Business

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...

by Simon Middleton of Watershed  Bernard Marr, author of Enterprise Performance Expert, recently wrote quite a heated blog outlining why he believes Human Resources departments have had their day. According to Marr, HR departments no longer add value and demean human talent. While his views strongly resonate, there is a sense that he is responding to a view - often perpetuated by HR - that HR has always been the place where the challenge of organisational and personal performance is...

By Tom Lowenstein  Follow @stoopnik Save the Children's annual Christmas Jumper Day aims to 'make the world better with a sweater', but could it be doing more harm than good? People up and down the country will be pulling garish knitted garments over their heads next week, with Friday 13th December the date for Save the Children's now annual 'Christmas Jumper Day'. Much like Jeans for Genes Day, the nationwide event asks people to wear a Christmas Jumper for the...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Watch Shop is symbolic of how evolutionary pressures on the ecommerce market could manifest themselves in the future. It wasn’t until a recent musing on the London Underground that I realised the potential of specialisation on the web. An advert for Watch Shop - a specialised ecommerce store operating within a hugely diverse market - had me pondering how the ecommerce market is likely to look in the future. It seems probable...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Practising exclusivity whilst preaching connectivity is an expensive mistake to make, particularly as competitors start to offer the same level of functionality without mandatory membership to 'the club'. Throughout its lucrative history, Apple has relentlessly raised the technological bar by consumerising software and hardware that has fundamentally changed the fabric of society. Forest Gump and many others have made their fortune from investing in "some fruit company", but as they continue to...

Britain's interpretation of a McDonaldized society. The effects of globalisation will result in the world becoming wedged between a bread bun and cheese-coated garnish - was my cursory understanding of George Ritzer's vision of a McDonaldized society. As panic spread across my face over the cosmological effects of such a bizarre looking planet, I decided to forgo contemporary reading habits and actually open the book – which got me thinking about a few British high street staples, and how they...