{"id":3668,"date":"2017-02-01T17:48:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T17:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T17:51:53","slug":"us-inc-faces-uneasy-test-of-doing-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/01\/us-inc-faces-uneasy-test-of-doing-business\/","title":{"rendered":"US Inc faces uneasy test of doing business"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>President Donald Trump vowed to end business as usual in Washington. Global companies are now learning just what that means.<\/div>\n

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What began before his inauguration, with attempts to cajole corporations like Toyota Motor into keeping jobs in the US with critical tweets, is now escalating into a crucial test for business leaders trying to maintain cross-border flows of people and goods that underpin commerce in the 21st century.<\/div>\n

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Trump\u2019s Friday signing of an executive order barring the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, on the heels of his war of words with Mexico over trade, alarmed executives from big employers including General Electric (GE), Google and Microsoft.<\/div>\n
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GE Chief Executive Officer \u00a0(CEO) Jeff Immelt\u2019s response underscored the delicate balance business will have to strike. \u201cWe have many employees from the named countries and we do business all over the region,\u201d he said in an internal e-mail. While he called his staff \u201ccritical to our success,\u201d he avoided direct criticism of Trump\u2019s policy. GE \u201cwill continue to make our voice heard with the new administration and congress and reiterate the importance of this\u00a0issue,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n

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Trump\u2019s order shut the door to nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen \u2014 including refugees, visiting scholars and even permanent American residents who happened to be abroad for work or holidays.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe would never think this would become any kind of an issue,\u201d Ludwig Willisch, chief executive officer of North American operations at Bayerische Motoren\u00a0Werke, said at an automotive conference on Saturday. \u201cThis country is a melting pot, freedom of speech, everybody gets together and creates this great country. So, we were not prepared for this kind of thing.\u201d<\/div>\n

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In a sharply worded message to staff, Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs\u2019s long-time head, broke with the Trump administration over its controversial attempt to crack down on immigration. The voicemail, sent on Sunday to the firm\u2019s 34,400 employees, pits Blankfein against an administration stocked with Goldman Sachs Group veterans, including his former No. 2, Gary Cohn, and key Trump advisor Steven Bannon. Blankfein told employees that President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order, parts of which were blocked by federal courts, is at odds with the firm\u2019s long-held policies on workforce diversity and could disrupt Goldman Sachs\u2019s business. \u201cThis is not a policy we support,\u201d the chief executive officer said. Other Wall Street firms took a softer approach. JPMorgan Chase & Co\u2019s\u00a0operating committee, led by CEO Jamie Dimon, said in a memo to staff on Sunday that it\u2019s \u201cgrateful for the hard work and sacrifices made to keep our country safe,\u201d and that the country was \u201cstrengthened by the rich diversity of the world around us.\u201d It didn\u2019t express an opinion on the policy.<\/div>\n

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Wells Fargo & Co and Morgan Stanley said they were monitoring the ban\u2019s impact on employees.<\/div>\n

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Steve Schwarzman, CEO of the world\u2019s largest private equity firm, Blackstone Group, took a pass when asked about the immigrant order\u2019s effect on his business. \u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on that,\u201d he said at a Catholic Charities luncheon on Sunday, where Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Charles Schumer, both New York Democrats, used their remarks to about 150 guests to oppose the order.<\/div>\n

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Optimists suggested he would quietly drop pledges to tear up trade deals and reconsider defense commitments to allies.<\/div>\n

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The about-face was epitomized by Tesla Motors Inc. founder Elon Musk; earlier this week he praised Trump\u2019s nominee for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson, as a potentially \u201cexcellent\u201d pick. On Sunday, Musk asked his 6.89 million Twitter followers to read the immigration order and suggest amendments, which he will then take to Trump\u2019s CEO advisory council to develop a consensus and present to the president.<\/div>\n

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On the other hand, US auto companies, whose home state of Michigan has a large Arab community, have yet to make their views known.<\/div>\n

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Wall Street has also largely stayed out of the fray. At some of its biggest banks, executives said they were struggling to understand whether the order will ultimately apply to employees who work in the US with green cards or legal work permits. If it doesn\u2019t hit visa holders, few major companies\u2019 employees will be affected, according to one executive who asked not to be identified because he wasn\u2019t authorized to comment. On Sunday, JPMorgan said it was working to assist affected employees.<\/div>\n

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Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz said the executive order left him with \u201cdeep concern, a heavy heart and a resolute promise.\u201d The coffee chain will redouble efforts to hire as many as 10,000 refugees over five years in 75 countries, he wrote in a note to employees Sunday.<\/div>\n

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Reaction to the ban was sharpest from the technology industry, with Twitter awash in reminders that Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant. Among the first to speak out was Google CEO Sundar Pichai, himself an immigrant from India, who called the policy \u201cpainful.\u201d Another India-born CEO, Microsoft Corp.\u2019s Satya Nadella, took to LinkedIn to highlight \u201cthe positive impact that immigration has on our company, for the country, for the world.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Trump should expect sustained challenges from the tech industry in particular, said Ian Bremmer, CEO of political consultancy Eurasia Group, because it differs significantly with him on issues from net neutrality to immigration. \u201cWhile most every CEO wants to just \u2018get back to business\u2019 after Trump\u2019s\u00a0election, that\u2019s going to prove much harder\u201d for technology leaders, he said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a fight.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Compounding business leaders\u2019 unease was the order\u2019s confused implementation, which included unclear directives on how border agents should treat lawful permanent residents, and contradictory statements about how it would affect those who hold passports from two countries — for example, a dual citizen of Iran and the UK<\/div>\n

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For now, lawyers are advising such individuals not to travel to the US, or to stay put if they already live there. The new rules came into force with no\u00a0transition period, leaving carriers like Emirates and American Airlines Group Inc. unsure what to do with passengers booked to fly to US airports, or already in the air.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe are committed to protecting our people and will provide whatever support is necessary to protect them and their families,\u201d Michael Roth, CEO of advertising firm Interpublic Group of Cos., wrote in an e-mail.<\/div>\n

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The most important business stories of the day. Get Bloomberg\u2019s daily newsletter. The move\u2019s implications extended far beyond the business world. On Sunday the British long-distance runner Mo Farah, a four-time Olympic gold medalist who<\/div>\n
was born in Somalia, said he may not be able to return to Oregon, where he trains and lives with his children. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and<\/div>\n

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Sciences said Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi may be unable to attend this year\u2019s awards, for which his film \u201cThe Salesman\u201d has been nominated.<\/div>\n

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Trump\u2019s order has \u201csignificant commercial implications,\u201d said Allyson Stewart-Allen, CEO of International Marketing Partners in London, who advises European companies on doing business in the US \u201cWhat do you do with an employee on an executive salary who\u2019s sitting in an airport lounge kind of like Tom Hanks in \u2018The Terminal\u2019?\u201d<\/div>\n

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Source: http:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/international\/us-inc-faces-uneasy-test-of-doing-business-117013100003_1.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump vowed to end business as usual in Washington. Global companies are now learning just what that means. \u00a0 What began before his inauguration, with attempts to cajole corporations like Toyota Motor into keeping jobs in the US … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,493,5],"tags":[901,298,918,313,884],"class_list":["post-3668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-corporate-services","category-economy-business-updates-corporate-affairs","category-india-international-corporate-updates","tag-donald-trump","tag-ease-of-doing-business","tag-toyota-motor","tag-us","tag-washington-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3668"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3672,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668\/revisions\/3672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunkrish.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}