Latest news with #Mola
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Unlock Latam 2025: Unlocking E-commerce Growth for U.S. Brands in Latin America
NEW YORK, May 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last week, the second edition of took place at PayPal's NYC offices, bringing together top e-commerce figures from Mercado Libre, Sony, and GoPro. Amid global trade uncertainty, where tariffs remain top of mind for businesses considering expansion, these key players gathered to discuss cross-border opportunities, challenges, and alternative strategies for U.S. retailers to thrive in Latin America. Hosted by nocnoc and sponsored by PayPal Ventures and Zyla by Ant International, the event spotlighted innovation, market expansion, and the untapped potential of Latin America's digital economy. In the opening session, 'Inside LATAM – How Global Brands Navigate, Scale & Succeed', Armando Mola, President of South America at Sony, and Sergio Bruno, Senior Director of Sales & Marketing for the Americas at GoPro, moderated by Zia Daniell Wigder, CCO EMARKETER, shared insights into their cross-border strategies. Both executives emphasized how cross-border models accelerate market entry, allowing brands to test demand with lower upfront investment. 'Cross-border selling allows us to be agile—entering multiple markets quickly and adapting based on what the data tells us,' added Bruno. The value of a multichannel strategy was another focal point. 'We're active in over 15 marketplaces across the region,' said Mola. 'Even where there's a dominant player, we want to be everywhere—many consumers are loyal to specific platforms due to financial services or brand affinity.' To succeed across multiple marketplaces, Mola highlighted nocnoc as a key partner: 'nocnoc is a one-stop solution to reach a lot of Latin American markets and consumers easily. We recently started working with them and are impressed—it's much better than we expected.' The second session, 'Beyond Trade Tensions – LATAM E-commerce as a Gateway to Growth', featured David Geisen, SVP Marketplaces Hispanics at Mercado Libre, in conversation with Homan Milani, Managing Director at Bank of America. The session explored macro trends in the region, from rapid e-commerce growth to the impact of U.S. tariffs. 'Tariffs on Asian imports have accelerated Latin America's rise as a strategic market,' said Geisen. 'Brands are diversifying here because the region offers strong growth potential with fewer barriers.' He also noted how market dynamics vary significantly between countries: 'Last year, Argentina was going through a difficult time. Now that the market has stabilized, we saw a 52% increase in U.S. sales to Argentina just last quarter—a strong signal of the region's potential.' When discussing long-tail opportunities, Geisen emphasized how underserved many Latin American markets remain: 'The opportunity is huge. Fewer brands operate directly in these countries, which means a smaller assortment and less SKU variety for consumers. That makes it easier for new brands to break through and add value.' About Unlock Latam 2025 Unlock Latam is an exclusive annual event that brings together leaders from e-commerce, cross-border trade, global brands, and marketplaces to share strategies, success stories, and explore the future of digital commerce in Latin America. About nocnoc nocnoc is Latin America's leading cross-border e-commerce platform, connecting international sellers to over 650 million customers across more than 15 marketplaces. Founded in 2018, nocnoc provides end-to-end solutions, including marketplace integration, logistics, customs handling, and localized marketing, helping brands scale quickly and effectively in the region. For more information, visit mariacecilia@ 99 167
ABC News
04-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
In Papua New Guinea's main hospital, thousands of women were left on the floor after giving birth
Less than 24 hours after giving birth, Christina Paulus is lying on the floor of a busy corridor in Papua New Guinea's main hospital. Nurses hurry around with charts. A cleaner wheels a mop bucket past her head. Beside her on the linoleum floor, another woman's baby starts to cry. As she rolls over to settle her newborn, Christina winces in pain. She lost more than a litre of blood during the birth. "The wounds are there. So when I'm sitting on the floor, it's uncomfortable," she says. Around her, dozens of women and their babies are in the same predicament — sprawled on the floor in hallways and cramped in front of a reception desk. Hallways cramped with women on the floor make delivering treatment difficult for staff. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) Blocked sinks, broken walls and toilets that don't work properly It's a scene that obstetrician Glen Mola is confronted with every morning when he walks into the maternity ward at the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), where he's worked since 1987. The once-charming wooden building — known fondly as the Susu Mamas clinic — was erected in 1958, when Papua New Guinea was under Australian colonial rule. Staff say the maternity ward at Port Moresby General Hospital is struggling to cope. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) "It's all PNG hardwood. It will never collapse," Dr Mola says, tapping the scuffed timber beneath his feet. But he says the facility is in a state of severe neglect due to a lack of investment by hospital management. "The walls are broken. The toilets are not working well. Some of the sinks are blocked. Lights are not working, taps don't work," Dr Mola says. "There's no soap in the soap dispensers, no paper towels, so we dry our hands on our trousers. We need to do better. "We're losing the ability to cope." A key part of the problem is PNG's rapidly expanding population. "The facilities we have here are sufficient for about 10,000 women a year. And we exceeded 10,000 back in the 90s," Dr Mola says. While the country hasn't It's clear that the capital, Port Moresby, is growing faster than many services can keep up with — Dr Mola's maternity ward included. "People move into this city. I would say more than 1,000 a day, possibly," he estimates. One of Papua New Guinea's most respected doctors, Glen Mola says he's disappointed to see services in decline. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) Thousands of women treated on hospital floor Frustrated with the conditions, Dr Mola and his team began documenting the state of care in the maternity ward last year. In 2024, they found more than 7,000 women — about one in four — who visited the hospital to give birth received at least some of their care on the floor. "Not being able to provide a bed for medical care is not just challenging from an ethical, social point. It's undignified, it's almost against rights, actually," Dr Mola says. It also makes the work nearly impossible for staff. "There's no way a midwife can sit down or kneel down on the floor beside you when there's blood and urine and [amniotic fluid] and faeces," he says. " Having a baby is a bit of a messy procedure — we need a bed with proper sort of hygiene and asepsis. " Photo shows A man under anaesthetic lays on an operating table with his eyes closed, a breathing tube in his mouth Many of Papua New Guinea's remote hospitals are struggling to survive, with no money, limited supplies, and patients in dire need of their help. Over the Easter long weekend, two women and two babies died, at least partly because of insufficient capacity, according to Dr Mola. He explains that a relaxed, comfortable environment is crucial for promoting positive birth outcomes. "Birthing women require quietness, calmness, an ambience that makes them confident and feel as though everything's OK and they're being looked after," he says. "Anxiety and fear are very anti-having-the-baby. If you have a lot of anxiety and fear, then women don't birth well." Maternity ward upgrade ditched for hotel As Dr Mola nears the end of his career, he is disappointed to see how things have gone downhill. He's adamant it shouldn't be this way — and if everything had gone according to plan, he believes the clinic would be in a much better state today. In 2022, the Japanese government committed $37 million in grant funding to revamp the Susu Mama wing with a new perinatal clinic that included more beds, a specialist ICU and laboratory. Photo shows Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape points up with his right index finger. Seventy projects outlined in a confidential PNG cabinet document include acquiring a luxury island in partnership with a Congolese rapper, exploring the potential for a world-class Formula 1 track, creating a "Silicon Valley style hub" for entrepreneurs and setting up a spy agency. After more than 10 months of consultation with midwives, doctors, the Japanese embassy and developers, a comprehensive plan was presented to the hospital board. But it was rejected because, according to Dr Mola, management believed it "did not fit with their vision for the future development of PMGH". "The CEO looked at our plan and saw that it was going to be on this site and not on the site that he wants … so he can use this site for the hotel and shopping precinct," Dr Mola says. He says the hospital's alternative plan is to build a new maternity wing in an eight-storey tower at a different site — which he argues is impractical. Hospital management wants to upgrade smaller hospital PMGH chief executive Dr Paki Molumi declined to answer questions posed by the ABC. In a statement, National Capital District governor Powes Parkop said the Japanese grant was not refused, but PMGH management believed the money should go towards upgrading a smaller hospital on the city's outskirts. Port Moresby General Hospital CEO Dr Paki Molumi declined to answer questions about conditions in the hospital. ( ABC News: Marian Faa ) "With more available land and growing infrastructure, [it] is ideally positioned to handle primary maternity and child health services for the city's rapidly growing population," Mr Parkop said. He explained it was part of a larger plan to transition PMGH to a "level 6" hospital that will focus solely on specialised referrals and teaching, rather than serving direct admissions like maternity and child health cases. Photo shows Men in protective medical gowns pile coffins into a mass grave. High burial costs are forcing families to abandon the bodies of loved ones at Papua New Guinea's public morgue, and many are ending up in mass graves. In the longer-term, the provincial health authority wants to bolster smaller hospitals around the city to deal with primary care. But Dr Mola says the maternity ward needs urgent relief. PNG's Prime Minister James Marape has, in principle, thrown his weight behind the call. Mr Marape summoned Health Minister Elias Kapavore to discuss issues at the hospital on Friday — a meeting Dr Mola described as "very positive", with the PM pledging funding or the cause. "There is a need right away. We need to attend to it. So, we will attend to the immediate need as well as the long-term need," Mr Marape told ABC. And with the average woman in PNG having at least four children in her life, Dr Mola, and the women he cares for, are depending on that promise being fulfilled.
Zawya
24-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Diary of a CMO: What's marketing's contribution to profit?
