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Want to shed a few pounds? The easy answer up till now was eat right and exercise regularly, but not anymore.
HP digital cameras actually have a slimming feature. I thought it was a joke at first... gives new meaning to the phrase "image is everything". Pretty sad, eh?
Read it on Seth Godin's blog.
Renault is presenting their Nepta concept car at the 2006 Paris Motor Show, a 4-door cabriolet with a cool "gull-wing" door opening scheme, 3.5 liter 420hp V6 direct injection engine, and a gadget-filled interior.
Nice...
Read more at Business Week.
Brilliance China Automotive wants to increase exports of their self-branded models this year, including 3000 units of their mid-class Zhonghua sedan for Europe. 
Their EU counterpart, HSO Co. Ltd., says they will attract 50,000 European customers in the following several years. The firm also will help Brilliance with an overseas developing strategy including stronger brand awareness.
Brilliance has broken into 20-some overseas markets, and has 33 dealers in Africa, South and North America, and the Middle East. They've barely begun on this path, having exported just 3,700 units in the first semester of 2006.
The company has lost money in the domestic market over the past two years, and reported a decreased profit loss for the first half of this year.
A new ceramic battery made by Texas-based newcomer EEStor will deliver a range of 500 miles on $9 worth of power, equal to $60 worth of gasoline at today's prices. That works out to 45 cents a gallon, or about 12 cents a liter.
(Actually, it's not really a battery as there are no chemicals involved.)
Canadian electric car leader Feel Good Cars 
has already confirmed plans to incorporate EEStor powered engines by 2008.
The technology is still being worked on, but the device contains no hazardous materials and can be fully charged in five minutes. Current batteries used in electric vehicles are large, have limited ranges and take hours to charge. EEStor's offering looks to change all that.
EEStor was founded by engineers Richard Weir and Carl Nelson, and is backed by VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Learned of this on the Kicking Tires blog.
The Detroit News says that DaimlerChrysler is close to finalizing a deal with China's Chery Automobile. The idea: bring Dodge-branded subcompacts to the U.S. 
This would be the first such arrangement between a leading global automaker and an aspiring Chinese manufacturer.
DaimlerChrysler recently unveiled plans to manufacture the Mercedes E-class, Chrysler 300c, and Mitsubishi Outlander SUV through a joint venture with Beijing Automotive.
Chery has already been involved in talks regarding bringing its own models to the U.S., with Malcolm Bricklin through his Visionary Vehicles enterprise. This initiative is behind schedule, with the first models now expected to arrive in 2008.
Several major automakers already manufacture vehicles in China through joint ventures, including GM, Toyota, and DaimlerChrysler. But this would be the first time a Chinese automaker would be making a car for export for a U.S. or European company.
The catalyst? The big automakers cannot make money selling small, cheap cars built in western Europe or North America. And that's the way the world is moving due to high fuel prices: smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. The Japanese, as usual, are at the forefront of this change, importing small cars they sell in other parts of the world (Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit), to the U.S. 
Renault-Nissan is very interested in expanding into North America via a strategic partner, according to CEO Carlos Ghosn, and would thus look for another partner if the talks with GM go nowhere. No possible companies were mentioned, says Automotive News. 
Recent reports (Reuters, Detroit News) had indicated that Renault-Nissan was also at least looking into a possible alliance with Ford.
The possible alliance I recently posted about between General Motors and Renault-Nissan, which had seemed to lose momentum, now seems to still be alive. 
GM's Rick Wagoner and Nissan's Carlos Ghosn are in Paris discussing it right now. The companies say they should make a decision around Oct. 15.
The official statements put out by both GM and Renault-Nissan said the focus of the talks was on "how an alliance could generate significant shareholder value for each company."
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the alliance was in trouble, as GM would demand billions of dollars as compensation for the greater value of GM.
Here's part 3 in a series of articles on common problems in family-owned businesses, based on an interview I did recently with J.C. Aimetta, an expert and coach who specializes in this kind of company.
Al McClymont (me): It seems obvious that in every family-owned business 
there will be members that will work in the company, and members that choose not to. How can the interests of family members that work in the company and family members who do not work there, be reconciled?
J.C. Aimetta: Well, first of all, it is necessary to understand that the family members who work in the company do so to make everyone wealthy, even those members that do not work there.
Thus, a simple way of reconciling interests is to provide the family owners that do not work in the company with information. Offer them information about how the business is doing, how it is evolving.
The simplest data is the balance sheet. An annual or biannual balance, so that they know whether there was a profit or loss, is a way to keep the family members that do not work in the company informed, and help them to learn to appreciate the family business.
Mainly, when it comes to family members that are owners and who live abroad, a feeling of emotional indifference is generated because they never get information about the company’s development. Thus, little by little they lose interest, and may decide abruptly to get rid of their share. So, the first thing to do is provide information.
And the second thing is to provide money. 
The owners of the family business tend to become richer in assets and poorer in cash. That is to say, they are “rich” because they have many things, but “poor” because they have no cash to spend.
Therefore, when someone reaches their 50’s or 60’s and realizes that they own 20% of a company located in some part of the world, but they have to take out a loan in order to take a cruise, they can get angry.
Al McClymont: What should the company be doing to prevent theses family members from getting upset?
J.C. Aimetta: Well, first of all, it is necessary to provide the family member who does not work in the company with some kind of return, some distribution of results, even if it means less reinvestment and less growth.
As regards information, we should believe that the family members who do not work in the company are experts. Thus, it is a great mistake to hand a balance sheet to a person who is a painter or a writer, and think they are ignorant because they do not know how to read it. Nobody is that ignorant as to be unable to learn how to read a balance sheet. And if they want to be a shareholder, an owner, they must at least understand the ABCs. In practice this is not usually explained to them, the information is just given to them in order to satisfy a formality.
Every time an owner does not understand what is happening and does not see cash from the company he owns, the risk of them suddenly leaving even grows, sometimes even amid an unhealthy legal situation.
In the next part of this interview, we’ll talk about how the family-owned business can plan for succession.
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Tags: auto dealer, auto dealers, car dealer, car dealers, motor vehicle dealer, motor vehicle dealers, smb, smbs, family owned business, family owned businesses, family-owned business, family-owned businesses, family business, family businesses
Citroen unveiled their C-Métisse, a spectacular concept car, as a sort of preview to the Paris motor show later this month.
The car boasts environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient diesel-hybrid technology, and does a 6.2 second 0-100 km/hour acceleration. Cool safety feature: The Métisse adopts a 4WD configuration when its ESP sensors report low grip conditions.
Cool interior features: a beautiful fighter jet-like compartment, including contact and startup controls on the roof console and independent seating for all passengers... each seat has its own air-conditioning controls. Back-seat knee-room complies with "limousine standards".
The Métisse's official site is here, with quite a bit of info.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, says that they are still looking for a partner in North America. 
No companies were mentioned, but 2 conditions for a potential hook up were: "finding synergies, and a similar appetite on the part of the 3 firm's management teams."
Ghosn says they will have conclusions by October 15. Recent talks with GM about creating an alliance have gone nowhere.
