Carlos Portela explains what Santander Breakthrough is offering ambitious SMEs across the UK September 22, 2015 What is Breakthrough? We’re passionate about helping ambitious businesses to succeed. Building long lasting relationships with businesses runs deep in our heritage, which has helped us to appreciate the challenges they face and the support they need to overcome them. Here to fuel your entrepreneurial aspirations, Breakthrough is built around the needs of ambitious [...]
QE programme details: Why all eyes are on ECB president Mario Draghi this week – eToro Tips & Picks September 21, 2015 The markets continue to be dominated by last week’s Fed rate decision. The Fed seems to have caused more concerns about emerging markets by not raising rates than it would have done if it had tightened policy. Investors are still trying to decipher just what last week’s meeting means for the markets and [...]
How to run a company with your other half: No business in the bedroom and remember that they can’t mind-read September 20, 2015 Entrepreneurial Britain has seen a boom in family firms over recent years, with a fair share being husband and wife duos. For some, the decision to go into business with a spouse is a logical one. For others, it’s a recipe for disaster. So how do you survive managing a business with your significant other? [...]
Meet purple squirrels: The new breed of star employee that companies need to be more open-minded about hiring September 18, 2015 The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission’s recent finding that top law and accounting firms are shunning talented working class applicants in favour of more privileged candidates made me think hard about diversity in my own industry, advertising. I’m sure many other business leaders reacted in the same way. Unfortunately, this problem is not [...]
Jeremy Corbyn: Leadership lessons from Corbyn’s first five days September 17, 2015 The first few days are rarely simple for a new leader. If you’re appointed chief executive to turn around an ailing company, your ideas may be met with a hostile reception. A Labour MP for more than 30 years, the party’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn is hardly an external appointment. But he is [...]
Children’s rights and business: The quality of corporate reporting on child abuse is key to tackling it – ACCA Comment September 17, 2015 In the twenty-first century, businesses have come to depend on the value of their brand more than they ever have in history. In March this year, Ocean Tomo released the 2015 update to its annual study of intangible asset market value, which revealed that intangible assets grew to represent an average of 84 per cent [...]
Meet the Leisure Learners: those who pick galleries over the pub September 16, 2015 If you've ever endured friends shouting garbled German greetings into their smartphones, or observed your colleagues bashing out HTML tags during their lunch hour, then you’ve witnessed the skills revolution in action. Thanks to new apps and web-based training portals such as Duolingo and Codecademy, it has never been easier to access cheap or [...]
Don’t fear a Fed hike: It’s unlikely to cause chaos September 16, 2015 Slow and steady rate rises mean that tightening policy probably won’t hurt your portfolio THE FOURTH of February 1994 is a day I remember well. Six months into my first job as a macro economist with an institutional fund manager, I got my first experience of how investors and markets react when they are surprised [...]
US interest rate rise 2015: What will a Fed hike mean for global markets? September 15, 2015 The US Federal Reserve, after months of speculation, will announce on Thursday whether or not it is to raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nine years. Experts have questioned whether the US, and the world, is ready. Even the IMF has called for a delay. Unemployment in the States [...]
Pros and cons of selling your house using online-only estate agents – CNBC Comment September 15, 2015 I’ve recently moved home and I don’t need to remind you of how much of an ordeal that can be. The story ends well but not without the usual bouts of anxiety, stress and emotional trauma. In January, I opted to pay a flat fee of around £800 (including tax) for the services of [...]