More than a mission statement: How the 5Ps embed purpose to deliver value
27/11/2020
We’ve all seen it: companies that have the “it” factor, an enthusiasm and passion that lights up employees, delights customers, and shines for investors. It’s not just the company’s warmer fleece, or a more delicious ice cream, or even a breakthrough technology. And it’s so much more than just a mission statement. It’s purpose. Purpose […]
When do you need a chief restructuring officer?
23/11/2020
In less than a year, however, the ailing company’s cash situation had stabilized, avoiding the possibility of an abrupt insolvency. The company had found new sources of liquidity, and millions of euros in working capital were freed up thanks to improved short-term cash management. Lenders and other key stakeholders got behind the balance-sheet restructuring. What […]
10 Leadership Lessons from Covid Field Hospitals
20/11/2020
ExCel Centre in London Converted Into Temporary NHS Nightingale Coronavirus Field Hospital The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic starkly revealed fundamental deficiencies in health care delivery around the world, including endemic racial disparities, the fragility of supply chains, the vulnerability of staff, and the depth of uncertainty about both a novel disease and our own systems. It […]
How to find and maximize digital value in any M&A deal
17/11/2020
The digital revolution is changing the dynamics of M&A transactions. IT used to represent a cost that needed to be managed and controlled as two organizations came together. Today, IT and digital capabilities are often the driving force behind the transaction. But, even when an acquisition centers around a company’s other attractive assets, digital capabilities […]
6 Ways a Crisis Can Help You Cultivate a Growth Mindset
22/10/2020
Disruptive, stressful experiences are often opportunities for growth. Research has shown that crises can help lift the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra that pervades many organizations, creating new opportunities for people to voice their ideas on how to do things better. For example, when the pandemic forced an insurance company we advise to […]
Startups, It’s Time to Think Like Camels — Not Unicorns
21/10/2020
Edwin Remsberg/Getty Images The world has changed. In the wake of Covid-19, and the global recession it has caused, business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors are all girding for a long period of extremely challenging conditions in the global market. How can startups and innovators of all stripes survive in such conditions? Many are not […]
How CEOs and boards drive long-term value creation
13/10/2020
Corporate long-term behaviors: How CEOs and boards drive sustained value creation Ample evidence shows that when executives consistently make decisions and investments with long-term objectives in mind, their companies generate more shareholder value, create more jobs, and contribute more to economic growth than do peer companies that focus on the short term. Addressing the interests […]
Consumer companies in the “next normal”
11/09/2020
Roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumer organizations are wondering how they can survive and thrive in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Even after the pandemic subsides, we face an unpredictable future that demands more flexibility than ever before. But while the COVID-19 crisis is unique to modern history, a look at prior global disruptions […]
How to win with digital marketplaces
10/09/2020
Digital marketplaces have been the buzz of the consumer industry for the past several years, yet many brands and retailers still struggle to understand if and how to partner successfully with them. As a result of marked shifts in consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization has accelerated even further: 40 percent of consumers are […]
How incumbents scale up their new businesses
04/09/2020
So you’ve launched a new business, gotten the funding, built a product, and created a brand. But after some initial success, it’s not scaling. What do you do? If this situation is familiar to you, you’re not alone. In fact, only one in five incumbents succeed in scaling their business after their initial success. That’s […]
The telltale signs of successful Digital M&A
03/07/2020
The old saw that the best deals are the ones you don’t make doesn’t apply when it comes to digital acquisitions—you’ve got to make them, research has consistently shown. You also need to do them well, and that can be challenging, because buying in the digital, analytics, and technology space—what we call “digital deals”—is different […]
Preparing for the next normal via digital manufacturing’s scaling potential
17/06/2020
The coronavirus pandemic is changing manufacturing operations to a degree never before seen. As organizations and leaders seek to ensure the health and safety of their people, they are also reacting to supply-chain shifts that are impacting sourcing and distribution logistics. Supplier resilience is being brought into sharp focus, and labor shortages are bringing many […]
Digital collaboration for a connected manufacturing workforce
15/06/2020
Many experts predicted that with the coming of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), automation and advanced technologies would rapidly displace factory jobs and workers world-wide. Thus far, this prediction has not panned out. In fact, our research with the World Economic Forum (WEF) reveals that leading factories (“Lighthouses”) have invested significantly in people. And the […]
No longer on autopilot: Lessons for CFOs from COVID-19
12/06/2020
We’re now months past the first reports of global infections and deaths from the novel coronavirus, and CFOs and finance teams have done the hard work of leading their organizations through the immediate crisis—for instance, helping to ensure the safety and protection of employees, suppliers, and other key stakeholders; collaborating across functions; assessing liquidity and […]
Digital adoption through COVID-19 and beyond
11/06/2020
