Wellbeing must be at the heart of Britain’s ‘back to work’ efforts May 20, 2020 The coronavirus crisis has turned millions of us into home workers. While the new regime has worked well for some, for others it has been more challenging. For many people, work and home life have been positively rebalanced now that lengthy commute times are non-existent, but others feel isolated, miss the buzz of an office [...]
Understanding what’s driving market reactions is vital May 20, 2020 Our lack of understanding of the coronavirus has added to the challenges confronting politicians and policy makers in recent months, and this in turn has fed the uncertainty impacting financial markets. There are six broad areas influencing markets: the virus itself; the economic picture; the corporate outlook; policy; second-round effects; and lessons from the past. [...]
Crisis could be a chance to change education for the better May 20, 2020 In the mid-19th century, Japan was an impoverished feudal backwater. A fleet of American warships totally humiliated their navy, and compelled Japan to sign a highly disadvantageous treaty. Within a matter of just a few years, the Japanese completely transformed their system of government and industrialised very rapidly. This is just one of many historical [...]
Shakespeare: Primed and ready? May 20, 2020 Budget fast-fashion retailer Primark has been one of the biggest players of the high street since rapidly expanding in the UK during the mid-noughties. According to YouGov Ratings data, Primark is sixth most popular fashion and clothing brand among Britons, while YouGov Profiles data shows two thirds of all Brits would consider purchasing clothes from [...]
Bailout shows the need for a TfL rethink May 18, 2020 We will probably never know exactly how close we came to TfL going bust and services across London not running last week. Unless, of course, when today’s bailout agreement expires in September, there isn’t another crunch. The capital’s transport network has had another log thrown on the fire, but central Government remains in control of [...]
What we know about the new Cold War May 18, 2020 The American astronomer, Carl Sagan, put it well: ‘Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.’ To deal with this very debilitating—if very human—impediment, before making any definitive political risk statements, I try to blow the emotional cobwebs away by playing an invaluable game called ‘What We Know.’ ‘What We Know’ is an [...]
Kindness at the heart of City’s mental health efforts May 18, 2020 Even amid the anxiety and sad stories that have engulfed many of our daily lives, rays of light – acts of kindness that have made the news and that we have ourselves experienced first-hand – have still managed to cut through. It’s no surprise that the links between kindness and mental wellbeing are well-established in [...]
HS2: New controllers needed on the nation’s biggest train set May 17, 2020 Only last month, Boris Johnson gave HS2 the official green light. But, despite HS2 Ltd being headed up by at least 47 staff paid more than the PM, the project is already coming off the rails. Today’s report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) highlights that HS2 has gone “badly off course” and costs are [...]
Office Politics: What does the workplace of the future look like? May 17, 2020 There are plenty of people – including Barclays boss Jes Staley – who believe that big offices may be a thing of the past, now we’ve all got over our work-from-home hang-ups. But while the shift from the workplace to the home has been clear to see, less obvious is what the broader and longer-term [...]
The office is changing – and that means a shift in the real estate market, too May 15, 2020 When businesses emerge from lockdown, many will seek ways to reduce their operating costs to maintain margins in a post-COVID-19 world, when revenue generation is likely to be appreciably more challenging. Real estate often represents the second largest operating cost of most businesses, after staff salaries. It’s regrettably very likely, then, that headcount and office [...]