Phones 4u: When a brand dies, let the tweets flow September 26, 2014 When a brand pops its clogs, what should happen to its social media presence? This month’s collapse of mobile retailer Phones 4u shows one thing for sure – brand owners should not simply give up on their profiles. When a company dies, its potential in the afterlife does not. Every Twitter account has [...]
How to use your personal brand to get a job September 26, 2014 A job interview is about standing out – in a good way. You want to show yourself off, talk what you have achieved, what you can do and what makes you different from the rest. An authentic and likeable personal brand can be an asset in many ways in your professional life. It is memorable, [...]
Labour must stop playing politics with Europe – and come up with a real EU vision September 25, 2014 Under Ed Miliband, Europe has somewhat fallen by the wayside as a priority policy issue for Labour, just as it has rapidly escalated in importance for the Conservatives. What some would call the Tories’ unhealthy fixation with the EU has led to a Labour approach that often disproportionately focuses on the politics of the debate, [...]
Listen to Peter Thiel: Politicians must embrace the fact there’s no money left September 25, 2014 MORE must cost less. In his new book Zero to One, entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel observes that the dream of globalisation – expanding the affluent consumption habits of the western middle class to more and more of the world – demands we also commit to radical technological innovation in order to reduce that lifestyle’s [...]
Why the housing crisis is fast becoming a threat to London’s businesses September 25, 2014 LONDON is a magnet for talent – there is little doubting that. But it is also a city with an underlying weakness that should be recognised as a danger to the capital’s competitiveness. That Achilles’ heel is London’s chronic housing shortage, an issue that is all too rarely framed in terms of business and competitiveness. [...]
As BlackRock sells Tesco shares, has the grocer been permanently damaged by recent events? September 25, 2014 James McGregor, director of Retail Remedy, says Yes. Tesco’s admission this week that it had overstated its declining profits by £250m was one hell of a story. But the accounting cock-up and subsequent dumping of Tesco shares by BlackRock are really only footnotes in the protracted obituary of this once all-conquering retailer. The hegemonic Tesco [...]
Why Sir Richard Broadbent could be next to checkout at Tesco after £250m profit overstatement debacle September 24, 2014 Things are always unnoticed until they’re noticed.” Those seven Rumsfeld-esque words could seal Sir Richard Broadbent’s fate as Tesco chairman. Responding to questions about the accounting debacle at Britain’s biggest retailer, Broadbent offered a painful reminder of how quickly events can spiral out of the control of even the grandest of grandees. The [...]
Britain’s Mittelstand: Stop overlooking the squeezed middle of UK business September 24, 2014 PARTY conference season is in full swing, with politicians honing their soundbites for the coming general election. Many will have heard of “the squeezed middle”, used to refer to the middle classes who have been caught by the rising cost of living and stagnant wage growth. But the term could apply equally to the business [...]
Change or we’ll go: Why threatening to leave the EU is a win-win for Britain September 24, 2014 WHEN the Prime Minister promised an EU referendum in January 2013, the idea that the UK might be better off outside the EU was unfathomable for many, an idea relegated to the fringes of political discussion. But in the space of 18 months, senior government figures are now on the record saying they would vote [...]
Our housing crisis will become a catastrophe without a national crusade to fix it September 24, 2014 HOUSING is a basic human right, and we are denying it to our children. If current house price rises continue, babies born today will pay £6.3m in 2048 for a one bedroom London flat. Already, at around £428,000, the average London house price is over 16 times the average national salary. There is a vast [...]