Choice Hotels International’s early and big bet on the cloud has allowed it to glean the many benefits of its digital transformation and devote more energies to a key corporate value — sustainability, its CIO maintains. That is largely due to the 80-year-old hotel chain’s tight partnership with Amazon Web Services, says Choice CIO Brian Kirkland, who claims his company is enjoying the cost benefits and energy efficiencies of the cloud while exploiting many of 225 related services AWS offers such as analytics and AI to keep advancing on its digital reservations and pricing platform. [ Stay on budget with these 6 cloud cost management tips , learn the 5 fundamentals of effective cloud management , and beware hidden cloud migration gotchas . ] Kirkland, a founding member of SustainabilityIT.org, an organization to drive global sustainability through technology leadership, says Choice was the first hospitality company to make a strategic commitment to developing a cloud-native and sustainable platform on AWS. The cloud platform helped Choice pivot quickly during the pandemic, enabling it to scale on demand as hotel traffic went down. It also helped reduce energy consumption and costs. More importantly, perhaps, pushing all in on the cloud has […]

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Crowdsource Innovation The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was established in 2018 to provide opportunities for the world to benefit from the continent’s economies and businesses. A new report from the World Economic Forum, AfCFTA Secretariat and Forum partners provides tools and strategies for leveraging the new trade area’s opportunities. Four sectors – the automotive industry, agriculture and agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, and transportation and logistics – were analyzed in the report as they are expected to accelerate in production and trade volumes under the AfCFTA. At a time of multiple, overlapping global challenges – from climate change to energy shocks to rising inflation and a cost-of-living crisis – the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers promise not only for the region but for the world. The AfCFTA, established in 2018, will create the world’s largest free trade area, bringing transformative change and tremendous opportunity to African economies and business environments. Its adoption and implementation will accelerate intra-African trade and develop regional and local value chains, creating new business dynamics that offer investors access to a population of 1.7 billion people with combined business and consumer spending reaching $6.7 billion by 2030 . Have you read? High-potential sectors Global […]

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More than 1,400 business leaders from across industries will come together in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2023. The theme is ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’ and it’s never been more important for private-public cooperation to find solutions to the myriad challenges facing the world today. Here’s what you need to know about the sessions at Davos that will look at the balancing act businesses face between managing risks and making a positive impact. In the heat-laden months of 2022, it became abundantly clear the health of the planet is deteriorating. Companies are increasingly expected by investors and the wider public to be part of the multistakeholder, collaborative effort to restore it – and be transparent. As more than 1,500 business leaders come together in Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2023 – the highest ever business participation – the future of non-financial reporting and investment will be on the agenda. But so too will the prevailing economic conditions and the risks businesses face today. A global recession is considered to be extremely or somewhat likely this year by 63% of the economists surveyed for the Forum’s latest Chief Economists Outlook . It finds […]

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European data center firm Penta Infra has acquired Sungard’s data center and colocation business in Paris, France. The company this week announced it had acquired the data center campus in the Lognes area of the French capital. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. – Google Maps Penta Infra said it will also acquire the colocation business and continue to deliver data center services ‘to the majority’ of the existing client base. The three-building campus, located at 93 Cr des Petites Écuries and consisting of two data centers and a workplace facility, covers more than 16,000 sqm (172,000 sq ft) and reportedly has “significant opportunities” for expansion. Penta said the site will be developed into a 10MW data center. Patrick van der Wilt, Chief Commercial Officer at Penta Infra, said: “We are very excited to announce that we’re expanding our footprint into France, one of the leading European markets. Acquisition of the Lognes data center campus is a new chapter in our ambition to increase our data center footprint in Europe. The high-profile customer base, a dense partner ecosystem that provides a wide range of connectivity and public cloud options, combined with the ability to scale on the Lognes […]

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Columbus’ elected leaders want to help female entrepreneurs and minority-owned businesses set up shop in brick-and-mortar downtown spaces. To achieve that goal, Columbus City Council is taking steps to open a new downtown marketplace, Councilman Nick Bankston said. The marketplace program would include graduated rent support, a tenant renovation fund and technical assistance. Plans are still in the early stages and an exact location for the market has yet to be selected. But Bankston said the goal is to find an area that already has retail activity, and serve as a "catalyst" for continued growth of both the tenants and downtown Columbus. At the end of this quarter, the city will begin seeking an entity to offer the technical assistance. That entity could also serve as the master leaseholder for the facility, or two different organizations could be involved. Once responses come in, Columbus City Council would need to vote on the contract recipient. The program is one of a few ongoing efforts to spur downtown’s growth and development, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. "We want to take the risk away from locating your business downtown," Bankston said. Rent support and technical help Bankston expects the […]