By now, most C-suite executives have led their companies to digitize at least some part of their business to protect employees and serve customers facing mobility restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. As one CEO of a large tech company recently stated, “We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic […]
How Investors Can Navigate Pandemic-Related Risk in Emerging Markets
01/06/2020
HBR Staff/artpartner-images/Getty Images Long after developed markets have Covid-19 relatively under control, the virus will remain a threat in emerging markets, where uneven governance, weak health systems, dense urban slums, and high rates of poverty multiply the challenges of fighting the pandemic. In a few countries there are already early signs of political instability and […]
Direct-To-Consumer Brands Are Finding New Ways To Engage With Customers
27/05/2020
Even before the pandemic arrived, acquisition channels and costs were on the top of mind for a lot of direct-to-consumer brands. Since they can’t rely on exposure through big retail chains and online marketplaces, they have to find their own ways to reach customers while staying cost-effective. A lot has changed in the world over […]
A blueprint for M&A success
11/05/2020
Large mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tend to get the biggest headlines, but executives should be paying attention to all the small deals, too. These smaller transactions, when pursued as part of a deliberate and systematic M&A program, tend to yield strong returns over the long run with comparatively low risk. And, based on our research, […]
How the CPG industry can prepare for the next normal
07/05/2020
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, threatening both lives and livelihoods, consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) manufacturers continue to play an important role: producing essential items we all rely on for our health and well-being. CPG leaders have focused on meeting this demand while guarding the safety of employees and customers. At the same time, forward-thinking […]
Leading marketing and sales with purpose
05/05/2020
“Without empathy, nothing works.” 1 1. Sean Gregory, “ ‘Without empathy, nothing works.’ Chef José Andrés wants to feed the world through the pandemic,” TIME, March 26, 2020, time.com. That quote, from José Andrés, a celebrity chef who also founded and runs the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, highlights the reasoning behind the organization’s mission: to […]
Don’t Make This Common M&A Mistake
03/04/2020
Huber & Starke/Getty Images According to most studies, between 70 and 90 percent of acquisitions fail. Most explanations for this depressing number emphasize problems with integrating the two parties involved. That’s perfectly true, but my experience suggests that integration problems are particularly severe in cases you wouldn’t necessarily expect — when the acquisition is a related […]
Capturing cross-selling synergies in M&A
23/03/2020
When companies look for synergy potential in deals, they tend to focus on costs. After all, cost synergies are more straightforward to estimate than revenue synergies and often pay off quickly after Day 1. Revenue, or growth, synergies are more complex and take longer to capture. But, with deal multiples at record highs, capturing revenue […]
The CIO challenge: Modern business needs a new kind of tech leader | McKinsey
20/02/2020
“There’s no worse time than now to be an average CIO.” These words, uttered by an executive at a recent conference, neatly capture the intense pressure on CIOs. For years, executives have stressed the need for CIOs to move beyond simply managing IT to leveraging technology to create value for the business. This priority is […]
Supporting employees during mergers and acquisitions…
05/02/2020
Mergers create vast organizational anxiety about the future: in most cases, the operating model and culture will change dramatically for one or both merging companies. These changes go far beyond a new name and senior leadership; they challenge the core of an organization’s identity, purpose, and day-to-day work. Even small tactical changes, like new expense […]
How businesses can thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
03/02/2020
The ‘move fast and break things’ ethos that epitomized Silicon Valley business culture for much of the 21st century’s first decade has fundamentally changed the global economy. For evidence of this, look no further than the French start-up, Guppy, which was launched in late 2018 to dredge discarded electric rental scooters out of the River […]
Here’s how your company should scale up artificial intelligence this year
28/01/2020
One of the key benefits that company leaders expect from investment in AI is the streamlining of in-house processes. The automation of routine tasks, such as the extrication of information from tax forms and invoices, can help companies operate more efficiently and make significant savings. As AI usage continues to grow, so do public fears […]
How the VC Pitch Process Is Failing Female Entrepreneurs
15/01/2020
HBR Staff/alxpin/Getty Images In 2018, only 3% of venture capital in the U.S went to companies with a female CEO. Yet, the number of female-owned businesses has risen both in the U.S. and around the world, and the number of women intending to become entrepreneurs globally has increased even more sharply. Women who venture into […]
Digital transformation: Improving the odds of success
20/11/2019
For established companies, the pressure to digitize business models and products has reached new intensity. McKinsey research shows that the best-performing decile of digitized incumbents earns as much as 80 percent of the digital revenues generated in their industries. Ascending to that elite group is far from easy. In a new survey of more than 1,700 […]
How to Improve Your Company’s Net Promoter Score
14/10/2019
HBR Staff/Paula Daniëlse/Getty Images There is a sure-fire way to increase your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) or the likelihood that customers will recommend you to others. There’s also a sure-fire way to learn about your operational vulnerabilities using customer surveys. The key in both cases is to give customers the chance to evaluate you […]
