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Systems Leadership thought piece

At Q5, we constantly challenge ourselves to push the boundaries of what we can achieve with our clients – and with every breakthrough comes new learnings, that we bring back in-house and cross-pollinate across our clients. Our recent work on Systems Leadership has presented a new perspective on organisational design, that could fundamentally reshape how government departments work to operationalise and deliver on policy objectives. Policy is often highly disjointed…

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Nearshoring Common Questions Answered

1. What is nearshore software development? Nearshoring is a model of co-working and using different resources from an organization in a nearby country with lower average wages but highly qualified teams. Typical nearshoring locations in Europe are Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria, among others. Outsourcing and co-working with organisations in countries further away, such as China, India, or the Philippines, is called offshoring. Nearshoring provides solutions for companies that want…

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Bricks, clicks, and the retail landscape for 2023

From the pandemic to inflationary pressures, supply chain struggles, workforce shortages and the cost-of-living crisis, you name it, retailers worldwide have worked through it. Over the last three years, businesses have overcome diverse and unprecedented challenges with reactive, problem-solving attitudes. And while the industry we know and love is overdue for some peace and quiet in 2023, there are still challenges left to navigate. By now we’re all too familiar…

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Limited resources leave school leaders with few options to manage poor behaviour

The findings are from a qualitative study which investigated why more school leaders are not exploring alternative approaches to behaviour management. It argues that resource limitations and other concerns have left teachers feeling trapped within the prevailing system of mounting punishments. Under this, more than a thousand students are excluded, and almost 150,000 suspended every year. Educators interviewed for the study often acknowledged the potential benefits of alternative methods, but…

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Business Not as Usual – Companies Stepping up in Crisis

In February 2023, two devastating earthquakes claimed more than 55,000 lives and affected over 10 million people in Turkey and Syria. Responding to this massive humanitarian crisis is everyone’s business – including private companies. Indeed, after the Turkey-Syria earthquakes, semiconductor technology company ASML matched employee donations made to Turkish NGO Ahbap, and IKEA donated funds through its IKEA Foundation, among other acts of generosity by corporate donors. Such post-disaster responses…

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Early Implications of Generative AI for Private Equity Investors

Generative AI solutions, e.g., Open.AI/Microsoft’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Meta’s LLaMA are a generational leap forward from previous AI tools. While previous generations remain highly effective for their specifically trained tasks, they are otherwise limited to “one-trick-ponies.” Generative AI tools are more versatile and adaptive and capable of performing a wide array of tasks without requiring specific training. These developments will significantly impact private equity investment strategies, portfolio company productivity,…

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The Week in Weed

Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we check in on the move to put adult use on the ballot in Florida. We see that Maryland is working on regulations, as July 1 draws nearer. We note that the FDA is looking at a regulatory framework for CBD. And finally, we note that the Kansas City…

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TOILETPAPER and Samsung – Not what you think

Good design isn’t just about looking good; it can merge form and function, transforming everyday objects into something truly exceptional. In line with this vision, Samsung and TOILETPAPER debuted a collection at Fuorisalone 2023 in April as part of Milan Fashion Week that aimed to redefine the essence of good design. Samsung and TOILETPAPER, the creative studio founded in 2010 by renowned Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari,…

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Build together: Rethinking solar project delivery

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) supports the growth of US renewables at an unprecedented pace. Solar, storage, and onshore wind capacity could reach more than 1,240 gigawatts (GW) over the next decade, growing 2.7 times faster than projected before the IRA took effect (Exhibit 1). The IRA is expected to stimulate domestic manufacturing of modules, subcomponents, inverters, trackers, and more, which could alleviate material shortages that had…

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Governance in the Age of Technological Innovation

Today’s boards can no longer afford to solely prioritise shareholders and maintain an inward-focused approach to business. Instead, they need to consider stakeholders and the wider ecosystem that gives rise to complexities, challenges and also opportunities, said Sonia Tatar, executive director of the INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre (ICGC) at the recent INSEAD Directors Forum. Themed “Governance Complexities in Unprecedented Times”, the forum organised by the ICGC shone a light on the…

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Guidance on Outdoor Workers Exposed to Wildfire Smoke

Seyfarth Synopsis: As Canadian wildfire smoke spreads across the Northern United States, employers should review the CDC/NIOSH guidance on occupational exposure to wildfire smoke and implement effective measures to protect employees.  Canadian forests continue to burn, with about 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) burned at the time of this writing, roughly 15 times the annual average.  At least 100 million Americans have been affected by air quality alerts from the…

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SCOTUS, Dog Poop Jokes, Infringement. Anything else?

