The rise of the talking head: why City experts are taking over our TV screens and it’s not just back-to-back suits January 11, 2016 By eight o’clock on a typical Monday morning Jane Foley, senior currency strategist at Rabobank, will have been at her desk for nearly two hours preparing for her clients and keeping an eye on the markets. She will also have had to squeeze in a couple of live interviews, providing expert commentary for broadcasters from [...]
Shooting for the stars: The7stars co-founder Jenny Biggam on Iceland and independence January 11, 2016 There is a consensus among marketers that “content is king”. In traditional media, however, the division between programming and advertising has always been quite clear. But on Saturday evening, Suzuki began a £20m two-year deal to sponsor Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, using skits in the style of the show to promote the car [...]
Bringing diversity into the boardroom: A five-point plan for business success January 7, 2016 This week Forbes published its annual 30 Under 30 list: 600 of the best and brightest across a wide range of industry sectors. Of the many responses to the list, one from Tyece Wilkins revelling in the fact that of those 600, 18 were black women, particularly resonated. Of course, 18 out of 600 is a very, very small number. But it’s [...]
Fintech 2016: Bitcoin rises again and compliance gets sexy January 7, 2016 It was another big year for fintech in Europe in 2015. The frenzy of activity in London has continued. There’s been an overload of conferences and events, an occasional dose of premature back-slapping, but most importantly some great companies have raised serious investment. The rest of Europe, Germany in particular, has leapt forward too – [...]
Andy Murray offers support to Naomi Broady after fellow Brit demands Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko be disqualified for throwing her racket at a ball-boy January 6, 2016 Britain's Andy Murray joined the chorus of support for compatriot Naomi Broady after her bad-tempered win over Latvian Jelena Ostapenko – but could not match her success when he returned to action on Wednesday. World No122 Broady progressed to round three of the ASB Classic in Auckland with a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 win, although the victory [...]
Mergermarket buys London-based Creditflux as private equity owner BC Partners looks for global growth through acquisitions January 6, 2016 Mergermarket, the online financial news service, has bought Creditflux, a London-based data provider, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is the latest in Mergermarket’s recent shopping spree, having bought four businesses in as many months: due diligence service C6, private equity and venture capital news provider Unquote and the Asian Venture Capital Journal. Mergermarket is [...]
Companies, watch out: One in five disgruntled consumers turn to social media like Facebook and Twitter to complain January 6, 2016 Companies, watch out: in the 21st century, if you displease your customers there is every chance the world is hearing about it. Forget keeping arguments behind closed doors. Our fights with brands are increasingly going public, as new research has found that nearly one in five disgruntled consumers now turn to social media as their [...]
Business jargon to watch out for in 2016: Prepare to start using (or at least hearing) the words amplify, ladder up and ecosystem January 6, 2016 Hold onto your hats, there's some new jargon coming to town for 2016. You might have learned to cope with eye-wateringly bad management speak like "actionable", "reach out" and "game-changer", but now you're going to have to learn to use a whole new set of phrases without giving into the temptation to bang your head against your desk. [...]
How young is too young to leave your kid alone online? Parents are leaving their four-year-olds to use the Internet unsupervised January 6, 2016 How young is too young to leave kids alone online? Younger than you might imagine, and falling fast, as it turns out. Until recently, most parents supervised their kids well into their tweens. Today, the average four-year-old is let loose unsupervised, according to research from price comparison site uSwitch. Parents with children aged one to [...]
Jack Dorsey confirms Twitter is exploring removing the 140 character limit January 5, 2016 One of Twitter’s standout features may soon be a thing of the past, but investors weren’t wowed by chief exec Jack Dorsey confirming the firm is toying with removing the 140 character limit. Rumours from Silicon Valley hinting at Twitter plans to expand to a 10,000 character limit sent users into headspin. But it wasn’t [...]