Bosses should speak out on political events February 1, 2017 Business and their top executives are understandably nervous about jumping into political storms. Speaking out during times of unrest holds many risks. People disagreeing with your view are quick to encourage boycotts on social media, while an army of risk-averse corporate PR men and women will warn their bosses of potential harm to a company’s [...]
These are the funniest tweets from the UK protests against Donald Trump’s travel ban January 31, 2017 Tens of thousands of people took to the streets last night to protest against US President Donald Trump's ban on visitors from seven Middle Eastern countries. Controversy has brewed in the UK over whether Trump should come on a state visit. He has been invited, but more than one million people have signed a petition saying [...]
China, Mexico, Japan: Who’s afraid of Trump’s protectionism? January 31, 2017 Anyone hoping that Donald Trump’s campaign promises were just talk can’t have been encouraged by this weekend’s events. Stock markets fell and the dollar was volatile yesterday on the news that the President had signed an executive order banning the entry of people from seven countries. Assumptions that he would row back from his more protectionist [...]
Now Ford has spoken out against Donald Trump’s travel ban January 30, 2017 The two top executives at the US' largest carmaker have waded into the row over Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from travelling to the US, saying it "goes against our values as a company". Reuters reported Ford's executive chairman Bill Ford Jr and chief exec Mark [...]
US giant Ford criticised after Mustang sports car scores just two stars in crash tests January 25, 2017 US car giant Ford has been criticised by industry body Thatcham Research after its Mustang sports car achieved just two stars in official European crash tests. The Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) puts all new cars through thorough crash tests and awards them a star rating out of five. Recent changes have made it [...]
Donald Trump urges car giants Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler to build new plants in the US January 25, 2017 US President Donald Trump has urged the heads of car companies to boost production in the US and promised to slash “out of control” regulations to attract more investment. Trump yesterday also signed executive orders for construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, which had been thrown into doubt under his [...]
David Harrison, co-founder of Positive Solutions and True Potential, talks tin baths, skinny men with beards, Boris and why we need a Super Isa January 23, 2017 An article was doing the rounds on Twitter last week: Don’t let Boris Wooster bugger up Brexit. This is how David Harrison, founder of two multi-million pound financial services firms and former builder, feels about our irrepressible foreign secretary. “He’s not helping Theresa, is he? A loose cannon who walks on sounding like he’s just [...]
Red tape warriors to the rescue: London’s top compliance staff to save City’s status post-Brexit January 22, 2017 Banking experts have identified an unexpected reason why big banks could keep major operations in London following Brexit – the capital's high numbers of top quality compliance staff. Bosses at HSBC and UBS said last week they could move thousands of staff out of London due to Brexit, triggering worries the UK could lose its [...]
Donald Trump’s business meddling: Crony capitalism to a Tea January 17, 2017 To understand why many large businesses and pro-market US policy wonks are anxious about a Donald Trump presidency, one has to understand the lessons of the Tea Party. No, not the recent grassroots phenomenon caricatured in the UK media. I’m talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773 – in which American colonists, belonging to [...]
Here are some of the trends from CES 2017 January 12, 2017 If CES 2017 is anything to go by, this will be quite a year for consumer technology. While I didn’t see any brand-new, game-changing products (most of the technology prevalent at the show has existed in one form or another for a few years now), it’s starting to feel like the future we’ve been promised [...]