Being a company director is now a high risk gamble January 31, 2012 WITH the debate on executive pay raging, the wider question that everyone should be asking is: Why would anyone want to be a director in the first place? Over time, directors’ duties have been aggressively extended and however well they do their job, directors are at risk of criminal and other serious liabilities quite apart [...]
Please Dave, don’t try to make me happier January 31, 2012 THERE is more to life than money. It is an unusually dull or materialistic child who does not eventually light upon this idea. And his money-grubbing old parents must then hear all about it. Listening to banal revelations is a price of associating with children. They can be forgiven. When you are new yourself, it [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 31, 2012 California dreams Although I wish Alan Bristow and David Miller were right in predicting that UK companies will be able to compete with the likes of Apple and Google (UK tech industry is positioned for a global challenge, yesterday), in reality we are woefully unprepared to take on the behemoths of Silicon Valley. Autonomy – [...]
The Games are the starting gun for race to transform British innovation January 31, 2012 Cisco has a growth plan for the UK, and Neil Crockett reveals why the Olympics is the perfect catalyst Q.What WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING Involved with the games? A.It’s the first time worldwide that Cisco’s ever been involved in anything like this as a sponsor. We’ve been a supplier: we supplied to [...]
Smashing through the floor: traders test the Swissie peg January 31, 2012 IN SEPTEMBER last year, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) intervened in the euro-Swiss franc in an attempt to cool the overheating of the franc. At the time of the move to put a floor under the euro-Swiss franc exchange rate at SFr1.2000, the then-SNB chairman Philipp Hildebrand announced that the central bank was prepared to [...]
THE TIPSTER January 31, 2012 IT SEEMS sterling-dollar may give itself enough cable to hang itself at the $1.5780/90 level again – an area where it has met resistance several times over the past 12 weeks. Sterling has also seen around 10 consecutive days of gains against the greenback. Should the resistance level break convincingly to the upside then the [...]
Meet the enchanting new Peugeot January 31, 2012 Hybrid cars have been on sale in Europe for a while now. Toyota, Honda, VW and even Porsche all sell hybrid versions of their cars that improve on fuel economy by supplementing their petrol engines with electric motors. Until now, such cars have made the most sense for North America or other regions that don’t [...]
CAR TALK January 31, 2012 BMW GIVES THE X6 A FACELIFT BMW has released the first pictures of its facelifted X6. The Sports Activity Coupé has a new revived face with a more pronounced kidney grille, higher fog lights and adaptive LED headlamps. Available with five engine choices, the xDrive30d is the most frugal and can be fitted with BMW’s [...]
Speed death ‘accident’ riddle January 30, 2012 FORMER Wales manager Gary Speed may have killed himself accidentally, a coroner ruled yesterday, despite hearing evidence that the 42-year-old “talked in terms of taking his life” in the days before his death. Speed’s widow Louise said the couple had argued on the November night before he was found hanged in his garage, and that [...]
EU LEADERS SIGN FINANCIAL PACT January 30, 2012 UK opts out of treaty but Cameron gives ground EUROPE took a major step towards full fiscal union last night, as every EU member country except the UK and the Czech Republic vowed to cut budget deficits and submit themselves to greater scrutiny from the European Commission. Prime Minister David Cameron refused to agree to [...]