More Air than Value? Airbnb Raises $1B At $31B Valuation

Airbnb Raises $1B At $31B Valuation, Likely Delaying IPO Plans Further

Management Consultants - overcharging for Juniors?

Why would any sane Management engage Consultancy firms that charge them exorbitant hourly/daily rates but have the work done by juniors that have no relevant front-line experience in the industry? A fresh pair of eyes? Top Management often neglects the experience of those already working in the firm. Hierarchical thinking prevents feed-back from those that often see problems and how to resolve them at first hand. And what is the trackrecord of firms such as McKinsey? But of course, no one ever got fired for hiring IBM. But that it is in many cases an ex-staffer hiring his old firm - should that not cause alarm bells ringing? Was there a proper beauty parade before a firm is hired? And was there an inquiry that proved it was absolutely unavoidable?

McKinsey jetzt auch bei der Saxo Bank

Loan Losses incurred by Banks

One has to wonder how banks manage to incur horrendous loan losses in the first place. While it is sometimes said that the only safe loans are extended to borrowers who do not need them it should be foremost on any banker's minds to make sure that loans can be repaid.
Apart for cases of fraudulent collusion between lender and borrower (unfortunately not as rare as naive observers assume) the source of loan losses is larger than can be explained with excuses such as 'unfortunate business conditions'.
A good example is the case of the staid Banque Cantonale de Geneve which in my opinion is straying too far from its area of competence. Financing a commodity trade involving Nigerian transactions is not something you expect a Swiss Cantonal Bank to get involved in. Forensic investigation into cases of loan write-offs would in most cases demonstrate that simple rules of common sense were absent in the decision making, - not only by the bank officers directly involved but all the way up the hierarchy of the institution.