Global Briefing

By Daren Fonda; Andrea Sachs

Mountains of Shipping Containers

Because of a record trade deficit, the U.S. imported nearly 5 million more containers of goods than it shipped out last year. Meanwhile, Chinese factories have been cranking out containers for $2,500 each, making it cheaper for shippers to buy new ones in Asia than to ship the empties back. So colorful 40-ft. by 8-ft. by 10-ft. boxes are piling up like giant Lego blocks at U.S. waterfronts from Newark, N.J., above, to Norfolk, Va., to Los Angeles. People living near the port in L.A. want the city to build a berm that will block their view of the unsightly containers. Pleasure boaters are complaining too; the estimated 10,000 containers lost at sea each year lurk just below the surface and pose a hazard to smaller vessels.

Wanna Beat Up a Lawyer?

Alex Mehta, 31, a 152-lb. barrister, had always dreamed of beating up a judge. And last month he got his chance at the Royal National Hotel in London, where he fought Phil Maier, 43, a 150-lb. judge from New York City. Wearing gloves and headgear, they pounded each other for four rounds. Mehta won, but there were no hard feelings. The next day, the fighters had lunch together. Such camaraderie isn't unusual on the white-collar boxing circuit, where Wall Street traders, City of London bankers and other execs routinely pummel one another. Bouts are organized by the International White Collar Boxing Association. The top prize: bragging rights. The next fight: Sept. 14, at Gleason's Gym in New York City.

Mating a Phone with a PDA

Fast-moving execs have long yearned for a device that would serve as both cell phone and PDA. The quest to produce it has mostly yielded electronic Edsels. But some new gadgets are reversing the trend. In August Motorola will unveil its Accompli 009 ($600), the first such gizmo with global capability, working in most cities throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. The device comes with a GSM-based phone, Web browser, e-mail and a plethora of PDA features. Samsung's SPH-I300 ($500), also due out in August, sports a Palm OS with color screen and stylus. It's nearly as light as and more user-friendly than the Accompli, but its CDMA-based cell phone works only in the U.S.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HOW TO GET MORE NOTICE

A new business book getting lots of attention examines the subject of...attention. "Understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant of business success," declare Thomas Davenport and John Beck, authors of The Attention Economy, just published by the Harvard Business Press. Organizations, they say, can suffer from "organizational ADD," an increased likelihood of missing key information when making decisions and a decreased ability to focus. By attention the authors mean both the ability to pay attention and the ability to attract it. While readers of Susan Sontag (Illness as Metaphor) will wince at the gimmicky ADD slogan, any executive who is drowning in e-mail, voice mail, instant messages, pager messages, faxes and cell-phone calls will find this book thought provoking. --By Andrea Sachs

Too Little Time Off

The U.S. is behind in the vacation race. Average vacation days per year for employees with one year on service

Mexico 6 U.S. 10 Japan 10 Canada 10 Britain 20 Australia 20 Brazil 22 Germany 24 France 25 Finland 30

Source: Hewitt Associates LLC

THE NICHE MARKET FOR MINI TANKS

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, a survey found, nearly a quarter of city residents routinely change their driving routes to avoid robberies in which thugs stop a car at a light and demand money at gunpoint or force occupants to an ATM. The crime is so pervasive that Brazil has become the world's hottest market for private armored vehicles. And for the largest U.S. armorer--O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, based in Fairfield, Ohio--times are flush. For about $65,000, O'Gara will take your Cadillac and outfit it with bulletproof glass, high-tensile body plastic, a siren and a slew of other security accessories. Since 1996 the firm's Brazilian revenues have surged more than sevenfold, to $14.5 million last year. In November, O'Gara opened a new plant to nearly double output. How solid are the cars? "Nine of our customers were attacked last year," says O'Gara Brazil president Adilson Parrella. "These people are safe today. That's a good feeling."