Business

By Nathan Lee  The Financial Times has introduced a new scheme encouraging young authors to tackle emerging business themes. The Bracken Bower Prize has been launched by the FT alongside McKinsey & Company, organisers of the Business Book of the Year Award, with the aim of unearthing new talent and encouraging writers to research ideas that could fill future business books of the year. A prize of £15,000 will be given for the best book proposal and will be awarded...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic All this talk of the high street demise seems rather perverse walking along the streets of Shoreditch. The pop-up shops selling locally sourced produce and the wealth of arts and crafts ventures that litter the street are a massive f**k off to multinationals, demonstrating that with a bit of intuition local shops can thrive. But even Shoreditch, in all its hipster glory, seems to be changing. At the heart of Shoreditch, arguably...

By Jo Loft, Co-Founder & Client Services Director, Fanatica Social media. Online word of mouth. Web 2.0. Web 3.0. It enabled Cancer Research UK to raise an unprecedented £8m in less than a week. It allowed 3,000 people share the mug shot of a violent criminal in California in two days – because they thought he was good-looking. But, if you’re a business-to-business organisation, so what? Brands need to be top of mind when decision-makers come to make their purchase....

 By David Dumeresque of executive search firm, Tyzack Dynamic entrepreneurial spirit and the daily grind of managing a thriving organisation are both vital ingredients in developing sustainable growth in the early stages of a business. But such skills are rarely found in the same individual. Building a business to a turnover of say £50 million takes a different mind set and approach to innovating and creating a start-up business from scratch. Furthermore, taking it from £50 million to £150 million...

  By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Charity staff are hoping that a new programme will help them to get a head start in improving their services for carers. The new mentoring programme aims to bring business leaders into services for carers so they can use their expertise to help the services to thrive and grow. Leaders in the worlds of industry, pharmaceuticals, nursing, social care and the  public sector are among those who have already joined the programme and volunteered...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The news that Tesco's chief executive Philip Clarke is to leave the retailer in October, has given the business a chance to return to its roots, says a leading academic. The UK supermarket giant said it would miss profit forecasts, leading to the change at the top of the business. He will be replaced by Dave Lewis of Unilever, even though Clarke has insisted he was "not going anywhere.” Mr Clarke, has led the firm...

  By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A senior academic has shown his approval of the CMA’s decision to investigate High Street banks over a lack of competition. The big four High Street banks, which provide 77 per cent of current accounts and 85 per cent of business lending, may ultimately be forced to divest businesses and allow new competitors. Dr Steve McCabe, economist, lecturer and active researcher from Birmingham City University’s Business School, said: “Learning that the Competition and Markets...

  By Simon Middleton of Watershed Entrepreneurs Ask any entrepreneur and they most likely will point to the UK as one of the most entrepreneurially friendly environments in the world. Yet if we look more closely at the figures it is evident that the UK entrepreneurial landscape still needs to be sustainably leveraged. The US alone has seen 900 000 new businesses registered in 2012 against the UK’s 450 000, according to the Young Report in 2012. Scratch the surface and you...

  By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Print and mailing specialists, CFH Docmail, recently announced energy savings of 20% at its main facilities in Radstock, Somerset, and is now busy rolling-out the most energy efficient postal service in the UK. Through Velopost – a local bicycle mail collection and delivery service – CFH Docmail has achieved the UK’s first carbon-neutral postal service, operating in three cities currently, with further expansion planned. The journey to energy-saving has been a long one, but...