Business

By Philip Benton  Vietnam is a country famous for its delicious cuisine, motorbikes and thanks to Top Gear’s Vietnam Special, massive model boats. But perhaps you were unaware that it also plays an instrumental role in producing the world’s second most valuable traded commodity – coffee. A thriving coffee industry has helped to transform an economy, devastated by a 30-year long war, but can coffee sustain the rapid economic growth of Vietnam? An unlikely success story Vietnam is the world’s...

By David Dumeresque of Tyzack Partners The Art of Survival: Adapting to Change in the Digital Era Fifty years ago, Leon Megginson, Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University wrote in the Southwestern Social Science Quarterly: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” What Professor Megginson was referring to, in a business sense, was that those who survive are the...

By Nathan Lee, Finance and Politics Correspondent  Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street rubs salt in the wounds of those most affected by the financial crisis and massages the ego of the bankers who allowed it all to happen.   Five years on from the greatest financial crisis in history and it all seems rather like a pantomime. The mountains of sub-prime debt, spiralling consumerism and fragile economics are staged as the audience screams; IT’S BEHIND YOU! The trouble is, it...

By Carlotta Stephens, Commercial Director, Maine-Tucker As a corporate member of the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) I recently attended an event at the House of Lords on the topic of youth employment. Staggeringly there are nearly one million young people in the UK who are neither in work, training or education. Statistics point to the fact that if you have a gap in your career early on, you are far more likely to have gaps in employment later in life....

By Drew Nicol  The US state of Colorado has taken centre stage for the first controversy of 2014 by declaring the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use. The decision has followed the new trend of a liberalising of attitudes towards cannabis, which began when Uruguay became the first country to legalise the full cycle of cannabis production and use in December 2013.  In the US, the successful launch of this reformed drugs policy has led other states, such as Washington...

Four ways in which the digital stratosphere will be altered by business in 2014. By Adam Walker 1) Businesses will Continue to Ruin Social Media (particularly YouTube) In a similar way to how Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now stuffed full of advertising, the same destiny is awaiting this year’s trending platforms. Vines are already being mass produced by corporations and businesses looking to shove their brand name in your face in all aspects of your online journey. YouTube estimate...

By Valentina Magri Signs of life are stirring from Britain’s labour market after several years of stagnant growth. That’s the conclusion of the latest CBI-Accenture employment trends survey, conducted between September and October 2013. The respondents - senior executives from firms of all sizes and sectors - reported there is light at the end of the tunnel for the jobs market, with 51 per cent of employers expecting their workforce to be larger this year and only 12 per cent...

By Rebecca Doodson, Senior Conduct & Compliance Officer at the Association of Accountancy Technicians (AAT) Allegations of tax avoidance by large companies over the past year have caused outrage from many, not least from small businesses. This outrage is not necessarily unfounded. BBC Business have reported that Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “ approach was firmer… when pursuing small businesses” and seemed to “lose its nerve” when chasing tax from large multinational companies. HMRC have “strongly disputed” these...

By Nathan Lee, Finance and Politics Correspondent Regional economic deficiencies must be solved by business attracting business. Boris Island proposals may have been rejected in the latest Airports Commission report, but London Island remains firmly on the agenda. Above the need for extra airport capacity in the South East, the recent report highlights the extent to which the UK is becoming a two tier economy. Birmingham and Stansted expansions were rejected along with the Mayor’s pie in the sky vision...