Unilever Archives - New Normal

Saudi oil policy risks creating perfect storm for Aramco flotation

15 April 2018

Good business strategies generally create good investments over the longer term. And so Aramco needs to ensure it has the best possible strategies, if it wants to maximise the outcome from its planned $2tn flotation. Unfortunately, the current oil price strategy seems more likely to damage its valuation, by being based on 3 questionable assumptions: Oil […]

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2018 will see Winners and Losers appear in plastics markets

1 April 2018

Two major challenges face petrochemical and polymer producers and consumers in 2018: The likely disruption created by the arrival of the ethylene/polyethylene expansions in the US The growth of the circular economy and the need to dramatically increase recycling capacity My new interview with Will Beacham, deputy editor of ICIS Chemical Business, focuses on both […]

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Indian auto sales decline as the middle class myth disappears

16 May 2014

India’s stock market has hit new records this week, as investors anticipate radical policy changes after election results are announced today. And the chart above highlights a key area behind the need for change, namely the problems of the important auto market: Indian auto sales dipped in April to just 183k (red square) This is […]

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World Bank warns "real-side recovery is weak"

21 January 2013

The risk of global recession continues to rise, with the World Bank last week warning that “the real-side recovery is weak and business sector confidence is low”. Spain, the world’s 12th largest economy, provides a good example of how the problems ar…

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If you build it, they may not come

9 June 2012

The story of the 1989 US movie Field of Dreams summed up the happy days of the economic supercycle that was then getting underway. Starring A-list players such as Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster, its theme that “if you build it, they will come” came …

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Affordability a key trend for Western markets

2 June 2012

The Red Queen in the classic book, Alice in Wonderland, would have recognised today’s financial markets when she boasted “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Fellow blogger Doris de Guzman noted one great e…

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V is for Volatility

22 May 2012

Unilever CEO Paul Polman suggests we are living in a VUCA world, as we discuss in chapter 11 of Boom, Gloom and the New Normal. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity make planning for the future more difficult than for a generation.

Th…

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