Compiled by LAURA SLATTERY

4/1:– The odds offered by Ladbrokes that Germany will be the next country to lose its AAA rating. (France is favourite to beat it, however, at odds of 11/10).

€441– The average sum that an Irish customer of Lastminute.com will spend on a seasonal mini-break. (German users spend a more modest €329).

"I am confident that I did not review the full email chain at the time or afterwards" –James Murdoch insists he did not read a 2008 email suggesting that phone hacking was not confined to a single rogue reporter. He did reply to it, however.

STATUS UPDATE

Laughter track:The Inbetweeners Movie is on course to become the biggest ever comedy release in DVD history, according to HMV – a company that could do with a little light relief.

HK rules:A flurry of initial public offerings has helped Hong Kong to the World Economic Forum title of the world's most developed financial market, overtaking the US and UK for the first time.

Delisting dodge:Olympus, the scandal-hit Japanese camera-maker, has redone its homework and refiled five years worth of financial reports some three hours before a regulatory deadline.

SHOP TALK

WHAT ONCE was a marketer’s fantasy is fast becoming an m-commerce reality: the next generation of coupon offers will be location-based. So if your smartphone lets your deals company know where you’re currently hanging out, the deals company – Groupon, LivingSocial, perhaps your loyalty-scheming telecoms operator – will target their offers at you with pinpoint precision.

Out of the coupon traps this week, eBay-owned PayPal said it would make its first foray into mobile deals in the first quarter of 2012, partnering 200 major US retailers and sending offers to its customers’ phones just as they’re passing particular stores – something to think about when you’re choosing which route to take to work.

OFFICE POLITICS

Returning to the workplace after a stress-related absence can be fraught for anyone, but what if you’re the boss? In January, António Horta-Osório will return to his job as chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, having taken sick leave six weeks ago due to a stress-induced condition “affecting sleep and energy levels” – more than a month of insomnia was cited by associates.

Lloyds chairman Sir Win Bischoff has told the Financial Times that the bank is not going to “mollycoddle” him: “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen, but I believe António can stand the heat.” The heat includes selling more than 600 branches, lessening Lloyds’s reliance on wholesale funding and managing its exposure to Ireland.

QUESTION

What does it take to get a job via LinkedIn?

Even if we do say so ourselves, Planet Business is motivated, creative, effective and innovative, with a track record of problem- solving, a wide range of communication skills and extensive experience in a multinational context.

Sadly, however, such a CV is unlikely to help us stand out to recruiters in the competitive world of the LinkedIn profile. The professional network, which has more than 135 million members worldwide, this week released a list of the top 10 most used words and phrases in members’ profiles in 2011 – and it’s a veritable Apprentice-series full of meaningless epithets.

Globally, “creative” took top honours, but Irish users plumped for “motivated” as their favourite, if slightly ambiguous, slice of self-assessment. (Motivated by what, to do what, exactly?) “Track record” was in second place in Irish profiles, followed by “creative”, “effective”, “innovative”, “extensive experience”, “wide range”, “communication skills”, “problem solving” and “multinational”.

Curiously, “dynamic”, which topped the list among French profiles, failed to make the Irish top 10, as did Spanish members’ favourite adjective, “managerial”.

LinkedIn recommends that members “banish buzzwords” and use language that illustrates their “unique professional accomplishments and experiences”, giving concrete examples where possible. “Also, add a profile photo – people never forget a face,” it advises. It doesn’t say whose face you should add, though . . . users will have to deploy their problem-solving skills to figure that one out.