April 25, 2017 at 11:55PM
from Telegraph Reporters
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Twenty Practical Steps to Better Corporate Governance | The Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA)
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Showing posts with label April 25. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April 25. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
These incredible caterpillars can degrade plastic bags
April 25, 2017 at 11:55PM
from Telegraph Video
Nicola Sturgeon becoming ‘laughing stock’ over her claim general election not linked to independence
April 25, 2017 at 11:55PM
from Simon Johnson
Tyrie’s resignation to trigger battle to chair influential Treasury Committee
April 25, 2017 at 11:52PM
from Ben Martin
“We’ve got one of the best boards in financial services,” says Wells Fargo CEO after shareholder meeting. http://ift.tt/2pdA4TI #corpgov
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“We’ve got one of the best boards in financial services,” says Wells Fargo CEO after shareholder meeting. http://ift.tt/2pdA4TI #corpgov
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
https://twitter.com/DirectorsBoards/status/856943084126564353
from Directors & Boards
The latest The CFO-Coach Daily! http://ift.tt/2mXuSEV Thanks to @LIVESTRONGGreg @thomastaylor_t2 @CFOBP #cpa #corpgov
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The latest The CFO-Coach Daily! http://ift.tt/2mXuSEV Thanks to @LIVESTRONGGreg @thomastaylor_t2 @CFOBP #cpa #corpgov
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
https://twitter.com/CFOCoach/status/856942902206910464
from Cindy Kraft
Jermyn K.Y. Voon retweeted: Posted: The Importance of Nonfinancial Performance to Investors, http://ift.tt/2q2Pltp by @EYnews #corpgov #ESG #sustainability
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Jermyn K.Y. Voon retweeted:
Posted: The Importance of Nonfinancial Performance to Investors, http://ift.tt/2q2Pltp by @EYnews #corpgov #ESG #sustainability
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
https://twitter.com/jermynvoon/status/856942091477303297
from Jermyn K.Y. Voon
Laurance Allen retweeted: “If there’s a proxy fight, we want to hear both sides.” Anne Sheehan @CalSTRS speaking @NACD #corpgov #ESG
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Laurance Allen retweeted:
“If there’s a proxy fight, we want to hear both sides.” Anne Sheehan @CalSTRS speaking @NACD #corpgov #ESG
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
https://twitter.com/LarryVNN/status/856941994987401216
from Laurance Allen
"If there's a proxy fight, we want to hear both sides." Anne Sheehan @CalSTRS speaking @NACD #corpgov #ESG
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Alice Korngold
(@alicekorngold) April 25, 2017
$CZR #CaesarsEntertainment @CaesarsEnt: is it time to find #women for your board? #womenonboards #corpgov
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$CZR #CaesarsEntertainment @CaesarsEnt: is it time to find #women for your board? #womenonboards #corpgov
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
https://twitter.com/BoardsWomen/status/856940937997582339
from WomenServeOnBoards
Google will try to combat fake news using search and user feedback
Google might not be as responsible for the spread of fake news as social media, but the search giant is still doing something about it: burying known sources of fake news, and letting users weigh in, too.
Google frequently tweaks the algorithms that return relevant search results, sometimes privately, and other times publicly. In this case, Google announced Tuesday that about 0.25 percent of all daily search results have been returning “offensive or clearly misleading content,” and those results will be pushed lower in search results in favor of more authoritative results.
Google is also implementing Feedback links for users to report on the accuracy of autocomplete search queries and Featured Snippet text.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
April 25, 2017 at 11:50PM
from Mark Hachman
Q&A: Hedge fund executive Simon Lorne talks Trump, Brexit and ‘Billions’
http://ift.tt/1cIZkm4
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund critics are becoming increasingly vocal about the $3 trillion industry, arguing that it produces mediocre returns for clients while enriching managers with exorbitant…
April 25, 2017 at 11:32PM
from
How to Protect Your Neighborhood From White-Collar Crime
Homeowners want to keep muggers and murders out of their neighborhoods. What about contract violators, defamers or breachers of fiduciary duty?
Journalists at The New Inquiry magazine created a searchable database that uses machine learning to predict where in the U.S. financial crimes are mostly likely to occur. Unsurprisingly, the financial districts of major cities across the country are the most likely to be home to such crimes, with the island of Manhattan being a particularly concentrated hot spot.
Within Manhattan, the Midtown neighborhood between the Empire State Building and Central Park, boasts a larger concentration of high-risk zones than the Wall Street neighborhood at the island’s southern tip.
