Business

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  The platform at Keighley railway station is awash with people. Aromas of sausages, onions and engine steam flavour the crisp autumnal breeze that is atypically mild for this time of year. A new entertainment tent has been erected and an additional bar opened to cater for excessive demand for the town’s beer festival. Here in Yorkshire, like most places across Britain, a beer revolution is under way. I’ve managed to return home...

Ineffective facilities management could be costing UK businesses nearly £1 billion, new research has revealed. A study conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) around 26 per cent of organisations in the UK are still not taking a strategic approach when it comes to facilities management - a business discipline that involves the co-ordination of space, people, resources and property within an organisation. It suggests that those organisations using FM in a strategic capacity could be saving themselves...

While all indicators point to a strong economic recovery in Britain, people still aren’t feeling it. We have paid the price of inequality for recovery with food banks on the rise despite unemployment figures dropping. Simply put, businesses are reluctant to match the cost of living in the UK. Today’s announcement that the Living Wage is set to rise to £7.85 should be a welcomed bit of news, but it’s hard not to feel a little bitter sweet. Although 35,000...

Tesco have been struggling of late. The supermarket that stakes a claim right in the middle of the grocery market has lost out to brands that offer cheaper essential items and competitors that are more appealing for top quality produce. The shift is symbolic of an erosion of the big four supermarket brands - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - which have all experienced turbulence in one of the most lucrative consumer markets. That's why this year's Global Brand Simplicity Index -...

By Philip O'Meara @philipomeara “Oh, no, you’re not a veggie…” Beyond its inconvenience (inconveniencing a friend or eating another mushroom risotto at an unimaginative restaurant), it’s the implication that being vegetarian is an inherently bad – or at least unhinged  – position which has encouraged me to put down my reasoning in a blog post. Disclaimers Before I go any further, I want to put in some disclaimers. The purpose of this is not to preach or moralise in any way –...

By Steve Taggart The call for nominations have just opened for the 43rd Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award. The award, which counts Dame Marjorie Scardino DBE FRSA, Anya Hindmarch MBE and Dame Zaha Hadid DBE as past winners, celebrates the success of business women worldwide who share the same qualities as Madame Clicquot:  Her enterprising spirit, her courage and the determination necessary to accomplish her aims. It is the first international award created specifically to recognise the contribution that women have made...

By Stu Benington, Vice President of the Cloud/SDN Business Unit at Coriant London residents and businesses were recently promised lightning fast mobile internet speeds, when Mayor Boris Johnson vowed to deliver 5G services in the capital by 2020. Johnson claimed the enhanced mobile connection speeds 5G would provide will ensure London becomes ‘the tech capital of Europe’ and further develop the sterling reputation the city is already earning for digital prowess. However, the delivery of this ambitious aim will require...

TLE campaigns to scrap the nominal card charge on card transactions. The next time you’re asked to pay a nominal 50p or £1 charge in a shop, bar and restaurant for using your card, ask yourself why you’re paying it. It may seem inconsequential, but a 50p charge for paying on a card is an excessive and unduly fee. We’ve all felt aggrieved at some point for paying it, but the proliferation of shops passing down the transaction fees charged...

By Jeff Fernandez, co-founder and CEO, Grovo Learning You’d think that with the advance of emerging computer, nano, mobile -- and now yes, even wearable -- technologies, individual productivity would be soaring. Instead, of the more than 200 million adults in the US digital workforce, only one in ten consider themselves ‘very proficient’ with the digital tools they use every day. And research conducted by Adobe shows the flipside of that equation: 58 per cent of employees - despite using a...