Deal or no deal? Five common mistakes people make when negotiating deals

Having spent the past few years teaching organisations around the world how to negotiate effectively, a common question I get asked is whether our gender makes a difference to our ability to negotiate. My starting point is always, without fail, that it should not make any difference. Both men and women are able to be amazing negotiators.

However, that doesn't mean that there aren't assumptions and stereotypes that limit how we might approach negotiating a deal. In this series of articles, it is my job to tackle these issues head on and show you how you can be a negotiation superhero.

First, I am going to explore five common mistakes made by negotiators. If you recognise yourself in any of the following examples, it might be time to re-think your negotiation strategies.

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Mistake 1: Negotiation is all about winning

It isn't. Not outwardly anyway. At the end of the negotiation you want the other party to feel like they have "won". Because if they feel like they have lost, the negotiation ends and they will be the client or customer who keeps coming back, asking for more, making late payment, not prioritising your requests or just being generally unco-operative. Nobody likes to feel like a fool. So at the end of the negotiation, make sure you behave with grace and professionalism. Make them feel like they have won, even if you know that you have secured the deal of a lifetime.

Mistake 2: Avoiding negotiation is a clever strategy

I know, let's just skip that negotiation part! No one really likes doing it, so let's just cut to the chase and save time. We all know it's just a game, right? Wrong.

A common mistake is to try and bypass the negotiation entirely, believing that both you and the other party will be grateful that they have avoided all that unnecessary awkwardness. The problem with this strategy is that despite the old saying, people do look a gift horse in the mouth. If something is too easy, people start to wonder why that was the case and what might be wrong with the deal they have just (so easily) agreed to.

Mistake 3: Sticking to your tried and trusted negotiation style

I routinely see clients who pride themselves on being "the bad cop" or "the collaborator" when it comes to negotiation. The problem is that they use that same style every single time they negotiate, regardless of the situation.

Not all negotiations are the same. Some require a more direct and unemotional response, whereas others require more creative thinking. Some will have one variable, others will have hundreds. If you adopt your standard collaborative' approach in a hard-bargaining scenario, you will be taken advantage of. Similarly, if you approach a win/win negotiation with a tough and aggressive style, you are unlikely to get the result you want. To be the best negotiator you can be, get comfortable with flexing your style.

Mistake 4: Always trying to be fair

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that you should actively be seeking deals that are unfair to the other party. What I am suggesting is that you shouldn't always assume that your definition of fairness matches theirs. I routinely hear people delivering proposals to the other side and then following up their suggestion with "I think that's a fair proposal, don't you?"

Each party approaches a negotiation with their own interpretation as to what makes an agreement fair. Put simply, what is fair to a buyer is probably not fair from the perspective of the seller, and vice versa.

So don't be surprised if their response to your very "fair" suggestion is a flat refusal.

Mistake 5: It's all about you

When we approach a negotiation, we often spend most of our time thinking of all the reasons why the outcome is important to us. We get bogged down in thinking about deadlines, expectations, demands, targets, pressure from competitors, ambition or whatever it might be that matters to us. We often allow this to cloud our thinking and in doing so we ramp up the pressure on ourselves to do well. This often results in anxiety, fear and nervousness clouding our judgement, planning and performance.

Smart negotiators realise that the best way to diffuse the pressure of our own expectations is to simply acknowledge these pressures and then put them to one side. The real set of pressures and priorities that we should be thinking about exist in the head of our counterparty. Even if they do come across as powerful and intimidating, they too will have deadlines, expectations from colleagues and demands from their boss.

The more you research your counterparty and understand things from their perspective, the more you can start to use their pressures to your advantage. It also goes a long way to boosting your own confidence if you know that the balance of power might just be a bit more even than you had previously thought.

Crowdfunding needs good regulation to flourish

If one were seeking a perfect example of why it’s so hard to make financial markets work well, one would not have to look further than the difficulties and controversies surrounding crowdfunding in the United States. After deliberating for more than three years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month issued a final rule that will allow true crowdfunding; and yet the new regulatory framework still falls far short of what’s needed to boost crowdfunding worldwide.

True crowdfunding, or equity crowdfunding, refers to the activities of online platforms that sell shares of startup companies directly to large numbers of small investors, bypassing traditional venture capital or investment banking. The concept is analogous to that of online auctions. But, unlike allowing individuals to offer their furniture to the whole world, crowdfunding is supposed to raise money fast, from those in the know, for businesses that bankers might not understand. It certainly sounds exciting.

Regulators outside the US have often been more accommodating, and some crowdfunding platforms are already operating. For example, Symbid in the Netherlands and Crowdcube in the United Kingdom were both founded in 2011. But crowdfunding is still not a major factor in world markets. And that will not change without adequate – and innovative – financial regulation.

There is a conceptual barrier to understanding the problems that officials might face in regulating crowdfunding, owing to the failure of prevailing economic models to account for the manipulative and devious aspects of human behaviour. Economists typically describe people’s rational, honest side, but ignore their duplicity. As a result, they underestimate the downside risks of crowdsourcing.

The risks consist not so much in outright fraud – big lies that would be jailable offences – as in more subtle forms of deception. It may well be open deception, with promoters steering gullible amateurs around a business plan’s fatal flaw, or disclosing it only grudgingly or in the fine print.
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It is not that people are completely dishonest. On the contrary, they typically pride themselves on integrity. It’s just that their integrity suffers little lapses here and there – and not always so little in aggregate.

