Sainsbury’s hires former Boots boss as retail and operations director September 30, 2016 Supermarket Sainsbury's has hired a veteran of the UK retail sector as its new retail and operations director. The company has appointed former Boots managing director Simon Roberts to the role. Roberts was most recently executive vice president of pharmaceutical retailer Walgreens Boots Alliance and president of Boots in the UK & Ireland. Prior to that, [...]
Speedmailing: Control your email, don’t let it control you September 30, 2016 Email is both the boon and bane of nearly every business, a necessary evil that, left unchecked, can control your day and destabilise your work/life balance. Whether it’s the dread of returning from holiday to a wall of bumf, or the Saturday morning spent checking for important missed messages, not being on top of your email [...]
Computer says no: Women still face an uphill battle to prove their worth in IT September 29, 2016 Women hankering after a career in IT are still struggling to prove their worth, research out today has found. Over half (57 per cent) of the IT directors surveyed by recruitment firm Robert Half said a major barrier to entry for women in the profession was proving their competence. A similar proportion (54 per cent) [...]
Genel Energy boss – and former BP chief exec – Tony Hayward to step down next year September 29, 2016 Genel Energy chairman Tony Hayward, who previously led BP, is rumoured to be stepping down next year. According to Reuters, Hayward has said in closed discussions in recent weeks that he plans to quit his post in the second half of next year. However, a spokesman for the company said today: "Genel Energy is committed to having [...]
Do business leaders need to be likeable to succeed? September 29, 2016 In a pivotal debate during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, Hillary Clinton was told that, unlike her opponent Barack Obama, she was “not likeable”. Obama couldn’t resist a cheeky retort. “You’re likeable… enough”, he said. And the rest is history. Eight years on and little has changed – Clinton still has a likeability problem. She is [...]
Preparing for lift-off: How a Kent-based SME became an export powerhouse September 29, 2016 For a small, family-owned firm based in Kent, Cajero certainly punches above its weight. Founded in 1992, it sits at the heart of the supply chains of some of the world’s biggest aerospace companies, its main line of business the design and manufacture of the cutting tools used to construct the parts of airplanes. “In very [...]
Fundraising is more beneficial to your business than you think September 28, 2016 Fundraising in the workplace is an excellent way to engage staff, build relationships, generate positive PR and boost morale among colleagues. However, the benefits of a proper commitment to corporate fundraising can go further than this, and offer many institutional, HR and commercial benefits. In every business I have run, I place great importance on [...]
Too many young people are wasting their time by studying poor degrees at university September 27, 2016 It’s an exciting time of the year for many young people, with some setting off to university for the first time and others starting to polish their applications for next year. Good news if you have been accepted to read economics at Cambridge, say, or business studies at Oxford. A survey by the Sunday Times shows [...]
Augmented reality: How your business card will soon become a presentation in your pocket September 27, 2016 It's not difficult to imagine how Snapchat’s newly-unveiled video-recording glasses – Spectacles – could lead to models featuring full-blown augmented reality (AR) lenses. Indeed, in his book The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that will Shape our Future, Wired founder Kevin Kelly paints a picture of the world in 30 years’ time: we’ll be [...]