Business

John Brown looks at why being devoted to a single strategy or channel is the wrong approach... If you remove politicians and footballers, humans have a pretty staggering tendency to bond for life. We’re one of only a handful of mammal species that pair and commit. This innate loyalty is pretty useful in many ways. But, when it comes to marketing, we need to up the promiscuity levels. I hold my hands up right now and say I am not...

Ask most managers what their top priorities are for their direct reports and I would be hugely surprised if the word ‘happiness’ appeared anywhere on a list littered with words like ‘productivity’, ‘creativity’ ‘target-orientated’, ‘efficient’ etc. But we are now interested in the idea of happiness at work (and in society) and there is a whole happiness industry emerging rooted in positive psychology, driven by individualism and personalisation and expressing itself in the health and wellbeing agenda. It is important...

An office full of employees in jeans – for some people, this sounds like a dream. For others, the thought alone is enough to cause them to break out in a cold sweat. How do you figure out which dress code policy is right for your workplace? The tech start-ups may have spearheaded the dressed-down office trend, but nowadays more and more companies are adopting it. If you’re one of those business owners wondering whether or not you should also...

It is widely accepted that the engineering industry is short of women, and within the engineering sector there is a huge gender pay gap. A survey by Energy Jobline, an Energy and Engineering job board, asked their engineering users if they agree in quotas to increase the participation of women in the industry, and the results were surprising. A resounding 71 per cent of those questioned said they didn’t think a quota was necessary. Even though only 9 per cent...

A new survey has revealed that energy professionals who work or live within the EU (i.e professionals working in overseas energy jobs) don’t want the UK to leave, but it’s close. A sample of energy sector workers in overseas energy jobs took part in the EU referendum survey. The results of the poll indicated that 47.3 per cent want the UK to remain part of Europe, while 43.2 per cent want Britain to withdraw from the rest of the member states....

In just three days we'll know the outcome of the EU referendum. As it fast approaches and the vote looks like it will hang in the balance, research from the energy jobs sector has come up with some surprising results. The survey attempted to delve into what energy professionals really thought about the future of the EU and where they want to be on June 24th. The results of the survey, conducted by EnergyJobline.com, a global energy jobs board for energy and...

Activist investors are relatively new but very influential players in international capital markets. They are shareholders at publicly traded companies who attempt to affect change in an organization either by directly appealing to, or putting heavy pressure on, the company’s board of directors, bypassing the normal advisory process. The scope of activist investors’ actions varies depending on their assertiveness and on what exactly they seek to change at a given company. The firms that activists target tend to underperform relative to...

ONE of the UK’s premium hotel and bar operators based in the North East has successfully refinanced £101m with the help of HSBC, in a deal supported by Mincoffs Solicitors LLP. Cairn Group, a privately owned business, will use £50m of the total pot for acquisition and development to strengthen its portfolio, which already includes 26 hotels and more than 30 bars and restaurants as well as care homes across the UK. The news follows the latest acquisitions of the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Under fire Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley will now compensate workers after admitting his company failed to pay the minimum wage to his workers. Union chiefs have said their was a “culture of fear” at the warehouse and ambulances have been called over a hundred times, sparking health and safety fears for their employees. Now Ashley has said he has come to an arrangement with HM Revenue & Customs to give compensation to warehouse employees...