In my new book with George Akerlof, Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception, we argue that unscrupulous behavior has to be factored into economic theory in a fundamental way. The economic equilibrium we live should be regarded, above all, as a phishing equilibrium, in which small-time individual dishonesty can morph into something more systemically important when it is carried on by business organisations under intense competitive pressure. Yes, competition rewards the sharp and hardworking. But it also often compels them to keep the frontiers of subtle deception in view.

The SEC’s new rules for crowdfunding are complex, because they address a complicated problem. The concept underlying crowdfunding is the dispersal of information across millions of people. Most people, even the cleverest, cannot grasp the next breakthrough business opportunity. Those who can are dispersed. The economist Friedrich Hayek put it well in 1945:

“[T]here is beyond question a body of very important but unorganised knowledge which cannot possibly be called scientific in the sense of knowledge of general rules: the knowledge of particular circumstances and place. It is with respect to this that practically every individual has some advantage over all others in that he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made, but of which use can be made only if the decisions depending on it are left to him or are made with his active co-operation.”

The problem is that the promise of genuine “unique information” comes with the reality of vulnerability to deception. That’s why channeling dispersed knowledge into new businesses requires a regulatory framework that favours the genuinely enlightened and honest. Unfortunately, the SEC’s new crowdsourcing rules don’t go as far as they should.

The 2012 US legislation that tasked the SEC with rulemaking for crowdfunding platforms specified that no startup can use them to raise more than $1m a year. This is practically worthless in terms of limiting the scope for deception. In fact, including this provision was a serious mistake, and needs to be corrected with new legislation. A million dollars is not enough, and the cap will tend to limit crowdfunding to small ideas.

Some of the SEC rules do work against deception. Notably, crowdfunding platforms must provide communication channels “through which investors can communicate with one another and with representatives of the issuer about offerings made available.”

That is a good rule, fundamental to the entire idea of crowdfunding. But the SEC could do more than just avow its belief in “uncensored and transparent crowd discussions.” It should require that the intermediary sponsoring a platform install a surveillance system to guard against interference and shills offering phony comments.

The SEC and other regulators could go even further. They could nudge intermediaries to create a platform that summarises commenters’ record and reputation. Indeed, why not pay commenters who accumulate “likes” or whose comments on issuers turn out to be valuable in light of evidence of those enterprises’ subsequent success?

For the financial system as a whole, success ultimately depends on trust and confidence, both of which, like suspicion and fear, are highly contagious. That’s why, if crowdfunding is to reach its global potential, crowdphishing must be prevented from the outset. Regulators need to get the rules right (and it would help if they hurried up about it).

CBI comes out strongly in favour of Britain staying in EU

The CBI has signalled its determination to campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, as the battle lines are drawn for the country’s in-out referendum campaign.

The UK’s leading business group published a glossy report, Choosing Our Future, on Wednesday, liberally sprinkled with quotes from companies and trade bodies about the boost to their bottom line from remaining in the European single market.

The referendum on EU membership David Cameron has promised may be as much as two years away, aand will follow the prime minister’s efforts to renegotiate Britain’s position in the union with his EU counterparts.

Following the launch of official in and out campaigns, the CBI, which represents 190,000 businesses employing 7 million people, is keen to show that it will play a leading role in promoting the benefits of remaining in a reformed EU.

“The single market has been the solid foundation of our economic success in recent decades, giving us direct access to eight times more consumers than in the UK alone and ensuring we can go toe-to-toe with larger economies on major trade deals, creating jobs and economic growth here in the UK,” said John Cridland, the CBI’s outgoing director general.

The business secretary, Sajid Javid, criticised the CBI earlier this year for weakening the prime minister’s hand as he prepares to negotiate with Brussels, by appearing to offer unconditional support for British membership.

Mindful of that criticism, Cridland said: “We should not be blind to the downsides and recognise the EU, like any big institution, has its faults and needs to do better.”

Throughout the new report, however, CBI member companies and trade bodies large and small laud the EU and its benefits.

“We export over 60% of the music made in the UK – our biggest markets are the European Union and America. Access to customers through the EU single market has undoubtedly helped the UK music industry become a world leader,” says Jo Dipple, the chief executive of UK Music, which represents the industry.

Andy Wood, the chief executive of the Southwold-based brewer Adnams, says: “We are making British beer popular across Europe, selling easily through the EU single market to our largest export market, Sweden, meaning we can continue to grow our 420 strong workforce back home.”

Echoing a report published by the Britain Stronger in Europe group last weekend, the CBI also stresses the benefits to UK consumers of membership, which allows them to “buy cheese from France, salami from Italy, beer from Belgium and put it in a fridge from Germany as if they were buying from the UK, with no extra charges”.

It suggests that leaving the EU would mean having to negotiate new trade deals with longstanding European exporters, and could see tariffs and taxes slapped on foreign goods.

The opening salvo in the campaign from the business community comes as Mark Carney, the Bank of England’s governor, prepares to deliver his own verdict on the risks of a Brexit in a speech at St Peter’s College, Oxford.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Carney is expected to reveal the results of Project Bookend, a Bank investigation into the implications of a British exit from the EU for its key tasks of maintaining monetary and financial stability.

Most business groups appear poised to line up behind the campaign to stay, but trade unions are divided. Some see the EU as a powerful guarantor of human rights, but others fear the prime minister will bargain away worker protections in his forthcoming negotiations.

The TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “The EU is at its best when it meets the interests of both business and workers. But the prime minister’s plans for EU renegotiation will put at risk important rights that UK workers get from the EU, such as paid holidays, rest breaks and protection against working excessive hours.

“If you take workers’ rights away, they will be less likely to vote to stay in the EU.”

Know Your Value: Q&A with Citi's Ida Liu

For over 200 years, Citi has supported Progress Makers and their ideas, recognizing the powerful role they play in business and in their communities. As the leading global bank, we pride ourselves on the diversity of thinking we bring to bear for our clients, and know that our success relies on the exceptional talents of our people.

Citi engages in a number of leadership development programs at all levels of the organization. “We believe in enabling our colleagues’ progress with opportunities to excel and grow along their career path, so we continue to have more diverse perspectives at all levels – this is core to our culture and simply good business. We’re thrilled to support new partnerships that empower and champion emerging women leaders,” says Mary Ann Villanueva, Director of Global Branding & Sponsorships and Citi Women sub-committee head.

The first such partnership is with Know Your Value, a program with NBCUniversal News Group and Mika Brzezinski, co-host of msnbc’s flagship morning program Morning Joe. The Know Your Value program explores how female aspiring leaders can get their worth at work and create the lives they want along the way, and will be hosted in five U.S. cities in 2015 including Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, and Orlando.

Ida Liu, Managing Director, Citi Private Bank Head of North America Asian Clients Group, was a speaker on the April 10 Know Your Value program in Philadelphia. After the event, I caught up with Ida and asked her a few questions.

1. Describe one “Know your value” moment in your career? (A story of where you stepped up, were validated in some way, etc.)

I started my career in mergers and acquisitions investment banking focused on the Technology, Media and Telecommunication industries. After almost seven years in investment banking, I made a huge career switch and moved into the fashion industry. I ran a women’s fashion design company and during my time in the fashion industry, every fashion designer would ask me “What stocks should I buy? What bonds should I buy? How should I invest my wealth?” I had an A-HA moment where I discovered a void in the marketplace for wealth management solutions to the fashion industry. I put together a business plan and pitched the concept to Citi Private Bank and joined Citi almost 10 years ago as the Head of the Fashion, Retail and Entertainment practice – a business that we built rapidly and successfully.

Both times, when I switched direction in my career, I was taking a risk and stepping out of my comfort zone – from investment banking to fashion, and from fashion to private banking. But both career moves were certainly “Know Your Value” moments.

Two takeaways from those “Know Your Value” moments were that you always have to ask for what you want – if you don’t ask, you won’t get it! And to be willing to take risks, step outside of your comfort zone and think outside the box.

2. What are your top tips for negotiating?

- If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it!

- According to The Confidence Code by Katty Kay & Claire Shipman, research has shown that men ask for the next job, promotion or raise when they are 60 percent ready for it, while women wait until they are 100 percent ready. Be willing to raise your hand for bigger and better … sooner.

- Think about the full picture – there are many negotiation points to a package, not just compensation.

- Understand what your company/client needs are and demonstrate your value-add and unique strengths.

- Know Your Value – know where you are vs. the rest of the market.

- Prepare, prepare, prepare!

3. Oftentimes we need to take risks to succeed. What are your suggestions for getting back on track after a failure?

We won’t be well rounded professionals if we always succeed and never experience setbacks. Failures are opportunities to develop, learn and grow. View them that way and don’t be hard on yourself. Remember, we are all human and everyone makes mistakes. It’s how we deal with the mistakes and failures that distinguish leaders from the rest.

4. What are you reading now?

I read two books recently – “Knowing Your Value” by Mika Brzezinski and “The Confidence Code” referenced earlier. I was on a panel with Katty and interviewed by Mika for her Know Your Value conference sponsored by NBC on April 10 in Philadelphia, PA. I read the books to prepare for the panel and they are full of solid and excellent advice for women. As I read the books, I was highlighting the important points and ended up highlighting every page! The key takeaways from the books were: own your success (and don’t be apologetic for it!) and always be confident.

5. What one thing would you recommend to professional women entering the work force?

I would encourage everyone to get involved with their communities and the causes they love, or participate in company sponsored networks, if they have them available as we do at Citi. As you know, I am actively involved with Citi Women, our company-wide effort that you work closely with, that is designed to attract, develop, advance and retain female talent at all levels of the company. Through our initiatives, we seek to unlock the combined potential of women and Citi. As part of Citi Women, we have several programs that target high-performing female managers and executives, which have successfully supported women’s advancement and retention at Citi. These programs demonstrate the importance of sponsorship, mentoring and networking opportunities in advancing women’s careers.

As you know, I also serve as Chair of the Citi Women’s International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrations globally. We have been celebrating International Women’s Day for the past five years - this year we had over 220 client events in 90 countries. This year’s IWD theme was “Connecting Women. Inspiring Change. Making Progress,” and our programs focused on how women have made progress both in their professional and personal lives.

Minecraft mobile builds towards desktop version with latest update

Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.12 adds features including hunger, the Nether and ocelots.

The smartphone and tablet edition of Minecraft is now much closer to its desktop and console versions, after developer Mojang launched one of the biggest updates in its history.

The Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.12 update adds some prominent features that had previously been missing from the mobile version including hunger; sneaking and sprinting; the game’s Nether zone; and tameable ocelots.

Mobile gamers will also be able to play against people on PCs using the new Windows 10 version of Minecraft, and use physical controllers paired with their iOS device. The update has also launched for Windows Phone, with Android to follow.

