Fear of failure won’t stop the risk-takers
Plus, pension funds renew attack on London Stock Exchange, new “titans of Wall Street” Jane Street under the microscope and Budget looming over jobs market
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Business Thinker
Deep dives on business and leadership
😱 Fear of failure won’t stop the risk-takers
Risk-taking is essential for innovation and growth. From medical trials to entrepreneurial ventures, calculated risks can lead to breakthroughs, as seen with companies including Novo Nordisk and Wizz Air. While risk brings the possibility of failure, it also opens the door to progress and long-term success. Understanding what’s possible often comes from taking chances and learning from failure, making risk an important driver in business, sports and beyond.
☕ Caffeine may be just the exercise booster you need – as long as you don’t overdo it, say experts
Caffeine and exercise make an excellent pair for performance enhancement, according to experts. Research suggests that caffeine, whether from coffee or supplements, can boost workout efficiency by improving energy levels and lowering perceived effort. However, it’s important to be mindful of proper dosing and individual tolerance, as some people may experience side effects like anxiety or insomnia. With the right approach, incorporating caffeine into your fitness routine can help you work out longer and harder – just be sure to listen to your body and find what works best for you.
Business Question
Guess the year
- Flight-search company Skyscanner was acquired by Chinese online travel giant Ctrip for £1.4bn
- Martin Shkreli, Panama Papers and Pokemon Go were in the news a lot
- BHS filed for administration
- SoftBank bought British darling Arm
The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.
Business Agenda
A summary of the most important business news
1. Growing concern about what the government could announce in the Budget on tax increases and workers’ rights means that businesses have put hiring on hold, according to a survey by KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. More here.
2. Dovid Efune, the owner of the American newspaper the New York Sun, is close to a deal to buy The Telegraph. More from the Financial Times here.
3. Richemont, the luxury brand, has agreed to sell online fashion business Yoox Net-A-Porter. Richemont is going to book a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds on Yox Net-A-Porter. The buyer is Mytheresa, the German company. More from Bloomberg here.
4. A collection of local authority pension funds have warned the London Stock Exchange not to lower boardroom standards in an attempt to attract more companies to list in the UK. More from The Times here.
5. The Financial Times has done a fascinating piece on Jane Street, the Wall Street trading firm that has become extraordinarily profitable and was also where Sam Bankman-Fried worked before setting up FTX. “The amount of money they make is almost obscene,” one analyst says. You can read the piece here.
Business Quote
Inspiration from leaders
“Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.”
– Reed Markham
Business Leader
The best of our content
Wear your brand to scale it
Cheeky Panda specialises in eco-friendly household products made from bamboo, with big sellers including toilet paper and kitchen roll. You can find the brand in many major supermarkets.
In the latest instalment of our My CEO Secret video series, we speak to its co-founder and CEO Julie Chen.
The business started as a side hustle in a spare room in 2016. Her B Corp-certified company now employs 35 people, selling its products in more than 25 countries, with a turnover last year of £12m.
Cheeky Panda sources its bamboo products from China, where Chen grew up. She was raised in Fujian province on the southeast coast and then studied in Beijing.
After a period working for Japanese companies in China, she moved to the UK in 2005 to study for a Masters degree. She worked again for Japanese companies in the UK, specialising in commodities and supply chain movements.
However, she also had an entrepreneurial streak. On top of her corporate job, she set up a side hustle, importing trainers from China and selling them online.
In 2016 she and her (now) husband Chris Forbes spotted an opportunity when they visited a bamboo farm in China, seeing it as a renewable natural resource in plentiful supply. They realised they could set up a business importing toilet paper manufactured in China and made from bamboo to the UK targeted at eco-conscious consumers.
Interestingly, Cheeky Panda has achieved its growth without any institutional investment. It sought crowdfunding support at the very outset to raise early capital and buy stock but also to test whether there was demand in the market for the idea, Chen explains.
It has continued to raise capital through crowdfunding. Its latest one with Seedrs in late 2022 raised nearly £1m, offering those who took part some equity in the business.
Chen says her business secret for turning her start-up idea into a multi-million-pound-turnover business is to personally showcase her brand by wearing her company panda hat in a playful way (as you will see in our video).
This has helped her get attention, network and make an impact with potential investors and customers. That is no mean feat in a sector like toilet paper, which is known as a ‘begrudged’ category – one we to buy because it’s a necessity.
“Richard Branson says ‘wear your brand’,” says Chen, “in the early days in order to stand out you have to do something a bit different.”
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And finally…
A lot has been written about the dangers of artificial intelligence and the impact it could have not just on jobs but creativity. Yet a couple of things I’ve read and listened to this week have made me think differently about its impact.
Over on the Financial Times, innovation editor John Thornhill has done a podcast on the film Eno, about the musician Brian Eno. There are 52 quintillion variations of the film, with a different one shown each time it is played. It is, obviously, created by AI but showcase how the technology can help us think differently about creativity and its impact on film-making.
Similarly, a recent piece in The New Yorker has explored what kind of writer chatGPT is. The technology was initially seen as a tool that could be used for plagiarism but students are using it differently, to help them in the writing process by collaborating on formulating and structuring their arguments.
Both are interesting insights into how AI can be used not just to churn out new pieces of work but to help in the creative process. Food for thought.
The answer to today’s Business Question is 2016
