US house prices accelerated by the most in nearly seven years in March as the spring buying season gave the sector traction, while surging consumer confidence pointed to some resilience for the economic recovery. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas climbed 10.9pc year over year, beating expectations for 10.2pc. This was the […]
End of an era: Apple set to announce first profits dip in 10 years
The technology giant is widely forecast to announce a decline in earnings amid reports of a slowdown in sales of its iPhone and suggestions that the company has lost crucial ground to rivals such as Samsung. Just last week Apple lost its position as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company when its shares hit […]
ISO 9001 Certification: What It Is, and What It’s Not
ISO 9001 is about a Quality Management System (QMS). QMS in organisations is not optional – it is the way the organisation operates. Quality is all the activities that are performed that contribute to successfully satisfying the customer. By definition that is the activities and processes performed by people, their responsibilities, how they process what […]
Job losses at IDA firms at decade low in 2012 with over 6,000 net positions created
JOB losses at multinational firms were the lowest in a decade and 6,570 positions were created last year, according to new figures from IDA Ireland. With 12,722 jobs created, there were 145 individual investments with 40pc of these coming from firms investing in Ireland for the first time. The figures come after positive job creation […]
Identify the key moment when an idea turns into a business
How often do you see a thriving new business or company, and slap yourself for not thinking of the idea first? Or, even worse, slap yourself because you did think of it, but didn’t do anything about it? Many of us have great ideas, cumulatively millions of them every day, but the difference between having […]