The Winter Members’ Meeting of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets focused on the theme of “customer experience”. Leading academics, business researchers, and practitioners from best practice companies provided what I found to be clear evidence that attention to the many factors that determine the quality of your customer’s experience with your firm has a positive bottom-line payoff. It was remarkable how often customer loyalty and purchase decisions were influenced by “little things” that are often overlooked.

Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been told by the government that it will consider his request over the coming fortnight. The state-controlled energy giant, which is almost 20 per cent owned by BP, is barred from receiving any credit with a maturity of more than 90 days from US or European banks. However Rosneft suggested that the Kremlin could use money from the National Wealth Fund, a fund earmarked to fund Russian state pensions. The money would be used to purchase Rosneft bonds.

Brent crude, the benchmark for world oil prices, hit a 13 month low on August 13 before recovering to end at $104.28 a barrel. Since mid-June prices have gradually come down by more than nine percent. The most recent losses came after the International Energy Agency (IEA) earlier this week lowered its demand forecast for 2014, with weaker than expected second-quarter economic growth in developed countries and a reduction in oil stockpiling on the part of China.

Net profits at India's largest automotive manufacturer tripled to 53.98 billion rupees ($882 million) in the three months to the end of June, far exceeding analysts' expectations had expected. Revenue grew by nearly 40 percent.

In the quarter ending June 30, JLR’s revenues hit £5.4b billion, a 31 percentage rise of £1.3 billion on the same period last year. Pre-tax profit more than doubled from £415 million to £924 million prompting CEO Ralf Speth to say: “This financial performance reflects Jaguar Land Rover’s award-winning product portfolio."

In the wake of a report in November 2013 by Lawrence Tomlinson, an adviser to the UK government's department for Business Innovations and Skills, the bank has decided to disband the group, sources say. The report said RBS’s GRG unit regularly forced business customers to default on loans so that the bank could charge higher fees, or in some cases seize their properties and sell them

Engaged employees stay with companies for a long time. They are part of the company team, company culture, and company value. Creating company engagement drives employee retention. Retaining great employees keeps hiring and training costs low. Retaining employees can only be achieved with consistent and effective employee communication.

Crown Baus Capital, a global acquisition-based conglomerate, sees this week's Congressional efforts to amend the Controlled Substances Act to permit medical use of cannabis on a nationwide basis as history in the making. This federal medical cannabis legalisation effort in Congress motivates Crown Baus Capital to complete its negotiations to formally begin its Cannabis Drug Development Program using state-by-state legal resources and distribution.

A team lead by Dr Ventsislav Valev of the Cambridge NanoPhotonics Centre, which was set up in 2007 under Prof Jeremy Baumberg, has made a breakthrough that may allow the development of 'invisible' materials. Valev worked with researchers from the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, and the Donostia International Physics Centre in Spain on the project to use unfocused laser light like billions of tiny needles, stitching gold nanoparticles together into long strings, directly in water for the first time.

Sierra Gorda is one of the largest and fastest-developed mining projects in the world. Operated by Polish company KGHM International, it is a joint venture between majority partner KGHM, Sumitomo Metal Mining and the Sumitomo Corporation. The mine is located in the Antofagasta region within the Atacama Desert, which is Chile’s largest copper producing region.