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the Ninth Circuit’s opinion that a poop-themed dog toy should be protected as a parody under the First Amendment. SCOTUS ruled today in Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products, Inc. that the right to free expression does not excuse “trademark law’s cardinal sin”—use of another’s trademark “as a trademark.” Although the Court declined to take Jack Daniel’s suggestion that it should completely…

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A useful Guide for Investing in Digital Transformation

Everyone is interested in investing in digital transformation solutions. Leaders want to take their products and services online to provide a frictionless digital customer experience with the added benefit of improving their bottom line.This is the frontier of value creation for businesses, and it is much more than automating current processes behind the guise of digital transformation. The opportunities for digital transformation continue to expand as ground-breaking innovations like cloud technology and artificial intelligence create new options.In this guide, we explore the common misconceptions about digital transformation solutions, review the common pitfalls encountered when choosing a solution, define digital transformation strategy, and explain how to create a digital transformation roadmap.

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How to Use a Customer Journey Map to Measure Success

Does your organization actively measure and report on your customer experience (CX)? Or is your customer experience a vague catchphrase, like “This initiative is critical to the customer experience” or “We are a customer-driven organization?” No one can argue the validity of statements like that. But if you’re like many organizations, you rarely have the necessary tools to accurately analyze the customer journey to back up those customer experience statements with actual data. Historically, customer satisfaction (CSat) and net promoter scores (NPS) are the responsibility of the analytics team, measured every six months. So, how do teams typically collect information on the customer experience? The secret lies in purpose-driven CX with an actionable assessment tool. In this guide, we explore the need for a CX assessment tool, explain how to create a customer journey map, and explain how to measure points along the customer journey.

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Getting Access to the Fast Track for Career Equity

The Research The author conducted the research underlying this article while co-leading Mercer’s Workforce Sciences Institute.i The author analyzed the results of his research team's statistical analyses of three to five years of employee data for 20 large and midsize, mostly global, employers representing manufacturing and services companies in a range of industries, including consumer and industrial products, pharmaceuticals, technology, financial services, and professional services. Collectively, these companies employed over…

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Are you a Scottish taxpayer? Then you should read this

If you spend time in Scotland, it’s useful to check whether you’re there enough to become a Scottish tax resident. And if you’re already a Scottish tax resident you might also need to be aware of the implications on your wealth. Peter Webb, our Head of Tax Advisory, takes a look at some of the nuances of the Scottish tax system. By Peter Webb - Head of Tax Advisory Scotland…

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7 amazing investment tips from the “Oracle of Omaha”

An “oracle” is traditionally somebody who offers advice or delivers a prophecy, often thought to come from divine origins. Stories of legendary oracles like Pythia, who delivered prophecies from the Greek god Apollo, tell of people travelling from far and wide to hear her wisdom. It is perhaps quite fitting then, that Warren Buffett is nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha”. Many investors closely follow the world-famous businessman hoping to learn…

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UK Purchase of residential property

A prospective purchaser of property in the UK will ask what taxes they will encounter. One of the taxes is Stamp Duty Land Tax or shortly known as “SDLT” . You must pay SDLT if you buy a property or land over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland. The tax is different if the property or land is in Scotland or Wales. In July 2020 the UK government…

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Logistics Disruptors Latin America – Fostering trust in e-commerce

Latin America was once considered an e-commerce laggard, full of consumers who were reluctant to buy online. No longer. The region now has one of the fastest-growing e-commerce sectors in the world. The start-up Melonn (founded in Colombia in 2020 by six friends) aims to capitalize on Latin America’s booming cadre of small and medium-size B2C e-commerce companies. But one of the challenges Melonn faces is a deficit of trust:…

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US Strategic Plan 2023: A look into the future of AI

The Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) of the National Science and Technology Council have recently released their latest update to the US Government’s National AI Research and Development (“R&D”) Strategic Plan (the “Plan”). Updated to account for the substantial developments in technology, the Plan sets out a comprehensive blueprint to ensure the US remains at the forefront of the AI industry.   The Plan sets out several strategies that not only…

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FinOps: Building the pillars for success

Implementing FinOps relies on governance, support, and ownership  FinOps uses technology and data to lower the cost of operations in line with the cloud computing model selected by cloud vendors. However, achieving a profitable and efficient optimization model requires more than the basic applications of FinOps optimization actions. Success starts with the people in your organization. We have helped many clients move to the cloud, and we’ve noticed that they…

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Taking Stock and Understanding Consumer Motivations

Consumer engagement is critical for any consumer products company today. Understanding your consumers, their motivations, and their connection to your product is what drives success, and it needs to be a cross-functional effort. In our last episode of Taking Stock, we dove into the concept of consumer engagement – what it is, how it’s evolved over the past years, and what to consider when building an effective consumer engagement strategy.…

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Considerations for Cash Management Policies

Stock issued by a corporation is treated as qualified small business stock (QSBS) only if, among other requirements, at least 80% of its assets (by value) are used by the issuing corporation in the active conduct of one or more “qualified trades or businesses” (the active business requirement) during substantially all of the applicable investor’s holding period for such stock. This requirement has become particularly relevant to many startup and…

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Competition and Markets Authority responds to the UK Government’s AI White Paper

On 1 June, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) issued their response (“Response”) to the UK Government’s (“Government”) AI White Paper (“Paper”) consultation, detailing their considerations on the proposed framework the UK seeks to implement in the regulation of artificial intelligence (“AI”). The CMA’s response is the latest contribution from UK regulators, following the Information Commissioner’s Office own response to the Paper in April 2023. The Response is the…

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What is social media?

A energetic and tightly grouped collection of social media reaction icons including hearts, thumbs up, happy and surprised faces along with comment and texting bubbles and hashtags. You probably already know what social media is. Whether you cringe at the memory of your Myspace page from the early 2000s, keep in touch with your aunt on Facebook, or are regularly unsettled by too-relevant ads on Instagram, few of us are…

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Overseas investors thinking of investing in UK real estate

CAN ANYONE INVEST IN UK REAL ESTATE EVEN WITHOUT A UK PASSPORT? Yes.  Foreign individuals (over the age of 18) and corporate entities (subject to being registered at Companies House) may purchase or invest in UK real estate. WHAT TYPES OF INVESTMENTS CAN BE MADE? There are many ways to invest in UK real estate. Some of the more conventional routes in England and Wales include: Ownership of a legal…

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Open data maturity can help deliver EU’s European Green Deal

  A European Green Deal is one of the six strategic priorities targeted by the European Commission for the years 2019-2024. It aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by becoming a modern, resource-efficient economy. The EC believes that access to data (both open and private) is crucial to this ambition, but just how mature are EU Member States’ open data policies in terms of contributing to the European…

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New York Minimum Wage: Increase for 2024 and Beyond

On May 3, 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation into law increasing New York’s minimum wage for most employees beginning January 1, 2024, through 2026. Enacted as part of the state’s budget legislation, increases to the minimum wage beginning in 2027 and beyond will be indexed to the consumer price index. Below, we’ve outlined what employers should know about this development. Minimum wage increases, 2024 – 2026 The…

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Dr. Heidi Gardner: 6 tips for smarter corporate collaboration

You’ve likely heard collaboration categorized as a “soft skill.” Distinguished Harvard Fellow and award-winning author, Dr. Heidi Gardner, says that’s not true. Dr. Gardner was in Toronto for BLG’s smarter collaboration session, sharing the stage with Patrice Walch-Watson, senior managing director, general counsel and corporate secretary for Canadian Pension Plan Investments; Sandra Perri, senior vice president and general counsel at Sun Life Canada; and Graham Ross, BLG’S chief client officer.…

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Case Study – A Family Investment Company can be a Benefit

