Michael Kors: What a Luxury Brand Should Be

One of the fastest rising luxury brands in the world today is Michael Kors. For the past three decades, Michael Kors has been known for distinct materials, designs and craftsmanship with a jet-aesthetic that integrates elegant styles with sporty attitude.

When Mr. Kors founded his company, his vision was to make it the leading American luxury sportswear brand. But through the years, Michael Kors evolved to become a global footwear, apparel and accessories company with operations in 74 countries. In North America alone, Michael Kors is recognized as the leading luxury lifestyle brand. And the company continues to earn growing awareness in international markets. Overall, Michael Kors have experienced highly exceptional sales which provide a clear trajectory for future growth.

Michael Kors has two primary lines. The Michael Kors luxury collection, which was launched in 1981, is the cornerstone of Michael Kors’ business. It carries the company’s luxury brands in its retails stores in in many department stores worldwide. The other line is the MICHAEL Michael Kors collection. This line focuses on luxury accessories in addition to footwear and apparel.

Topface: Online Dating Site with Over Forty Million Members and Counting

Whether within St. Petersburg in Russia where its headquarters are located or beyond, Topface is one of the fastest growing online dating sites in the world. With more than 40 million users across the globe, 1.5 million Topface members are sending more than 60 million photos to each other each day. Within one hour after a new member registers with Topface, more than 10,000 people have viewed his photos. Close to 150,000 matches are made on Topface every hour.

Half of Topface users are located outside Russia. Aside from Russian and Ukraine, Topface has millions of members in Europe, Latin America and the US. Topface has employed translators so that a member in Mexico can chat with someone in Ukraine without necessarily learning each other’s language. In short, anyone looking for someone to love or simply a friend to chat can find the good looking and interesting person on Topface.

There are more than 60 million likes that are sent through Topface every day. Hundreds of thousands of its members meet new acquaintances from all over the world every day. Topface is not only a company doing business. It is manned by a team of 60 young, talented and ambitious professionals who have the passion to make their service fast, convenient and interesting.

Topface service is available on the company’s website at www.topface.com, and on other social networks such as Facebook, My World, and VKontakte. It can also be accessed on mobile devices via Android and iOS.

Topface was founded in 2010 in St. Petersburg as the re-branded version of the popular app Face Meter. Since then, Topface has won the leading non-gaming service on VKontakte for two consecutive years, and the most popular online dating site on Facebook. According to Topface CEO Dmitry Filatov, he just dreamed of millions of Topface users when the business concept was birthed. But now, the dream does not seem far away as the number of Topface members grow in leaps and bounds every day.

Rusnano: Nanotechnology’s Tomorrow Today

Rusnano is a Russian joint-stock company formed by the Russian government to commercialize the developments in nanotechnology. In the Russian government’s timetable, Rusnano should be able to create 900 billion rubles ($29 billion) worth of marketable products by the end of 2015.

In April 2012, Rusnano placed $79 million worth of investment in Quantenna Communications, a semiconductors manufacturer for wireless devices. In a press release, Rusnano reported that the investment leverages the synergies between the portfolio of Quantenna and the quantity of nanotechnology initiatives that are on-going in Rusnano.

In June 2007, some members of the United Russia party have proposed the creation of Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies. The proposal was enacted into a law on July 6. The company was re-registered as an open joint-stock company on March 11, 2011 and consequently renamed it as Rusnano.

Rusnano is wholly owned by the Russian government. Its funds are supplied by the Russian although the Russian government has recently issued guaranteed bonds to generate funds for Rusnano.

UFO Moviez: Films Via Satellite

UFO Moviez India Ltd. is the largest and the only Digital Cinema chain networked by a satellite in the world. The company provides end-to-end Digital Cinema solutions to theater where the films are delivered directly by satellite. This service ensures “First Day First Show” for all film exhibitors across India.

For the first time, movie distribution and exhibition in India have experienced a revolution with the technology that UFO Moviez has introduced in the market. With UFO Moviez, the single screen cinemas were revived in India and its technology has substantially decreased the proliferation of pirated movies in the country.

Today, India and Nepal has total accumulated screens of more than 3,500 in more than 1,350 cities. UFO Moviez plays a major role in keeping the film distribution and exhibition industry in alive and thriving. UFO Moviez’s headquarters are located in Mumbai and it operates 18 regional offices in India. These offices have released over 6,800 movies dubbed in 33 languages.

Aside from film distribution and exhibition, UFO Moviez was proven to be an excellent solution to advertising needs through its satellite-based Digital Cinema Advertising. UFO Moviez is an end-to-end solution for the advertising needs of local, regional and national advertisers including the large corporations, government agencies and PSU clients.

The Valuable Group established UFO Moviez in 2005. A year after, UFO Moviez acquired the controlling interest of DG2L Technology Pvt. Ltd. This acquisition gave UFO Moviez access to MPEG-4 based Digital Cinema technology – from capturing, to encoding, to encryption, to management, to delivery, until playback. Because the films have been converted to MPEG-4 format, UFO Moviez was able to compress the films to its optimal size. This way, the films can easily be transmitted directly to the theaters through satellite.

UFO Moviez employs the Pay-per-Show business model. Distributors are charged based only on the actual use of its platform; that is, based on actual exhibition of the films in theaters. To help the theaters in the required equipment, UFO Moviez invested in Digital Cinema equipment and rented them out to theaters.