Smaller cities aren’t immune. Greenwich and Stamford, Conn. both look risky, as do some pockets of Boca Raton, Fla. and Palo Alto, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, Calif., to name a few.
Crime doesn’t pay, but those are some pricey addresses.
April 25, 2017 at 11:31PM
from Miriam Gottfried
Brexit & Beyond: Labour Vows to Scrap Brexit White Paper, Hard Times Ahead for UK Banks, Macron’s Parliamentary Problems
Brexit & Beyond: Europe in Flux is The Wall Street Journal’s round-up of news and analysis of how Brexit will affect global business, economies and finance. You can sign up here.
MUST READS
Keir Starmer, Shadow Brexit Secretary, delivers a speech on the Labour Party’s Brexit policy in London.
AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALLBEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Labour Promises to Roll Back May’s Brexit Priorities: Labour has promised to scrap the government’s Brexit White Paper and draw up a new set of negotiating priorities if it wins the election.
British Banking Braces for Hard Times: The good news: Brexit may not hurt London’s finance sector as much as people think. The bad news: Other factors will hurt it a lot more, writes Paul Davies.
Will Emmanuel Macron Be Able to Run France If He Wins the Presidency?: Political novice Emmanuel Macron is widely expected to win the French presidency on May 7, but he will need a big victory in yet another crucial round of elections to become more than a mere figurehead.
How a Macron Presidency Could Bring About ECB Tapering: The election of Emmanuel Macron to France’s presidency could trigger a much-anticipated event in European financial markets: the scaling back of the European Central Bank’s vast stimulus program.
French Vote Fuels Hopes for Growth Across Europe: The ascension of centrist Emmanuel Macron as the heavy favorite in France’s presidential race spurred investors to set aside the political worries that have long plagued European markets and to make new bets on economic growth.
European Stocks Aren’t as Cheap as They Look: Investor response Monday to the French first-round election results reflects pre-election jitters and not an undervalued market, writes James Mackintosh.
Energy Firms’ $5.1 Billion Financing for Russia Gas Pipeline Stokes EU Fears: European energy firms pledged Monday to finance half the cost of a natural-gas link from Russia to Germany, lending support to a pipeline plan that is fueling tensions within the European Union.
New European Union Financial Rules to Give U.S. Consumers Protection as Well: Customers of U.S. banks, credit-card companies and insurance companies will soon have their personal data protected more rigorously, thanks to a sweeping new set of regulations from the European Union.
Crime in Germany Tied to Migrants Jumped Last Year: The number of crimes committed by migrants surged 52.7% in Germany last year, new statistics said, fueling a sharp rise in violent offenses and highlighting the challenges facing Chancellor Angela Merkel and other pro-immigration politicians in coming elections.
Nine Arrested in Spain Over Alleged Links to Brussels Attacks: Nine men were arrested on Tuesday in and around Barcelona, some of whom allegedly have ties to terrorist cells that carried out the 2016 attacks in Brussels that killed 32 people and injured hundreds.
IN THE PAPERS
EU Hardens Brexit Position on Financial Services, Citizens – Bloomberg
U.K. Tries to Put EU Nationals off Applying for Residency – Financial Times
British Businesses Fear Losing EU Workers after Brexit – Politico
Farm Robots Ready to Fill Britain’s Post-EU Labor Shortage – Financial Times
Brexit University ‘Brain Drain’ Warning – BBC News
– Compiled with the help of Toby Luckhurst
For breaking news and intelligence on Brexit, finance, markets, deals and people from London, download WSJ City for iPhone or Android smartphone. And you can find more analysis of politics, economics and regulation in the European Union over on Real Time Brussels.
April 25, 2017 at 11:31PM
from Stephen Fidler
Procurement bill moves through Senate finance – Albany Times Union (blog)
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Procurement bill moves through Senate finance
Albany Times Union (blog) The Senate finance committee on Tuesday morning moved the ”Procurement bill” forward, setting the stage for a vote on the measure in the state senate. The bill, sponsored by Republican Deputy Majority Leader John De Francisco of Syracuse, would restore … |
April 25, 2017 at 11:37PM
from
A hardware investor took apart the $400 Juicero machine and discovered why it’s so expensive
Ben Einstein is a General Partner at Bolt, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests at the intersection of hardware and software. He has no financial investment in the company, Juicero, mentioned in this article. His post first originally appeared on Bolt’s blog and is republished here with permission.