Pricing: Distributors’ most powerful value-creation lever
12/10/2019
Pricing is undergoing a revolution fueled by big data, advanced analytics tools, and powerful digital capabilities. Distribution businesses are well positioned to reap the benefits of this revolution, given the high volume of transactions they support and the breadth and complexity of both their product and customer portfolios. The pricing capability is critically important in […]
Why Africa’s Industrialization Won’t Look Like China’s
16/09/2019
eyegelb/Getty Images China designed and executed a policy that shrank the industrialization process in a mere 25 years — something that many economies took at least a century to do. That redesign has brought immense dislocation in global commerce and industry, enabling China to become one of the world’s leading economies. China’s success has led […]
When Should You Fire Your Child from the Family Business?
31/07/2019
Tetra Images/Getty Images For years Charles dreamed of working side by side with his son, James, in the family business, a thriving manufacturing company that his father had founded and he had grown. Since James joined the business straight out of college, both men assumed he would eventually take over. But things hadn’t turned out […]
The next startup cities that will transform the global economy | World Economic Forum
29/07/2019
During the past decade, much of the discussion about start-up ecosystems has been centered on the question of which city or region will become “the next Silicon Valley”. Although there are several places with promising growth trajectories, we frankly think this view is short-sided. It implies there needs to be a new champion overshadowing the […]
How traditional companies can launch new businesses that ensure their survival
22/07/2019
The list of long-established companies that have been disrupted by fast-moving, tech-enabled powerhouses gets longer by the day. Facing pressure from younger, more innovative challengers, many incumbent companies in the energy sector are also reinventing themselves through a dual effort to digitize their legacy businesses and create new enterprises. Indeed, McKinsey research shows that top-performing […]
5 Signs That Your Family Business Might Have an Ethics Problem
25/06/2019
Sunny/Getty Images When he was attending his grandfather’s funeral, Robert Pasin, the CEO of Radio Flyer, was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection and respect for the family patriarch, who had originally founded the third generation family business, which manufactures toys. “All these people who worked in the factory, all these suppliers, they told me […]
The journey to an agile organization
24/06/2019
Agility is catching fire, and there is growing recognition of its transformational benefits. But moving to an agile operating model is tough, especially for established companies. There are several paths to agility and many different starting points, yet successful agile transformations all share the common elements described in this paper. Agile organizations are different. Traditional […]
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
20/06/2019
michellealbert/Getty Images A number of health systems have scored impressive gains in improving outcomes and patient satisfaction and lower costs by applying the Toyota Production System (TPS) to redesign “lean” clinical and administrative processes, eliminating waste and boosting quality. But in all too many cases, when the leader who championed TPS left his or her […]
Britain’s constitutional time-bomb – The next to blow
19/06/2019
BRITONS PRIDE themselves on their “unwritten” constitution. America, France and Germany need rules to be set down in black and white. In the Mother of Parliaments democracy has blossomed for over 300 years without coups, revolution or civil war, Irish independence aside. Its politics are governed by an evolving set of traditions, conventions and laws […]
Scaling Culture in Fast-Growing Companies
13/06/2019
Tim Robberts/Getty Images Over the past few years, there has been a marked increase in hypergrowth companies across the globe. First coined by Alexander V. Izosimov in the Harvard Business Review in 2008, “hypergrowth” refers to the steep part of the S-curve, where industries and firms grow at an explosive pace. Businesses rapidly expand, company valuation […]
What Makes People Upgrade Products? Thinking About Self-Improvement
14/05/2019
Cultura RM Exclusive/Rob Prideaux/Getty Images From upgrading mobile phones to trading in cars, consumers often face the decision of whether to buy new versions of products they already own. As marketers know, product improvement is a key driver of consumers’ decision to upgrade—the greater the improvement between the previous and new iPhone, the more likely […]
How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation
13/04/2019
In a recent strategy meeting we attended with the leaders of a Fortune-500 company, the word “culture” came up 27 times in 90 minutes. Business leaders believe a strong organizational culture is critical to success, yet culture tends to feel like some magic force that few know how to control. So most executives manage it […]
A Theoretical Physicist (and Entrepreneur) on Why Companies Stop Innovating
26/03/2019
Safi Bahcall, a former biotech CEO, began his career as a theoretical physicist before joining the business world. He compares the moment that innovative companies become complacent ones to a glass of water freezing, becoming ice. The elements are the same, but the structure of the company has changed. Bahcall offers ways for growing companies […]
Trade is not a weapon. Lets not use it as one…
08/03/2019
For decades, trade has been the number one way for countries around the world to peacefully co-develop, build ties and produce wealth, and it has been enormously successful at that. Globalization has enabled billions of people to become part of a global trading system and to be lifted out of poverty. And trade has reduced, […]
How Big a Problem Is It That a Few Shareholders Own Stock in So Many Competing Companies?
