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In an effort to step away from the orthodox method of working via billable hours, software giant Microsoft announced last month they are planning to shift 90% of their legal work to retainer-based models, flat fee, capped fee and performance-based models. Microsoft hopes that alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) will encourage deeper partnerships between the company and its outside legal advisors by adopting this ‘on-call’ mode of functioning, which eliminates charging on an hourly basis. Fourteen law firms, including K&L Gates, Latham & Watkins and Sidley Austin, working with Microsoft have agreed to this change and are a part of their renewed program. This measure from Microsoft is expected to spike adoption and implementation of AFAs with other corporations as well.

As we all are aware, around 90 percent of the growth in media spend is concentrated on Facebook and Google. The remaining 10 percent is left among other content publishers to fight over. This has created some challenges in the media industry.  With the duopoly’s dominance in mind, German and French publishers are joining forces to take on Facebook and Google.

Ethylene is one of the most important building blocks in the organic chemicals value chain, and has an impact on various key derivatives such as polyethylene, styrene, and MEG. The ethylene market is expected to go back and forth in cycles of supply lengthening, shortening and further reach a phase where, due to oversupply, steam crackers might not even have a say in pricing anymore. Let’s see how supply side dynamics have affected ethylene in the recent past. What is the current scenario and what are the sentiments for the future?

Procurement pros with a high level of interest in the category management topic should mark their calendars on Thursday, September 14. On that day, we’re hosting not just one, but two webinars dealing with category management. GEP’s Biju Mohan, vice president of consulting and a leading authority on category management, will present in both sessions.

Chemical producers across the US are slowly and steadily moving away from the production of commoditized and price-sen­sitive chemicals to low-volume, high-value, and high-margin specialty chemical production. THE MORE THE VALUE ADD, THE GREATER THE MARGINS. Though commodity chemicals continue to rule the roost, moving forward, Specialty Chemicals will anchor the overall chemicals industry. Massive brownfield expansions of specialty chemicals across the US are a definite indicator of this new trend.