Ignore the rhetoric: Government must open up contracts to small business January 26, 2014 TO CREATE more and better-paid jobs, Britain needs more small businesses, and it needs the best of them to scale up. Government has a key role to play, by radically improving its own commercial relationship with small companies. The US and Germany – two of our strongest competitors – are far ahead of the UK [...]
City Matters: Social impact investing: The City must embrace a future of philanthropy January 26, 2014 THE CITY has always been a crucible for debate, innovation and philanthropy. All three are crucial as we strive to rise to the complex challenges posed by the “new normal” – a fast-developing globalised world where resources are increasingly scarce and in demand. I am particularly keen to draw upon the City’s energy, expertise and [...]
Letters to the Editor – 27/01 – Carney’s low rates, Bonus cap, Best of Twitter January 26, 2014 Carney’s low rates [Re: Mark Carney has been the luckiest of unlucky Bank governors, Friday] The author puts his finger right on the key point when he highlights the issue of mounting imbalances due to low rates. But by the time the pressures become serious and can no longer be ignored, we will have to [...]
How to grow a business from a bean January 26, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks student life and staple diets with James Eder, founder of marketing firm The Beans Group IN THE age-old debate over whether entrepreneurship is innate or can be taught, James Eder – founder of The Beans Group – makes a strong case for the former. At 13, he and his brother Michael created [...]
Innovation Diary: Perfect storm of factors is set to make education technology the UK’s next growth sector January 26, 2014 FOR THOSE seeking a model of the classroom of the future, Estonia is often high up the list. Speaking at Davos last week, Barclays’s Antony Jenkins contrasted the Baltic state’s “technologically-oriented” economy, where every child is taught coding at school, with the UK’s structural youth unemployment. Estonia’s tech transformation is indeed impressive. It has some [...]
Gimme 5 January 26, 2014 …STARTUPS CROWDFUNDING THIS MONTH Films of London Target: £125,000 for 25 per cent equity Film production and development company specialising in low to medium budget feature films. Raised: £61,200 via Seedrs 18 days left Lawbit Target: £120,000 for 6.48 per cent equity Online legal service providing plain English contracts for small companies. Raised: £64,040 via [...]
Partnerships may be the big trend in 2014 January 26, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to MediaCom’s Karen Blackett WHEN Karen Blackett, UK chief executive of MediaCom, got her first big break in 1993, it was over a year before Wired magazine launched the first ever ad on the World Wide Web. She talks to City A.M. about her career, adapting to a rapidly-changing industry, and the [...]
Content saturation: The issue on every advertiser’s mind January 26, 2014 @LiamWardProud IN AN increasingly crowded media landscape, how to reach through the morass of content and connect with the audience? The question is a pressing one for everyone working in the media, but particularly so for advertising and marketing professionals. “People are absolutely bombarded with content these days,” says Mindshare’s chief client officer Nick Ashley. [...]
The week in brief January 26, 2014 Telefonica plans £200m media planning pitch The Spanish telecoms company is preparing to launch a media planning and buying review across its European business, according to Campaign. The review, thought to be statutory, is expected to start in April and will be run from Madrid. It includes Telefonica’s £50m account for O2, whose UK media [...]
Take a tour of Swaziland for a small taste of Africa January 26, 2014 An eye-opening voyage around the continent’s best-kept secret, by Sean Sheehan COME on, admit it, you don’t really know where Swaziland is. Perhaps it could be vaguely pointed to on a small map of the world but what about on a larger one of Africa? Squashed in between South Africa and Mozambique, it’s easy not [...]