The update is a significant moment for Minecraft’s Pocket Edition, which reached the milestone of 30m sales in January 2015, but has always lagged behind the versions for computers and consoles in its features.

The game has been improving rapidly, though, in response to its increasingly large audience: many of whom have only ever played Minecraft on a mobile device.

Previous significant updates included 0.95 in July 2014 which added infinite worlds, caves and wolves, and 0.11 in June 2015 which added a skins feature for players to customise their characters.

Mojang announced plans for the 0.12 update at its Minecon conference in July, with the addition of The Nether getting the biggest cheer from the thousands of attendees.

The next major improvement will be full use of the virtual redstone material to create circuits that transmit power, which Mojang promised would come in a Pocket Edition update by the end of 2015.

The developer, which was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5bn in 2014, is also planning to launch its Realms service – where players pay a monthly subscription to manage their own private Minecraft servers to play on with friends – for the Pocket Edition.

Mojang is also working with developer Telltale Games on a new “narrative-driven adventure” called Minecraft: Story Mode, which is expected to debut by the end of 2015.

Top Ten Effective Negotiation Skills

Job descriptions often list negotiation skills as a desirable asset for job candidates, but the ability to negotiate requires a collection of interpersonal and communication skills used together to bring a desired result. The circumstances of negotiation occur when two parties or groups of individuals disagree on the solution for a problem or the goal for a project or contract. A successful negotiation requires the two parties to come together and hammer out an agreement that is acceptable to both.

Problem Analysis

Effective negotiators must have the skills to analyze a problem to determine the interests of each party in the negotiation. A detailed problem analysis identifies the issue, the interested parties and the outcome goals. For example, in an employer and employee contract negotiation, the problem or area where the parties disagree may be in salary or benefits. Identifying the issues for both sides can help to find a compromise for all parties.

Preparation

Before entering a bargaining meeting, the skilled negotiator prepares for the meeting. Preparation includes determining goals, areas for trade and alternatives to the stated goals. In addition, negotiators study the history of the relationship between the two parties and past negotiations to find areas of agreement and common goals. Past precedents and outcomes can set the tone for current negotiations.

Active Listening

Negotiators have the skills to listen actively to the other party during the debate. Active listening involves the ability to read body language as well as verbal communication. It is important to listen to the other party to find areas for compromise during the meeting. Instead of spending the bulk of the time in negotiation expounding the virtues of his viewpoint, the skilled negotiator will spend more time listening to the other party.

Emotional Control

It is vital that a negotiator have the ability to keep his emotions in check during the negotiation. While a negotiation on contentious issues can be frustrating, allowing emotions to take control during the meeting can lead to unfavorable results. For example, a manager frustrated with the lack of progress during a salary negotiation may concede more than is acceptable to the organization in an attempt to end the frustration. On the other hand, employees negotiating a pay raise may become too emotionally involved to accept a compromise with management and take an all or nothing approach, which breaks down the communication between the two parties.

Verbal Communication

Negotiators must have the ability to communicate clearly and effectively to the other side during the negotiation. Misunderstandings can occur if the negotiator does not state his case clearly. During a bargaining meeting, an effective negotiator must have the skills to state his desired outcome as well as his reasoning.

Collaboration and Teamwork

Negotiation is not necessarily a one side against another arrangement. Effective negotiators must have the skills to work together as a team and foster a collaborative atmosphere during negotiations. Those involved in a negotiation on both sides of the issue must work together to reach an agreeable solution.

Problem Solving

Individuals with negotiation skills have the ability to seek a variety of solutions to problems. Instead of focusing on his ultimate goal for the negotiation, the individual with skills can focus on solving the problem, which may be a breakdown in communication, to benefit both sides of the issue.

Decision Making Ability

Leaders with negotiation skills have the ability to act decisively during a negotiation. It may be necessary during a bargaining arrangement to agree to a compromise quickly to end a stalemate.

Interpersonal Skills

Effective negotiators have the interpersonal skills to maintain a good working relationship with those involved in the negotiation. Negotiators with patience and the ability to persuade others without using manipulation can maintain a positive atmosphere during a difficult negotiation.

Ethics and Reliability

Ethical standards and reliability in an effective negotiator promote a trusting environment for negotiations. Both sides in a negotiation must trust that the other party will follow through on promises and agreements. A negotiator must have the skills to execute on his promises after bargaining ends.

California taxis can sue Uber over ads claiming safer service, judge rules

Taxicab companies can sue Uber over its advertising claims, a judge has ruled. Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

A federal judge has ruled California taxicab companies can sue competitor Uber over advertising statements that it offers the safest rides on the road.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that taxicab companies accused the ride-hailing company of false advertising for stating in ads and online postings that its background checks were the most thorough and its services the safest in the business. The statements implied, and sometimes explicitly declared, that conventional taxis were less safe.

Taxi companies say their review of prospective drivers is far more thorough. They say they use fingerprint checks and government criminal records that Uber does not employ and require their drivers to take a driver safety course and a written exam.

US district judge Jon Tigar of San Francisco rejected Uber’s attempt to dismiss the suit on Friday and said much of it could proceed.

Eurozone struggles to find joint response to Greek referendum

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande after a crisis meeting in Paris. Photograph: Etienne Laurent/EPA

 Greek banks are to remain closed until Thursday at the earliest, it was announced, with ATM withdrawals rationed to €60 daily.

