Data points.

Getting the project done successfully

To have a chance of achieving your performance goals on time and within budget, you must take the initiative and invest time in fully exploring it. Begin by outlining the expected performance targets, deadlines and budget. Next, identify all of the additional parties surrounding the problem. You may also consult trusted advisers within your network who can provide a customer or supplier perspective related to the problem at hand. Then schedule conversations with each stakeholder group to help you carefully consider the situation relative to its past, present, and future. You must understand what happened in the past if you are to improve upon what your predecessor did. You also need to gauge whether the new performance goals are realistic and what obstacles threaten their achievement. Finally, you need to soberly assess whether success is possible given the resources and stakeholder commitments available to you in the present.

Investing in used luxury watches

One of the hottest collector's items these days is a preowned luxury watch. Expensive secondhand watches from brands such as Rolex and Patek Philippe have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly with younger buyers, according to a report published this month by Boston Consulting Group. Preowned luxury watches became more valuable as demand grew but supply remained tight, BCG said. Those watches have become so coveted that the market for them has outpaced the overall stock market, growing about 20pc annually from mid-2018 through this January, compared with the S and P 500 index's yearly growth rate of 8pc during that period, BCG said. More collectors have seen watches as not just accessories but also as investment pieces that can hedge against inflation and diversify their holdings. Collectors often pay double or triple the price for a secondhand watch, even one that may have just left the store. New luxury watches have been harder to come by because earlier manufacturers...