HELPING THE CITY THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
WHAT does a FTSE 250 chairman do when he’s not scrutinising business plans and keeping shareholders happy? Well if you’re John Pluthero, chair of Cable & Wireless (below right), then the answer is you launch an initiative to challenge accepted ideas surrounding abstract art, of course.
Building on his long-held interest (and collection) in post-war British abstract painting, Pluthero has created AbstractCritical with sculptor Robin Greenwood – a series of discussions and exhibitions that aims to “establish a new critical context for all generations of abstract artists”.
The initiative’s first showcase, High-abstract, will be shown at the Poussin Gallery from Friday, featuring works by contemporary artists Alan Davie, John Hoyland and Fred Pollock – all names that might not trip off the tongue of your average telecoms chief.
BRING YOUR OWN EARS
For anyone whose mouth is already watering at the prospect of a Playboy Club opening in London, the arrival of a head chef that’s worked for Gordon Ramsey is another reason to be cheerful. But Judy Joo (above right), who’ll be head chef when the club opens this summer, started her career very differently – in derivatives sales at Morgan Stanley. Joo spent four years with the bank in the US before giving it all up to retrain as a chef. At the members-only dining room Joo will create classic American dishes – though rabbit is strictly off the menu.
Luckily her banking background means she should feel right at home among the club’s most famous employees, the bunny girls, for whom a sharp mathematical brain is apparently a must.
According to a recent advertisement for the iconic hostess role “Bunny Dealers need mental-arithmetic abilities comparable to a city broker”.
HORKING 9 TO 5
Do you want to be a horker? Apparently if you’re keen to improve your work-life balance (and who isn’t) that’s exactly what you should aspire to. At least according to Nectar Business, which coined the phrase in a press release that landed in The Capitalist’s inbox.
For horking, far from being a unpleasant bodily function as onomatopoeia might suggest, is a contraction of home-working – or working from home as it’s been called for many years.
According to research, 46 per cent of people said they work from home more regularly now than three years ago – but what exactly do horkers get up to?
For an image-focused 10 per cent of men, horking means working from home in full office wear, while an unsurprising 45 per cent cited the lack of commute as the biggest perk.
But most disturbingly, 27 per cent of senior management horkers surveyed admitted to having taken a business call in the bath or shower. Brings a whole new meaning to the idea of multitasking.
A WEAK CONNECTION
If Vince Cable is worried he’s being pushed out of the public eye after embarrassing “war on Murdoch” comments last year, a communications mishap won’t do much to comfort him.
After Project Merlin was announced yesterday, the twittersphere was alight with people wondering why Cable’s official response was sent from his press officer’s hotmail address.
Apparently the BIS mail server happened to crash at the crucial moment…