Serena’s coach: Tennis is long, slow and too clean November 6, 2020 Tennis may have virtually ground to a halt this year, but one of the world’s most celebrated coaches, Patrick Mouratoglou, has rarely been busier. Mouratoglou, like his clients Serena Williams, Coco Gauff and Stefanos Tsitsipas, has had to adjust to life without much of the usual circuit. His academy on the French Riviera also suffered [...]
Why Softbank is struggling to attract investment for its second Vision Fund September 22, 2019 Softbank’s Vision Fund was created to disrupt the tech sector – and it succeeded. Launched in 2017, the $100bn (£80.2bn) investment vehicle is the world’s largest tech fund, and made Softbank chief Masayoshi Son the industry’s biggest investor. The unicorn ‘kingmaker’ The gargantuan Vision Fund (VF) quickly became known for making bold bets on promising [...]
TfL: Crime on London public transport soars December 5, 2019 Crime on London’s public transport network has surged by 30 per cent in the past year. Transport for London (TfL) today released statistics for the first quarter of 2019-20, revealing the increase in crime on its services was three-times as large as the increase for the capital as a whole. Read more: London Night Tube [...]
Supersizing DAZN: Why a UK launch is just the start of the sport streaming service’s global ambitions December 11, 2020 “Supersizing” is the buzzword of the moment at DAZN, the sport streaming service that finally launched in the UK this month. It’s an appropriate one, in that it reflects DAZN’s expansion to more than 200 countries, making it the first global platform of its kind. It is also suitably bullish for a company that is [...]
Don’t dismiss the apprenticeship levy — it could fix the UK’s productivity puzzle February 11, 2020 The UK economy is not what it was 50 or even 20 year ago. We are an economy driven by services, data, and technology. As such, we need skilled managers to run the teams and operations that keep UK businesses at the forefront of innovation and change. The apprenticeship levy is a brilliant tool for [...]
Has the black swan left us with white elephants? April 23, 2020 The coronavirus crept up on us, in some ways. It began with a single illness in China in mid-November 2019, a 55-year-old in Hubei province, some records suggest, and it wasn’t until January this year that it became clear that there was an epidemic of this new respiratory disease in the city of Wuhan. In [...]
Why your gloomy office is holding you back: the case for better workplace design February 24, 2020 Whatever industry you’re in, most companies will tell you that their biggest cost is talent. That’s why the prediction that stress-related illnesses will be the main cause of sickness in 2020, accounting for 44 per cent of all work-related absences, should be a big concern. One source of this stress is technology, which has altered [...]
Exclusive: Businesses call for bank-by-bank breakdown of coronavirus lending April 21, 2020 British businesses have called on industry body UK Finance to publish a bank-by-bank breakdown of lending through the coronavirus support scheme, as it emerges that Natwest has so far made roughly half of all loans through the programme. Data from Natwest today showed that as of Sunday evening the group (formerly called RBS) had approved [...]
Big businesses drawn to the City for office space July 29, 2019 Big businesses upped sticks for the City in 2018 as companies increasingly move further afield to find the best office space, a new study has shown. Read more: Wework grabs €62m from EU in Brexit deal for London office spot Mayfair lost the largest number of businesses renting office space of more than 10,000 square [...]
The We Company confidentially files to go public April 29, 2019 The We Company, the firm behind office sharing giant Wework, has confidentially filed to go public. The firm said today it had amended documentation to an earlier filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December last year. No financial information was revealed in the filing, though the We Company was reported in March to have made [...]