“The prospects of a happy resolution of this crisis are rapidly diminishing,” said the British chancellor, George Osborne, after speaking to some of the key policymakers. “If there is no signal from these meetings that Greece and the eurozone are ready to get around the table again, we can expect the financial situation in Greece to deteriorate rapidly.”

The commission had nothing positive at all to say about Sunday’s Greek referendum, while Germany’s increasingly hardline social democratic leader, Sigmar Gabriel, warned that Greece was on the brink of insolvency.

He accused Tsipras, the radical leftist prime minister who outmanoeuvred the rest of the eurozone with his plebiscite, of ruthlessly pursuing the Greek national interest at everyone else’s expense. His message suggested a Grexit was now inevitable as he stressed the need for EU humanitarian programmes to forestall social implosion in Greece.

Tsipras is expected to table new bailout proposals on Tuesday to eurozone leaders meeting in Brussels after he ditched the flamboyant Varoufakis. Over five months of negotiations, Varoufakis, a leftwing economist and neophyte politician, has rubbed his interlocutors up the wrong way, persistently arguing he is right and everyone else is wrong when it comes to dealing with the Greek debt crisis.

The detail of Sunday’s voting patterns left no doubt about the devastating verdict and the challenges it now presents to Europe’s leaders. Around 80% of voters under the age of 34 voted no on Sunday.

Germany’s Gabriel said the Greeks had simply rejected the single currency rules, while Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, delivered a cri de coeur lamenting the desperate situation the eurozone and the EU now found themselves in.

“Two political building sites need our work urgently, in European capitals and in Brussels,” he said. “If we stand still, prisoners of rules, regulations, and bureaucracy, Europe is over. Reconstructing a different Europe will not be easy … The first one is Greece, a country in very difficult social and economic conditions. Meetings tomorrow will have to indicate a conclusive solution to this emergency.”

Merkel has taken a hard line with Greece since Tsipras announced his snap referendum 10 days ago, while the French have been much more accommodating towards Athens. A brief statement issued after the leaders had dined together on Monday evening showed little sign of the two main EU leaders bridging their differences.

There were no signs either of movement from the eurozone towards the main demands from Athens – a new deal writing down the Greek debt mountain, as urged last week by the International Monetary Fund.

German government sources said there would be no debt reduction measures offered and that it was up to Greece, which ended negotiations with its creditors 10 days ago and called the referendum, to make the next move.

“In light of the decision by the Greek citizens, the conditions to start negotiations on a new aid programme are not met yet,” said Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the most senior European commission official in charge of the euro, said the referendum result risked leaving everyone a loser. “The no result unfortunately widens the gulf between Greece and other eurozone countries … There is no easy way out of this crisis. Too much time and too many opportunities have been lost.”

A day of frantic politicking in Greece, and internationally, left few clues as to what happens next. Tsipras has persistently surprised and out-manoeuvred his opposite numbers, but without securing any net gains for a country in the throes of financial collapse. Greece’s bank holiday and the rationing of ATM withdrawals to €60 a day was extended until at least Thursday.

The country’s banks are entirely dependent on the European Central Bank to keep standing and last night the ECB toughened it stance towards Greece’s banks by demanding they put up more collateral in return for the emergency liquidity allowance which has been keeping them afloat. The ECB said its government council is “closely monitoring the situation in financial markets and the potential implications for the monetary policy stance and for the balance of risks to price stability in the euro area”.

Tsipras spent much of the day with other Greek party leaders, resulting in the five-party national consensus behind his negotiating strategy committed to debt restructuring. Tsipras’s leftwing Syriza, and his rightwing nationalist coalition partner, Anel, were joined by centre-left Pasok, liberals To Potami, and centre-right New Democracy.

Tsipras’s ‘new’ proposals are likely to lean heavily on his recently tabled third bailout ideas, which call for €29bn in new loans over a two-year period under the eurozone’s ESM permanent bailout fund, combined with a debt swap that would see the ESM buy up Greece’s obligations to the European Central Bank and convert this into longer-term loans at cheaper rates. Greece would have to commit to many of the austerity measures that were roundly rejected by voters on Sunday.

Gabriel, however, emphasised the problems of devising a new bailout under the ESM, whose rules are more exacting than those for the eurozone instrument used for the previous bailouts since 2010.

The ESM rules say that a bailout can be considered for a eurozone country if its financial plight imperils the stability of the euro area as a whole. Many argue that this is not the case with Greece, that there is little risk of contagion and destabilisation of the broader currency area. But no one really knows.

EU states agree framework for pan-European data privacy rules

All 28 member states of the Council of the European Union have to agreed to new European data protection laws that could see tough new regulations unified across the whole of the EU.
The changes would allow for a pan-European framework for privacy and the handling of European citizens’ data, instead of the current scenario where data privacy is regulated by watchdogs in the country of operation within Europe such as Ireland.
The changes were put forward by the European commission three years ago and form a crucial step towards a single digital union. The European parliament filed its agreement in principle over a year ago, but the Council of the European Union, where each country’s government has representation, has struggled to come to agreement.
Latvia’s minister for justice, Dzintars Rasnačs, said: “Today we have moved a great step closer to modernised and harmonised data protection framework for the European Union.”
The agreement comes in the last week of Latvia’s presidency of Council of the European Union. The negotiations going forward will be the responsibility of Luxembourg as it takes over the presidency of the council.
Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumer Organisation said: “EU laws are now lagging behind the pace of technologies and business practices. Our personal data is collected, then used and transferred in ways which most consumers are oblivious to. An appropriate update must put control of personal data back in the hands of European consumers.”

