The broken windows of programmatic advertising October 24, 2016 If programmatic advertising were a place, it would be a divided town. Alongside the glitz of the industry is a dark web of villainy, where gangs roam through the buy and sell side, smuggling harmful software into ads and damaging perceptions of digital advertising. But it’s not a town, and there’s no police to shut the [...]
Big Four rival? No, we’re old friends, insists ex-Deloitte boss as he launches Cogital – a new firm with big ambitions October 24, 2016 In August there was plenty of noise around the announcement that the former boss of accounting giant Deloitte, John Connolly, was starting a new bean-counting business, Cogital. The question was whether the project, which was innovatively backed by private equity house HgCapital, was the latest attempt to break the stranglehold of the Big Four? If anyone might be able to do it, then [...]
City Moves for 24 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 24, 2016 Good Energy Group Aim-quoted renewable energy company Good Energy Group has appointed Neil Pidgeon as its investor relations manager. Neil brings 30 years of City stockbroking and investment banking experience to the management team of the vertically integrated green energy supplier, whose mission is to tackle climate change, and help the UK achieve energy security. He [...]
Saudi Arabia’s gormless cheerleaders have failed to spot the looming crisis October 24, 2016 “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.” – The Wizard of Oz Conventional political risk wisdom is falsely sanguine about yet another looming crisis. The House of Saud, bullish proponents blithely declaim without giving the matter too much thought beyond simplistic headlines, has proven surprisingly supple and enduring. Yet in reality, Saudi [...]
CommuterClub’s co-founders talk desk dividers and the future of mobility October 24, 2016 We sat opposite each other and, although there was a barrier between us (a physical desk divider) we’d work late into the night and bounce ideas around,” says Petko Plachkov, co-founder of travel payment plan firm CommuterClub. He’s describing working at fintech legend Clive Cowdery’s firm, the Resolution Group, with his co-founder, Imran Gulamhuseinwala. “I joined [...]
Meet Ernest: The free financial coach that sits in your Facebook October 24, 2016 When I was at BlackRock, I spent a lot of time on tech that was designed to improve return on investment for people who already had a lot of money,” says Niall Bellabarba, co-founder of Ernest, the intelligent finance coach. “So my starting point was that the man on the street doesn’t have access to [...]
Hard versus soft Brexit is a fallacy: There are over 40 ways to leave the EU October 24, 2016 Writing about how Brexit will unfold is like trying to provide a running commentary on submarine warfare – speculative, largely pointless, and predictably over-focused on the strategic picture. An expression Brexit secretary David Davis will have to keep deploying in the coming weeks will be his new favourite, “froth”, as writers attempt to fill column [...]
What should chancellor Philip Hammond prioritise in his Autumn Statement? October 24, 2016 Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, says infrastructure. Whether small or large, infrastructure schemes boost local business confidence, regenerate areas, create business opportunities for a vast array of UK firms, and “crowd in” related private sector investment. Given decades of underinvestment, chronic delays, deficient digital networks and lagging productivity, an infrastructure-focused stimulus [...]
NHS trusts eye £5bn savings in supply chain deal October 24, 2016 The NHS Shelford Group of 10 trusts has inked a deal with software firm Virtualstock to use its supply chain management software. It’s thought the deal will help the group surpass NHS targets of £5bn in savings by 2020. A February report estimated that £5bn is lost in the NHS through waste and price variations every [...]
Theresa May promises Brexit meetings with national leaders as she faces a “constitutional crisis” warning October 24, 2016 Theresa May will today reveal a new forum for the UK government to meet with devolved administrations over Brexit, even as a new report warns she is facing a constitutional crisis. Leaders of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments will be invited to join a new committee led by Brexit secretary David Davis. May will unveil [...]