Santander cracks down on hybrid working
Plus, Softbank gives an insight into its investment mindset, John Lewis chair Sharon White: ‘I always ask, what’s the upside?’ and how to not overhire
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Business Agenda
A summary of the most important business news
1. Charlie Mullins, the founder of Pimlico Plumbers, has put his London penthouse up for sale and says he is preparing to leave the UK to avoid being taxed by the new Labour government. This story was initially published over the weekend but continues to cause much debate on social media. You can read his comments via The Telegraph here.
2. The man who oversees SoftBank’s investments in Europe has given an insight into the mindset of the giant Japanese venture capital firm. SoftBank’s investments in Europe include Wayve, which is working on AI technology for vehicles; Revolut, the digital bank; Klarna, the buy-now-pay-later provider; and Graphcore, the chip designer. Sumer Juneja told Sifted: “When you find a few people who are real AI scientists who really want to build true AI – that is a scarce resource.” You can read more here.
3. Santander is cracking down on working from home. The bank has told office-based staff across the UK that they should be in the office three days a week on average, up from two days at present. More here.
4. The author and historian Yuval Noah Harari says in his new book Nexus that it is a mistake to think that more information is better and likely to lead to the truth. Look back at history to see why, he explains, and to understand the impact of artificial intelligence on fact versus fiction. You can read more from The Economist here.
5. From the weekend papers, Lunch with the FT was with Dame Sharon White, the outgoing chairman of the John Lewis Partnership. “It is the end of my five-year term and it’s definitely a ‘phase of life’ thing. It was very much my decision,” she says of stepping down from the retailer. “The business is in a more stable, solid position. And I’m going to take a little bit of time and decide what I’ll do next, probably a mixture of commercial and public service activities.” You can read the interview in full here.
Business Question
Guess the company
- It was founded as Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited in 1919
- Its team has worn over 400 different uniforms since the 1930s
- It employs more than 30,000 people
- It operates in over 200 destinations worldwide
The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.
Business Thinker
Deep dives on business and leadership
When scaling a business, it’s easy to snap up as many talented individuals as you can to take the business to the next level. However, a bloated business doesn’t just cause havoc on your bottom line, it also impacts the morale of existing employees as well. Here are some tips to avoid this happening in your organisation.
In today’s workplace, leaders need to move away from a strict, top-down management style and start acting more like coaches. Companies have spent a lot of time and money on training programmes and new technologies to make this change, but it hasn’t worked well. In this Harvard Business Review article, human behaviour experts suggest a better approach: help leaders turn everyday interactions with their employees into opportunities for coaching.
💄 From running out of gas money to a self-made billionaire at 32: Inside Selena Gomez’s success
In a 2012 interview, Selena Gomez recalled how she and her mum got stuck on the side of the road without enough money for fuel. But according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Gomez is now officially worth $1.3bn. Her three studio albums and two Grammy nominations are nice, but $1.1bn of her wealth has come from her makeup brand Rare Beauty, which she founded just five years ago.
Business Quote
Inspiration from leaders
“The art of communication is the language of leadership.”
– James Humes
Business Leader
The best of our content
💡 Process has its place but what adds real value is setting creativity free
👨🍳 Mastering the recipe for success: Jason Atherton’s entrepreneurial insights
♀️ The infrastructure investment needed for gender equality
And finally…
Wordle took the world by storm in early 2022, with its simple premise attracting millions of players and, eventually, an acquisition by the New York Times. Since then, others have tried to follow suit, some more successful than others.
One which I’ve developed a slight obsession with in recent weeks is Minute Cryptic. I’ve never been any good at cryptic crosswords, I’d like to say because I don’t have the time, but I think it’s mostly because I don’t how to go about solving them.
Enter Minute Cryptic. Again, a simple premise – try to solve one cryptic crossword clue every day. You start out simply, with the clue, but it can give you a hint (which part of the clue is the definition) and letters.
Once you’ve solved the clue – or even better, if you haven’t – there’s an explanation video where the creators explain how to solve it.
Today’s clue is: Risk walk after injuring rear (6).
You can find the puzzles here. I needed two letters to help me get the answer today, let us know how you did!
The answer to today’s Business Question is British Airways.
