Tweeting in court could damage your business March 29, 2011 IMAGINE that your business is in court. And now imagine that some people in that courtroom are sending out a constant barrage of tweets about the proceedings – every accusation, every negative claim and every judicial comment appears instantly on the internet, in a context-destroying 140-character form. And now imagine the effect it could have [...]
Insurance companies all under one umbrella March 7, 2011 THOSE hoping for huge short term gains to be had from shorting companies with significant underwriting and re-insurance exposure to either the Middle East and north Africa (MENA), or to Christchurch may be disappointed. Listed companies are understandably cagey about just how much exposure they have to those areas, and syndicates with underwritten liability are [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNINGF February 22, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES SUGAR TRADERS CONSIDER CAP The world’s largest sugar exchange and top traders are mulling “circuit breakers” to cap the recent surge in price volatility, people familiar with the discussions said. The ICE Futures US exchange, based in New York, and the World Sugar Committee (WSC), an advisory group of top traders, are setting [...]
Plot to oust Healthcare Locums chair February 8, 2011 THE SUSPENDED executive vice chairman of Healthcare Locums, the medical staffing firm, has resigned and launched a bid to sack the chairman that disciplined her. Kate Bleasdale, who is also the founder of the company, has used her 11 per cent stake in the business to call an extraordinary general meeting to oust chairman Alan [...]
Lloyds insurers hit as disaster costs balloon January 11, 2011 FOUR Lloyds insurers saw their profit forecasts slashed by RBS analysts yesterday due to ballooning losses from natural disasters. Chaucer, Catlin, Hiscox and Lancashire saw their full-year pre-tax profit estimates cut by up to a fifth due to losses from the earthquake that devastated Christchurch in New Zealand last September. And insurers, already hit by [...]
Visa hit by web protest December 8, 2010 SUPPORTERS of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks brought down several payment processing websites yesterday and threatened to attack other financial services. Visa’s website was suspended and Mastercard’s online services were malfunctioning yesterday after activist group Anonymous attacked the websites as revenge for the companies blocking Wikileaks transactions earlier in the week. Mastercard said yesterday: “Our core [...]
In English for the first time, read The Truth About IKEA November 17, 2010 WITH an insider’s knowledge, Johan Stenebo’s controversial book is a remarkable, personal view inside a company that overtook Argos as the UK’s largest home furnishings retailer in 2009 but, after 67 years, only disclosed its profits for the first time last month (worldwide net profit £2.2bn in the year to 31 August 2009). In these [...]
Ten tips for increasing your efficiency September 29, 2010 1. DO THE NASTY JOBS FIRST Start your day with the tasks that are usually at the bottom of your list, says Anne Watson, author of How to Succeed with NLP: Go from Good to Great at Work. “Usually these will be jobs that someone else wants you to do and that person is probably [...]
The Co-op boss who is on a mission to rejuvenate an iconic organisation September 19, 2010 IT IS EASY to see why Co-operative Group chief executive Peter Marks is so excited about the new £180m head office that will open on a 20-acre site in the centre of Manchester in 2012. The current 1960s 13-storey building across the road seems to be made almost entirely of linoleum and plywood. I have [...]
BP is given a day to meet US demands July 8, 2010 THE OBAMA administration ratcheted up the pressure on BP yesterday after Admiral Thad Allen sent a letter to the embattled oil giant demanding that he be notified of every move it makes in responding to the Gulf of Mexico spill disaster. Allen, who is leading the Gulf operations for the US government, told BP that [...]