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World Business Quick Take

■ Communication
E-mail favored over phones
Executives in the business world prefer to write messages via e-mail instead of picking up the phone to communicate with colleagues, a global survey said yesterday. The poll of 1,500 executives, including 26 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, found more than 66 percent of them prefer to send e-mails compared with 16 percent who opt for phones, according to the poll by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and American networking giant Cisco Systems. Following e-mail, short message service (SMS) emerged second best. Those who prefer instant messaging (IM) over other means of electronic communications stand out as the most ardent proponents of technology. "A full 81 percent of the respondents said automated communications methods make them more or very productive in the workplace," said the EIU findings published in the Business Times.

■ Automakers
GM executive quits abruptly
Philip Murtaugh, the General Motors executive who turned the company's operations in China into one of GM's few successes in recent years, has unexpectedly resigned from the automaker, citing personal reasons, people with knowledge of his decision said yesterday. GM officials declined to comment on Murtaugh's plans. But his departure coincides with growing competitiveness and reduced profitability for all automakers in the Chinese market, as well as an effort by GM executives in Detroit to unite the company's global operations. Murtaugh, 51, was part of the negotiating team that won Chinese permission in the early 1990's for GM to build a factory in Shanghai, and stayed on, building personal contacts among government and corporate officials.

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