Last week Bloomberg published an article exposing how easy it is to “hack” Juicero’s produce packs by squeezing them with your hands, deeming the $699 (now $399) WiFi-connected juice press completely unnecessary. Nearly overnight, Juicero has become the posterchild for Silicon Valley excess.
Hidden away in Juicero’s bad week of press is one of the most powerful lessons we preach to hardware startups: unconstrained development is lethal.
Juicero raised nearly $120M from well-known investors before shipping a single unit. The team spent over two years building an incredibly complex product and the ecosystem to support it. Aside from the flagship juice press, Juicero built relationships with farmers, co-packing/food-processing facilities, complex custom packaging, beautifully designed mobile/web applications, and a subscription delivery service. But they did all this work without the basic proof that this business made sense to consumers.
Constraints during the earliest stages of a hardware company’s life force founders to carefully allocate resources to find creative solutions. I hope this post serves as a lesson to other hardware startups that spending tens of millions of dollars on product development prior to shipping a single unit is a goal that’s not worth striving for.
The Teardown
Juicero’s Press is an incredibly complicated piece of engineering. Of the hundreds of consumer products I’ve taken apart over the years, this is easily among the top 5% on the complexity scale. To understand what’s going on inside the press let’s peel back the beautifully molded, glossy white and orange plastic:
It’s immediately obvious that the Juicero Press is not your average consumer electronic product. This product is a complex assembly with great attention to detail. The two primary exterior plastic parts are huge, detailed injection molded parts with multiple slides and actions, large changes in wall thickness (which makes it very hard to mold without imperfections) and is painstakingly textured to an Apple-like glossy finish. The image on the right shows the polymer used for these white parts (a common polycarbonate + ABS blend) and that the part went through 8 revisions (denoted by the letter H):
Once the back is removed, we get a very interesting view of the internals, most notably the large machined aluminum structural components on either side (blue arrows) which transmit the load from pressing the packs. We also get a first view of the drivetrain components (now covered by the pink bootie, green arrow) and a HUGE custom power supply (yellow arrow):
Taking a closer look at the top assembly, you get a good view of the low-voltage communication circuit board. This PCB has all the necessary components to get the Juicero Press on your WiFi network (via TI’s CC3200 chipset, purple arrow), optics/camera assembly for scanning QR codes on the juice packs (green arrow), LED board to illuminate QR codes (blue arrow), and the brains that run the logic of the Juicero Press (STM32F407ARM processor).
Also note a neat feature on the PCB that allows the firmware to be flashed using a standard USB cable (yellow arrow).
After removing the final piece of white plastic, we get a better view of the gearbox that slows down the high-speed motor to dramatically increase torque (blue arrow) and provides enough force to squeeze the packs of pulp into juice. There’s also a better view of the QR code window (green arrow) that we looked at from the rear:
Time to remove the door assembly. Because the door must transmit the force of the entire drivetrain pushing against the juice packs, we see MASSIVE machined aluminum components. The door hinge pins easily slip out (blue arrow) and 4 allen bolts later the door pops off, exposing the dowel pins used to align the door assembly (green arrow):
Once the door is removed, the Press starts to look pretty bare. You get a clear view of the four-piece formed sheet metal frame that surrounds the core drivetrain and holds the product together (blue arrows). Yet another large machined aluminum part is exposed, the platter that presses the juice packs (green arrow). There’s also a good view of the complex custom actuator to lock the door when it’s closed (yellow arrow, more on that later):
Turning to the back again, after removing the power supply cover and bottom plate, we get a great view of the high-voltage custom power supply that converts 120V/240V AC line voltage to 330V DC power for the motor and 3.3V/5V/12V DC for the communications board on the top of the device. It is exceptionally rare to see a custom power supply on a first-time hardware startup’s product as these are inspected very carefully as part of UL/ETL certification, creating additional cost and risk.
Notice the motor (blue arrow, part number JQ42-1210N1) which is manufactured by Jiaai Motor Company, a common supplier of cordless drill motors. Like many of the other systems on this product, the motor is seemingly custom to account for the exceptionally high rated power (stalls at 5A at 330V DC, which is hard to believe, possibly even a misprint on the motor casing) and sports a custom encoder system designed by Juicero (yellow arrow):
Removing the sheet metal frame sheds light on a few more custom-machined aluminum drivetrain components. The number, size, complexity and accuracy of these parts is somewhat mind-blowing for a young hardware startup. Note the creative use of ball bearings to provide the sliding mechanism, a really nice detail (green arrow):
Turning back to the press mechanism, we see even more expensive, machined parts. At this point, it has become clear that Juicero spends a LOT of money on machined parts. I would venture to say a majority of the bill of materials is devoted to machined parts, which is highly unusual for a mass-market consumer product. In this single sub-assembly, we have 3 complex aluminum parts (drivetrain cover in green, drivetrain housing in blue, and press platter in yellow) plus expensive steel components like the ACME screw (purple arrow) and the massive final two gear stages (red arrow).
