DEBATE: As Julian Richer hands over company shares, are staff-owned firms better for the economy? May 16, 2019 As Julian Richer hands over company shares, are staff-owned firms are better for the economy? Scott Corfe, chief economist at the Social Market Foundation, says YES. Companies with significant employee ownership schemes tend to have higher productivity – which is exactly what the UK needs right now. Poor productivity performance is a key reason why, [...]
London businesses ‘unaware’ of improvements to apprenticeship levy May 16, 2019 Only a quarter of London businesses are aware of the improvements to the apprenticeship levy that were announced in the Spring Statement, new research shows. In March the government announced that from April employers would see the co-investment rate the pay for apprentices cut from 10 per cent to five per cent. Read more: Apprenticeship [...]
Why your CEO got fired: Ethical lapses cost bosses their jobs in 2018 May 15, 2019 The turnover rate of CEOs soared to 17.5 per cent last year as ethical lapses became the biggest factor behind sacking bosses. Read more: Revealed: The CEOs who oversaw tech's 10 biggest share price rises While the 20 per cent rate of “forced turnovers” among departures at the top remained the same in PwC’s 2018 [...]
Royal Returns – Interactive Investor on funds and trusts fit for children May 15, 2019 | City Talk By Jemma Jackson from interactive investor. Whilst the latest addition to the Royal family won’t want for much, it’s unlikely that any investments made on his behalf will be left to languish in cash. This contrasts with the majority of the nation’s Junior ISAs, where 70 per cent by number are in cash in the 2017/18 [...]
Business cards on the table – what does yours say about you? May 15, 2019 Regardless of industry or sector, the success of a business is often determined by one important moment: the first impression. Although it’s not something that we like to admit, it’s human nature to pass judgement on someone during an initial meeting – first impressions can linger for some time afterwards. For this reason, a good [...]
Can a 60/40 split portfolio deliver better outcomes? May 15, 2019 | City Talk Recent decades have been a tumultuous time for investors. In the last 20 years alone we have experienced two of the biggest stock market crashes in history – the bursting of the dotcom bubble at the turn of the millennium and the financial crisis in 2008. Smoothing returns and avoiding losses has been a crucial [...]
The big fixer-upper: How to solve the problems in the mortgage market May 15, 2019 We've sent people into space, built driverless cars, and engineered robots that can think like us. And yet, fixing the mortgage approval process still seems out of humanity’s reach. The market is riddled with inefficiencies. Consumers are forced to fill out documents detailing every corner of their lives, while clunky underwriting processes mean that it [...]
Why Domino’s Pizza sell-off was overcooked May 14, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Hungry bargain hunters gobbled up shares in Domino's, correctly betting than an early slump was unfair. After selling 12 pizzas every second on New Year's Day, the rest of 2019 certainly hasn't panned out in the same emphatic fashion for Domino's Pizzaor its investors. Shares slumped as much as [...]
The lessons from the military that business leaders need to learn May 14, 2019 In today's business climate, you either embrace technology and establish it into the DNA of your company, or fall behind. However, investing in technology alone is not enough. Companies need to have the right talent to make everything sing. Effective, sustained technology skill development is key to ensuring that businesses not only keep up but [...]
Four ways passive investing has altered the markets May 14, 2019 Ever since the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed in Europe 19 years ago, passive investing has proved hugely popular. ETFs are traded like stocks, and simply track the big indices like the FTSE 100 or the Dow Jones, as opposed to having a fund manager cherry-pick individual companies for you. And with the lowest annual [...]
