Bankrupt to £100m: Confessions of AirX CEO, John Matthews – the least popular man in private jet chartering OUR QUIET table at Dover Street’s Arts Club is becoming a de facto confession box. A gin and tonic replacing the grill between priest and penitent, John Matthews peers through his glass – for he hath sinned. The chief executive of AirX, who admits to being the least popular man in private aircraft chartering, has [...]
What the advertising industry should watch out for in 2018 We ask advertising bosses what’s in store for the year ahead. Alex Hesz, chief strategy officer, Adam&eveDDB In the era of fake news, advertising has emerged as an unlikely standard-bearer for scrutiny. We have long embraced the necessity of third-party regulation to verify what is fact and what is fantasy. Our job is to tell [...]
From Xero to Hero: Gary Turner has his head in the cloud It is the dream of every startup to overtake the incumbent, dominant player in its field. Facebook swallowed Myspace; Uber is usurping taxis; Spotifykilled the CD. London’s fintechs are chipping away at just about every area of financial services. We are witnessing an era of great technological change. Some of the present disruption is quite [...]
The Brain behind Brainlabs: Dan Gilbert talks robots, advertising, and the merits of being positive November 27, 2017 “Did you know Dan used to be a comedian?” asks Pepper, Brainlabs’ humanoid secretary, head pivoting quizzically like a confused marionette as I arrive at Old Street. “He wasn’t very funny,” it chuckles, dancing a noisy jig before offering me coffee. For the easily amused, such as myself, Pepper is priceless. As my inner child [...]
Baroness Bitcoin of Arabia: Michelle Mone and Douglas Barrowman on their delve into the world of cryptocurrency September 6, 2017 Baroness Michelle Mone, and her billionaire property mogul partner Douglas Barrowman, this morning open the sale of two 40-storey residential towers spanning 2.4m square feet in Dubai. Building a huge complex in the Emirates isn’t itself remarkable – the Middle Eastern playground for the rich is peppered with luxury apartments, largely paid for in state-owned [...]
Steve France at Florismart is ending the Dutch monopoly on the flower industry using tech August 7, 2017 Upon reflection, breakfast at the The Ivy Chelsea Garden, abloom with foliage as it is, was an appropriate location to meet Steve France. The reason it is so apt is that France is chief executive of Florismart, a platform that is challenging, and successfully diminishing, the Dutch monopoly on the cut flower trade by culling [...]
Meet Revolt: The agency with the humble ambition of changing the world March 20, 2017 To say we are living through interesting times is, perhaps, an understatement as obvious as it is true. For many the world is increasingly polarised and difficult to comprehend: known-knowns have become unknowns; unpredictability has become predictable. Among the social media hubris, in which public accountability is unavoidable and reputational damage but 140 characters away, [...]
The GDPR Doomsday Clock strikes a minute closer to midnight March 20, 2017 The lugubrious ticking of my internal GDPR Doomsday Clock struck a minute closer to midnight last week. Tick, it chimed: “only 5 per cent of marketers fully understand what the GDPR means for their business.” Tock, it said: “50 per cent say they don’t really understand it at all, or [literally] don’t know.” The Chartered [...]
