Insights

Artificial intelligence is a concept that remains much discussed but poorly understood. There are popular speakers who preach its potential, predicting that we will soon live in an automated world where human work is no longer necessary.

Global businesses today use a wide variety of tools in their communications strategy to stay connected – intranets, emails, mobile phones, Skype, texts and instant messaging among them. Revolutionary as they may be for transforming how business is conducted globally, they still provide no substitute for sending a trusted, capable employee on an overseas assignment to solve a problem or lead an initiative in person.

Thailand may soon join several countries in taxing digital services and products that are provided by foreign e-commerce operators. In July 2018, the Thai Cabinet approved of a draft law that, if enacted, will see Thailand imposing value added tax (“VAT”) on foreign operators that provide services and content through the internet or electronic media to Thai consumers.

For the average large Thai organisation included in the study, just $0.7 million was lost through the direct result of attacks. Indirect effects accounted for $6.7 million of the lost money, while induced losses accounted for the remaining $5.3 million.

Executive recruitment used to be a much simpler industry in terms of entry as well as sustainable performance. Before networks like LinkedIn and dedicated job-searching websites, businesses had little choice but to connect with executive candidates via a third party.

IFRS News is your quarterly update on all things relating to International Financial Reporting Standards.

For many businesses, international expansion and growth brings new opportunities across new markets. However, managing an internationally mobile workforce can pose significant challenges in effectively tracking where employees are working. In turn, these challenges complicate the tax and reporting obligations that arise across a diverse employee population working across borders.

As companies grow in size, the challenge of keeping everyone on the same page becomes ever greater. In the minds of many executives, the most natural solution seems to be an increased tendency toward top-down control.

Currently, IFRS does not provide specific guidance on accounting for crypto assets. This IFRS Viewpoint seeks to explore the accounting issues that arise for miners and validators in mining and maintaining the blockchain in accordance with existing IFRS.

With the recent closures of Toys “R” Us (U.S.), Maplin and Topshop Australia, we investigate whether the internet is killing off physical stores and offer practical advice to dynamic retail businesses on how to avoid going under.

Whether it’s robotics, artificial intelligence or the cloud, advances in technology present a golden opportunity for the finance function. But what’s the best way to maximise potential gains: an enterprise-wide solution, or a more targeted approach?

In the final part of this article, we continue our examination of how customs rules for free trade agreements (“FTAs”) should be modernised to meet the needs of a digital economy.

IFRS News is your quarterly update on all things relating to International Financial Reporting Standards.

Every board is susceptible to bust-ups, but the frequency, ferocity and complexity of conflicts depend on the personalities of those involved, the interests at stake and the robustness of its conflict-handling process.

Grant Thornton China's Asia Private Equity review looks specifically into the private equity activities across the region to see how private equity funds perform in Asia as compared to the global environment. It also aims to identify the key challenges facing the private equity funds across the region, and provides an outlook for future private equity activities in Asia and globally.

Wave after wave of new business technology has been hyped as revolutionary, leaving organisations with the options either to invest in strategic transformation and disruptive technologies or to dismiss it all as mere noise and carry on with traditional methods of business administration.