The well-known Tennessee whiskey business, Jack Daniel’s, failed in its attempt to oppose a UK trade mark application for the mark “Jack & Victor”. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) ruled in favour of Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan, the creators of the Jack & Victor brand, and said their trade mark application could proceed to registration. Facts Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan are directors of Jack & Victor Ltd…
Financial wellbeing is an important consideration when it comes to managing your money. Ensuring that you’re at ease with your financial position and feel like you have everything under control is a key step. George Howard, one of our Chartered Financial Planners based in Dubai, shares her insights into how to protect and boost your financial wellbeing. What does financial wellbeing mean? Just like many aspects of finance, financial wellbeing…
Regulating our own emotions in stressful situations is difficult enough, but business leaders face the added challenge of attempting to regulate the collective emotions of the groups they lead to guide them toward success. Now, research by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Amit Goldenberg explores how emotions intensify within groups and uncovers ways that leaders can reorient the negative feelings of employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders to help them work…
Many traditional organisations are profit-driven, but we believe that to keep up as the world evolves, businesses need to become more progressive. One of the key characteristics of a progressive organisation is a common purpose and set of values that look beyond just making money. Money is to an organisation what breathing is to every human being. We don’t get out of bed every morning excited to breathe but without…
This is precisely why the US has quickly moved its aircraft carriers into position close to the Israeli theatre of war to prevent the conflict from spreading. It’s also why Poland is rearming and acting as if it were one of NATO’s leading powers. Lastly, it’s the lesson that many Asian countries, chief among them Japan and the Philippines, have drawn from the conflict in Ukraine: to be effective, deterrence…
The consumer products (CP) industry, along with many others, has experienced an evolution in recent years. In our 2023 CP Trends, we note two key trends – defining omnichannel strategy and execution, and implementing digital marketing strategies – which serve as drivers for further growth and innovation in a competitive market. CP companies have a number of avenues to further these trends, stand out from competition, and continue to grow…
In the age of globalization, organizations are evolving into hubs of diversity, uniting individuals with varied cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and perspectives. The process of diverse talents and experiences can lead to innovation and enhanced problem-solving capabilities. However, to harness the full potential of this diversity, organizations must prioritize effective intercultural communication. What is Intercultural Communication? Intercultural communication is the exchange of information and ideas between individuals hailing from diverse cultural…
Mimura, a UC Berkeley staffer and winner of the inaugural Faces of American Innovation award for her role in patenting cancer breakthroughs, shares family history and her own trailblazing journey.
As the echoes of back-to-school bells and the laughter of Halloween fade away, advertisers are gearing up for what is often their grandest event of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday! But as consumers prepare to snag incredible bargains and marketers embark on crafting strategies to attract shoppers, has your business carefully considered the legal aspects that underpin these promotional events? In Canada, price and savings claims are regulated…
In the workplace, dealing with an angry boss is not uncommon. They might get upset for a moment or be consistently frustrated. It can be tough to handle, but if you figure out why it’s happening and find good ways to deal with it, you can make the work situation better. It’s like sailing through rough waters at work when your boss is upset. Maybe they’re stressed or always seem…
Q: How do you relay that kind of information between the hospital and the home? A: That is a critical question, because nothing I described will work at scale without having the appropriate platforms that can exchange information across the care chain. You need a solid foundation before you can build a house. It’s the same with information infrastructure in healthcare, which is still quite fragmented today and which was…
Marketers have long benchmarked their budgets against their peers’ spending. But it’s time to seek better metrics than the average budget. In his 2015 book The End of Average, Todd Rose warns against “averagarians” designing systems based on the mean or judging success in terms of the deviation from the mean. He highlights Gilbert Daniels, an anti-averager hero, whose research in the 1950s led the U.S. Air Force to design…
Last Monday, November 13th was World Kindness Day. As an organization that is focused on building positive and healthy work environments, being kind doesn’t just make us feel warm and fuzzy; it actually helps us achieve awesome results, especially as we’re growing. Think about it: a simple “thank you,” “please,” or “you’re welcome” creates a big impact in communication. And guess what? Science backs this up! Being kind isn’t just…
