The Royal Mail should present a fair valuation for investors September 24, 2013 BUSINESS minister Michael Fallon has certainly added some missing “zip” in promoting UK industry and commerce. Despite union opposition, his infectious enthusiasm, together with Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene’s visionary management, has given the scheduled floatation of Royal Mail in October every chance of success. Governments are notoriously bad managers of commercial enterprises, so [...]
Tea expert who’s found a new blend September 23, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks to Mike Brehme, who is transforming hot drinks for the second time WHAT do you do when you’ve already transformed that most British of pastimes – drinking tea? That was the conundrum facing Mike Brehme – co-founder of Clipper Teas, whose newest venture FruitBroo has recently come onto the shelves at Sainsbury’s [...]
Turning up the heat: Former trader taking on the Big Six September 22, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks tariffs and talent with Stephen Fitzpatrick, who switched the City for the Cotswolds to found energy company Ovo EXPERTS are predicting another gloomy winter for Britain, with power firms expected to raise tariffs in November and December by up to 10 per cent – pushing annual average bills to over £1,500 for [...]
Beat the competition to golden accelerator and incubator places September 22, 2013 But picking the right fit for your company is vitally important THE THRIVING London startup scene is set for another boost. Microsoft recently announced plans to launch a new gaming-focused accelerator programme, while Tesco is due to fund the Rainmaking Loft – a tech incubator in St Katherine Docks. Incubator programmes provide startups with business [...]
Innovation Diary: Why designing the right marketing strategy could ultimately cut costs September 22, 2013 WHILE the digital economy has vastly increased the ability of startups to upscale in a cost-efficient way, attracting customers has not necessarily become any easier. In research published in the Sloan Management Review last year, for instance, David Bell, Jeonghye Choi, and Leonard Lodish noted that, although internet firms theoretically have “‘unlimited’ trading areas”, and [...]
The business built to help customers outsource their chores September 15, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Raj Singh, co-founder of the online marketplace Sooqini, who shunned job security for a career as an entrepreneur ACCORDING to Raj Singh, founder of online marketplace Sooqini, we are now living in a “gig economy”. His theory, albeit paraphrased from Michael Lewis’s The New New Thing, goes that people no longer want [...]
How to exploit global export opportunities with careful planning September 15, 2013 Liam Ward-Proud looks at three vital points for startups that are planning to sell abroad ECONOMISTS at RBS have just released research into the attractiveness of foreign markets, concluding that “there are export opportunities around the globe that British businesses aren’t fully taking advantage of.” This comes little more than a week after the ONS [...]
Innovation Diary: Three things we can learn from the high growth small business gazelles September 15, 2013 OVER 350,000 new firms have been launched in the UK this year, and confidence is rising. Aldermore Bank research, released on Friday, saw small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) confidence in the economy climb for the fourth consecutive quarter. Yet this tells us little about what it takes to succeed as a UK startup. As Mark [...]
The startup spicing up Britain’s wealth management industry September 8, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Nick Hungerford, who switched the Valley for Vauxhall to found the online investment management firm Nutmeg THE British public has long been accustomed to depositing their earnings in a bank account, or investing through an established stockbroker. But Nick Hungerford wants to disrupt the centuries-old wealth management industry, in precisely the same [...]
How the geography of global innovation is rapidly changing September 8, 2013 Liam Ward-Proud investigates the cities that are attempting to foster new startup cultures WIKIPEDIA founder Jimmy Wales has called on Britain to extend its entrepreneurship visa scheme to make London more enticing to startups. He joked that “nobody wants to live in San Jose, California – it’s incredibly boring”. But the geography of global innovation [...]