01/03/2019
Richard Drury/Getty Images Many critics claim that anti-trust enforcement has dangerously weakened since the 1980s, often citing the dominance of the tech giants as evidence of this. They argue that any benefit gained from Google’s free services or Amazon’s low prices is outweighed by their chokehold on suppliers, their possession of mountains of personal data, and […]
Neuroscience Is Going to Change How Businesses Understand Their Customers
16/02/2019
ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images A Fortune 100 automotive company is exploring a new technology on the periphery of their core business. The executives in charge believe they have struck on a possible breakthrough, but as they push the project into uncertain terrain, their traditional signposts for decision-making are no longer relevant in this new […]
It’s time for small businesses to get serious about Brexit
06/02/2019
You might be enthralled or appalled by the Westminster shenanigans; you might be a leaver, remainer or remoaner; you might predict we’ll have no deal, the withdrawal agreement much as currently agreed, a second referendum, or we’ll go full circle and be welcomed back by Brussels with open arms. But, as we get towards the […]
How Brussels should respond to Britain’s confused demands – Over to EU
03/02/2019
THERESA MAY has become so used to losing votes in the House of Commons that when, on January 29th, the prime minister got MPs to back her on a motion regarding her Brexit deal, it was treated as a breakthrough. “She did it!” announced one front page the next morning. Another hailed “Theresa’s triumph”. Alas, […]
Not Enough Companies Are Ready for Brexit, No Matter What Happens Next
01/02/2019
paul mansfield photography/Getty Images. In the eyes of businesses, the UK has come to resemble an emerging market. Our multinational clients are raising concerns around political volatility, consistent market uncertainty, an unpredictable and fluctuating currency, and supply chain issues – often the top concerns they have when it comes to investing in emerging economies. […]
Business ideas for 2019: Personal health apps medical apps
25/01/2019
Smartphone apps for healthcare are giving people the power to take control of their health without resorting to a trip to the doctor. As well as saving money and democratising healthcare, these apps are lifting the burden on our overstretched NHS. ORCHA – a live database of independent app reviews – has identified more than […]
What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand For?