Consistent daily patterns of exercise and rest can synchronise the local body clocks associated with joints and spine with the brain clock, potentially helping individuals to maintain skeletal health, improve athletic performance and avoid injury, research by University of Manchester scientists has argued. Though the study, published in Nature Communications today (14/11/23) was in mice, the scientists suggest there is a high probability human cartilage and intervertebral discs - which…
To write your girlfriend a poem, GPT-4, an artificial intelligence system, requires orders of magnitude more energy than your brain does. That’s because AI doesn’t really function like the brain. Rather, it runs like all other computer software by flooding microchips with huge quantities of binary signals, in the form of zeros and ones, and gobbling up electricity along the way. Kwabena Boahen, PhD, a professor of bioengineering and of…
Western values are admired around the world, according to the landmark poll of 21 countries, but many nations no longer feel they have to be aligned to just one major power or bloc according to the poll. It reveals countries no longer want to be exclusively tied to a US - or Chinese-led group, pointing to a fragmentation of established power blocs. However, significant numbers in many of the nations…
The IMF in collaboration with University of Oxford researchers today [15 Nov] launched 'PortWatch', a new online portal a platform to monitor and simulate trade disruptions due to climate extremes and other shocks. Using satellite-based vessel data and big data analytics, the platform will help policymakers, analysts, and other public stakeholders assess the impact of disruptions to maritime trade. Users can simulate the potential indirect spillover effects of port disruptions…
From the start-up hubs in Copenhagen through the industrial strongholds of Antwerp to the thriving metropolis of Hamburg, European entrepreneurs in the SME segment face a relentless challenge: adapting to sudden societal and economic shifts. And for the past years, this is what they have been doing continuously. But how do they look at the future? We recently conducted a comprehensive study which has unveiled a sense of confidence and…
As part of its recent Net Neutrality Review, the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is adopting a more pragmatic approach to zero-rating – the practice of excluding certain content from users’ data usage limits. Graham Johnson considers the implications and whether other regulators are likely to follow Ofcom’s lead. ‘Zero-rating’ became a hot topic around 2015, when awareness spread among communications regulators that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could distinguish between different…
Underwriting Understood vbois November 9, 2023
Lessons from a lifetime career of branding excellence - David Martin has been leading businesses through brand evolution for more than four decades, and much of this experience has focused on mergers and acquisitions. At a time when the vast majority of mergers do not fulfil their potential, David shares his insight into what makes for lasting success when two companies come together. I’ve seen the same story play out…
As a finance specialist, Harvard Business School Professor Lauren Cohen works to understand the dynamics that make businesses thrive. In his recent research on family companies, he has found one common thread among successful firms: They actively support their employees’ mental health. One of Cohen’s recent case studies spotlights Zak Pym Williams, the son of the late comedian Robin Williams, who is spreading awareness about mental illness after struggles following…
Financial literacy is skill which many parents and grandparents are keen to nurture in their children and grandchildren. With social media now a key route for young people to access information – including researching money and finance – it’s helpful to look at the role it can play. Stuart McCulloch, our Senior Executive Officer in the Middle East, explores whether social media is helping young people become more informed when…
As many charity trustees may be aware, the week of 13 -17 November 2023 is the Charities Regulatory Authority’s “Charity Trustees’ Week” with an increased focus on the roles and responsibilities of charity trustees. With that in mind, in this briefing we are flagging a few key areas that charity trustees should bear in mind when considering their legal duties under Irish law. These duties can arise under the governing…
Despite today’s constantly evolving economic environment, many organisations continue to operate the same way as they have been doing for hundreds of years. Our consultants have seen this “business as usual” approach cause a variety of business challenges across strategy and vision, organisational structure, and working methods. So what is a “traditional” organisation and what business challenges does it create? Many traditional command and control organisations have a profit motive…
The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. As an associate professor at Harvard Business School and cofounder of the Customer Intelligence Lab at the school’s Digital Data Design Institute, Ayelet Israeli’s work is focused on how data and technology can inform marketing…
PLANO, Texas (October 31, 2023)―Today, Lexus announced a new collaboration with acclaimed Dutch solar designer Marjan van Aubel to create a vibrant, sun-powered installation within the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) sculpture garden. Inspired by the new and advanced LF-ZC Lexus Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) Concept car and jointly realized with spatial experience design studio Random Studio, the interactive installation will elevate Lexus and van Aubel's investment in…
