Old is gold and in high demand
Rock starts are making hundreds of millions of dollars cashing in on their old songs. Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and other big-time musicians are selling their catalogues to aggressive new buyers. Mr Dylan was supposed to spend the summer of 2020 on tour. But, stranded at home, he lined up the biggest payday of his career. Music assets are bought and sold all the time but there has never been a period as active as the past few months. Industry executives cite the emergence of aggressive buyers, low interest rates and Covid-19, which has prevented musicians from touring, their primary source of income. The US election is another factor as Joe Biden has pledged to increase capital-gains taxes so the stars want to reach agreements before that happens.
(Adapted from “Rock Stars Are Making Fortunes Cashing In on Their Old Songs,” by Lucas Shaw and Thomas Seal, published on Jan 28, 2021 by Bloomberg Businessweek)
Letting others the mood of your day
What was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning? You probably reached for the phone. About 96pc of people check their mobile within one hour of waking up in the morning. But while it may seem harmless, checking our phones as soon as we open our eyes sets us up to have a “reactive” kind of day. If the first thing you do when you roll out of bed is open your email, read your texts or listen to your voicemails, you are essentially putting yourself second. Whether good, bad, or no news awaits, you are letting other people set your mood for the day. The key is to not let other people’s priorities determine the course of the day. Rather, be deliberate about how you wake up, organise your time and fit work into your schedule.
(Adapted from “5 Ways to Get More Done in Less Time,” by Amantha Imber, published on Feb 5, 2021, by Harvard Business Review Ascend)
‘Shoeing’ in exports
Footwear contributes less than 1pc to Pakistan’s global exports despite the country being the seventh largest producer globally. It is also the seventh largest consumer of footwear, accounting for 2.2pc of global consumption.
From 2010 to 2019, Pakistan’s exports increased by 45.9pc to $135.3m but are paltry when compared to total exports of $23.8bn. The bulk of exports are of leather which accounts for 84.2pc of all of Pakistan’s footwear exports.
Shoe manufacturing in Pakistan is predominantly located in and around the city of Lahore, where almost 80pc of the documented footwear industry is located. The sector is majorly comprised of the unorganised sector, where craft manufacturers / cobblers represent the majority of footwear manufacturers. Major global footwear players are China, India, Cambodia, Bangladesh Indonesia and Vietnam.
(Adapted from “Enhancing the Competitiveness of Pakistan’s Footwear Industry” by Samir S Amir and Ramsha Hameed, published in January 2021 by The Pakistan Business Council)
Vegan puppies and kitties
What if you could feed your feline friend their favourite rodent treat of mouse without exploiting even a single rodent? Pet owners, at least in the West, are more likely than other people to be vegetarians or vegans.
That puts many of them in a quandary when it comes to feeding fully paid-up carnivores such as cats and dogs. But technology may have the answer.
The idea of growing meat for human consumption from scratch, in the form of cell cultures, is now becoming popular.
The founders of Because Animals, a firm based in Philadelphia, USA, are hoping to use mouse stem cells to make cultured cat food, while other firms are experimenting with making kibble from cultured chicken.
(Adapted from “Pets may soon be fed laboratory-grown meat,” published on Jan 30, 2021, in The Economist)
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, February 15th, 2021