Picking up the Slack: CMO Bill Macaitis on why word-of-mouth is central to the unicorn’s success June 6, 2016 "We're selling organisational transformation," says Bill Macaitis, chief marketing officer of Slack – Silicon Valley darling and contender for the fastest growing B2B software-as-a-service company in history. Slack is more than a workplace messenger. It is a communication and collaboration tool which facilitates meetings, provides access to shared documents, and breaks down silos between apps by integrating Twitter, [...]
As social media platforms get better at monetising, what should marketers expect? June 6, 2016 Monetising is a top priority for the world’s leading social platforms like Twitter and Periscope, and recent figures suggest they’re getting better at it. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, the UK’s social media ad spend rose 51 per cent last year to £574m, so what developments should marketers expect from these firms over the coming [...]
Stressed out Brits want robots and virtual assistants to pick up the slack June 6, 2016 Overloaded Brits are increasingly willing to let technology pick up the slack of modern life, with more than half of us happy to hand over control to robots and virtual assistants. Making appointments and getting a smart coffee machine to order refills are just some of the tasks which people said they were willing to give up to technology, according to a global survey [...]
Firing up innovation in Japan: Entrepreneurship has been frowned up in Japan but a new breed of youngsters are hoping to make the country a world class technology player once again June 6, 2016 The eighties were a boom time for Japan, when the country’s high-tech innovations meant the likes of Sony, Nintendo, Mitsubishi and Toshiba were global leaders. Its technology had changed society, from the appearance of the first bullet train in 1964, to Sony’s Walkman in 1979, through to the Nintendo GameBoy in 1989. Japan’s dominance in [...]
Seven things we’ve discovered so far this year about cybersecurity June 4, 2016 Next week, technology experts will flock to West London for Infosecurity Europe – one of the largest information security exhibitions. If you're going and are worried you'll run short of water cooler conversation topics to discuss with your fellow delegates, here's seven things that have come to light about cybersecurity so far this year: Cybersecurity is [...]
Could a focus on customer experience have saved BHS? June 3, 2016 Retailers have learnt harsh lessons about failing to stay relevant; the collapse of BHS is just the latest casualty. Like Woolworths and GAME before it, when BHS went into administration, the most common reaction was shock. However, the downfall of BHS cannot be considered a surprise. The company failed to keep up with the internet revolution and being outmanoeuvred [...]
Jobs are big business: Google just bet on Glassdoor again in $40m funding round June 3, 2016 Google has bet on jobs being big business again – after it invested more in US jobsite Glassdoor.com. The company said it had raised $40m from investors including T Rowe Price Associates, Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill, Tiger Global and Google. The site, which provides details to would-be job hunters including salaries, benefits and even interview questions, said it currently [...]
Scientists have proved you only need two brain cells to be properly decisive – while snails’ decision making abilities could help us train robots June 3, 2016 Consider yourself the indecisive type? Consider again: scientists have just proved it only takes two brain cells to make a good decisions – information which could help us to design robots. The scientists, from the University of Sussex, studied the brain activity of freshwater snails as they chose which direction to go in in pursuit of [...]
Now Savills has got into online estate agency with its latest investment June 3, 2016 Savills has jumped into the online estate agent market with both feet, after it ploughed "a substantial amount" into "hybrid" estate agency Yopa. Yopa said today that it had raised £16m, including investment from Grosvenor Hill Ventures, Savills' proprietary investment arm. Yopa, which was only launched at the beginning of this year, allows people to [...]
Why the mortgage market is due to be shaken up by the tech revolution June 3, 2016 Scaling the housing ladder can feel like climbing Everest and nowhere more so than in the capital. From saving every penny for a first deposit, to scouring the tube map for the next undiscovered, reasonably priced gem, the affordability challenges are well documented. But there are other unnecessary challenges driven by an outdated industry that [...]