Overturning the decision of the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court held that on the facts of the case, the delivery drivers were properly categorised by Revenue as employees and not as independent contractors as was contended for by Domino’s Pizza. Mutuality of Obligation – Not a Defining Feature of Employment Contract Importantly, the Supreme Court rejected the contention that “mutuality of obligation” was a prerequisite for concluding that a…
More people than ever are in a job or are looking for one – labour force participation in the euro area is at an all-time high. This week, The ECB Blog looks at who the new workers are and discusses changes in labour force demographics over the last two decades. By Clémence Berson and Vasco Botelho The euro area labour market is in pretty good shape despite the recent economic…
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions in June 2023, universities have been grappling with their admissions protocols and law firms and other private sector entities have been facing lawsuits over pipeline and DEI programs. Stanford Law Professor Ralph Richard Banks According to Ralph Richard Banks (BA ’87, MA ’87), the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law at Stanford Law School…
Historically, it’s been tough to quantify the success of events, presentations, and speeches. We’ve long known that the spoken word is a powerful tool for influence and action, but how do you measure that power? When many organizations flipped from in-person to virtual and hybrid meetings and events, presentation analytics became a whole new ballgame. Speakers used to measure impact largely by surveying people and reading the literal room. While…
On May 16 of 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, did something that no tech CEO had ever done before. He implored the US government to regulate his industry. One member seemed to speak for the rest in saying "The time for self-regulation is over. It's time we legislate to hold you accountable." Could he be right? Today on Cold Call, we welcome senior lecturer, Jesse Shapiro, and special…
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan delivered a sharp warning to the technology industry in a speech at Stanford on Thursday: Antitrust enforcers are watching what you do in the race to profit from artificial intelligence. “Much is uncertain about what the future of this technology will look like,” said Khan. “But the FTC has made clear that there is no exemption from the [antitrust] laws on the books. The…
With the increasing availability of health information, there has been a rise in demand for at-home diagnostics companies that enable individuals to test their own samples and receive results without visiting a healthcare provider. This raises concerns about the data and privacy of consumer health information. At-home diagnostics testing handles highly sensitive personal and biological data that necessitates proper regulations and policies in place to protect patient privacy. As such, at-home…
It’s been an eventful year in the world of generative music. In April, the first viral AI cover dropped: ghostwriter’s “Heart on My Sleeve,” which woke up the music world to the fact that AI content could not only exist, but could be good. Soon after, Google unveiled MusicLM, a text-to-music tool that generates songs from a basic prompt; Paul McCartney used AI to extract John Lennon’s voice for a…
UK regulators set out their approach to innovation in payments, money and money-like instruments. This paper explains how UK authorities’ current and proposed regulatory regimes will interact and it should be read in conjunction with the respective discussion papers from the Bank and FCA as well as PRA’s letter to bank Chief Executive Officers.
For the first time in a while, I recently delivered a short, in-person talk, entitled “Lessons Learned from Becoming a Product-led Organisation.” The contents comprised an introduction into what it means to be Product-led, why we should aspire to be more Product-led, selecting a starting point and 5 key learnings from my experience of scaling a Product-led approach (a future feature, perhaps?) All this, smooshed into a whirlwind 25-minute timebox.…
Seeking a programming gig? Wear glasses and keep your laptop in frame if you want your profile picture to attract recruiters on hiring platforms. A new study finds freelancers are more likely to land work when they “look the part” for a particular job. But, as companies increasingly tap into online platforms to hire freelancers, the old saying that looks can be deceiving still rings true. Faced with myriad candidates…
Dr Lord, a senior researcher in food system economics with Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, found nearly 75% of the hidden costs were associated with poor dietary patterns that lead to obesity and lifestyle diseases – which, in turn, will lead to near-term and long-term productivity losses. This was particularly stark in high-income countries. Unhealthy dietary patterns represented more than 80% of the hidden costs in wealthier nations. But poverty, climate…
The researchers analysed 246 recordings of doctor-patient conversations and found that subtle aspects of communication, like word choice and tone of voice, influenced patient outcomes and suggests training providers on compassionate communication could aid weight loss efforts. The research comes at a time when obesity treatment guidelines encourage doctors to discuss weight loss with patients and offer them referrals to weight loss services if appropriate. Yet, on a yearly basis,…