Microsoft Japan (NASDAQ: MSFT) conducted a productivity experiment by testing out a four day work week system.

Work-Life Choice Challenge

Microsoft Japan started implementing a project called Work-Life Choice Challenge in order to boost productivity and efficiency. As a part of the project, Microsoft Japan gave all of its employees all Fridays off during the month of August. Although Microsoft shortened the working week of its employees, it did not decrease their pay. The goal of the project was to boost maximize profit. The experiment encouraged employees to achieve the same outcome with at least 20% less working time. The experiment was successful in maximizing efficiency while increasing leisure time.

Results

Microsoft Japan announced the results of its experiment last week. According to Microsoft Japan, four day working weeks boosted productivity by 40%. The results of the experiment have been overwhelmingly positive for the company. According to the results of the experiment, four day working weeks led to an increase in happiness. Furthermore, working fewer days increased the productivity of employees. Employees requested less time off during the month of August. Moreover, Microsoft Japan reported that four day weeks led to more productive meetings. Furthermore, shortening work weeks decreased Microsoft Japan’s sunk costs by bringing electricity use down by 23%. Employees lowered the cost of Microsoft Japan by printing less paper as well as using less water at work. The experiment also included a plan to subsidize vacations for Microsoft Japan employees in order to make family vacations more affordable and accessible.

Happiness & Productivity

An increasing number of studies suggest that there is a positive linear relationship between happiness levels and productivity levels at work. Happier employees work more efficiently. They produce a larger quantity and better quality of work during their time at work. The experiment conducted by Microsoft Japan concluded that shortening work weeks increased happiness levels at work. 92% of Microsoft Japan employees reported that they were happier when working for four days a week as opposed to five days a week. As companies look for ways to boost productivity and profit, increasing efficiency by shortening work weeks can be a viable option for many. Four day working weeks have been becoming more popular among companies. Some of the other companies who experimented adopting four day weeks are Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK) and Tree House (NSE: TREEHOUSE). Company leaders have been increasingly in favour of shortening work weeks to boost productivity at work. Following the success of Microsoft’s experiment, it is likely that companies such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) will consider conducting similar productivity experiments.  

China’s Jingye Group (SHA: 600768) announced that it plans on investing £1.2bn in British Steel in order to prevent the collapse of British Steel.

British Steel

British Steel is the second biggest steel producer in the United Kingdom. The company collapsed into liquidation earlier this year in May after the government’s refusal to provide a financial bailout. Since the collapse of British Steel, the company has been searching for ways to save jobs. British Steel employs more than 24,000 employees in the United Kingdom. Jingye Group contacted the United Kingdom government to request approval for taking over British Steel. Jingye Group, an industrial giant based in China, believes British Steel has a sustainable future and growth potential.

Government Approval

Jingye Group expects to finalise the sale after receiving regulatory approval. Furthermore, both Jingye Group and British Steel hope to complete the deal as soon as possible in order to start the transition period. British Steel will continue its normal operations during the transition period. Jingye Group’s decision to take over British Steel will save thousands of jobs as well as maintain previous production levels of steel in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, government approval is likely to take time. Due to the strategic importance of steel production, the United Kingdom government is likely to take time scrutinising the deal before announcing its final decision.

General Election

The upcoming general election is critical to the future of the deal. Jingye Group needs government approval as well as regulatory approval in order to complete the take over. The timeframe and success of the takeover will depend on the actions of the administration elected following the general election. The deal is fundamental to United Kingdom’s economy. If British Steel is not saved, efficiency levels are likely to decrease due to distortions in multiple sectors related to steel production and supply. The loss of British Steel would lead to negative distortions in the manufacturing, construction and infrastructure sectors.  

Vodafone (LON:VOD) revealed a half year loss on Tuesday, blaming a court ruling in India. Shares in the British multinational telecommunications company were trading almost 3% higher on Tuesday. Vodafone said that loss for the six months ended 30 September amounted to €1.9 billion. The company added, however, that this “primarily reflects losses in relation to Vodafone Idea post an adverse judgement against the industry by the Supreme Court in India”. Vodafone also upgraded its full year guidance and it now expects adjusted EBITDA to lie in the €14.8-€15.0 billion range. This was previously forecasted to lie between €13.8-14.2 billion. Earlier this month, Vodafone announced structural changes for its senior board and global operations. One of the changes included the removal of its Rest of the World regional organisation. “I am pleased by the speed at which we are executing on the strategic priorities that we announced this time last year,” Nick Read, Group Chief Executive, said in a company statement. “This is reflected in our return to top-line growth in the second quarter, which we expect to build upon in the second half of the year in both Europe and Africa,” the Group Chief Executive said. “The consistency of our commercial performance has improved in both regions, and we have made a fast start on integrating the acquired Liberty Global businesses, where we see significant long-term opportunity. Our digital transformation is already creating a better experience for our customers, improving our differentiation, supporting growth and at the same time reducing our structural costs,” the Group Chief Executive continued. Nick Read added: “We have now secured network sharing agreements across most of our major European markets, and we recently announced a major long-term wholesale partnership with Virgin Media in the UK, in order to improve the utilisation of our network assets. And we expect our European TowerCo to be operational by May next year, enabling us to continue to unlock the significant value embedded in our tower infrastructure.” Shares in Vodafone Group plc (LON:VOD) were up on Tuesday, trading at +2.97% as of 12:32 GMT.

