By Gareth Streeter, Fourteen Forty
Writers of “2021 predictions” lists have indulged the temptation to be both dramatic and definitive. And they all follow one clear narrative. Covid will depart. It will leave behind it a world that is forever changed.
But does the available evidence bear this out? Or have some of our would-be futurologists over-egged the pudding?
Read More “Five 2021 predictions to ignore (or at least take with a pinch of salt)”
By James Boyd-Wallis, Fourteen Forty
New business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng MP is on paper one of the most pro-free enterprise ministers to run the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in years.
Read More “What business wants to see from the new business secretary”
The vaccine is enabling politicians, business and the public to contemplate a return to normal. But, as the Chancellor says, “the economic emergency is just beginning”.
So, how can businesses and brands adapt to and benefit from the changes in consumer behaviour? What should they do to prepare their people and their workplaces for the return? How can we tackle late payments for good?
We hope you enjoy this edition of Weak Links and we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
By Alex Smith, managing director of The Story
“Everyone needs to eat, so we’ll be fine” – words we have often repeated to comfort ourselves in the dark moments of this year’s crisis while running our small food and drink agency.
By Guy Corbet, Fourteen Forty
Small businesses, not taxpayer handouts and public works, will be at the heart of economic recovery. They will start up, create jobs, build, grow and bristle with vitality.
By Katie Simpson, managing director, corporate affairs and financial, of global recruitment firm Hanson Search
There has been much discussion about how the business world, will change following Covid. There is a wide consensus that when we return to normal, we, well…won’t. In short, there is now effectively no normal to return to.
By Laura Beaumont, PR manager, at tech firm Infobip
Brands want to develop closer connections with their customers, especially during biggest shopping event of the year.
One way they can do this is to have real-time conversations with customers they want to sell to. This has become known as “conversational commerce”, and it is easy for a business to misjudge it.
Read More “How “conversational commerce” will be on the rise in the run up to Christmas”
The first anniversary of Covid-19 in the UK is drawing close. Businesses have done what they can to survive and now must plan how to bounce back.
But how should firms communicate around these challenges? Is remote working here to stay? How should responsible firms behave?
By Sandra Macleod, Group CEO, Echo Research and Britain’s Most Admired Companies
COVID-19 forced itself on an unsuspecting world with tragic consequences. As global leaders in research on reputation and the drivers of behaviour, we sought to assess the pandemic’s impact on trust and reputation among business leaders and the general public.
Read More “Behaving your way to a more responsible corporate culture”
By Sam Dumitriu, research director, The Entrepreneurs Network
Is remote work a temporary adaptation or will it become the ‘new normal’?
In a recent report, Dr Matt Clancy, an economist specialising in innovation at Iowa State University, argues convincingly that it will be the latter.