VKontakte: Russia’s Version of Social Networking

VKontakte (also known as VK) is a Russian social network service provider. VKontakte literally means “in touch.” Although primarily available for the Russians, VKontakte is also available in other Russian-speaking social networkers such as in Israel, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Like many popular social networks of today, VKontakte has the functions and features that are needed for social networking – public and private messaging, sharing and tagging images, videos and audios, creating groups, events posting and notices, and browser-based gaming.

By the end of January 2014, VKontakte has more than 239 million user accounts, making it the second largest social network in Europe. Alexa has listed VKontakte in the 23rd place in its global Top 500 sites list. Alexa also reported that VKontakte is Russia’s second most visited site. In another report, eBizMBA Rank listed VKontakte as the world’s eighth most popular social networking site. On the average, VKontakte has registered 55 million users every day.

Curtis-Wright Corporation: The Spirit of Innovation

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a company that manufactures a diversified range of products and provides various services to different businesses in different industries such as aerospace, defense, oil and gas, nuclear power generation, and others. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the American company was founded in 1929 through the merger of Curtis, Wright, and other companies in Buffalo, New York. By the end of World War II, it was considered as the largest aircraft manufacturer in the US, supplying the entire aircraft in huge numbers to the U.S. Armed Forces. Since then, it has evolved away from final assembly of finished aircraft and focusing on manufacturing components. It specializes in aircraft controls, actuators, valves, and metal treatment. Furthermore, it is also a supplier to commercial nuclear power and nuclear navy systems to oil and gas companies.

Curtiss-Wright officially came into existence on July 5, 1929. It resulted from the merger of 12 companies associated with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and Wright Aeronautical. With a capital of $75 million, it was the biggest aviation in the US. Initially, it has three main divisions: Curtiss-Wright Airplane Division, Wright Aeronautical Corporation, and Curtiss-Wright Propeller Division. The first manufactured airframes, the second produced aircraft engines, while the third specialized in propellers. After 1929, most of the engines that the company produced were known as Wrights while most of the aircrafts were known as Curtiss, only with a few exceptions.

Throughout the 1930s, the company designed and developed aircraft for commercial, private, and military markets. During the difficult years of the Great Depression, the company’s strong and long relationship with the US military helped it conquer the odds.

During the Second World War, the company produced more than 140,000 aircraft engines and over 145,000 electric propellers. It also developed about 30,000 airplanes. While the company had missteps throughout the years, particularly after the War, it continued to prove successful, acquiring a number of companies along the way.

Plains All American Pipeline: A Master Limited Partnership

Plains All American Pipeline is a Master limited partnership dealing with oil pipeline transportation, storage, and marketing in the US, owning around 37 million barrels of storage and terminal capacity plus 15,000 miles of pipelines for crude oil. The company was publicly traded in 1993 and from there grew through investments and acquisitions. Acquisitions were mostly initiated to address the company's aim of improving oil transmission to the Midwest. Some of the biggest acquisitions for Plains All American Pipeline include: the All American Pipeline System (1998), Scurlock Permian (1999), assets for CANPET Energy Group and Murphy Oil Company Ltd. (2001), pipeline assets from the Shell Pipeline Company (2002), the Capline Pipeline System and Link Energy Pipeline System (2004), Pacific Energy Partners (2006), and PAA/Vulcan Natural Gas Storage (2009).

Plains All American Pipeline owns and operates a diversified portfolio of assets that are vital to the movement of energy supplies to the US and Canada. On average, the company handles more than 3.5 million barrels of crude oil, NGL, and refined products per day.

InSightec: Excellence Through Experience

InSightec  Ltd. is a technology company that manufactures and sells MR-guided focused ultrasound machines. The company was founded by GE Healthcare and Elbit Medical Imaging in 1999 to make a clinically viable technology out of its MR-guided Focused Ultrasound or MRgFUS.

With this “new” undertaking, InSightec has invested as much as $200 million for the company’s research and development efforts. To date, InSightec is credited for more than 90 patents, aside from then pending application for addition intellectual properties.

The MRgFUS technology is a combination of two of the most well-known technologies to come up with this breakthrough therapy. MRgFUS is useful for non-invasive surgery that does not use anesthesia. Outpatient procedures that use MRgFUS last between 2 and 4 hours only. On normal cases, patients return to their normal activities within one day after a procedure. MRgFUS minimizes many medical complications such as infections, transfusions and adverse surgical events. MRgFUS promotes green surgery by minimizing the spread of biohazards.

InSightec carries two major products: the ExAblate® Neuro and the ExAblate® OR. ExAblate® Neuro helps treat brain disorders through a thousand-element helmet-like transducer. This product is used for treating Neuropathic pains, Parkinson’s disease and Essential tremor. InSightec is doing clinical tests for the possibility of using ExAblate® Neuro to treat brain tumors.

ExAblate® OR is used to treat body applications. The product offers options for commercialization or research treatment for a wide range of medical conditions such as adenomyosis, uterine fibroids, pain palliation of bone metastases and prostate and breast cancers.

For a continuing improvement of its products and services, InSightec clinically collaborates with the leading medical research groups and hospitals across the globe. Together, InSightec and its partners conduct sponsored trials to collect clinical data that would help advance InSightec’s technology and continue to develop the widest spectrum of new clinical applications.

InSightec is based in Tirat Carmel, Israel. Its US offices are located in Dallas, Texas and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. InSightec has operations in Europe and in Asia.