09/01/2019
Idea in Brief The Problem A clear corporate brand identity provides direction and purpose, enhances the standing of products, aids in recruiting and retention, and helps protect a firm’s reputation in times of trouble. But many companies struggle to define their brands. The Tool The corporate brand identity matrix can address that problem by guiding […]
How the Geography of Startups and Innovation Is Changing
16/12/2018
Jakal Pan/Getty Images We’re used to thinking of high-tech innovation and startups as generated and clustered predominantly in fertile U.S. ecosystems, such as Silicon Valley, Seattle, and New York. But as with so many aspects of American economic ingenuity, high-tech startups have now truly gone global. The past decade or so has seen the dramatic […]
How to promote your business | Social media secrets and more
14/12/2018
A small business usually means a small budget, especially where promotion is concerned. Time, money and resource are all limited, so dreams of a marketing campaign big enough to rival the John Lewis Christmas advert often stay as just that – dreams. However, this doesn’t mean that small business’ marketing can’t be super effective. For […]
Using Experiments to Launch New Products
08/12/2018
Martyn Goddard/Getty Images More than ever before, managers are using large-scale randomized controlled trials (i.e., experiments) to guide decisions. This has led to impressive gains for organizations ranging from Amazon to the UK government. We are excited about the rise of experiments in organizations and have spent much of the past few years thinking about […]
Why Unequivocal Trust Is The Highest Honor A Brand Can Receive
06/12/2018
According to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, the USA is facing a 37-point aggregate drop in trust across all institutions. We’re living through increasingly polarizing times. Neutral ground and indifferent opinions are few and far between in a landscape that seems to encourage us to feel strongly about things at every turn. Fire up Twitter […]
Sovereign venture capitalism: at a crossroad
05/12/2018
What the Iron Man-like character is claiming for his futuristic automotive company is not unheard of. On a systemic basis, mammoth institutional investment—especially from sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)—is flowing into start-ups and technology-oriented publicly traded companies. In this case, Saudi billions would help Mr Musk escape the pressures of being publicly listed. SWFs have invested […]
The best preparation for digital transformation: an open mind
03/12/2018
When Thomas Edison built the first commercial electricity generators in New York and London in the 1880s, businesses were surprisingly slow to adopt this miraculous new energy source. Their factories were designed around steam power, and few could see the benefits of the new paradigm. Those that did were reportedly disappointed with the results. This, […]
We Need to Talk More About Mental Health at Work
27/11/2018
Sabine Scheckel/Getty Images Alyssa Mastromonaco is no stranger to tough conversations: she served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations under President Obama, was an executive at Vice and A&E, and is Senior Advisor and spokesperson at NARAL Pro-Choice America. So when Mastromonaco switched to a new antidepressant, she decided to tell her […]
5 ways investors can address the climate challenge
23/11/2018
Attempts to tackle climate change need funding – a lot of it. It will take an estimated $6-7 trillion per year over the next 15 years to solve climate change and to meet the other UN Sustainable Development Goals. That’s a big funding gap. Fortunately, one sector in particular is well placed to bridge that […]
Research: Self-Disruption Can Hurt the Companies That Need It the Most
22/11/2018
Fuse/Getty Images When innovations threaten to disrupt an industry by replacing an old business model with a new one, incumbents need to invest in that model in order to survive. That’s the conventional wisdom, and it’s given rise to popular mantra “Disrupt or Be Disrupted.” If you’re dealing with innovations that have led to a […]
How the U.S., the EU, and Japan Are Trying to Rein in China’s State Capitalism
21/11/2018
PM Images/Getty Images On November 12, the United States, European Union, and Japan will submit a package of proposals to the World Trade Organization’s Council on Trade in Goods that would significantly help curb China’s practices of heavily subsidizing its state-owned enterprises. They are also discussing ways to prevent China from forcing Western companies to transfer technology […]
Seven Trends Luxury Retailers Should Get On Board With
21/11/2018
When luxury retail experts gather to discuss the latest industry developments, the conversation typically drifts in the direction of technology. This being the age of multichannel, technology certainly deserves a prominent place in the retail narrative. But too often the focus seems to be on how it impacts corporate infrastructure, organizations and business models. While innovation […]
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving Globalization 4.0
21/11/2018
Globalization and technology are intimately intertwined. The movement of people, goods and ideas is accelerated and broadened by new forms of transport and communication. And technological development is, in turn, enhanced by the diversity of ideas and the increased scale that comes from global reach. During each phase of globalization, technology has played a defining […]
These are the world’s most competitive economies
02/11/2018
How well countries adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will determine whether they ‘thrive’ or ‘stagnate’ and could further divide workforces and increase social tensions, according to the latest version of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. Almost 40 years after its first annual assessment of the global economy, the Forum’s 2018 report […]
How big data can help us fight climate change faster
01/11/2018
By 2030, carbon dioxide emissions caused by humans need to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050, says the report. Remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the atmosphere, for example through reforestation and improved land management. Big data — whether historical or real-time — can […]
Can automation and AI support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals?
31/10/2018
Automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are set to drastically change society, promising extraordinary benefits including increased productivity and improved public services. Automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are set to drastically change society, promising extraordinary benefits including increased productivity and improved public […]
Research Shows Immigrants Help Businesses Grow. Here’s Why.
