Why Elon Musk is the world’s greatest chief exec October 3, 2014 Aside from having a name that sounds like an elongated cologne, Elon Musk is a true innovator. Having co-founded PayPal in 1999 before selling it to eBay for $180m, Musk went on to launch Tesla, a company that designs, manufactures and sells electric cars. Founded in 2003 by a bunch of engineers who wanted to [...]
David vs Goliath? Why Tesco’s “Every Little Helps” is losing the battle for supermarket supremacy October 3, 2014 Like most of us, I’ve been watching the differing fortunes of Tesco and Aldi play out over the past few days. And it’s compulsive viewing, not least of all because we love the underdog. Plucky little Aldi with just 500 stores, takes on the might of Tesco and gives the goliath a bloody nose. Great [...]
How to perform well in a job interview: A storytelling approach to answering questions will help October 3, 2014 The most important thing is to remember that a successful interview is primarily about the employer and their issues and problems – not about your need to pay your rent or finance your lifestyle. They have a problem and you are a potential solution. Otherwise they would not waste their time. The employer could need [...]
Chelsea are in a race against time to keep up with Manchester United and Arsenal on matchdays October 3, 2014 Having scoured the locality for an appropriate site on which to build a new stadium Chelsea have now apparently decided they must look for a solution within the confines of the existing ground footprint. Whether it’s the right location or optimal site or even cost effective is in some ways irrelevant; the club thinks it’s [...]
Why the public should condemn the next bank mega fine October 2, 2014 BARCLAYS was hit by another fine for misconduct last week, this time for £38m for failing to properly protect clients’ custody assets. Though dwarfed by other recent sanctions – notably Bank of America’s $16.65bn settlement for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities – it is another example of how banks’ shareholders are continuing to pay for executives’ misbehaviour. According [...]
Stop bashing the super rich: You’ll make us all poorer October 2, 2014 FOR ALL their wealth, ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals are a tiny minority, with little clout at the ballot box. Labour’s proposed mansion tax on homes worth over £2m is just the latest assault on the super rich, who have become an easy target for politicians; the top 1 per cent of earners already [...]
Will the Bank’s new powers to intervene in the housing market help prevent boom and bust? October 2, 2014 Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank, says Yes. The Bank of England has a powerful set of weapons in its armoury to smooth out the cycles in the housing market. It can restrict the amount someone can borrow relative to their income, and the Bank has now asked formally for new powers to [...]
City A.M. is continuing to innovate to bring you business news with personality October 2, 2014 Who would have thought newspapers worth reading could be free? Yet today they are firmly established as a prominent feature in London’s media landscape. In less than ten years, City A.M. itself has become an essential part of the morning commute for London’s discerning professionals, with more than 100,000 copies ready for you every weekday. [...]
Cameron was right to be bold with his radical tax cutting promise October 1, 2014 ASK A party spin doctor what they’d like from the coverage of their leader’s speech and the honest ones will tell you that a single, tweetable, headline-friendly message is the ultimate prize. In that context, it doesn’t get much better than Cameron’s post-speech coverage, which boiled down to “tax cuts for 30m people.” Certainly, as [...]
Notting Hill Dave embraced blue-collar aspiration to take the fight to Labour October 1, 2014 I AM your public servant, standing here, wanting to make our country so much better…” an emotional David Cameron told Conservative party conference yesterday. The Prime Minister clearly takes his spot in the Notting Hill set seriously, borrowing as heavily as he did from one of the most famous moments in the iconic 90s rom-com. [...]