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Business Agenda
A summary of the most important business news
By Sarah Vizard
1. Inflation held steady at 2.2 per cent in August, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of England will keep interest rates unchanged at 5 per cent when it meets tomorrow (19 September). An increase in airfares was offset by lower fuel and restaurant prices, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. You can read more here.
2. Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy in the US, with bosses saying its finances have been “severely impacted” by the economic environment. The company warned last year it was at risk of going bust unless it raised emergency funds. It is now looking for a potential buyer that could “protect its iconic brand and further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company”. You can read more here.
3. The UK has suffered the biggest contraction in its workforce since the 1980s, costing the public finances at least £16bn in lost tax receipts, according to a study by the Institute for Employment Studies. There has been a 1.5 percentage-point decline in the proportion of people aged 16 and over in work or looking for work since the eve of the pandemic – equal to about 800,000 fewer people working. You can read more here.
4. Philip Morris International has sold the UK inhaler company Vectura Group for just £150m to electronics company Molex Asia Holdings after what it calls an “unwarranted” backlash. The tobacco firm bought the company, which makes inhalers to treat lung conditions such as asthma, three years ago for £1bn. But the move was widely criticised and described as “hypocritical”. You can read more here.
5. Guardian Media Group is in talks to sell The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, after an approach from media start-up Tortoise Media. Details of the possible deal are not clear, but Tortoise is understood to be committing an investment of £25m in The Observer in its first five years of ownership. You can read more here.
Business Question
Guess the year
- The first Wimpy opens in the UK
- ITV Studios, Jet filling stations, Rowse Honey and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority are founded
- Roger Bannister becomes the first person to break the four-minute mile
- Archie Norman, Scott McNealy, Annie Lennox and John Travolta are born
The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.
Business Thinker
Deep dives on business and leadership
By Dougal Shaw
Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr Beast, has the biggest YouTube following in the world (more than 316 million people). If you’ve ever heard interviews with him, he’s quite transparent about the techniques and tricks that have helped him to grow. In that spirit, he published a 36-page onboarding document that he gives to new hires. It’s worth a read for the insights it provides into social media empire-building, in all its granular detail.
As he says he spent “basically five years of my life locked in a room studying virality on YouTube” before he got started. One example of his obsessive attention to detailed testing is this: “Is there a correlation between better lighting at the start of the video and less viewer drop off (there is, have good lighting at the start of the video, haha!).”
🎓 Setting up campus in Silicon Valley
Imperial College London is opening its first physical location in the US with a hub in San Francisco. It’s been a trend for UK universities to open branches abroad in recent years, capitalising on the power of their brands to bring in students for teaching. This hub is focused on research and collaboration opportunities and will support spinouts, with an emphasis on areas like quantum computing and cleantech. Imperial already has a hub in Singapore and is planning others in Ghana and India.
Business Quote
Inspiration from leaders
“If you start a conversation with your mind made up, you may as well not bother.”
– Richard Branson
Business Leader
The best of our content
Entrepreneurs don’t predict the future – they create it
The UK economy boasts world-class assets, yet its stock market lags behind its peers, and fewer companies are seeking public capital. Business Leader Expert and founder of Castore Tom Beahon says that to unlock the country’s potential, the government must support entrepreneurs, who are the driving force behind future growth.
Without their vision, passion, and resilience, Britain’s economy risks falling behind. As the UK faces global competition, policymakers must prioritise creating a welcoming environment for risk-takers. With many entrepreneurs considering leaving, the upcoming autumn statement needs to show clear backing for business creators, ensuring prosperity for all.
You can read his thoughts here.
Other popular pieces
🦋 Learning to lead: The woman transforming pension management
🏭 The CEO factory: Why some companies can’t stop producing world-class leaders
And finally…
The feel-good story of Woody O’Rourke has circulated on social media again and it’s a cracker. The photo of him celebrating with Brentford manager Thomas Frank first went viral in 2021, but the story has taken on a life of its own since then.
Here’s an extract from an interview in The Times with Woody’s mother Natalie O’Rourke:
Today Woody’s favourite things in the world are football and his Playmobil figures. When Woody was turned away by a local football training club at the age of five, O’Rourke wrote on her Facebook page: “I feel sorry for the coach because he’ll never know the joy Woody would give him if he was his student …”
By the following morning, the post had been shared hundreds of times and Brentford FC had been in touch to invite Woody to lead the team out before that day’s match. “It was the best day of Woody’s life,” she says. And it was the start of a beautiful relationship with the beautiful game.
When Brentford beat Arsenal 2-0 in August 2021, its head coach, Thomas Frank, spotted Woody in the stands and sprinted over to grab the boy’s hands in celebration. For O’Rourke, it was much more than a moment to celebrate good news: it was a chance to tell the story behind that moment and give an honest account of what life is like when you’re raising a child like Woody, with all of its challenges and rewards.
You can see the clip here.
The answer to today’s Business Question is 1954.
