Family-run firms aren’t arcane: They help populate the City with women October 23, 2014 In the past few weeks, two women took on powerful positions in the financial services. First, Ana Botin became chairman of Spanish bank Santander, following the death of her father Emilio. Then Abigail Johnson replaced her father Ned as chief executive of US fund management firm Fidelity. Botin is the sixth generation of her family [...]
West Coast main line: Has Richard Branson forgotten the virtues of competition? October 23, 2014 Richard Branson’s famous guerrilla campaign to break British Airways’s grip on Heathrow Airport is safe in history as a victory for competition and passenger choice. The tenacious campaign fought by Virgin to secure access and slots at Heathrow dominated the UK aviation scene for most of the 1990s, and ultimately led to lower fares and [...]
Dave Lewis’s shopping list: Blueprint for a Tesco turnaround plan October 23, 2014 Another update, another set of gloomy results from Tesco. The pattern is now well established, and yesterday’s weak trading numbers didn’t come as a great surprise. But one thing that did surprise was the apparent lack of a forward strategy. What is new chief executive Dave Lewis going to focus on? The issue of price [...]
As some big banks place curfews on staff, is there anything left of the old City nightlife culture? October 23, 2014 Lawson Muncaster, co-founder and managing director of City A.M., says Yes. I popped out for dinner last night – suitably dressed. No thanks to the powers that be, City nightlife is alive and well. We’ve had it from all sides, with reports that banks are to place curfews on staff just the latest episode. But [...]
Beyond the AGM: Shareholders and firms must collaborate more closely on strategy October 22, 2014 On Monday, the government will publish its final response to the Kay Review, which looked at how we can get financial markets to work better for the long-term. Although the debate about promoting long-termism is far broader than the review, the time is right to take a closer look at whether companies feel the policy [...]
The NHS’s monopoly is weakening – UK healthcare has a bright future October 22, 2014 Monday 7 July started out as any other day for me, but it quickly took a dramatic turn for the worse. Mid-morning, my aorta (the main artery from the heart) tore, and the rest of my life changed. Weeks spent in a hospital bed led me to contemplate the future of the NHS. Will it [...]
How shared ownership can help get Londoners on the housing ladder October 22, 2014 The Scottish Parliament has set out plans to levy its first tax since 1707. In an effort to support first time buyers, it proposed reforming stamp duty into a marginal – rather than a “slab” – tax, meaning that house sales in Scotland will no longer incur the highest rate on the whole price. These [...]
Is Waitrose boss Mark Price right that the Big Four supermarkets are “20 years out of date”? October 22, 2014 James McGregor, director of Retail Remedy, says Yes. Mark Price is correct that structural shifts in retail are a far bigger threat to the Big Four (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons) than Aldi and Lidl. Yes, the discounters are a problem, but they’re not the big problem. The main issue is that people’s grocery shopping [...]
Devo Met: How to boost growth by unleashing the power of our cities October 21, 2014 London is Britain’s global city. Between 1997 and 2012, its economy more than doubled, and that trend is set to continue. The mayor’s projections show the capital adding 1.4m jobs by 2050, assuming a 2.5 per cent annual growth in real gross value added. Its population is forecast to grow by 37 per cent to [...]
Yet another missed deficit target for Osborne – public sector pay is to blame October 21, 2014 Why can’t the UK government get its deficit down? This issue has been exercising commentators recently, in the light of the latest assessment from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that George Osborne will once again miss his target for the deficit in the 2014-15 financial year. Of course, the size of the deficit has [...]