The Knowledge to Decide

High volume online shopping makes it difficult for US regulators to keep track of overseas manufactured items, effectively putting customers at risk. E-commerce has enabled popular products such as fidget spinners and vaping machines to win huge numbers customers without the help of any big brands. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) took a year to put new safety standards on hover boards after it entered US markets. Five months later, ten hover boards were recalled as their lithium ion battery packs were likely to catch fire or explode without warning. Should buyers beware or can cross-border e-commerce be made safe for consumers? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/cross-border-e-commerce-comes-with-safety-risks/

Spire was honored to participate in the second webinar series organized by Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC) as a guest speaker. The webinar was held on 20 December, 2017 in Hong Kong. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group shared his insights on cross-border e-commerce challenges and trends for payment and logistics transactions across Southeast Asia. In his presentation, Bahar shared his insights on potential of cross-border e-commerce transactions in South-East Asia, with a focus on challenges involving payment and logistics issues. Bahar mentioned that the e-commerce market represents potential for growth due to the rise in internet users across ASEAN-6 countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines) as of 2016. Product purchases (in millions) were highest for Vietnam (33.26), the Philippines (30.34) and Indonesia (24.74) with clothing, accessories as well as footwear amongst the top 5 p

On 5 September, Yamada Business Consulting (YBC) organized a seminar in Tokyo, attended by close to 300 Japan-based executives, to discuss the potential and pitfalls of cross-border Mergers & Acquistions (M&A). Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, joined the concluding panel together with Patrick Becker, MD of Shanghai-based M&A advisory firm Bexuco and Yukuo Takenaka, head of US-based consultancy Takenaka Partners. Leon and the other panelists discussed the experience of cross-border M&A transactions by Japanese firms. The panel shared their views on the effectiveness of Japanese corporations in identifying and executing M&A deals as well as running effective post-merger integration (PMI). The speakers gave insights on key factors to consider when going ahead with a deal. These included paying sufficient attention to human factors, not “over-researching” the target company and navigating the challenges of some M&A

Spire was honored to participate in the second webinar series organized by Global Supply Chain Council (GSCC) as a guest speaker. The webinar was held on 20 December, 2017 in Hong Kong. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group shared his insights on cross-border e-commerce challenges and trends for payment and logistics transactions across Southeast Asia. In his presentation, Bahar shared his insights on potential of cross-border e-commerce transactions in South-East Asia, with a focus on challenges involving payment and logistics issues. Bahar mentioned that the e-commerce market represents potential for growth due to the rise in internet users across ASEAN-6 countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines) as of 2016. Product purchases (in millions) were highest for Vietnam (33.26), the Philippines (30.34) and Indonesia (24.74) with clothing, accessories as well as footwear amongst the top 5 pr