Which sectors grew during Covid?
The Covid pandemic affected everyone, but in different ways, with much depending on how exposed an individual business was to lockdown disruption and how able it was to pivot to the new digital reality. Some sectors were nonetheless clearly hit harder than others. Travel and Leisure & Hospitality were both decimated by lockdowns and struggled […]
When will we see levelling up?
Growth Index 2022, revealed just how stark these regional differences are. Of the UK’s 100 most dynamic, rapidly expanding firms, 47 are based in London, with a further 22 in the South East and East of England, between them representing 81% of total sales*. This is despite these areas containing just 35% of the UK […]
Taking advantage of inflation
For companies that are used to calm waters, it can take some getting used to the turbulence, and the constant need to reassess both supplier costs and pricing. Like river rapids, an inflationary economy doesn’t present a steady current. There are eddies and flows – prices for some things rise faster than for others, often […]
Is going public something to celebrate?
So in early 2021 he did what so many founders in his position have done, and listed it. The IPO, set at £5.4bn, was one of the biggest in London in recent years. The shares held their value at first but, beleaguered by short-sellers and press stories suggesting it had been overvalued, they began to […]
Is this now the era of the shared office?
One of the great questions of hybrid working is what happens to all the spare office space if employees work at home half the week. Do businesses just accept their expensive buildings sitting empty several days a week, or sparsely occupied every day? Do they downsize to lower overheads? Or do they take a leaf […]
The problem with cash(less)
Contactless and digital finance are so much quicker and more convenient that old money just isn’t a relevant concept for them. Businesses are starting to respond. It’s not uncommon, particularly since the pandemic, to see shops or restaurants with ‘card only’ signs. There are certain advantages to taking this approach that go beyond the lockdown-era […]
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 […]
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 […]