“This new regulation is the opportunity to close gaps, ensure robust standards and stipulate that EU laws apply to all businesses operating here.”
While some welcome clearer and more unified rules and regulations, lobbying, which has delayed proceedings, has shown that some aspects of the proposal have companies worried.
Of particular contention is a clause that would allow users to sue companies who process data, such as cloud storage providers, as well as those that own it or collect it. Companies including Amazon and IBM have warned that it could kill off Europe’s cloud computing industry.
Many US technology companies have based their European operations in Ireland, including Facebook and Google. Current laws mean that if one data protection authority clears a company’s actions and regulates compliance with local laws, informed by European law, that company can then operate in any European member state without the need to clear its actions in each country.
The EC put forward new regulation that would toughen European law, which would in turn toughen data privacy laws in European nation states. But the proposal could also see the formation of a single nominated authority that could rule on large or politically contentious data protection issues.
Facebook and Google are subject to both legal and regulatory challenges over data privacy. The latest action is a lawsuit from the Belgian privacy commission which deemed that because Facebook operated an office within its country could answer to its regulation not just Ireland’s data protection authority where it is headquartered.
“I am very content that after more than three years of negotiations we have finally found a compromise on the text. The new data protection regulation, adapted to the needs of the digital age, will strengthen individual rights of our citizens and ensure a high standard of protection,” said Rasnačs.
The agreement will lead to a “trilogue” beginning next week between the EC, the European parliament and the Council of the European Union on each of their amendments to the EC’s proposal.
Deputy commissioner from the Information commissioner’s office David Smith said: “It is encouraging that these discussions are scheduled to start next week, though it is likely to be well into next year before they are completed. We can then expect a further two years before any law is implemented, to give people time to prepare for the changes.”
How tough the new laws and regulation becomes will be up for debate. The idea of a single data regulator - a one-stop-shop - for large issues has been popular in theory. What form that would take will be crucial for companies such as Facebook and Google operating in Europe.
Under scrutiny are proposals regarding: unambiguous consent for any data collection, such as tracking for adverts; limits to the ability to use data for purposes other than those for which it was collected, such as profiling; and a strengthened “right to be forgotten”.
The Council of the European Union has agreed new fines for breaches of EU privacy and data protection law could be up to €1m or 2% of the company’s global annual turnover. The European parliament would have them as high as €100m or 5% of turnover.

Gender imbalance in tech sector must change for startups to thrive

“It’s not OK not to understand the internet anymore,” said Martha Lane Fox during her recent Richard Dimbleby Lecture broadcast live on the BBC. During the speech, the tech champion attacked the UK’s digital divide, the lack of understanding of the internet among UK politicians and the under-representation of women in technology companies. In her opinion, what is needed is a new institution – she suggests the name doteveryone.org – which could tackle these problems head on.
“Let’s create a new institution and make Britain brilliant at the internet. We need a new national institution to lead an ambitious charge – to make us the most digital nation on the planet,” she said.
Across the country, entrepreneurs took note of Lane Fox’s words. She was one of the leading lights of the first wave of dotcoms, creating Lastminute.com, along with Brent Hoberman. She remains an inspirational figure for many business people, particularly women working in the tech space. Among these is Jess Butcher, co-founder of “augmented reality” app maker Blippar, who says: “Martha’s comments around the lack of women in technology particularly resonate as, like her, I feel that technology suffers from a monumental diversity problem which negatively effects both the culture and the output of the sector.”

Lane Fox says she wants to put women “at the heart of the technology sector”. She says sexism is rife in the technology and investment industries – she experienced it firsthand when she was fundraising for Lastminute.com. One investor, apparently more interested in her personal life than the revolution she was spearheading, bluntly asked: “What happens if you get pregnant?”
For Jess Stephens, chief marketing officer at cloud messaging service SmartFocus, such attitudes are all too common. “I would go out on a limb and say that every woman who works in the tech industry has an anecdote similar to the story that Martha Lane Fox used at the start of her lecture. Inappropriate remarks based on your gender are par for the course and represent obstacles that you must overcome as woman in the tech world,” she says.
But if the gender imbalance in the tech industry is to be addressed by the creation of a new institution, what methods should it employ? Entrepreneur and investor Mark Pearson, who founded and sold MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, says he welcomed much of Lane Fox’s speech, but he is concerned that doteveryone.org would employ positive discrimination, which he feels is counterproductive. “No single group should be at the ‘heart’ of it,” he said. “I have twins – a boy and a girl – and I want each to grow up as ambitious and unafraid to succeed as the other. The UK won’t be brilliant at the internet until we stop trying to implement quotas and genuinely celebrate and insist upon the best from the next generations.”

The importance of addressing skills shortages was stressed throughout Lane Fox’s speech and there is little doubt that the UK has a problem. A recent report suggested the UK needs an extra 150,000 workers with digital skills every year and demand only looks set to increase.
Business owners struggling to find staff could hardly agree more with Lane Fox on this point. Jack Bedell-Pearce, managing director of data centre company 4D-DC, says he regular faces the challenge of hiring good staff: “As an employer, we’re still not seeing the relevant skills filtering through from schools and universities. We need kids with a basic knowledge of coding, networking and server infrastructure development.

