Archive
Year: 2019
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Uncharted Waters: Unlocking the Latin American Opportunity
April 2, 2019
Over the past 20 years we have witnessed a series of efforts by British politicians to reinvigorate the once great trade and diplomatic relationship between the UK and the countries in Latin America. But even with repeated attempts to generate bilateral investment, partner on foreign policy and collaborate on development and aid, has anything actually changed? In 2010, the then-Foreign Secretary William Hague delivered a speech at Canning House designed to kick off a new...
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A new era of investor activism, a force for change?
March 19, 2019
Why ESG is the next big thing for shareholder engagement Investor activism is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination, having been personified by the siege antics of 1980s Wall Street caricatures. However, since then, there is growing evidence that shareholder activism has achieved acceptance as a legitimate investment strategy. For years, corporate boards and management have faced the daunting challenge of responding to and fending off threats from shareholder activists. Typically, this describes...
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When Businesses Shout
March 18, 2019
(Phil Riggins, CEO & Founder, Brand Reputation Collective; Inge Wallace, Managing Director, European Association of Communication Directors; Paul Reza Afshar, Head of Purposeful Business, FleishmanHillard Fishburn) At a roundtable we co-hosted with the European Association of Communications Directors, we asked the UK’s leading communications professionals some big questions on purpose. Here's what they had to say... A new era of corporate democracy? The strongest point of consensus for our participants was that purpose can’t be a...
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Reputation in an age of outrage
March 15, 2019
Reputation is increasingly an online phenomenon. That’s not to say reputation is only relevant online, or that it’s wholly built and destroyed online, but rather that it’s now largely mediated online. By this I mean that the choice of focus, the framing and speed of issues and the casting of villains and heroes happens first online, before being hashed out in newspapers, on broadcast and in politics. This is because the media agenda, and subsequently...
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A Summary of the 2019 Spring Statement
March 13, 2019
This lunchtime, Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered his Spring Statement in the Commons. His speech pinpointed the Government’s achievements on growth and jobs while warning about the “cloud of uncertainty” following last night’s Brexit vote, which he said could jeopardise the UK’s economic recovery and exhaust its cash reserves for public services. In summary: Hammond argued that the economy had “defied expectations” and was forecast to grow 1.2% in 2019 – lower than the 1.6%...
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TechMunch: The role FinTech has to play in supporting female entrepreneurs
March 8, 2019
Women account for 27% of the world’s wealth – a statistic shared by Inez Murray, CEO of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, at a panel session during the RFi Global Business Banking Summit just last week. However, she also told us that female entrepreneurs are the most dissatisfied with financial services. Why? From the first-hand experience of Suzanne Brock, founder of Nutriment, it comes down to three key things: education, personalisation and agility. If...
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The Future of UK Foreign Policy: Rebuilding the domestic reputation
March 6, 2019
The reputation of the UK’s future foreign policy can be compared to a professional sports team. Its success will be a result of two things: the tactics and performance on the pitch and the reputation and support it has within the stands. Aside from the challenges posed to the performance on the pitch, which will be explored later in this series, the second challenge for the UK’s future foreign policy is the garnering of domestic...
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Uncharted Waters: The Future of UK Foreign Policy
March 6, 2019
Once the UK departs from the EU, the government will embark on its pursuit of ‘Global Britain’. Whilst the impact upon the UK’s foreign policy will be profound, countless questions about how it will prioritise its roles and responsibilities in the world remain unanswered. The government defined its Global Britain vision as ‘reinvesting in the UK’s relationships, championing the rules-based international order and demonstrating that the UK is open, outward-looking and confident on the world...
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Mobile Digest 2019: Day Four!
March 1, 2019
On the final day of MWC, the pace slackens a little. The painkillers are spent, the foot balm finished and it’s time to think of home. When was the last time you saw your family? It’s all lost in the blur of Las Ramblas and hall after hall after hall of conferences and exhibitors and press conferences. It’s time, maybe, to reflect on some of the conferences and panels during the four days of...
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Employees – the real stars of digital transformation
February 28, 2019
Digital transformation – two words many of us are far too familiar with, yet still sometimes don’t really grasp. The opportunities offered by digital transformation are endless, which can make it challenging to visualise what it means in concrete terms. Although the concept has been around for a few decades, it is still a hot topic discussed by individuals and businesses alike. It has even dominated the agenda of the World Economic Forum over the...