur, and high levels of economic and social impact requiring a multi-stakeholder response," the report added that such risks are also "magnified by the way supply chain systems are configured; and cannot be mitigated by individual actors. Risk management must be an explicit but integral part of supply chain governance."
Noting that various institutions have widely different perspectives about supply chain risk assessment, the report made these key recommendations: institutionalize "a multi-stakeholder supply chain risk assessment process rooted in a broad-based and neutral international body"; mobilize international standards bodies to "further develop, harmonize and encourage the adoption of resilience standards"; incentivize organizations "to follow agile, adaptable strategies to improve common resilience" and "expand the use of data sharing platforms for risk identification and responses." The report also outlined three "must-have" requirements that have emerged from WEF-sponsored workshops and dialogues held in recent months: First, the need for a "common vocabulary" when talking about risk; second, the need for improved data and information among those involved with supply chains, and third, "the need to build greater agility and flexibility into resilience strategies."
Meanwhile, the Council of Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP), the Chicago-based international organization for the industry, has also <a href="http://cscmp.org/member-benefits/hot-topics/supply-chain-risk-identification-structure">presented its members with a formal structure</a> for identifying -- and mitigating -- the root causes and impacts of various kinds of risks commonly facing supply chains.Known as the Supply Chain Risk Identification Structure (SCRIS), it is designed to create a common language for supply chain professionals to address the challenges faced by companies of all sizes and in all sectors.
Why is there an urgent need for such a formal structure? "Ask 100 different people the same question -- 'What does supply chain risk mean to you?' -- and you will get lots of different answers," according to Richard Sharpe, chief executive officer of Competitive Insights, an Atlanta-based provider of supply chain software. "For some people, risk means terrorist attacks. For others, it means port closures, IT infrastructure vulnerability or the financial collapse of their suppliers. Since supply chain risk means so many different things to so many different people, it is hard to communicate with people without having a common language and structure to think about supply chain operating risks."
'What If?' Instead of 'Why?'
Richard Sherman, president of Austin, Tex.-based consulting firm Gold &amp; Domas, notes that another issue facing many firms regarding risk management is that they focus on the cause of a particular threat, rather than its results. For example, when companies hear about a devastating weather event, leadership will often try to figure out the best way to protect the firm from the same type of disaster occurring in the future. "It doesn't matter what happened to cause a company to lose a key supplier" or to suffer a different sort of disruption to its supply chain, Sherman adds. "What matters is finding answers for such questions as: 'What do we do if we lose any key supplier?' or 'What do we do if any one of our key plants goes down?' Risk management is all about 'What if I lose something?' It is not about 'Why did I lose it?'"
The CSCMP's SCRIS framework is designed to make it easier for supply chain specialists -- and senior executives at firms that have complex, often globalized supply chains -- to identify and address the 'what-if' scenarios most relevant to their own specific <keyword id="6363823" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Operations">operations</keyword>. It makes no sense for companies to prepare a contingency plan for a specific disaster like a tornado, Sherman points out. "The odds of winning such a bet are so small, so it is not worth the planning."
Long before the SCRIS was unveiled last November, this sort of pro-active approach had become standard operating procedure at leading global corporations like Coca-Cola, GE, Ford and GM, note analysts. Many of those firms have already developed a "risk management culture," says Walter Kemmsies, chief economist at Moffatt &amp; Nichol, a global infrastructure and transportation advisory firm. "It is already in those companies' blood to go after supply chain risks." But many smaller companies have yet to do so, he adds, either because they don't understand the increasing vulnerability of their global supply chains, or they lack the resources to tackle its increased complexity.
Wharton operations and information management professor <a href="https://opimweb.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/29/">Marshall Fisher</a> notes that it could be tempting for companies to try to predict the likelihood of the various kinds of risks facing their supply chains and prepare for those specific contingencies. For example, a company might avoid building a plant on an earthquake fault line, or build a second plant in a region safe from earthquakes. However, he adds, "so many things could go wrong that it is hopeless to predict what could happen." He suggests that firms should instead design their supply chains to be resilient, even if that means spending significant resources in the form of constructing additional plants or contracting with extra suppliers.
The SCRIS model makes sense, according to Tom Linton, chief procurement and supply chain officer at Flextronics International, a $30 billion electronics manufacturing services firm with more than 200,000 employees and operations in 30 countries, but he notes that for a company like his, there is no such thing as a "simple" way to map risk due to all the different variables that come into play, such as sites, vendors, ownership, locations, materials, ability to effect, strategy and internal politics. "The model probably works well for a supply chain that isn't too complex."