“It sounds daunting but the earlier you get them thinking about IT not as a social media experience, but in terms of code, networks and connected servers, the sooner they will understand the potential of the internet.”

But the creation of a body, which is presumably publicly funded, raises many questions. Lane Fox avoided laying out a clear blueprint for doteveryone.org, although she did suggest an organisation that was entrepreneurial at heart and far removed from the culture of a government quango.
Laurie Wang, founder of women’s tech entrepreneur group W Kollective, believes this is the right way to do it. “To maximise the institution’s potential, I believe it should be innovative, adaptable and have an open architecture. Very similar to how a startup would be run, in fact, fostering the flow of creative ideas with the flexibility to adapt to the constantly evolving digital landscape,” she says.

Lane Fox expressed considerable concern about the ability of politicians, whose “lack of knowledge breeds fear”, and who are regularly haunted by the words “Government. IT. Failure”. The failure of government to get things right with IT projects leads many in the business world to wonder if a public body is the right approach.

Joe Mathewson, founder of education tech firm Firefly, says the UK internet industry doesn’t need more quangos or government institutions. “For Britain to be better on digital and for British companies to challenge the American heavyweights, we need a fundamentally non-governmental solution,” he says. “We need to create a commercial environment which encourages entrepreneurs, from school age and above, that supports digital businesses and helps them grow.”

The UK has a strong startup scene, but in global terms it lacks big hitters. Lane Fox said among the top 100 visited websites in the world, there’s only one from the UK – the BBC – which comes in at number 74. So what, then, are the chances the UK can, in Lane Fox’s words, “leapfrog every nation in the world and become the most digital, most connected, most skilled, most informed on the planet”? There are many big challenges to overcome, but most entrepreneurs believe a combination of education, greater inclusion and entrepreneurial spirit are the way forward.

However, some argue that it’s not just a matter of inspiring schoolchildren and hoping things will trickle through. Richard Rolfe, co-founder of National Coding Week, worked as a teacher until his early 50s but subsequently taught himself to code and now works with adults to help them do the same.
Rolfe says: “It is a myth that the internet, digital skills and the world of tech belong to the youngsters. There are plenty of entrepreneurs and digital professionals who have adapted to the digital revolution, but there are many who think that digital skills are hard to learn.
“If her plan is to succeed, it needs to genuinely reach out to and embrace people of all ages, all members of society.”
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Prudential's Tidjane Thiam to take top role at Credit Suisse

Tidjane Thiam is quitting as chief executive of Prudential to take the top post at banking group Credit Suisse.
The FTSE 100 insurer confirmed the end of Thiam’s five-year stint as chief executive of the group on Tuesday morning along with its annual results announcement.
Thiam is highly regarded in the City despite a sometimes-bumpy reign at Prudentialwith criticism from shareholders over a failed $35.5bn (£23.5bn) takeover bid for the Asian life assurance division of AIG in 2010 and personal censure from the City regulator over the collapsed deal.
However, his success in building the insurer’s position in Asian markets has tripled the company’s share price since he became chief executive in October 2009.
Describing Thiam as “one of the most exceptional leaders” in the Prudential’s history, chairman Paul Manduca said that while the board were sorry to see him go, they “understand his desire to take on a new challenge with another global leader in a different part of the financial services sector”.
Thiam will be replacing Brady Dougan, who became chief executive of Credit Suisse in 2007 and steered the bank through the financial crisis. However, Dougan’s position came under pressure last year when Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to charges that it helped American citizens evade taxes, becoming the first bank in more than a decade to admit to a crime in the US.
Credit Suisse also agreed to pay $2.6bn as part of the settlement, as Dougan blamed the scandal on a small number of Switzerland-based bankers who “skirted the bank’s controls”.
Dougan’s successor also faces challenges over the bank’s presence in investment banking – an area in which Swiss rival UBS has scaled back sharply – and a $10bn lawsuit over the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis.
Nonetheless, Thiam’s career before Prudential indicates that taking over a national institution such as Credit Suisse will not intimidate the chief executive.
In 1999, while serving as cabinet minister in Ivory Coast, where he was born, Thiam was put under house arrest during a military coup. “I had no job, no career, nothing at all … If you’ve been in a situation where you have nothing there’s nothing much you’re afraid of,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2012.
Thiam was mostly educated in France and graduated top of the class from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, a training ground for France’s political and business elite.
Once he graduated, Thiam followed a familiar path for corporate high-fliers, working at US management consultancy McKinsey and the World Bank before returning to Ivory Coast and joining the government in 1998. He then joined McKinsey again in Paris and was recruited by insurance group Aviva, where he came to the notice of Prudential as the head of Aviva’s European business.
As well as receiving the backing of the City, Thiam has been courted by politicians. He has served on the former prime minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa and has picked up a Légion d’Honneur, the equivalent of a knighthood, from the French government.
Mike Wells, the head of Prudential’s US operations, is widely expected to replace Thiam at the Pru. Manduca said on Tuesday that a successor had been identified and would be announced once the regulatory approval process has been completed.

