2013

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Volume2: Issue 1

PR Cell UBS
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Summer Intern Challenge held at UBS

2nd September 2013

Students at University Business School (Panjab University) were introduced to Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT) during their summer internship. Fortunately, Bloomberg Institute was already ready with a summer intern challenge for students all over the globe and students at UBS were encouraged to give the test under this challenge. The Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT) is a free 2-hour multiple-choice test. Every BAT test-taker is anonymously entered into the Bloomberg Talent Search Database. Available to more than 20,000 top firms, the Talent Search allows employers to contact a test-taker for an internship, or full-time position. Summer Intern Challenge was about scoring among top 100 scorers in APAC region and win an invite to attend a networking event at London/New York. Around 40 students gave this test, many of whom scored very well. Among the top scorers were Jotsaroop Singh & Vilay Gupta, who scored 630 & 610 respectively and received an invite to attend the event.

Photo credits: Bloomberg

The test was organised by Anurag Sharma (student of MBA-International Business at UBS) the Bloomberg Campus Ambassador for Bloomberg Institute who was later promoted to Team Leader of Global Team of Campus Ambassadors from India, US and Spain. He visited the Bloomberg Headquarters at New York City on 1st August 2013 to attend the event, where he met students from all around the globe who were also the top scorers among their regions (EMEA8|ERead

Europe Middle East Africa; North America; APAC- Asia Pacific). The event was hosted by head of Bloomberg Institute, Managing Director of Union Bank of Switzerland(UBS) & a famous wall street trainer were also present to share their valuable experiences with students & also to advise them on how to build their resumes & make the right decisions at right time so that they dont loose any opportunity. Training The Street (TTS) Founder and CEO Scott Rostan was present to join an expert panel at the Bloomberg Institutes Summer Intern Challenge to discuss Wall Street training and hiring.

Photo: Training the Street founder & CEO Scott Rostan interacting with students

It was a life time experience for me. I met senior management from Bloomberg Institute & discussed about back end operations & what they were doing to connect recruiters and BAT test takers through this initiative. Also, new ideas were shared to make the process more efficient and smooth. Anurag said. Recently, Bloomberg Institute has come up with BAT from home, where students can give BAT sitting at their home, free of cost. They will be monitored by e-proctoring during the test, which is a tested tool foolproof of any cheating during the test.

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Students can register online at www.takethebat.com or contact Summy Kataria at summy.kataria@bloomberginstitute.com or Anurag Sharma at anuragsharma.ubs@gmail.com for more information.

Summy Kataria Country Manager-University Relations Bloomberg Insitute

Summy.kataria@bloomberginstitute.com

011 41792000

Anurag Sharma(MBA-IB) Campus Ambassador Bloomberg Insitute anuragsharma.ubs@gmail.com +91 9988338122

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Microsoft CEO Ballmer to retire within 12 months

Fri| Aug 23 2013 | 06 53 PM IST

New York: Microsoft Corp chief executive Steve Ballmerunexpectedly announced his retirement on Friday, ending a controversial 13-year reign at the head of the worlds largest software company and sending the companys shares up 7.1%. Ballmer, 57, took over from co-founder Bill Gates in January 2000, but his leadership was questioned throughout his tenure by Wall Street and Silicon Valley, as Microsofts stock price floundered and the PC-centric pioneer was overtaken by Apple Inc and Google Incin the shift toward mobile computing. Only last month Ballmer launched a massive reorganization to reshape Microsoft into a company focused on devices and services, essentially mimicking Apple, leaving most industry watchers nonplussed. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our companys transformation to a devices and services company, said Ballmer in a statement. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction. Although Ballmer has faced criticism for some time, his decision to retire surprised analysts. Yes, this was a surprise, especially considering how close it is to the recently announced strategic overhaul towards devices and services, said Sid Parakh, an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen.
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Ballmer is to retire within the next 12 months, once a special committee has selected a new CEO. The committee is to be chaired by John Thompson, the boards lead independent director, and includes Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates, as well as other board members Chuck Noski and Steve Luczo. Internal shock Ballmer said in an interview with ZDNet on Friday that he officially communicated that he would exit during a board call two days ago. Gates, who is chairman and on the board, didnt ask Ballmer to stay, said the CEO. Bill respects my decision, Ballmer said to ZDNet. Ultimately, these kinds of things have to be ones own personal decision. Members of Microsofts senior leadership team only learned about Ballmers decision to retire at a meeting on 22 August, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Many senior executives were surprised, said another person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The announcement of Ballmers departure coincides with the time when Microsoft conducts the CEOs annual performance review. In each of the past two years, Ballmer has received less than his maximum bonus because of deficiencies in areas like online services, mobile and tablets. Possible successors Microsoft said it would consider both external and internal candidates for CEO. Among the internal candidates are Bates, Myerson, Satya Nadella, head of the server business who was appointed to direct cloud and enterprise products last month, and Qi Lu, responsible for the Bing search engine and other Internet projects and who was named to oversee Office and the Skype videoconference business and to run a new applications group, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to identified because the discussions are private.