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More state lawmakers are introducing bills to keep their state governments from doing business with financial institutions that take environmental, social or corporate governance into consideration when making investment decisions. Critics say these bills are designed to boost fossil fuel companies and will end up costing taxpayers. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Republican state policymakers’ efforts to boost fossil fuels by prohibiting their governments from doing business with companies that take sustainability into consideration has the potential to cost states millions, according to a study released Thursday. Researchers looked specifically at the possible effects on Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia if they passed Texas-like legislation limiting investment options on municipal bonds and found it could cost them between $264 and $708 million in additional interest payments. The study noted that the states had not passed such broad legislation. The six states are among two dozen that last year issued proposed or passed legislation prohibiting state government entities from doing business with financial firms that take environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) into consideration when making investment decisions as anti-ESG efforts spread from state treasurers and attorneys general to governors and lawmakers. Republican policymakers refer to ESG […]

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Jake Judd/KNSI News (KNSI) – Two existing Waite Park businesses are hoping to open new locations soon within the city. Banfield Pet Hospital could soon get the okay for a standalone facility. The issue was expected to come before the city council on January 3rd, but weather canceled the session. Instead, it is set for debate this Wednesday. The veterinary clinic is currently located inside PetsMart. The business wants to open in the Marketplace Shopping Center on 2nd Street South. The new site is zoned B-2 for commercial and general business, which requires a conditional use permit for an animal hospital. The details have already been recommended by the city’s planning commission. It has not been decided if the PetsMart location would remain open. Exterior signage for the new site would have to be approved through a permit in the future. A possible kennel run for the dogs is not included in the upcoming hearing and would need to go before the city council at a later date. Schulte Transmission is attempting to move into the Poganski Auto site on 3rd Street North. Schulte would operate a major automotive repair business there. Poganski Auto had a Conditional Use Permit […]

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Good morning, everyone. The Business Journal’s offices are closed today, but here is an abbreviated version of the five things you need to know in Boston business news today. We’ll be back in full swing in this space tomorrow. ‘The Embrace’ unveiled Unless you’ve been trapped under a large piece of living room furniture for the past couple of weeks, you know the 22-foot-high sculpture called “The Embrace” has now been installed and unveiled on Boston Common. Scroll down for more, plus photos from Friday. The cost of cannabis Despite a widespread perception that cannabis entrepreneurs rake in the profits, the industry faces plenty of unique burdens. In the latest Weekly Edition , Cassie McGrath takes a closer look at the restrictions and obstacles such businesses endure , from curbs on advertising to prohibitively high taxes and real estate costs. Join the BBJ for a discussion on the economy at our Economic Outlook luncheon, Jan. 26 at Seaport Hotel Boston. Register here. Holiday sales slog Local small businesses saw the dollar amount in holiday sales increase by just over 1% compared with the 2021 holiday shopping season — a far cry from the 4% annual increase that the Retailers […]

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Davos 2023 Digital technology can make business more efficient and profitable, but also smarter and more agile. Crowdsource Innovation Businesses need to undergo digital and sustainable transformations in parallel. They can use digital technology for everything from product development to manufacturing and operations, making use of vast amounts of data. To become a truly sustainable business requires a fundamental redesign of systems and processes. The next era of industrial transformation, enabled by technology and data, will impact all sectors and reshape the way we operate, interact, and consume. It will present an opportunity for business leaders to transform their business models and value chains in a sustainable way. This will involve navigating numerous risks and navigating a complicated context. We need to undergo two major transformations in parallel: digital transformation and sustainability transformation. Digital can not only make business more efficient and profitable but also more agile and smarter, adjusting to consumer needs and changing market conditions. The advent of smart products will give consumers a much stronger ability to take control based on accurate insights for their everyday lives. At the same time, business leaders need to play their part in our collective decarbonization and transition to a […]

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The 2023 EY and University of St.Gallen Family Business Index reveals the largest family enterprises are growing faster than the global economy. In brief The largest 500 family enterprises generate US$8.02 trillion in revenue – up 10% from 2021. The inflow of new entrants, mainly from Europe (35%), is mostly public (64%). Almost half (47%) are from manufacturing, reflecting recovery in the sector. Women hold only 23% of board seats, indicating more needs to be done to close the gap. Collectively, the family enterprises that were included in the 2023 EY and University of St.Gallen Family Business Index generated $US8.02 trillion in revenue – a 10% increase on the 2021 Index 1 . According to the International Monetary Fund 2 , the global economy grew by 6% in 2021, and is forecast to grow by 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023. This means family enterprises have been growing at nearly twice the rate of advanced economies and around one and a half times the rate of emerging market and developing economies. Between them, the 500 companies on the Index employ 24.52 million people, up 1.4% from 2021, and are distributed across 47 different jurisdictions. The Index highlights, once […]

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