30/10/2018
Fernando Trabanco Fotografía/Getty Images It has been well documented that immigrants contribute disproportionately to entrepreneurship. This is true both in the United States, where they represent 27.5% of all entrepreneurs but only 13% of the population, and in many other countries around the world. On average, immigrants contribute twice as much to U.S. entrepreneurship as […]
The power of trust and values in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
29/10/2018
Without trust, innovation is impossible. As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, business leaders face a dilemma. How do they leverage the technologies that are driving customer expectations sky high, while people grow skeptical of how organizations are using such technologies? With tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the IoT, organizations can dramatically […]
Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming — Explain Why
27/10/2018
Alan Copson/Getty Images Employees around the world are reporting that big organizational changes are affecting their jobs. From leadership transitions and restructurings, to mergers and acquisitions, to regulatory changes, there seems to be constant unrest in the workforce. But according to one survey of more than half a million U.S. employees, almost one-third […]
7 ways for businesses to capture the youth dividend
26/10/2018
Within every challenge lies an opportunity waiting to be seized. Businesses know this. Today, the world faces an urgent demographic challenge: 1.8 billion young people, between the ages of 10 and 24, are standing at the door of adulthood. Every month, 10 million young people reach working age – ready to begin productive lives. Will […]
How to Gauge the Effectiveness of Employee Wellness Programs
23/10/2018
thenakedsnail/Getty Images Tracking the data on the effectiveness of employee well-being programs can feel like you’re watching a Ping-Pong match. While more than 60% of U.S. businesses offer such programs, research on their effectiveness has been mixed. There are findings that point to positive gains in both cost savings and productivity measures, while other […]
Here’s what young Indians really want from life
22/10/2018
As the fastest growing economy today, India is home to a fifth of the world’s youth. Half of its population of 1.3 billion is below the age of 25, and a quarter is below the age of 14. India’s young population is its most valuable asset and most pressing challenge. It provides India with a […]
Why governments need to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution
19/10/2018
Around the world, the ground appears to be shifting beneath our feet as we hurtle through a period of unnerving change, marked by disturbing weather patterns, xenophobic protectionism, mass migration, failed states, science denial, cyberterrorism, a loss of faith in institutions and many other factors. What’s more, global energy markets are in flux. Supply chains […]
Winning customers & investors biggest challenges for UK start-ups in 2018
15/10/2018
A survey of 500 Startups.co.uk readers, carried out in partnership with business broadband and phone provider Plusnet, has found that a third (34%) of UK small business owners find attracting new customers their biggest challenge, followed by accessing finance (29%). We asked you, our audience of start-ups and small businesses, to share your experiences on […]
Reminder: Customers Care How You Treat Your Employees
13/10/2018
Executive Summary As companies pursue the talent they need for the future, and especially as the average age of U.S. workers continues to rise, some firms may be tempted to use biased talent practices. According to a recent report, for example, IBM has allegedly been systematically firing workers over the age of 40, perhaps to […]
innocent drinks Richard Reed: How to win over investors with a stellar pitch
12/10/2018
Whether you’re looking to get the public to back you, or you want to catch the attention of private investors, if your pitch doesn’t sing then you won’t win. No matter how many times you pitch, dealing with investors can still be a daunting experience. The only thing you can do is present a stellar […]
These 11 questions will help you decide if blockchain is right for your business
08/10/2018
One of the most unique aspects of blockchain is its high number of evangelists – people who believe blockchain can solve everything from global financial inequality, to the provision of ID for refugees, to enabling people to sell their houses without an estate agent. The enthusiasm to (over) promote the technology is also damaging its […]
Is there a new debt crisis on the horizon?
04/10/2018
The US Federal Reserve governor, Jerome Powell, stated in the recent Jackson Hole meetings of global central bankers that the US economy is doing well at present and confirmed the continuation of interest-rate hikes in the foreseeable future. Even though such a stance is probably already priced in by the global financial market and did […]
In focus: The rise of cannabis drinks
02/10/2018
As Canada prepars to legalise cannabis next month, weed is coming into the mainstream, and the drinks industry must decide whether this is a threat to its livelihood or a budding opportunity. “There’s no way to stop this now,” says Spiros Malandrakis, Euromonitor’s senior analyst, about the tidal wave of legalised cannabis sweeping across North […]
Why Companies Are Creating Their Own Coworking Spaces
01/10/2018
Nestled in the Silicon Sentier district of Paris, the Villa Bonne Nouvelle (“House of Good News”), or VBN, initially appears to be another new coworking space. But what sets it apart is that only half of its 60 occupants are freelancers. The remainder work for Orange (née French Telecom), which launched VBN in 2014 to […]
What makes an equity crowdfunding raise successful?
21/09/2018
Decided that equity crowdfunding is the best option for raising funds for your business? With over £400m invested into over 650 campaigns on Seedrs you’ll be in good company. But how do you make sure your campaign stands out and has the best chance of success? The experts at Seedrs have outlined what’s involved: First, […]