Brutal simplicity June 1, 2014 Liam Ward-Proud talks to M&C Saatchi worldwide chief executive Moray MacLennan BORN of an unhappy schism at Saatchi & Saatchi (brothers Maurice and Charles were forced out by the board in 1995), M&C Saatchi has since overtaken its near-namesake in the agency pecking order. UK billings were down 7 per cent in 2013 to £188m [...]
Why it’s time to stop brainstorming June 1, 2014 If you’ve ever thought group brainstorming sessions produce half-baked ideas, you aren’t alone. Formally devised by advertising executive Alex Osborn, the idea is that a group should use “the brain to storm a creative problem… doing so in commando fashion, with each stormer attacking the same objective”. With everyone talking, without judgement or criticism, Osborn [...]
Five things inspirational leaders do May 29, 2014 Set up “quivering antennae” and focus on employee engagement to keep staff motivated, says Kevin Murray HAVING interviewed dozens of the UK’s top leaders on what it means to be inspiring, and backed it up with research on 4,000 workers, I believe there are five things the most inspiring leaders do. 1 CONVEY YOUR PASSIONInspirational [...]
Sex and drugs worth more to UK economy than rock and roll May 29, 2014 Britain’s economy gets a £10bn boost every year from sex and drugs, official figures show today – far outweighing rock and roll’s (and other music’s) £3.5bn contribution. Drugs add £4.43bn to GDP, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates, while prostitution adds £5.27bn, a total of £9.7bn per year. By contrast, UK Music believes the [...]
How Google’s driverless cars could save your life – and make you money May 28, 2014 WHEN the man behind the Segway, the battery-powered personal mobility scooter, died after riding one of his products off a cliff, it seemed like a grim end to yet another transport fad. After the Sinclair C5, the hovercraft, the poweriser and the Segway, it’s easy to be sceptical about the next sci-fi “leap” in transportation. [...]
Financing your MBA: Three tips to meet the cost May 28, 2014 Employer support can be hard to come by, so remember to spread your net wide WITH tuition fees of over £50,000 a year for the top programmes, MBAs don’t come cheap. Factoring in textbooks, accommodation, and the opportunity cost of foregoing a full-time salary, this figure can easily rise above £100,000. And while the return [...]
Peer ratings: The future of feedback? May 28, 2014 Crowdsourced assessments spot the real stars, but risk turning into popularity contests VERY few of us look forward to the annual performance review. And according to a survey by employee recognition company Globoforce, 45 per cent of human resource (HR) managers don’t think these meetings function as an accurate appraisal of an employee’s work. But [...]
Nanny state Lib Dems caused their own crisis – by rejecting liberalism May 28, 2014 JUST when you think it can’t get any worse for the Liberal Democrats, it does. A derisory vote in the Euro elections, followed by a rather half-hearted and completely botched coup attempt, has left Nick Clegg likely to remain leader but with a fair number of publicly-declared recalcitrants within his diminishing ranks. The party hierarchy [...]
It’s time to end too big to fail May 28, 2014 THE TAXPAYER is nearly off the hook for bailing out failing banks, Mark Carney claimed last night, seven years after the financial crash began with the collapse of Northern Rock. Regulators have been promising since the crisis that broken banks should never again be propped up with cash from governments. But it is only now [...]
Why environmentalists should embrace fracking – not sacrifice May 27, 2014 THE FRACKING debate continues apace, with the British Geological Survey announcing that there are over 4bn barrels of oil in the shale rocks of the South of England. The government has proposed new rules of access to land to speed up the exploitation of this oil, with proposed payments of £20,000 to those living above [...]