Global Briefing

By Desa Philadelphia

Koreans Get the Weekend Off

On July 1, South Korea's banks will close their doors on Saturdays, thereby making their employees the country's most envied workers. Almost all other Koreans--as well as workers in other countries from Israel to Mexico--still work a six-day week. Korea's labor unions are negotiating with employer groups to give a two-day weekend to the rest of the work force--a measure supported by the government, which may introduce legislation to make a shorter workweek mandatory. South Korea's plan to adopt a five-day workweek is seen as another sign that it is becoming a global economic player that no longer needs an extra day to catch up with its trading partners. The longer weekend is expected to boost Korea's leisure businesses, including restaurants, sports and retailers of outdoor equipment. But some pessimists warn it may also mean Koreans will have to adopt an American approach to getting work done by Friday--and do more weekday overtime.

New Yanqui Treats for Castro

Last year a relaxation of the U.S. trade embargo allowed Cuba to buy U.S. food products--a privilege it began exercising in November when it purchased 30,000 tons of corn from Archer Daniels Midland. Since then Fidel Castro's government has spent $90 million in scarce hard currency on staples like rice, wheat and chicken. Now Castro and his buyers would like to sample brand-name products. This fall more than 150 American companies such as specialty pastamaker Bushel 42 and Spam producer Hormel will travel to Havana to show off Napa Valley wines, soy burgers, candy bars and even bottled water at a food and agribusiness exhibition. "The focus for American companies is how to create brand awareness in Cuba," says John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. As for Castro, who enjoyed U.S. hot dogs during his first visit to New York City in 1960, he recently tucked into a plate of U.S.-made soy spaghetti.

No More Empty Seats?

Those angry fans outside stadiums at the World Cup, and the empty seats inside, represent the nightmare of any business that sells online. And it all could have been avoided had Cup officials made sure that vendors provided backup servers for its ticketing website, through companies like IBM and EDS (which acquired the Web-hosting business of Loudcloud). "It's like running an electric utility, because you have to accommodate huge spikes in activity," says Marc Andreessen, a Loudcloud founder. When clients such as Foxsports.com and Fandango experience surges in online traffic, Loudcloud instantly provides backup servers.

Let's Call It a Day

When Arthur Andersen, the accounting giant, and Andersen Consulting went their separate ways last year, the smaller firm endured a lot of teasing for changing its name to Accenture--a handle suggested by someone in the Oslo office. But now that its creative work on Enron's books has turned Arthur Andersen into a global pariah, the consulting firm's name change looks like a stroke of genius. And it's being emulated. PricewaterhouseCoopers--whose accounting work for K Mart and Tyco has been criticized--is spinning off PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting in August. And so eager is the new firm to separate from its parent that it has announced it will rename itself "Monday." Why Monday? CEO Greg Brenneman says it's a "real word, concise, recognizable, global."

Drowning in E-Mail? Read This

Most people blame idle friends and spammers for the junk that clogs their e-mail In boxes. But productivity expert Mark Ellwood says we all contribute to the problem. Ellwood is the author of Cut the Glut of E-Mail, a slim volume of practical tips on how to "take responsibility" for excessive e-mailing and "find more time for the things that count." Some of his suggestions--use the phone instead and institute a No E-Mail Day--are blindingly obvious. But Ellwood is also effective at challenging the utility of beloved functions like the autoresponder (it notifies senders that you're out of the office, but becomes chain mail if you're on a mailing list) and the reply-all function. (Bosses are interested in results, not all the correspondence it took you to get there, he writes.) You don't have to respond to every acknowledgment or thank-you note. Oh, and before you forward a virus warning to everyone you know, Ellwood advises, check with your system administrator to see whether it's a hoax.