Word: hip
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...open office, the work-among-the-crowd Starbucks culture, and is accustomed to innovative design, via Target and Ikea, at a good price. The next generation of business travelers may have meetings with Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Ark., but they don't want to be separated from their hip, urban social lifestyle...
...Marriott is determined not to lose the boomers. "Our motto is 'You dance with the one that brung you,'" King says. So the furniture--while contemporary, warm and approachable--is deliberately not hip, although the lobby is color coded for coolness: blue for technology, including chairs and tables with accessible plugs; orange for food. According to Marriott, the new lobby has been so successful, the Fair Oaks hotel owner has seen his first-quarter revenue per available room, a standard industry-profitability measurement, rise 12% over last year...
...Freitag, an analyst at Smith Travel Research, says what customers still care about most is location. In that sense, Marriott and Hilton have the advantage. But don't count anyone out. "Starwood, with its W hotels, has shown there's a desire for a hotel that's edgy and hip," says Freitag. "Hilton and Marriott have shown that you can have a family of brands without diluting the name...
...bottom of the pyramid to development groups and regional banks. That's what Ecobank is doing in Africa. The Togo-based company, with operations in 22 countries, has for years acted as a banker to microfinance groups, taking deposits and writing loans. Over that time, Ecobank has grown hip to the business model and last year launched a microfinance institution of its own, in Nigeria and then in Ghana. Senegal and Cameroon are next. "This empowers the bottom of the African market," says Ecobank microfinance head Rotimi Nihinlola, "and is a good opportunity to grow our business...
...criticism amounts to this: lead singer Chris Martin is a cornball solipsist, the melodies all have the same mass-produced "character" as a Pottery Barn table, and Coldplay's albums sound like crib-safe versions of Radiohead--a band that, while commercially less successful, is infinitely more hip and worthy of adulation. Film critics have waged their own version of this argument with moviegoers about the relative merits of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, resulting, as you've no doubt heard, in the complete commercial failure of all Spielberg movies. But if scathing reviews haven't had an effect...