Everything is matter of appreciation and determination

Who blame leaders to listen to their customers When the staff of EADS is willing to revise the copy of the Airbus A350 to take account of criticism on his project, salute his lucidity. The episode is still a feeling of relaxation, especially in a context loaded into subjects of controversy. Between the disengagement of its main shareholders private, DaimlerChrysler and Lagardère, the withdrawal of BAE Systems in Airbus device, the failure on the Thales folder and overexposure of Jean-Louis Gergorin in the Clearstream case, the reasons of distraction and dispersion did not fail. The course of EADS, which has lost 20 in six weeks, is in is felt, as in every time that the complexity of its shareholders and its governance causes doubts about the cohesion of management and the coherence of the strategy. Fortunately for EADS and its anonymous shareholders, the civil aviation market is in an exceptional phase and, as evidenced by quarterly results, Airbus continues to deliver the growth and the result at speeds higher than expectations. This leaves the financial margins needed to restart a program such as the A350. But who will calculate that each missed in circuits of decision in EADS him to lose time, credibility and, ultimately, value creation

The flavour of the risk

Take risks, it is the essence of the business of insurer or reinsurer. Everything is matter of appreciation and determination. After nearly sinking due to the exuberance of catastrophic managers, SCOR suffered a long course of rehabilitation with the support of its shareholders and the dexterity of its new leaders. Having found the confidence rating agencies and clients, Denis Kessler, and its teams does not simply navigate the less choppy waters. While number of insurers prefer to concentrate their efforts on life, less volatile and more recurrent, and away large risks while limiting the weight of the damage in their perimeter, SCOR is the reverse. In the light of the results of the first quarter, shareholders have to welcome. The turnover in reinsurance non life progresses 31 when that life is stagnant. And the operating income, which flies of 68, is generated to four-fifths by activity damage. The coup de pouce of financial products, linked to the good health of markets, appears more like a cherry on the cake as a cosmetic. The future looks even brighter that cost reduction moves, in line with the ambitious objectives announced.

Weight and leverage

Give me a lever and I will raise the world claimed Archimedes. What will be the lever strong enough to challenge a fellow Monster such as Wal-Mart on a backward slope Once more quarterly data of the champion of the distribution are "record": thanks to its international development, including acquisitions, it continues to grow at a rate "double digit". Once is not custom, Wal-Mart are even higher expectations and, with the performance of American stores, of better quality than those of Target, the competitor who has favor with investors. Grow sales, reduce costs, manage inventory, three classics of trade, which the giant says it has restored the absolute priority, produce their effects. What installing the title Wal-Mart at the top of the increases in the Dow Jones yesterday, which had not happened for a long time. But should many other sessions also positive to clear the backlog by Wal-Mart on the index of large American values and its own ratios of valorisation of the past. He also shares this form of market disqualification with other monuments such as General Electric or Microsoft, but also efficient and determined to continue their growth. This suggests that, beyond a certain size and weight limit, he must find better than Archimedes.