It’s no secret that retail has had a difficult few years, particularly on the high street. I was therefore interested to read about the clothing brand Hush and its plans to open its first standalone high street stores after 23…
I was recently invited to speak at an insurance industry conference in Birmingham to discuss the importance of driving the service agenda forward. The most striking moment came when I asked the audience what was keeping them up at night…
This week, The Institute published research showing one in three UK consumers (31%) have abandoned an online purchase because they were concerned a website wasn’t genuine. While that’s a sign that scams are no longer just an inconvenience or a…
AI is fast evolving into an existential question for boardrooms. Improving staff productivity and making better use of company resources are undoubtedly critical to future-proofing a business model. And to be clear, I sympathise with business leaders. They now face…
I must admit I was intrigued to come across the Financial Times’ new CEO Performance Ranking this week. The FT’s interactive tool allows you to give different weighting to different aspects of their organisations’ performance to create a new ranking based…
I wanted to reflect on something slightly different this week: journalist Simon English’s commentary on polling, which argues that organisations commission more of it than ever and much of it badly. English is candid about his interest as a pollster…
Two sets of figures caught my eye last week. Recent data from GfK show consumer confidence has risen to its strongest level in two years, while August has seen a boost in services activity according to the latest UK purchasing managers’ index. Taken together,…
Although we have all got used to volatility and unpredictability over the last few years, it feels like this year has been quite exceptional. Geopolitically it has been highly turbulent, mainly due to conflict in the Middle East and the…
Some of you may have seen that The Guardian recently reported on the growing number of pubs, bars, and theatres banning customers from using Meta spyglasses. While I understand there may be certain features and functionalities that make this type of tech useful…
The recent announcement by Andy Burnham last week in a Guardian editorial caught my attention. In it, Burnham vows to tackle companies that lure customers into “fake discounts” or hard-to-cancel subscriptions. There is something in this about the importance of…