Revolutionary is overrated – unsexy is the new black February 1, 2019 There was a time when pushy parents steered their children towards professions like medicine, banking, or law, while their offspring dreamed of being musicians, pilots, and firefighters. Now, it seems that having the next big idea or making money through your personal brand on social media is the common career goal. The entrepreneur is the [...]
Trump tore down the walls for the Democrats’ socialist superstar February 1, 2019 Half-baked policy ideas that don’t stand up to economic scrutiny but spread like wildfire across social media. The ability to tear up the rulebook to forge a new path to power. A US politician who is almost certainly dramatically under-qualified for the office they hold, but who has captured the imaginations of millions through sheer charisma [...]
Problems mounting for stubborn Maurizio Sarri as his footballing philosophy shows its weaknesses at Chelsea January 31, 2019 On the face of things Chelsea are far from a club in crisis. They sit outside of the Premier League’s top four on goal difference and are still in all four competitions, having progressed to the final of the Carabao Cup and the fifth round of the FA Cup in the last eight days. The [...]
Barclays boss feared payments to Qataris could be seen as a ‘bung’ January 30, 2019 A Barclays boss feared that fees paid by the bank to Qatari investors might be see as a “bung”, a court was told today. Richard Boath, one of four former Barclays executives charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, told investigators two advisory services agreements (ASAs) that form the crux of the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) [...]
Facebook removes controversial app that pays teenagers for their iPhone data January 30, 2019 Facebook has taken down a research app that paid volunteers aged as young as 13 to gain unfettered access to data on their mobile phone. An investigation by Tech Crunch lifted the lid on the Facebook Research App, which bypassed the Apple App Store to seek out users via unofficial beta testing networks. The app [...]
Gary Neville scores with sale of 50 per cent stake in production company Buzz 16 January 30, 2019 Gary Neville today proved he still has his eye on the ball after selling a 50 per cent stake in his production company Buzz 16 to a London-based marketing firm. The former England and Manchester United footballer has agreed to sell half his company for an undisclosed amount to AIM-listed marketing group Reach 4 Entertainment [...]
You can’t manage your reputation by gagging the press, Cheryl January 30, 2019 When it comes to reputation, celebrities can usually do one of two things: they can enlist the services of a professional PR person like me, or they can call in the lawyers. Sometimes they do both. This week, I was dragged into the Daily Mail sidebar of shame and saw that Cheryl Tweedy-Cole-Versini has chosen [...]
Antisocial media: How to reform our narcissistic internet culture January 30, 2019 The social media and technology backlash – or “techlash” – has begun, and the tech companies are scrambling to catch up. Earlier this month, Sheryl Sandberg talked compellingly at the Munich DLD conference about Facebook’s challenges and the company’s acceptance of greater responsibility around the big issues of data safety, misinformation, and transparency. Good stuff, [...]
Apple sales come to the fore as big tech firms brace for crunch results January 29, 2019 Silicon Valley will be preparing for market instability this week as several members of the so-called Faang grouping gear up to report quarterly results for the recent festive period. Three members of the big tech club – which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google – will publish figures amid rising speculation that their time [...]
Fyre Festival is a lesson for all event planners about what not to do January 29, 2019 In its new documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, released last week, Netflix pulled back the curtains behind one of the most infamous stitch-ups in the event industry. Entrepreneur Billy McFarland had ambitions to create the “most insane festival ever seen” to spread consumer awareness of his talent booking platform. A strategic and [...]