By Guy Corbet, Fourteen Forty
Just when you think there isn’t room in the world for another business index, the very smart people at communications agency Portland have created the Total Value Index.
It compares the contribution that individual British businesses (and sectors) make to our world, based on their simple proposition that “value = profit + purpose”.
Is it possible that Dany Cotton, the head of the London Fire Brigade, is so conceited and heartless that she really would do nothing differently if Grenfell played out again?
I don’t know, but I doubt it. It’s hard to believe that anyone could willingly be so crass.
Read More “The Grenfell inquiry illustrates the need for an Apology Act”
Assuming the bill passes the Lords today, we’re set for a 12 December “people v parliament” election. Here’s a quick summary of a few of the current talking points.
Only 43 sleeps until Christmas (election)
After months of building expectations, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally got the snap election he wanted to break the Brexit deadlock. Britain goes to the polls on 12 December, the first December election in nearly 100 years. The election bill is expected to undergo all stages in the House of Lords today. Assuming no peers try and derail it, the date will be confirmed this evening.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, acted unlawfully in proroguing Parliament.
The ruling
The 11 Supreme Court justices were unanimous in their ruling this morning. Lady Hale, the president of the Supreme Court, said therefore that Parliament has effectively not been prorogued.
Boris has come in on a bold Brexit agenda
Winning with a significant majority of Conservative Party members, Boris is gearing up his party and the country up for a no-deal Brexit. The government is on a campaign footing and Tory HQ is being strengthened. All of which suggests Boris and the new cabinet are preparing for a potential general election in the Autumn.
“Weak Links?”
In 1973 Stanford Professor Mark Granovetter’s “the strength of weak ties” argued that weak links, between people with different opinions, help new and unfamiliar ideas spread.
Read More “Weak Links #4: democracy, harassment, old age, authenticity”
By Rebecca Lowe, former director, Freer
It was Cleisthenes who divided Athens into voting districts, and Alexander Hamilton who wrote 51 of the Federalist Papers.
It was Jean-Paul Marat who died in the bath, and Charles I who lost his head.
Read More “Why democracy: taking political rights seriously”
By Marc Sidwell, former head of personal finance, The Daily Telegraph
The evidence is mounting that you can think yourself old. The good news is that it also works the other way around. In the 1980s, Ellen Langer of Harvard ran an eccentric study on a group of pensioners.
Langer rented a New Hampshire monastery and prepared it by removing all mirrors and installing photos of her subjects when they were young, along with decor, music and other cultural ephemera from the late 1950s.
By Sylvia Sage, programme director at Corporate Learning Solutions
It has only recently become clear just how widespread workplace discrimination, bullying and harassment are in the UK.
Since the birth of the #metoo movement, we have seen a string of organisations, business leaders and whole sectors come under fire for inappropriate treatment of staff. From Google and Amnesty International to the NHS and Westminster, few sectors are immune.
Read More “How to tackle workplace discrimination, bullying and harassment”
By James Boyd-Wallis, director, Fourteen Forty
In the age of post-truth and a lack of trust in business and the media, consumers and clients want companies and their leaders to be genuine or “authentic”.
Brands and CEOs that seem real are often better at building connections and engagement. They see a benefit on the bottom line.
