Leadership goes wrong when you just don’t listen November 13, 2014 Always jumping in with the solution won’t curry favour with staff. Unsurprisingly, some of the most inspiring leaders I have met are also the most skilled listeners I know. They empathise, even if they don’t agree. They make me feel like they care about me and my views, and that makes me care about [...]
Picking the right funds: Why it pays dividends to be on the ball December 2, 2014 However keen you are to diversify, be wary of overdoing it IT’S BEEN a tough year for some fund managers. Missed opportunities in tech shares and bad bets on financial stocks have seen 85 per cent of active large-cap stock funds lag their benchmark indices through to 25 November of this year. Lipper, which did [...]
Nest egg: How best to save for your children’s future August 20, 2014 As GCSE results come out today, and the dust settles on last week’s A-Level results, many parents will be thinking about how they can help their children through university. But while Fidelity calculations suggest that education is the costliest part of raising a child from birth to 21, at an estimated £71,780 in total, many [...]
Walkers ranch raccoon crisps add flavour to campaign – Brand Index September 23, 2014 Crisps are not a product known for their constant innovation. In fact, recent YouGov polling shows there is genuine resistance to the introduction of new flavours, with around three in 10 believing there are enough flavours already. Therefore it may seem odd that a crisp manufacturer would want to base an entire advertising campaign around [...]
The fast food revolutionary: EatFirst co-founder Rahul Parekh talks long hours, calories, mopeds and Mayfair hotels January 11, 2015 If you're after a startup story with a good luck streak, then that of Rahul Parekh, co-founder of EatFirst, might be the one for you. One evening, late last April, Parekh was holed up in a Mayfair hotel. He got chatting to some friends of a friend who, it transpired, worked for Rocket Internet – [...]
Dish of the Day: The Noodle House’s Pad Thai August 21, 2014 The Noodle House opened on Shaftebusry Avenue in April. Ambitious head chef Dariusz Dziadkiewicz aims to give customers a taster of the diverse food of South East Asia, from curries, to noodles to spicy broths. The restaurant serves seven different types of noodle and 17 blends of herbal tea. I joined The Noodle House [...]
Reach for the Isle of Skye for a bracing winter weekend away December 21, 2014 The island off the west coast of Scotland has a rugged charm during the colder months – and the food is first class. My heart is yearning to thee, O Skye! Dearest of Islands! There first the sunshine gladdened my eye, On the sea sparkling”. So wrote Scottish poet Alexander Nicolson about the largest [...]
Dixons profits surge ahead of Carphone Warehouse merger June 26, 2014 Dixons Retail, the owner of Currys and PC World, has reported a jump in profit before tax of 76 per cent to £166.2m for the financial year ended 30 April. Online sales were a particularly bright spot, rising by 16 per cent to £1bn, while customer service metrics reached their highest recorded levels in all [...]
Beer of the realm: Cobra founder Lord Bilimoria talks creativity, GM crops and cracking pubs August 31, 2014 If you haven’t enjoyed a Cobra beer yourself, you’ve probably had a curry with someone who has. Karan Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer in 1989. It’s a well-documented story by now: the entrepreneur and life peer saw the need for a beer that was less gassy than lager but not as heavy as ale. Cobra claims [...]
Carphone Warehouse and Dixons deliver rise in profits ahead of £3.7bn tie-up June 26, 2014 High street stalwarts Dixons and Carphone Warehouse both revealed strong results yesterday ahead of their £3.7bn merger later this year. The owner of Currys and PC World reported an underlying profit before tax of £166.2m in the year to 30 April – up 10 per cent on the previous year. Chief executive Sebastian James said [...]