Top Tory tells business: Wake up to threat of cyber crime January 11, 2016 Businesses should be doing more to defend themselves from cyber security threats, a former defence secretary will warn today. In a speech to the The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), influential Conservative Dr Liam Fox will call for laws forcing companies to disclose hacks to shareholders, as well as banning any company that doesn’t meet [...]
Lin Homer steps down as HMRC chief executive and the search for her successor is underway January 11, 2016 Lin Homer has announced today that she will be stepping down as chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in April, after joining just over four years ago. Homer said: "After ten years as a chief executive and permanent secretary in the Civil Service, the start of the next Spending Review period seemed to be [...]
Brent and US crude: Oil prices fall amid anxiety over China’s economic slowdown January 11, 2016 Oil prices careered lower today, as anxiety over the pace of China's economic slowdown dented the outlook for demand. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 2.7 per cent to $32.63 per barrel today, while West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, slumped 2.1 per cent at $32.47. It comes after oil prices shed around 10 per cent [...]
Deceptive demographics: Attitude matters more to marketers January 11, 2016 Here's a shocker for you. There are actually 19 year-old guys who watch Dance Moms, and 73 year-old women who watch Breaking Bad and Avengers,” Netflix’s Todd Yellin told the SxSW conference in Texas last year. Marketers have long recognised the limitations of segmenting consumers demographically. Finding out a customer’s age and gender data, Yellin argued, [...]
Over half of UK workers want a career change, according to new research January 11, 2016 Over half of UK workers wish for a career change, rising to 72 per cent for those aged between 25-34, new research has found. The research from Standard Life found that for many the desire to start their own business is the biggest reason for thinking about a career change. Indeed, almost six in 10 UK [...]
What to look out for at Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights Festival 2016 January 11, 2016 It's deepest, darkest January, and if rumours are to be believed, snow is on the way. But wrap warm – because Canary Wharf's Winter Lights Festival is back for the next two weeks. Yep, the financial district is about to be set ablaze for the second year in a row, with 18 light-based "sculptures, structures and experiences" – [...]
FTSE 100 stock market turmoil: What does this mean for the rest of the year? January 11, 2016 Britain's FTSE 100 index had its worst ever start to the year last week, wiping around £85bn off the UK's most valuable companies – but what does this mean for the rest of 2016? The blue-chip index shed three per cent last week to finish at 5,912.40 points – back below the psychologically important 6,000 mark. It suffered as turbulence [...]
Why multi-tasking is making you worse at your job January 11, 2016 Too few hours in the day, too many emails to reply to and too much to get done means multitasking is a fact of working life – but new research means we could be making significantly more mistakes when we try to do more than one thing at once. Office workers will make up to 50 per [...]
Apple News app numbers? Eddy Cue says its been underestimating reader traffic to publisher’s content on iPhone and iPad January 11, 2016 Apple has admitted it has been counting readers of its News app wrong and that the number of people using it has been underestimated since launching in September. The mistake was blamed on an unspecified glitch and means some of the world's biggest media companies, which publish their content through the app, have incorrect figures. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior [...]
The rise of the talking head: why City experts are taking over our TV screens and it’s not just back-to-back suits January 11, 2016 By eight o’clock on a typical Monday morning Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank, will have been at her desk for nearly two hours preparing for her clients and keeping an eye on the markets. She will also have had to squeeze in a couple of live interviews, providing expert commentary for broadcasters from [...]