Sterling Performance

3 Ways the Financial Crisis Could Hurt Globalisation

Joanna Higgins — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:53:13 +0000

Is the financial crisis spreading beyond Europe and the US — and how will it affect emerging markets? Martin Wolf argues that the financial crisis threatens globalisation in three ways. 1. There will be less willingness to liberalise financial markets in emerging economies. 2. Free market capitalism’s credibility will take a big hit (that’s already happening, although [...]

CEOs Don’t Always Make Good Chairmen

Joanna Higgins — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:25:40 +0000

Chairmen of the board believe CEOs don’t necessarily make good chairmen, according to research by Directorbank, the UK recruitment specialist for senior executives and non-executives. In the same organisation, the move from CEO to chairman can be impossible. Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, who was chief executive of BA before becoming chairman, found he had to [...]

How Nice Guys Finish First

Jo Owen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:58:13 +0000

About 15 years ago business academia made the astonishing discovery that business success is not just about being a brain on sticks. They discovered that besides IQ, good managers needed EQ — emotional quotient. So the academics were only about 50 years behind reality — nothing new there, then. And the academics are still way behind [...]

Bankers Take a Bashing While Darling Takes a Bow

Joanna Higgins — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:13:04 +0000

Bank bailout views turn to banker bashing in as the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee demands a “clear out” at the top of City institutions in an interesting, albeit long, weekly political podcast. Rather than allowing the perpetrators of the chaos, all “thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the City”, to oversee the new structure of the City, [...]

UK Bank Bailout Has Strings Attached

Joanna Higgins — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:05:36 +0000

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government will make £500bn available through a series of measures designed to salvage the fortunes of struggling commercial lenders. These include Debt issued by banks will be guaranteed up to £250bn Up to £200bn from the Bank of England for short-term loans £25bn Treasury capital £25bn available in exchange for preference shares. Out of the eight [...]

Talent Management: A Bull Market Luxury?

Joanna Higgins — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Are diversity initiatives a bull market luxury? A survey of top employers for women is a useful guide for any employee interested in top talent managers. As the economic outlook for the UK generally darkens, companies are starting to look for operational cost efficiencies. Corporate social responsibility and diversity can be the first casualties, acknowledges Glenda [...]

Is It Time You Checked Your Assumptions?

Stuart Cross — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:49:26 +0000

When I was four years old I found a sparrow with a damaged wing in the garden. For a day or two my mother and I kept it in a box in our garage and fed it on bread soaked in milk. Then, one morning, it had disappeared. I asked my mum where it [...]

Google’s Mail Goggles Nips Drunken Emails in the Bud

Joanna Higgins — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:25:57 +0000

Late-night Tequila spammers, help is at hand. Google’s launched a new feature for Gmail users called “Mail Goggles” — automatically activated software to temper that urge to send drunken, ill-advised email to old flames, your aged parents, crush objects — or your entire company. Mail Goggles acts as a quick sobriety check — a bit [...]

Confidence and Crisis: A Chocolate-Maker’s Tale

Jess Long — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:54:33 +0000

Over the years I’ve been gathering an eclectic assortment of other people’s wisdom in a box file. It is a tatty collection of magazine articles, photocopies, quotations, and printouts from the internet. The best wisdom has truth and timelessness so I read the contents regularly and bin anything that fooled me at the time. [...]

Baby Dragons Get a Boost from Peter Jones

Joanna Higgins — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:38:59 +0000

Phones International entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den investor Peter Jones is fulfilling a long-held ambition by opening a skills academy for entrepreneurs. The first National Enterprise Academy will be set up with some £4m of government backing and the rest of the estimated £8m running cost provided by Jones and other sources. The course will be fine [...]