Labour announced that it suffered a large-scale cyber attack yesterday afternoon.

Cyber Attack

The attack impacted Labour’s digital platforms. Security procedures dealing with the attack slowed down Labour’s campaign projects amid preparations for the upcoming general election. The cyber attack was not successful due to Labour’s strong digital security systems. It has been reported that there has not been any breach of data privacy due to the cyber attack. Although the cyber attack failed, it still caused problems by interrupting Labour’s campaign activities. After Labour’s digital security systems prevented the cyber attack, Labour restored its campaign activities. Labour contacted the National Cyber Security Centre to report the cyber attack. The cyber attack intended to overwhelm Labour’s digital system with large numbers of traffic until Labour’s digital system collapsed. If the cyber attack was successful, it would harm Labour’s campaign activities by significantly slowing down or paralysing Labour’s election preparations. Furthermore, Labour detected millions of cyber attacks coming primarily from Russia and Brazil.

The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

Cyber attacks intended to take Labour’s digital systems entirely offline in order to slow Labour’s activities down. All of the cyber attacks detected were DDoS attacks (The Distributed Denial of Service). These cyber attacks take digital systems offline, and make them collapse by flooding computer service with too much traffic. DDoS attacks paralyse digital systems without breaking into them. Labour informed campaigners regarding the problem caused by cyber attacks to explain why Labour’s digital systems were working slower than usual.

Cloudflare

Labour works with Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) to protect its digital systems. Cloudflare provides DDos cyber attack protection to web users. For example, Cloudflare filters traffic to prevent digital systems from collapsing. The company filters illegitimate requests received by digital systems to prevent DDos cyber attacks. Furthermore, Cloudflare backs up company data by storing versions of digital systems on its servers. As cyber attacks become more common, the demand for cyber attack prevention systems such as Cloudflare increases.  

New data revealed on Tuesday that growth has slowed for supermarkets in the UK as political uncertainty and a very damp autumn provided a backdrop for sales. The latest Grocery Market Share report by Kantar revealed that year-on-year supermarket sales grew by 1.0% over the past 12 week period. “This period saw an increased focus on seasonal events and promotions. The final quarter of the year is associated with holidays and festivities, and retailers are always looking for ways to capitalise on seasonal events to attract shoppers,” Kantar said. Pumpkin sales grew 6% this year in October in preparation for Halloween celebrations. Indeed, the data revealed that over a tenth of British households brought home a pumpkin. Kantar said that attention has already turned towards Christmas – £17 million has already been spent on mince pies this year. “It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas, particularly for grocery retailers. With many supermarkets already unveiling their festive advertising campaigns, the starting gun has been fired on the race to be Christmas number one,” Kantar added. The data reveals that Lidl, which has worked to encourage larger shopping trips this year, was the fastest growing bricks and mortar retailer across the period, with sales increasing by 8.8%. Meanwhile, Aldi saw a sales growth of 6.7%. The four largest retailers struggled, Kantar said. Asda’s sales declined 1.2% and Morrisons’ dropped 1.7%. Additionally, Tesco saw its sales drop by 0.6% and Sainsbury’s decreased by 0.2%. Just last week, Sainsbury’s revealed a decline in profits in its half year results. Meanwhile, Morrisons said at the start of September in its half year results that pre-tax profits rose, though it warned that the extended Brexit process has weighed on customer behaviour. Shares in WM Morrison Supermarkets plc (LON:MRW) were down on Tuesday, trading at -0.10% as of 10:53 GMT. Shares in Tesco plc (LON:TSCO) were also down, trading at -1.44% as of 10:54 GMT Tuesday. J Sainsbury plc shares (LON:SBRY) were up on Tuesday, trading at +1.57%.