Pointless meetings? There’s no such thing – the peacock explains why November 2, 2018 IT’S A good rule of thumb that you can learn more by looking at what people do than listening to what they say. Everyone in the corporate world, for example, likes to talk about how much they hate meetings. But for something they profess to despise, they seem to have an awful lot of them. [...]
Kamikaze Brexiteers may end up in a hell of their own making February 8, 2019 Hell hath no fury like a Brexiteer scorned. From the backlash this week, you would have thought that European Council president Donald Tusk had suggested that the EU get custody of the Queen in the Brexit divorce. “I’ve been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit, without even a [...]
Deliveroo set to become unicorn with $385m investment September 23, 2017 Deliveroo has secured $385m (£285.3m) in new funding from two US firms. Stateside investors Fidelity and T. Rowe Price have agreed to put money into the UK-based start-up as part of a deal which values the company at over $2bn (£1.48bn), according to Sky News. The investment means rumours of a Deliveroo IPO are likely [...]
Five reasons why Game of Thrones satisfies our (narrative) needs January 30, 2019 Game of Thrones has become something of a TV event over the past six years – the last season attracted more than 5m viewers per episode. On the face of it, the attractions are obvious: large helpings of sex and violence, bolstered by a serpentine storyline said to be inspired by the War of the [...]
The sugar tax is failing – let’s empower people to make their own choices instead September 6, 2018 It’s been five months since the so-called “sugar tax” was introduced, charging manufacturers a levy according to the amount of sugar in their drinks products. Ostensibly its aim was to combat obesity. But recent Nielsen data shows that the tax has had little impact on consumer behaviour. Around two thirds (62 per cent) of consumers [...]
Fitness challenge: four years on – The new fitness techniques that helped turn our Life&Style editor into a gym bro August 8, 2018 Four years ago I wrote an article about getting fit. For 10 weeks I went to the gym a lot, gave up booze, ate well, and got a hearty spray tan. I looked pretty good, in a ‘didn’t-quite-make-it-to-the-final-round-of-applicants-for-Love-Island’ kind of way. People still ask about it. For a while the story would appear on the [...]
Barbie on a bull run: Resurgent sales in the All-American figurine have proved a saving grace for toy making giant Mattel October 16, 2018 When it happened three years ago, it may have passed you by: after all, Donald Trump had just announced he was running for President, and the EU referendum campaign was getting under way. So you’d be forgiven for not noticing, in 2015, that Barbie dolls had just been given adjustable ankles. And yet the fact [...]
Guest notes: Boatman’s analysis on Babcock should be treated with scepticism November 23, 2018 All the noise around Babcock and its financial woes have left me feeling distinctly uncomfortable. It’s not the fact that the company has issues, as do most outsourcers. My problem is with the source of the recent vicious bear raid on the business – the so-called Boatman Capital. It is a month since Boatman and [...]
Trimley Lodge review: Spend a long weekend at this beautifully restored farmhouse on the Suffolk coast September 24, 2018 Unless you’re a particular fan of maritime trade logistics, the town of Felixstowe is unlikely to be high up on your list of places to visit before you die. It is, to the unending pride of locals, the UK’s largest shipping container port, and boasts waters deep enough to accommodate the latest generation of [...]
Just Eat delivers new chief finance chief June 21, 2016 Just Eat is serving up a new chief financial officer, after it said this morning that it has poached Paul Harrison, from Sheffield tech company WANdisco. Harrison will join the food delivery platform in September and will replace Mike Wroe, who has been at the company for eight years. Wroe will stay in place through the rest of 2016 and during the first [...]