Find out how to manage our price elasticity with Pricing Power and make more money for your business. 'And thus, our marketing investment has made our brand 10% less price sensitive and contributed to a profit increase of 57%', Mola paused, letting the weight of the numbers sink in. Over the last year, Pricing Power – one of their reported KPIs – had become a regular in the boardroom. Through it, they observed how their brand strength and price sensitivity were trending, then timed a price correction with minimum losses. How did Mola, the CMO of the midrange UK skincare brand, raise the profile of Pricing Power and so redefine her team's relationship with finance? They followed five steps: 1. They worked out and proved to their wider business that Pricing Power correlates with price elasticity The power of pricing is no new news: get pricing wrong and you will forfeit 8% of your operating profit, McKinsey revealed more than 20 years ago. Yet still, only 20% of marketers consider pricing their prime responsibility after brand, digital marketing, advertising, new products and services, and on par with their sales' responsibility. Going against the tide, Mola and her team began collaborating more closely with sales and prioritising pricing. They used their tracker to weekly monitor their actual price (what's paid by consumers), their relative price (whether their price tag is higher or lower than competitors), and their Pricing Power (their perception of worth in people's mind). As they experimented with marketing activity, all three indicators shifted. The first two regularly fluctuated, the third – Pricing Power – moved more slowly as it reflected an attitudinal shift. Six months later, they realised their brand was becoming less price-sensitive when they noticed an increase in Pricing Power. 2. They put emphasis on premium perceptions Marketers remain under intense pressure to show unit volume growth. More budgets are shifting towards performance marketing, and the average Pricing Power index of the world's most valuable brands has declined to a new low. Many of these brands have given in to demands for short-term volume by solely focusing on salience. But Mola's team followed the evidence and put most of their time and effort in being meaningfully different to more people. Because this has emerged time and again as the pair of blessings for driving Pricing Power and influencing people's willingness to pay more. 3. They reined in sales promotions "I am burning shareholder funds, buyers are questioning whether our brand has lost its popularity and I am a touch away from igniting the spiral of doom, but promotions sure feel good", the average marketer ponders. Somehow, the inherent danger of promotions doesn't scare. So much so that in November '24, sales on promotion reached 30% – the highest since Christmas the year before – despite seeing evidence that volume-based deals have been falling out of favour. In addition to this, our recent research with Google proves that brands that don't over-discount are 20% less price elastic than those that do. Mola and team turned planned promotional spend into a budget line for marketing investment that would help them secure some extra shelf space. They still offered a cheaper price, but only sparingly and strategically, so it didn't impede the rise of their Pricing Power. 4. They used brand ads to support firmer pricing Peter Field has called out the link between quant pre-testing and Pricing Power, yet paradoxically, the use of quant pre-testing of campaigns has recently fallen among the IPA case studies and among the WARC effectiveness case studies, just 1% mention pricing impact. But the recipe exists as our research has repeatedly highlighted the importance of brand perceptions to Pricing Power, financial performance and resilience. Differentiating campaigns nudge willingness to pay Mola and her team ruthlessly trailed the positive impact of their advertising on their company's stock pricing. Their first trick was to invest all their savings from price promotions into brand, the second to double down on video advertising. The more predisposed people started to feel towards their brand, the less important price became in their purchase decision. 5. They confidently increased their price by 14% Increasing your price by x% leads to a y% drop in volume. This demonstrates price elasticity, but the value of 'y' differs among brands. In Mola's case, as their brand became more inelastic, people became less sensitive to their price change and their demand was less affected too. Here are the specifics of our real case study: Brand decreased its price elasticity by 10% > price increased by 14% > demand declined by 7% > revenue rose by 7%. How would these indicators look if our brand's price elasticity hadn't changed? Price elasticity remained unchanged > price increased by 14% > demand declined by 10% > revenue rose by 2%. Simply put, leveraging your equity can boost your revenue by 5pp. Low margin brand? Even more reason to take note of this We used different margin scenarios to understand how three levels of price elasticity can affect profit. The data revealed that lower-profit margin brands (like Mola's ~ 20% margin) would benefit more from a stronger profit growth than high margin brands. Brand: the most important moat of your business Warren Buffet has always been looking for businesses with a wide and long-lasting moat around them. A moat that would allow them to sustain a price increase without 'a prayer session', as he says without cracking a smile. Over the last year, we've witnessed many brands successfully adjusting their prices. Despite Tide's premium price, 15% of people still declare that it is worth more than it costs in the US. In Europe, McCain communicated consistent emotional associations through brand advertising and reduced people's sensitivity to price changes. In the UK, Magnum 's 'Stick to the original' campaign successfully defended its price premium and brought back those distracted by copycats. Oral-B's strong investment in tech expertise and consistent advertising turned them into the number one justified premium brand in many European oral care markets. Nivea, a meaningfully different brand with a low price relative to its competitors, continued to grow volume in its face care range despite increasing