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 […]
Leaders need to be optimistic (even when they don’t feel like it)
We’ve had two Christmases now that have been disrupted by surges in coronavirus, which refuses to stick to any sort of script. Yet all this hardship and uncertainty has only reinforced the need for leaders to stay optimistic. People need to believe that their efforts aren’t going to be in vain. They need hope and […]
Your growth checklist for 2022
There is a downside of busyness though, which is that you spend so much time working in the business that you neglect to work on the business. This can be particularly difficult in sectors like hospitality that keep getting plunged into crisis mode, but it’s all the more important as a result. It’s also something […]
5 Christmas books for a thoughtful leader
Leaders, in particular, struggle when everything seems to be a priority, and their family and personal lives can suffer as a result. It may seem difficult to justify reading a book when there’s so much else to do, but for leaders there are few things more important than stretching the mind and seeking out new, […]
What does hybrid working mean for the high street?
If you had to tell the economic story of the early 2020s through one object, you’d be hard pressed to beat a hastily-torn Amazon package. The tech giant posted sales of $332bn in the first nine months of this year alone, meaning it’s now 11 times bigger than it was a decade ago and is […]
Consumer behaviour: Is this the era of mass personalisation?
In this article, we explore the different ways businesses are innovating to meet this demand in retail, hospitality and other consumer sectors, and examine what it takes to do personalisation well. In the history of taste, mass production is an aberration. All other things being equal, consumers have always wanted bespoke products and services that […]
We need to celebrate entrepreneurs – but remember they’re human
In popular culture, they actually have much more in common with footballers, music artists and YouTubers, all of which reflect the ideal of escaping normal life and achieving overnight fame and fortune. At the same time, entrepreneurs are frequently presented as a breed apart, particularly in tech – world-changing stars displaying a superhuman vision and […]
Will consumers pay for sustainability?
So wrote the Guardian – in 2008. People have said they cared about the environment for years, but the truth is it hasn’t led to irresistible commercial pressure to go green. Most of us are still happy to drive gas-guzzling SUVs, eat South American strawberries in January, and jet around the world whenever we get […]
