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July 8, 2006Business Business Strategy US

Why Didn’t Pepsi Want Coke’s Formula to Be Stolen?

Here is an interesting newsof Pepsi coming out to help nab Coke officials who were trying to sell Coke formula to Pepsi. The question that everyone would have is WHY? Why would Pepsi not want the formula of Coke out – which could be a death knell for Coke? Is it just plain altruism?

The three, who include an executive administrative assistant at Coke, were charged with wire fraud along with stealing and selling trade secrets. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta say the trio sought to sell the information in deals worth as much as $1.5 million.

Federal prosecutors said Coke learned of the theft from Pepsi, which provided the company with a letter from an individual claiming to be a high-level Coca-Cola employee offering “very detailed and confidential information.”

“We just did what any responsible company would do. Competition can be fierce, but it also needs to be fair,” Pepsi spokesman Dave DeCecco said.

On hearing from Pepsi, Coke alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which began an undercover operation.

“While this breach of trust is difficult for all of us to accept, it underscores the responsibility we each have to be vigilant in protecting our trade secrets,” Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive of Coke, the world’s largest soft drink company, said in a memo to employees.

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WordPress Themes – link for a Comprehensive List

July 8, 2006 / Blogging, Blogs, Personal / 1 comment

The most used blogging platform is Wordpress. In fact I am also using it for my BusinessMusings.com site (am moving it to a new host and it should come up soon). I always thought that it would be great if someone could create a comprehensive list of all the themes for WP. Finally here is a Comprehensive List of the WP themes. Great Resource!!

The theme that I have used for my BusinessMusings site is named Kiwi! I have seen lots of themes on various platforms but this one beats EVERYONE of them hands down!!

Here is an image of the Kiwi-themed site:

I used GIMP to create the banners on every page and inserted them to look really good!!

So, if any of you are contemplating using WP for your site, please do go ahead with it and use any the nice themes that people have created in the list above!
Jharkhand’s Clueless Ministers Block Mittal’s Steel Plants

July 8, 2006 / Business, India, Politics / 0 comments

Just read this and ponder on what losers we have in office as our Ministers and Bureaucrats. Full of Egos and Vanity. Here is the World’s largest Steel company coming to put up a Iron and Steel plant in Jharkhand – which is sure to increase their employment and tax revenues.. and the Ministers are caught up in red tape!! This guy Mittal does NOT need Jharkhand.. rather Jharkhand needs Mittal and his plants to improve the lives of the people there!! Can we, the normal educated people, even comprehend the mess these guys are wrecking on our countrymen’s lives?? What I am afraid is that most people do not even understand this thing!!

A day after Mittal served a virtual ultimatum to Jharkhand that he would take the project to a state where things moved faster, Jharkhand Mines Minister Madhu Kora said government had not received any application from the Mittal Group for iron ore mine lease, power and land acquisition.

“The pace of work could be judged only after the applications were given,” he said.

Asked whether Mittal’s announcement of setting up a steel plant in neighbouring Orissa was a pressure tactic to expedite things in Jharkhand, Kora said, “if anyone comes with such intentions, then I can only tell that the outcome of the understanding between the two parties would not be good.

The Jharkhand government has neither any problem nor any reservation on Mittal’s announcement to set up a steel plant in Orissa-Mittal Steel’s second announcement in nine months.

“The Jharkhand government is moving in the right direction and will go to the maximum extent to help Mittal Steel set up the greenfield project in the state. We are serious about helping them,” Kora said.