To see where all the magic happens, we have to crack open the (surprise!) custom gearbox. With a little bit of elbow grease we get to see the intermediate stages of the Press’ gearbox (blue arrows) all of which are expensive, hardened-steel spur gears, rarely seen in high-volume consumer electronic products. Also note the input shaft from the motor (green arrow) and yet another expensive, complex part: the nut for the leadscrew (yellow arrow). Looking at the complexity and quality of these parts, it wouldn’t surprise me if Juicero spent more than $35 on these components alone.
Wild Costs
It’s clear that cost savings was not anywhere near a top priority for Juicero when designing this product (or if it was, something went horribly wrong). There are dozens of components and subsystems that are incredibly complex and beautifully engineered, but hopelessly expensive to manufacture and assemble (and thus sell to consumers). Here are three examples:
Painstakingly Machined Parts
Most hardware startups avoid machined parts as much as possible because the cost doesn’t decline much as production volumes increase. Sometimes a company must have one or two of these large machined parts; Juicero has eight of them. But these aren’t just ordinary machined parts: many have multiple machined surfaces requiring different CNC setups, carefully located precision holes, and complex surface machining like the part below (blue arrow) where a tiny, rounded end-mill goes back and forth hundreds of times to make the surface rounded. While it’s hard to estimate exact costs without spending a lot of time analyzing the product, my rough guess is these parts account for over 50% of the BOM cost.
Fancy Plastics
Another example of Juicero overspending on beautiful engineering can be found in several of the plastic parts. This one uses an expensive process called overmolding with a special kind of injection molding press that takes two separate hard plastic parts (green arrows) and molds them together with a softer, rubber-like polymer (blue arrow) to make a single “part.” This part alone is likely $4–6 (excluding the assemblies mounted on the right).
Unnecessary Complexity
While it’s hard to know exactly why the Press is designed as it is, there are several signs that the designers/engineers “went wild” (as my college shop instructor would often say). As one example, let’s zoom in on the locking mechanism that keeps the door closed. It includes:
- Large aluminum frame that provides the core structure
- 10 custom injection molded parts
- 1 solenoid to keep the door latched but not structurally closed
- Motor and controller board
- 2 stamped steel parts
- 1 coil spring
- 2 custom dowel pins
- 4 bushings
- 1 gear
- Various screws, cables, connectors, glue, etc
All this just to keep the door closed.
One Giant Misstep
The vast majority of the complexity of the Press is driven by one simple problem inherent in the machine’s design: the massive force required to press the packs across the entire surface at once. The machine must apply equal pressure to ~64 square inches of surface area at once, meaning the drivetrain must be able to apply thousands of pounds of force to squish all that produce.
On the contrary, when a human hand squeezes the same pack, we naturally use a very different technique, as demonstrated in the Bloomberg video:
This creates large amounts of pressure over a much smaller surface area (purple arrows). I have to believe the engineers that built this product looked at other ways of pressing the juice, but if the primary mechanism could apply force in a more focused way it could easily save hundreds of dollars off the shelf price of the product.
In Another World
Our usual advice to hardware founders is to focus on getting a product to market to test the core assumptions on actual target customers, and then iterate. Instead, Juicero spent $120M over two years to build a complex supply chain and perfectly engineered product that is too expensive for their target demographic.
Imagine a world where Juicero raised only $10M and built a product subject to significant constraints. Maybe the Press wouldn’t be so perfectly engineered but it might have a fewer features and cost a fraction of the original $699. Or maybe with a more iterative approach, they would have quickly found that customers vary greatly in their juice consumption patterns, and would have chosen a per-pack pricing model rather than one-size-fits-all $35/week subscription. Suddenly Juicero is incredibly compelling as a product offering, at least to this consumer.
But since that’s not the case, I’ll continue to admire my Juicero in this state of beauty:
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Uber wants to carry you around in a flying car — here’s what it could look like
April 25, 2017 at 11:35PM
from Ben Einstein, Bolt
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