Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Stocks closed sharply lower Thursday after investors sold stocks with abandon, convinced that the U.S. and the world are headed for a new recession.

People and culture are most often the points of failure for any IT implementation. Involving stakeholders in every step of the process is the key to any successful technology implementation. Understanding two of the most common underlying causes of these failure points will help you as you approach your new technology initiatives.

A successful, large-scale technology implementation, such as an Enterprise Performance Management or Business Intelligence rollout, has the potential to fundamentally alter the ways in which your organization conducts business, how decisions are made, and how people work. The success of any new implementation relies upon the right balance of business and technology. Effective change management is one of the critical -- and most often overlooked -- components of every new implementation.

The five year survey examined potential scenarios from the perspective of changes in Society, Technology, Economics, Environment, and Politics (STEEP). For the society and technology portions, we looked at the emergence of social media on business and value propositions. As economics are a constant for all companies, we chose to look at investor demand for higher returns and how those will impact the value propositions offered by companies. Our environmental scenario looked at the impact of green technology on business and operations, while our political scenario focused on the role of changing regulations and government on business success.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, opens the first International Congress on Ethics and Tourism

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today issued its 8 millionth patent to Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., for a visual prosthesis apparatus that enhances visual perception for people who have gone blind due to outer retinal degeneration. The invention uses electrical stimulation of the retina to produce the visual perception of patterns of light. The product – the Argus® II – is currently in U.S. clinical trials and has received marketing approval in Europe.

Major IT projects are 20 times more likely to fail than other business projects, according to a recent study from Oxford University.

Workers assembling electronic goods in Indonesia

Palestinians buying traditional Ramadan sweets in Ramallah before ‘iftar’ (the meal that breaks the daily fast)