The trusted brand with personality at its core February 3, 2013 YOU may have seen Clippy McKenna’s eponymous preserves on your supermarket shelves. Her two-man show (it is just Clippy and fiancé Paul Gorman working at the business; everything else, including the actual jam-making, is contracted out) now stocks its products in some of the biggests stores – including Tesco and Harvey Nichols. After graduating as [...]
Disney ending for the man who started golden era of animation February 3, 2013 WHAT are the three words in the English language beginning with Dw? Our boozey boys’ lunch suddenly took an intellectual turn when someone lobbed in this cracker of a question. Our bodies momentarily froze and we stared into the distance, slight frowns, deep in thought, competition now upon us. “Dwarf!” someone yelled, and at first [...]
Business contests aren’t just vanity February 3, 2013 ERNST & Young has just opened nominations for its UK Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Previous category winners have included Hilary Devey of BBC’s Dragon’s Den (and more impressively, founder of Pall-Ex, the freight company), and the former boss of JD Sports Peter Cowgill. Certainly, of the many competitions out there, Ernst & Young’s has [...]
FTSE falls again as weak results dampen mood January 31, 2013 LONDON’S top shares closed lower yesterday as downbeat company earnings and mixed global economic data triggered the sharpest one-day fall on the FTSE 100 since mid-November. Earnings were in focus after updates from British oil heavyweight Royal Dutch Shell and drugmaker AstraZeneca, and Facebook in the United States, disappointed. Shell alone took 16 points off [...]
Markets ease ahead of key jobs numbers January 31, 2013 US stocks edged lower yesterday on caution ahead of today’s all-important jobs report, but the S&P 500 still posted its best monthly gain since October 2011. The benchmark S&P 500 advanced 5.1 per cent in January as investors cheered a compromise that temporarily postponed the impact of the “fiscal cliff” and fourth-quarter earnings were better [...]
FTSE loses pace after poor US economic data January 30, 2013 The FTSE 100 fell yesterday, weighed down by miners after disappointing US GDP data as investors considered whether the rally that has lifted the index to 4-1/2 year highs has further to run. The FTSE 100 closed down 16.08 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 6,323.11, having climbed some 20 per cent from its June [...]
Stocks dip on Fed decision to keep easing January 30, 2013 U S stocks edged lower yesterday after the Federal Reserve left in place its bond-buying stimulus plan, saying economic growth had stalled but indicating the pullback was likely temporary. Describing the US job market as continuing its modest pace of improvement, the Fed repeated a pledge to keep purchasing securities until employment improves substantially. The [...]
Remote working: A new approach to 9-5 January 30, 2013 LAST November, Nick Clegg hit headlines when he made a speech on flexible working. His proposal may only have extended the right to request flexible working hours to all employees, but this phenomenon is here to stay. And it won’t exclusively be for the benefit of those with children. Flexible working can be an appealing [...]
How to tackle the challenges of bring your own device January 30, 2013 DIRECTOR UK ENTERPRISE, CISCO Q How has “bring your own device” (BYOD) helped companies and their employees? A BYOD is helping companies attract the talent they need to prosper. Increasingly, graduates and early career individuals will select a company based on its flexible working arrangements and the freedom to connect to work away from the [...]
City firms can fix the flexibility conundrum January 30, 2013 WORKING culture in the UK has seen a notable change in recent years. No longer are we focused on a prescriptive work mentality, where 9-5 hours and a career for life are the norm. Instead, it’s now about making the “how”, “when”, and “where” factors of our job work for us, rather than the other [...]
