Business and Economics

By Nathan Lee, Business Correspondent  A report released today has revealed that older industrial areas of Britain are being left behind in the current national economic upturn. The Industrial Communities Alliance has published research comparing the trends in older industrial Britain with the GB average and with London and the South East, finding that stark differences have emerged in regards to employment, unemployment and earnings since the end of the recession. The report found that by the end of 2013, employment in...

By Nathan Lee, Business Correspondent  The world’s largest startup accelerator and competition, MassChallenge, is officially accepting applications until 1 April for its first annual programme in London. Between 60-80 selected startups will participate in a four-month programme, at the end of which a total of £500k is awarded to the top startups, with no equity taken. Any early stage startup can enter MassChallenge UK from any industry, from anywhere in the world. Accepted startups will go through the accelerator programme starting...

By Dave Binder For those unaware, Trafalgar place is one of the many new housing developments in and around the Elephant & Castle ‘regeneration zone’, an area seemingly pounced upon for development due no doubt to the combination of great location and relatively cheap land (by London zone 1 standards anyway). Wherever you look, skyscrapers and flats are emerging at an ever increasing pace from firms who see the potential for great profit to be made. One such development is...

 By Ismail Erturk, expert in banking at Manchester Business School Ever since Bob Diamond, the star investment banker in the City and ex-CEO of Barclays, resigned in the aftermath of Libor fixing scandal in 2012 the pendulum of power started to swing in favour of the regulators in the City. Prior to the Libor fixing scandal the bankers had wanted to turn a leaf over their failures that caused the costly banking crisis of 2008 that the economy in the...

By Martina King Having spent the last two years immersed in the uses of predictive analytics and machine learning, I find myself questioning the future of mundane tasks completed by humans today. So naturally, on a recent flight, as the pilot calmly announced important information to his cabin, I sat wondering how long it will be before his reassuring voice will be replaced by the dulcet tones of a computer, albeit one that sounds just like him. The role of...

By Xavier Baeten , Professor of Reward and Sustainability at Vlerick Business School Every year, a research team at Vlerick Business School studies the remuneration reports of more than 500 listed firms spread over Europe. This approach is unique: an academic business school collecting and analysing international data on CEO remuneration levels, as well as CEO remuneration structure and the main factors driving CEO incentives. Out of these analyses, a number of interesting findings and challenges can be derived. In...

By Nathan Lee, Business Correspondent  London’s startup scene is set to reach record highs in 2015 as it spearheads the UK’s growing entrepreneurial community, says global office broker, Instant Offices. The UK has seen an all-time high of new startups in 2014, with London contributing the majority of new businesses to the mix. This according to national enterprise, Startup Britain. The tech industry in particular has skyrocketed, rising 40 per cent year-on-year. This has resulted in a seven year high...

The test of successful branding hinges on three things; Is it meaningful, is it likeable and is it memorable? Or so Matt Symonds of Fortuna Admissions tells me. I honestly don’t know what makes a brand successful, but as I sit here on a train to King’s Cross from Leeds I can’t help but feel a little unsettled by the Virgin branding that litters the iconic InterCity 225’s that have worked the 393-mile long line skirting the spine of Britain since...

By Moya Maxwell, chair, Unique Venues of London​ There are encouraging signs that 2015 is set to be a buoyant year for private events and corporate hospitality, especially from a resurgent domestic market. A survey conducted amongst Unique Venues of London’s 81 member venues found that that 91 per cent of respondents had an optimistic business outlook for 2015 (up eight per cent on 2013’s results).  And many members recording that January was the busiest ever for new event enquiries....