The China Investment Corporation: Keys to Success

By Gao Weijie, member of APCO Worldwide’s IAC
Chang Song, associate director, APCO Worldwide

What is a SWF?
Sovereign wealth funds (SWF) are government investment entities, funded by a country’s foreign exchange assets, which manage assets separately from the official reserves of the country’s monetary authorities. They are either oil-fuelled, like the Middle Eastern, the Russian and the Norwegian, or international trade-fuelled, like the Chinese and the Singaporean. SWFs typically manage their funds to a higher risk tolerance and higher expected return than official reserve managers (who normally focus on short term currency stabilization and liquidity management). More >

 Can Israel grow beyond a “Silicon Valley” economy?

By Roi Feder, associate director, APCO Worldwide

A powerhouse for revolutionary technology, Israel has successfully positioned itself as a hub for some of the leading high-tech and biotech firms in the world. During the past decade, billions of dollars have poured into Israel's economy as international companies invested in small- and medium-size Israeli start-up firms that produce cutting-edge technologies. However, Israel is now reaching a tipping point in its economy; many companies are not only selling, but are also buying, and their success depends on their ability to learn how to navigate the global marketplace. More >

 Web Usability: Listening Up Pays Off

By Emily Rice, manager, APCO Online^®
John Douglass, junior user experience architect, APCO Online^®

In an increasingly complicated online landscape, the ability to provide audiences with an easy online experience has never been more valuable. As technologies and online capacities evolve, usability testing provides organizations with data on how to invest modestly for substantial returns with those who matter most – their users.
More >

 Media Relations around the World

At APCO Worldwide, we were early adopters of new media, but we never lost sight of the power of personal relationships combined with professional experts who know how to navigate the ever complex and demanding world of global media relations. We have a range of global experts who work in partnership with our clients as they face intense media scrutiny or aim to strengthen their visibility and reputation. More >

 Inside the International Advisory Council

By Kimber Cook, IAC secretariat & media relations manager, APCO Worldwide

Questions & Answers with Jim Stent, IAC member

Jim Stent, senior counselor & IAC member, is based in APCO’s Bangkok office. A banker by profession, he has a long and distinguished career in financial services in Thailand and China. He was deputy president of the Bank of Asia in Thailand until his retirement in 2002 and continued to serve the bank as a director until 2004. More >

 CEO Message

I am pleased to welcome you to our latest edition of Viewpoint. In this issue, you will find that we are taking a fresh look at the questions of globalization and progress that are shaping enterprises around the world. As the global economy knits closer together, dynamic new markets like India, Israel, the Arab world and beyond, are redefining the marketplace. The next generation of corporate superpowers is springing up around the world, and these new champions bring fresh ideas and new energy to everything they do. In a trend that shows no sign of slowing down, more and more business is happening in a virtual world, where we are exploring a bold frontier with its own set of laws and languages, proficiency in which is a new prerequisite for global success.

As always, APCO is looking for ways to help clients anticipate and pre-position themselves to make the most of exciting global developments. In fact, APCO expanded its operations in dynamic markets, such as Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai; and its presence in major business and political centers, such as Washington, D.C., New York and London. Helping clients make connections between these growing markets and established markets has helped many organizations grow and achieve success.

APCO is also helping clients understand the rapidly changing online environment. We partnered with the Council of Public Relations Firms to launch an annual research study looking into how PR firms and bloggers perceive each other and work together, and how this influential group and medium is changing the public relations industry. You can learn more about this ongoing project at www.bloggersandpr.com. Additionally, our ground-breaking blog-analysis site, www.virtualvantagepoints.com, is gaining respect and popularity in the online world, both for everyday coverage of what is and is not being discussed in the blogosphere and for our series of election-monitoring, live-blogging events, which are helping to redefine the way people gather political news online.

Behind these virtual initiatives – and everything else that APCO does – is a tremendous team of consultants. Our team is growing in both size and stature, and I have been extremely pleased to announce many new members of the APCO team over the last few months. We welcomed to the International Advisory Council Congressman Mike Oxley, former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and co-sponsor of the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley act; former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan; Gao Weijie, former chairman of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) America, whose fascinating article on sovereign wealth funds is included in this newsletter; and Kenneth Thorpe, a leading health care policy expert and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. I am also pleased to welcome David Bushong, former executive with both Altria and Boeing, to our Brussels office; and Paul Clayman, an alumnus of the U.S. State Department who most recently served as chief counsel to Senator Dick Lugar, to our team in Washington, D.C.

APCO's growth is possible because so many clients have given us the honor of being their trusted partner of choice during both the pivotal moments of truly unusual opportunity or crisis and the long and winding road to lasting, meaningful success. We are keenly aware of the great responsibility your trust entails, and that is what drives us to redefine excellence every single day. Thank you for your confidence. Here at APCO, we plan to keep succeeding in ways you didn’t think possible.

Best regards,

Margery Kraus