prices. OUTsurance is seen as great value having improved its worth perceptions over time by making it easier for their South African customers to manage policies and life claims. The list goes on and on. At the heart of their potent pricing endeavour is a product or service that meets people's needs, connects with them emotionally, and stands out as different to others. A brand whose price matches their worth in consumer's mind. And one whose promise and extra value is delivered come rain, inflation or any other crisis. The question that remains to ask yourselves is: can your brand leverage its equity and defend a price increase without losing (too much) of its volume? Mola's brand made it happen following a five-step plan that defined their marketing objectives for the year. It all began with the realization that Pricing Power can be used as a surrogate metric for price elasticity, a metric that should be continuously monitored to ensure sustainable, long-term success. And it ended with marketing quantifying their contribution to the business's bottom line and gaining the worthy respect of the boardroom. Whether you are starting now or are an established brand, our promise is this: Blueprint for Brand Growth will help you stay on track to sustainable growth and healthy profits.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Village '3,000 years old than previously thought'
An archaeological dig has revealed a village existed nearly 3,000 years earlier than the medieval period that historians initially thought it dated from. The excavation at Sharnbrook, near Bedford, carried out by the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) uncovered new evidence that people lived in the area as early as 2,500 BC. The excavations found two burials, including a cremation which could have dated from the Iron Age, Bronze Age pottery, and remains of an Iron Age and Roman farming settlement. Paul Smits, managing director of Bellway Northern Home Counties, which has commissioned the dig at one of its housing development sites, said the discoveries offered "a richer understanding of the land and the ways people lived". Before the recent discoveries, historians believed the village was established in the early medieval period (AD 800-900). One of Mola's finds included a crouched burial, likely to be of an adult male. Specialists have said that because the remains were found in a "too small grave" it suggests "the remains had partially decomposed before the burial took place". A cremation burial found at the site had remains in a small urn "set upon another layer of burnt bone". Mola said: "The cremation also contained small pieces of iron – possibly remains of nails from the funeral pyre." Chris Chinnock, its reporting team lead, and human osteologist, said the discovery was "really exciting". "While we don't currently have evidence for other Bronze Age features on our site, the remains of Bronze Age burial mounds were discovered in the 1970s near Radwell, on the opposite bank of the River Great Ouse, so we look forward to exploring Sharnbrook's Bronze Age connections further during our post-excavation work." Since the dig, further studies of the crouched burial are taking place using scientific techniques to discover when and how the individual died. Mr Smits said: "It is fascinating to discover that a community was living in this area thousands of years earlier than previously thought." Redrow Homes is also building in the area - at its Templars Park development. John Mann, a managing director at Redrow, said: "We look forward to sharing these discoveries with the local community over the coming months and providing an archival legacy for future generations to enjoy." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Is this the face of teenage queen Lady Jane Grey? Roman cemetery found at roadworks site is 'unique' WW2 bomber group museum appeals for repair funds Mola
BBC News
13-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Dig reveals burials that show Sharnbrook dates from the Bronze Age
An archaeological dig has revealed a village existed nearly 3,000 years earlier than the medieval period that historians initially thought it dated excavation at Sharnbrook, near Bedford, carried out by the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) uncovered new evidence that people lived in the area as early as 2,500 excavations found two burials, including a cremation which could have dated from the Iron Age, Bronze Age pottery, and remains of an Iron Age and Roman farming Smits, managing director of Bellway Northern Home Counties, which has commissioned the dig at one of its housing development sites, said the discoveries offered "a richer understanding of the land and the ways people lived". Before the recent discoveries, historians believed the village was established in the early medieval period (AD 800-900).One of Mola's finds included a crouched burial, likely to be of an adult male. Specialists have said that because the remains were found in a "too small grave" it suggests "the remains had partially decomposed before the burial took place".A cremation burial found at the site had remains in a small urn "set upon another layer of burnt bone". Mola said: "The cremation also contained small pieces of iron – possibly remains of nails from the funeral pyre."Chris Chinnock, its reporting team lead, and human osteologist, said the discovery was "really exciting"."While we don't currently have evidence for other Bronze Age features on our site, the remains of Bronze Age burial mounds were discovered in the 1970s near Radwell, on the opposite bank of the River Great Ouse, so we look forward to exploring Sharnbrook's Bronze Age connections further during our post-excavation work." Since the dig, further studies of the crouched burial are taking place using scientific techniques to discover when and how the individual Smits said: "It is fascinating to discover that a community was living in this area thousands of years earlier than previously thought."Redrow Homes is also building in the area - at its Templars Park Mann, a managing director at Redrow, said: "We look forward to sharing these discoveries with the local community over the coming months and providing an archival legacy for future generations to enjoy." Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