Greek and German finance ministers clash at debt relief talks

Greece’s radical Syriza government remained locked in a bitter standoff with its German paymasters, as finance minister Yanis Varoufakis issued a stark warning of the rise of nazism in his country if the eurozone fails to heed the democratic voice of Greek voters.
As Varoufakis completed the last leg of a whistle-stop round-Europe tour to seek support for Syriza’s plans to halt austerity and renegotiate the country’s debts, he told a tetchy press conference on Thursday in Berlin that Greece had a proud record in fighting Nazis, but ignoring the clear message from Greek electors could feed far-right forces.
“No one understands better than the people of this land how a severely depressed economy, combined with a ritual national humiliation and unending hopelessness, can hatch the serpent’s egg within its society. When I return home tonight, I will find a country where the third-largest party is not a neo-nazi party, but a nazi party,” he said, referring to the far-right Golden Dawn. “We need the people of Germany on our side.”
However, Wolfgang Schäuble, his German counterpart, maintained that Greece must be held responsible for its own problems, saying: “We have to appreciate their efforts and their situation, and above all we have to appreciate the progress that has been achieved in Greece over recent years. At the same time, however, we must say that the reasons, the cause for the difficult journey to be undertaken by Greece, that the reason for this is to be found in Greece, and not outside Greece, and definitely not in Germany.”
Schäuble repeated an earlier offer to send 500 German tax collectors to help the Athens government collect taxes from wealthy Greeks.
He then told reporters he and Varoufakis had “agreed to disagree”, but the Greek said they had not even got that far: “We did not reach agreement because it was never on the cards that we would.”
Greece and Germany are on the frontline in a fierce battle about the future of European economic policy, with Syriza determined to show that ditching austerity is a better recipe for economic recovery than relentless cuts, and Germany determined to make Athens stick to the deficit-cutting agenda – and pay back the €240bn (£180bn) in bailout loans it received from the international community.
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As Varoufakis returned to Athens , thousands of people gathered on the streets to show solidarity in the party’s battle with Greece’s creditors.
The fresh outpouring of public concern, with protesters gathering in Syntagma Square, the centre of anti-government riots during repeated crises in recent years, came after the European Central Bank outraged policymakers by restricting access to emergency funds for Greece’s struggling banks.
In Berlin, Varoufakis promised to meet the alarmist warnings of some in the eurozone about the consequences of Syriza’s radical policies with “a frenzy of reasonableness”.
Just before the Berlin meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had ratcheted up the pressure on the eurozone to find a solution to the crisis by inviting the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to talks in Moscow in May.
Schäuble said Germany would “fully respect the mandate” handed to Varoufakis and his colleagues by the electorate in the general election last month, but Germany had its own democratic pressures.
German public opinion is deeply sceptical about the need for fresh debt relief for Greece, after repeated bailouts since 2010. But Syriza argues that it has been burdened with a series of impossible-to-repay loans, and has seen growth hobbled by the austerity imposed as a quid pro quo.
Back in Athens, Tsipras told the Greek parliament: “Greece is no longer the miserable partner who listens to lectures to do its homework. Greece has its own voice.” Protesters on the streets held up placards saying “People Before Markets”.
Syriza and its coalition partners had hoped to receive temporary support from the ECB while it holds debt restructuring talks with its creditors, but Wednesday’s decision by the Frankfurt-based bank, which tightened the rules on the collateral Greek banks can post in exchange for loans, made the prospects of short-term support appear bleak.
As fears mounted of a fresh run on Greek bank deposits – one of the factors that led to the country’s previous financial bailouts – central bank governor Yannis Stournaras said: “The ECB’s decision can be taken back if there is a deal from the Greek government. Deposits and liquidity are absolutely safe.”
Greece’s bailout from the troika of the European commission, International Monetary Fund and the ECB – which came with stringent conditions, including hefty spending cuts – is due to expire at the end of the month. Syriza insists it will not accept an extension which would, it says, be tantamount to agreeing to a new bailout with foreign lenders..
Finance chiefs can’t agree to disagree over Athens’ debts as Varoufakis brings up spectre of Greek nazism and Schäuble offers 500 German tax collectors

Apple will raise iOS app prices in next 18 hours (unless you're in Iceland)

App Store prices are set to rise with little notice. Photograph: Alamy
Apple is implementing a blanket price-increase on the App Store in the EU and Canada, the company has said in an email to developers.
Without specifying what the new tiers would be, the company told developers that “prices on the App Store will increase for all territories in the European Union as well as in Canada and Norway, decrease in Iceland, and change in Russia. These changes are being made to account for adjustments in value-added tax (VAT) rates and foreign exchange rates.”
Apple also fails to give a specific time as to when the increases would hit the store, saying only that it would be “within the next 36 hours”, a timeframe that ends at 11am Friday morning.
The increase is likely linked to a new pan-EU policy which requires the company to deduct VAT based on its rates at the customer’s location, rather than the company’s. Since Apple’s European headquarters are nominally in the low tax jurisdiction of Luxembourg, that represents an increase in VAT for many users. Until now, that increase had eaten into developers’ margins, rather than be passed on to consumers, but that seems about to change.
Developers don’t have the option to pick any price they want for Apps on the store, instead being limited to a series of tiers which are linked across nations. The cheapest apps are currently $0.99, €0.99 and £0.69 (the latter two prices converting to $1.17 and £1.04 respectively), with prices increasing at different rates from there: a doubling in dollars to $1.99 more than doubles the British price, to £1.49 ($2.25), and less than doubles the European price to €1.79 ($2.12).
With the cost set to increase, the discrepancy between European and American prices will only grow. Users with a wish-list of apps to download can sneak in ahead of the price rise if they hurry, although how much they save will only become clear after the fact.
For Russian app store users, the prices are only going to “change”, rather than “rise”, suggesting Apple will be fiddling with some of the tiers in response to the country’s significant currency devaluation in recent months.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.