E-Commerce

Why Amazon Is on a Warehouse Building Spree

Danielle Kucera| August 29, 2013

For a company whose showrooms are all online, Amazon.com (AMZN) spends a staggering amount on bricks and mortar. The e-commerce giant has invested roughly $13.9 billion since 2010 to build 50 new warehouses, more than it had cumulatively spent on storage facilities since its 1994 founding, bringing the total to 89 at the end of 2012. (Its announced five more in the U.S. this year.) Amazon aims to be able to deliver most items the day theyre ordered, so it can keep rivals such as EBay (EBAY) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) from peeling off customers. EBay offers same-day delivery in some cities, and Wal-Mart is moving more sales online. What Wal-Mart and EBay are working on is, can they be faster than Amazon? says Wells Fargo (WFC) analyst Matt Nemer. It might not be the highest-margin sale in the world, but they can potentially get something to you in an hour.

Amazon introduced its expedited-shipping program, Prime, in 2005. Prime offers two-day service for $79 a year, plus $3.99 or more per order for same-day or one-day delivery; non-Prime Amazon customers pay $8.99 and up for same-day delivery. But Amazon cant guarantee top speed for most items or locations. To be fair, the same holds for Wal-Mart, which charges $10 to deliver an online order from one of its 4,700 stores within the day, and EBay, which charges $5 for same-day delivery from retailers including Target (TGT), Walgreen (WAG), and Best Buy (BBY). To help speed delivery, Amazon is building its warehouses bigger, though the company wouldnt say how much bigger, and boosting its storage capacity with floor-to-ceiling shelves. We now get about twice as much product in this building as we would have four or five years ago, says Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service, standing in a new Chattanooga warehouse that occupies more than 1 million square feet. Software that can sort items by delivery date and optimize storage space has helped Amazon roughly double the number of items it can ship

per facility, says Clark. The warehouses are operational within 10 months, down from two years before the building spree started. Weve standardized them in such a way that opening them and replicating them happens very fast, Clark says. Item storage, shipping, and delivery have become Amazons top operating expenses, jumping more than 40 percent a year from 2010 to 2012 and contributing to a $39 million loss last year. Building on pricier land closer to cities drives up near-term expenses. Costs will rise more as the company adds 5,000 full-time jobs in 17 U.S. warehouses to its 20,000 existing employees, along with 2,000 customer service workers (including some part-time and seasonal hires). Upstarts such as online grocery deliverer Instacart are moving in the opposite direction. We dont have to build warehouses, lease a fleet of trucks, or manage perishable inventory, says Instacart Chief Executive Officer Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon employee. Unlike AmazonFresh, which ships groceries in Seattle and Los Angeles, Mehtas San Francisco-based startup guarantees delivery in less than two hours, using contract shoppers who drive their own cars to customers. Amazon has a strong record of trading short-term losses for market share and sustained profits later, and investors are giving CEO Jeff Bezos the benefit of the doubt. Since the start of 2010 the companys stock has more than doubled. With warehouses close to the top 20 U.S. metropolitan areas, Amazon could reach 50 percent of Americans with same-day delivery, compared with 15 percent now, says supply chain consultant MWPVL International. That would require 12 warehouses beyond those built and announced, MWPVL says. As they expand, Amazons warehouses will become more efficient, says Clark. The company last year bought Kiva Systems, whose packing robots are already used by acquisitions Zappos and Diapers.com, and Amazon is bulking up its grocery business with more refrigerators and trucks. Like car models, Clark says, Well very quickly incorporate what we learned this fall from the 2013 buildings and launch the 2014 model.

Contributors

Microsoft CEO Ballmer to retire within 12 months : Manjalika (MBA HR) 1st year Why Amazon Is on a Warehouse Building Spree : PR Cell

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