Mr Smith has been a client of Dixcart’s for many years and he wants to explore the options available to provide financial help to his children, as they get older and start their careers. The children are all in their teens, with the eldest just about to start university. Mr Smith wants to ensure that they make considered future decisions financially and do not take the opportunity to have a…

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AI is the new nuclear bomb, so, proceed with caution

The current AI revolution is often compared to the industrial revolution, but a more fitting comparison is to the creation of the nuclear bomb, as the Centre for AI Safety recently highlighted: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”. While nuclear fission’s immense power was feared by its inventors (and rightly so) it is now humanity’s strongest hope for reducing…

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3 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty with Conversational Marketing

For many years, brands talked at their customers instead of with them. Marketers told customers what they wanted, rather than asking them what they needed. Advertisers addressed everyone with a single campaign. Thanks to conversational marketing — connecting with customers through personalized, two-way conversations in real time — these “one size fits all” tactics are becoming a thing of the past. Over the past two years, 68% of customers have…

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Delta’s largest-ever trans-Atlantic schedule takes flight

Customers traveling on Delta can take advantage of more than 650 weekly flights across the pond in peak summer, a remarkable 30% increase in the airline's seat capacity compared to 2022. Delta's largest trans-Atlantic schedule ever is officially in full operation, and customers are flocking to idyllic locations like the golden beaches of France's enchanting Cote d'Azur, sun-soaked Mediterranean islands and other vibrant cities brimming with history. Customers traveling on…

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Ask the expert – What is estate planning?

As you accumulate wealth, it is important to consider what would happen to your estate in the event of your death. An estate is defined as everything a person owns when they die, and this can include property, investments, money, and personal possessions. The time to consider your estate isn’t just when retirement is approaching, it is at any age where you have accumulated wealth or possessions. If you are…

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Samsung Launches Filter To Protect Oceans From Laundry Plastics

Samsung Electronics today announced the launch of the new Less Microfiber Filter, an external washing machine filter designed to significantly reduce plastic microfiber emissions during laundry cycles. Designed with inspiration from apparel maker Patagonia and expertise from the global ocean conservation organization Ocean Wise, the filter builds on the success of last year’s Less Microfiber Cycle to substantially cut microplastics and enable sustainable laundry washing that is both effective and effortless.…

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Expanding Meta Verified to India – Legacy Verified Badges Globally

We’re expanding our test of Meta Verified to India after seeing good results from our early testing in several countries globally. We’ll also continue honouring verified badges that were granted previously based on existing criteria.  To help up-and-coming creators grow their presence more quickly on our apps, in February we announced that we’ll begin testing a new offering called Meta Verified. It is a subscription bundle on Instagram and Facebook…

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Learning About Data Is Easier Than You Think

There is arguably nothing more valuable to your company, and central to its success,  than data. According to a 2023 survey, 88% of business leaders are increasing investments in data and artificial intelligence (AI). But only 39% of companies make data training available to all employees. We can help you change that. Learning about data isn’t as hard as you might think. Here, we’ll share some of our best data…

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Empower Your Team and Empower Yourself

In today’s rapidly evolving work environment, professional development is no longer a nice-to-have perk, it’s an imperative. With budget tightening and workforce disruptions such as layoffs affecting many sectors, now is not the time for organizations to eliminate employee professional development and training. Likewise, individuals should continue to upskill regardless of whether organizational resources are plentiful. In this article, we explore ways that executives may approach learning and development (L&D)…

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Customizing solutions with low code – a new strategy for ‘buy or build’?

Generally speaking, when a company needs a new system or solution, they usually have to choose between an off-the-shelf solution (COTS) or building something themselves. And there are pros and cons to both. Out-of-the-box will probably offer most of the functionality you need, but if you need anything tweaked, you are totally dependent on the supplier – and this will cost you. The beauty of custom-built is that you can…

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Navigate the Impact of Inflation – The Retail Industry

Inflation has presented a serious issue for retailers throughout the last year. Increased costs may mean lower profit margins if in-store prices are not raised, but raising prices could push loyal customers away. Sustained high prices are also squeezing shoppers’ wallets as household expenditures rise and customers must prioritize “essential” items like food or gas rather than that new outfit or pair of shoes. This is a dilemma that will…

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