Business and Economics

By Cecily Watret International business means becoming accustomed to new languages and the role they play in the corporate environment. Overcoming this language barrier can be quite a daunting task, which is why The Language Factory has created a new infographic focusing on five of the top languages in business and incorporating some interesting facts about the languages and the countries in which they are spoken. To give you a brief overview: German is on the rise in the US of A You...

The number of emails being read on mobile devices has soared, new research has found, with the number of emails read on iPhones doubling in a year. Data from SendGrid has revealed the number of emails read on iPhones doubled in London, with people in Manchester reading five times more emails on theirs. The number of emails opened on Android devices also shot up, increasing by 40 per cent from 2013. That compares to almost stagnant figures recording on Windows...

By Valentina Magri Inequality has been one of the most heated topics of economic debate in 2014 after the great success of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”. The book was awarded the 2014 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize on 11 November 2014. Mr Piketty, who is in China promoting his book, said in the accepting video that “issues about economic wealth and capital and public debt are too important to be left to a...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor In the heart of Soho on Windmill Street, located next to Paul Raymond’s famous Windmill Club and opposite the new Firmdale Hotel, a brand new radio station has evolved and is aiming to revolutionise the air waves in London and beyond. Soho Radio is a street level visible station, broadcasting via a large shop window which is a unique attraction in itself. I met up with Co-founder Dan Gray, 33, whose day job is in music management representing...

Thomson Reuters IP & Science has today revealed that its list of the top 100 most innovative organisations in the world contains no UK companies. The fourth annual Top 100 Global Innovators list has been released today with UK companies nowhere to be seen. The list shows that, while the French economy may have continued its sclerotic performance in 2014, the country is still home to seven of the top 100 innovators, down from 12 in 2013. Germany also outperformed the UK with...

Looking for a new work space, somewhere that is convenient and affordable? Or maybe just somewhere you can put your own stamp on? A converted storage container could be the answer. Space is at a premium in London, and high rents on office space can make it difficult for start-ups and small businesses to find the room they need to grow and thrive. Several organisations in the capital are already using containers to great effect, from Boxpark Shoreditch to the...

This week’s midterm elections in the United States could be decisive for the controversial TTIP, but is Obama running out of time to complete the deal with the European Union? Elsa Buchanan discusses  As voters in the United States flock to the polling stations to define control over the Senate in the mid-term elections, anti-Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) campaigners are holding their breath. A Republican majority win could, counter-intuitively, be a good omen for President Barack Obama’s trade agenda,...

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...