Another hurdle is that many firms are "just starting to prioritize creating transparency throughout the supply chain and might not have a full picture of all of the entire supply chain," says Wharton MBA student Dana Martin, who has worked in supply chain resilience and security consulting with numerous Fortune 500 companies. Martin points out that even Wal-Mart, despite all its sophisticated supply chain capabilities, was caught off guard when an unauthorized supplier in Bangladesh suffered a factory fire that killed 112 people. "One of the major challenges is a lack of commercial software and tools to analyze and quantify the risks associated with a company's supply chain," he notes. "Additionally, company executives need to transition their view of supply chain risks from a back-office cost center to a 'bet-the-company' issue that requires investment and executive attention."
Developing a Road Map
Wharton operations and information management professor <a href="https://opimweb.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/27/">Morris Cohen</a> says SCRIS and other initiatives help by giving people a framework to think about the process. He adds that even companies with a modest technology budget can develop a broad road map for thinking through their major risks. Cohen's overall "thought framework" for risk management and mitigation involves analyzing the probabilities of various risks, including low-probability but high-impact events such as disastrous weather events. Having completed such an analysis, companies can then "make investments in capacity, flexibility and technology in advance of the event," Cohen notes. "Ninety percent of the quality of the results will be determined by the decisions made in advance [of a risky event.] You can't afford to put all your resources at all the places where something could go wrong."
Cohen cautions that companies need sophisticated models of their supply chains that accurately reflect the challenges specific to their particular operations. These representations, whether simulations or mathematical models, must take into account all the important factors and the likelihoods that "low probability, high-cost events that have very expensive outcomes" will take place. "If you ignore the complexity, you can miss the whole point," he adds.
According to Cohen, many firms that do not enact advanced risk management strategies probably have an intuitive understanding of the basic issues involved. "Many people have good intuition, but they may not have the tools and analytical data" needed to alleviate their supply chain risks. Cohen points out that nowadays, there exist "powerful tools, such as data mining and sophisticated logarithms.... But if you don't invest in advanced thinking, it is a prescription for disaster. You can't just think about the process, but must put in place prescriptions."
Adding Redundancy, Increasing Resilience
Broadly speaking, three sorts of mitigation strategies emerge from the approach outlined in the SCRIS, says Sharpe, its co-author. The first category involves redundancy. In a very simple example, if a company has only one distribution center for its products, it risks a major failure in its supply chain if that distribution center cannot operate for a significant period of time. An appropriate redundancy strategy might involve building a second distribution center. Or leadership may decide that the firm needs to use at least two transportation carriers each month in order to service its best customers because high-quality customer service is absolutely vital to its business model.
Second, some strategies involve contingency planning, notes Sharpe. In such a case, company leadership identifies their top-priority risks, and then develops an action plan contingent on certain negative events taking place. Employees must be trained in that plan, and it must be communicated to all relevant stakeholders in and outside the organization. "A lot of people set up a war room and an action plan after the event, but by that time, you are racing against time," Sharpe says. If, for example, a firm waits until after a key supplier goes bankrupt, it may find that it can't satisfy customers' orders. "You then have to deal with the reality of significant profit losses, lost market share and diminished shareholder confidence. That's why you focus on mitigation activities in advance of the event," he adds.
A third kind of mitigation strategy involves changing corporate policies, says Sharpe. In such a case, companies "change their operating policies to be less vulnerable to an identifiable, prioritized risk." In one notable example, Toyota decided not to rely on single suppliers for any of its vehicle components following the Sendai tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011. The earlier approach left Toyota vulnerable when single-source suppliers were forced to shut down.
Fisher, Martin and Wharton MBA student Hirotaka Ellis are currently involved in an independent study project focused on simulating supply chains in an effort to quantify one company's supply chain resilience and recommend appropriate investments to diminish that firm's supply chain risks -- and consequently increase its resilience.
Ironically, writes Martin in his description of the research project, over the past decade global enterprises have focused on making their supply chains leaner by eliminating redundancy and cutting inventories in order to reduce costs. Such an approach "has significantly increased the importance of each node in the supply chain to the success of the entire system," he notes. "Because nearly every node is critical, the relative risk of interference with a single node causing a disruption to the entire supply chain has grown significantly. These risks, previously not considered worthy of 'C-suite' consideration, have ... changed the competitive landscape in numerous industries."

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