The UK’s law firms are seeing revenues plateau as they struggle to keep up with client expectations, according to PwC October 16, 2017 Law firms in the UK have seen muted revenue growth this year, as they are struggling to keep up with client expectations and advancing technologies. PwC’s annual UK law firms survey noted average fee income growth of just three per cent, while half of the businesses saw domestic profits fall. This was due to increased [...]
How AI could change the way you save for retirement October 13, 2017 A conversation in the not-too-distant future: Sarah: Hi Eva. Eva*: Hi Sarah, how’s it going? You came home early today. Yeah, I wasn't feeling too well so thought I would have an early night. What’s the problem? I have a booming headache and a runny nose. Sound’s terrible. Would you like me to order [...]
20 years since Deep Blue: Garry Kasparov on the human-machine relationship October 9, 2017 When Garry Kasparov was defeated in a game of chess by IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997, it represented more than just a PR exercise from an opportunistic computer manufacturer looking to bump its share price. For many, it signified the start of the end of human supremacy: the machines had won. Today, 20 years later, [...]
Adapt, or be crushed by the fourth industrial revolution October 9, 2017 No business has ever had the luxury of standing still. In the 1920s, American Express was founded as delivery service (hence the name), and Marriott originally specialised in root beer rather than hotels. Any company that has survived this long has had to adapt to the immense changes of the twentieth and early twenty-first century, [...]
UK M&A deals tail off as post-Brexit vote reality causes sentiment to weaken according to EY October 9, 2017 After a post-Brexit spike, the number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the UK has begun to tail off as deal sentiment weakens. According to EY, the volume of M&A deals completed in the first nine months of this year slipped by 11 per cent compared to 2016 to 2,316. On the flip side, the [...]
Corbyn’s robot tax would halt vital life-changing innovation October 6, 2017 The fear of change is nothing new. Charlie Chaplin’s classic film Modern Times – one of the last silent films of the era – is perhaps the most famous critique of technology and its perceived impact on modern society. When the film was produced in 1936, Chaplin wasn’t alone in his fear of how a [...]
Hermes GPE raises $620m from pension funds to plough in to co-investment deals October 5, 2017 Hermes GPE, the firm which invests in private equity funds and deals, has raised around $620m (£472m) for its co-investment strategy. The fund raked in commitments from a club of pension funds, professional investors and asset managers – including the Local Pensions Partnership, a collaboration between Lancashire County Pension Fund and the London Pensions Fund [...]
Is your greatest asset people, or data? October 4, 2017 Most of us spend our entire careers working for organisations where the prevailing attitude is that “people are our greatest asset”. In the service sector in particular, the expertise of an organisation’s people, their ability to work together, deliver an outstanding service and build strong relationships with customers is a cornerstone of its proposition. Often [...]
Bearing the load: Almost half of the UK’s top fund managers will absorb the cost of investment research post-Mifid October 4, 2017 A large chunk of the UK’s top asset managers have agreed to bear the cost of investment research themselves, rather than passing it on to clients from next year, according to consultancy Alpha FMC. The upcoming new European Mifid II rules, designed to increase transparency in how fund managers are spending investors’ money, mean firms [...]
Google’s DeepMind tripled its multimillion pound spending on artificial intelligence tech talent in London October 3, 2017 DeepMind, the UK’s star artificial intelligence company owned by Google, has tripled the amount of money it spends on top talent. Spending on administration largely driven by its wage bill jumped to £164m in 2016, up from £54m a year earlier, according to its newly published annual accounts, as it splashed the cash on attracting [...]