There’s one thing that bricks and mortar does that digital can’t compete with

The lockdowns of 2020-1 taught us two key lessons about the state of ecommerce and the likely shape of its future. Firstly, we don’t need shops. Non-food stores shut down, but retail itself endured. Most operators were able to pivot – with admirable speed given the circumstances – to conduct their business online. Zara customers […]

What to do while we’re waiting for the sustainability tipping point

If we ruin the Earth… well let’s just say it will play havoc with our long-term return on investment. The challenge is that, while a very large proportion of consumers say they want their products and services to be more sustainable, they’re not yet willing to pay for it, at least not substantially and in […]

Globalisation could go back to the future

Taken individually, each could be seen as a one-off, temporary blow from which the grand economic force of globalisation would recover. Yet taken together, they constitute a formidable and possibly lasting threat. Political populism, which in the West sees globalisation as a devious scheme to outsource jobs, shows no sign of dissipating. America’s stance towards […]

Why fertility is a work issue

We try to bring our whole selves to work, to be authentic and to encourage that authenticity in others. Yet for many that can be easier said than done. One common and too-often-unspoken-about issue is fertility and how a fertility struggle can impact people’s day-to-day lives – particularly women. Smashing the taboo around infertility and […]

The problem with pay rises

Inflation already hit over 5% this year, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine propelled oil and gas prices to yet another level of the stratosphere. Some economists suggest we could see over 8% later in 2022, deepening the cost of living crisis. Naturally this leads to a certain pressure to raise wages. As the Bank […]

How to find entrepreneurial CEOs

It’s vanishingly rare for someone to have the multitudinous aptitudes required to start a business, as well as those required to scale it, as well as those required to lead a mature organisation in all its complexity. Unlike Amazon’s now ex-CEO, most founders of high-growth businesses learn the hard way that radically different situations generally […]

Culture is one of a leader’s greatest responsibilities

When there’s just you and two employees, it’s probably an accurate statement, but as the business grows, the culture inevitably develops a life of its own, beyond the personality and beliefs of the founder. How your culture develops has deep consequences for the company’s future. People are your only source of long-term competitive advantage, but […]

Avoiding the success trap

Indeed, they very often declined or failed to pursue the very same strategies that were responsible for their success in the first place. From Kodak in the face of the digital camera to countless department stores in the face of convenience retail, they kept doing what used to work for them – until it didn’t. […]

Could inflation boost the luxury sector?

While the ‘main event’ of the Covid pandemic is hopefully over, it too has left us with a rubble heap of challenges, like the current cost-of-living crisis. An overheated economy, a tight labour market pushing up wages, supply chain shortages and an extraordinary squeeze in energy prices have pushed inflation to a 30-year high of […]

Q&A: Georgina Whalley, Interim CEO (UK) and Global CMO, Openpay

Late last year, Georgina pivoted again when she became interim CEO of Openpay’s UK operations, adding general management on top of her ongoing CMO responsibilities. She took some time out of her understandably busy schedule to talk to ORESA about leadership, careers and the state of fintech. What does it take to be successful as […]

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We demystify challenges by fresh thinking and seeking continual improvement. Browse our content here.