MBS Inspiration
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The MBS Group
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Made in Britain
I went to see The Iron Lady last week and I feel sure that Meryl Streep is a dead cert for getting Best Actress at the Oscars for her leading role in the film. It’s a remarkable performance and, although it’s an American film, it got me thinking about our heritage and in particular, British manufacturing, which, I hope, is beginning to take off again, particularly in the clothing industry. I am hoping that this is the year that we ‘look behind the label’ and when ‘made in Britain’ becomes not only desirable, but also a reason why we are buying something. Not to get sentimental, but growing up in South Africa we used to wait for visitors to come from England with gifts with the St Michael label from M&S. To us, the label represented everything that stood for British quality. I read recently that Ralph Lauren, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Prada are amongst the luxury fashion houses using our specialist factories for some of their footwear, cashmere and tweeds. Despite this, many factories have closed and, with them, has gone a tradition of authentic craftsmanship.
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A helping hand
I really don’t want to depress you, but the simple fact is that unemployment in the UK has risen to 2.68 million, with almost half that number being 16-24 year-old school and university leavers who have received little guidance on how or where to find work. The stark reality faced by young people today was the backdrop to a dinner my son, David, attended this week, led by one of this country’s most successful and socially aware entrepreneurs. David and 10 other youngsters discussed the difficulties of finding work and the role business can play in helping them do so. Here are some of his thoughts:
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Shopping gets social
I can’t work out if I was completely behind the times and everyone knew about social commerce before I did! Or is it just the new buzz word for 2012? Social media has been spoken about for years now, but it seems that we are seamlessly progressing from using social media as places to talk to friends, to their becoming a new route to market. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg predicted: “If I had to guess, social commerce is next to blow up”. At the moment, 150m people engage with Facebook via external websites every month. If you go onto the Facebook page for Pampers, there is an online shopping basket and I read somewhere that Pampers sells 1,000 nappies an hour this way! Apparently, by 2015, the predicted revenue for the social commerce market will be over US$30bn. It’s a staggering number and, what’s more, there’s no store rent to pay.
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New kid on the box
It’s been hard to miss the UK launch of Netflix this week. Whether you’ve been watching TV, reading the papers or listening to the radio, the publicity has been extensive, to say the least. The offering of just £6 per month for unlimited films and TV episodes, streamed to pretty much whichever device you choose, is also eye catching. But who is this new kid on the block, and how can they possibly hope to succeed in a market dominated by the likes of Amazon’s LOVEFiLM, BBC iPlayer, Virgin Media, BT and Sky?
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Eat fresh!
Always on the look-out for the next best supermarket, I would like to suggest that all CEOs, trading and operations directors of any supermarket the world over hop on the next plane to Cape Town and check out Food Lover’s Market.
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The Portas Review
This week, it was hard to miss the long awaited publication of The Portas Review. In terms of news coverage in the UK, it came a close second to scientists ‘discovering’ a God particle, and, in turn, the meaning of life and the universe. It would be a big ask of Mary Portas to shed a similar amount of enlightenment on the future of our high streets! Having said that, this is a hugely ambitious report, and by it’s very own ambition has been open to harsh critique.
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Who owns the Red Sole?
Last week my colleague Janine and I spent three days in Paris. The brands we met with were on top of the world and did not even seem to have the slightest concern about the downturn or the Euro crisis. Indeed, the luxury market in Paris seems to live in a world of its own. However, there was something ‘everyone’ was talking about – the ongoing dispute between Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Louboutin.
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Maitre d’Art
It’s been a stimulating week for me as I hosted a breakfast with journalist Liz Bolshaw, who writes a great blog for the Financial Times called “Women at the Top”, on the topic of “Who wants to be a CEO in 2012?”. Over the last six months, I have noticed that more and more extremely talented leaders are losing the appetite for working in big, corporate companies. Instead, they are increasingly opting for a blend of non-executive director and part-time roles in more entrepreneurial, fledgling companies in which they can invest and add value with their many years of experience. For some, the demands of the job do not outweigh the considerable benefits.
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Who wants to be a CEO in 2012?
high-profile departures
The day that António Horta-Osório left Lloyds Banking Group for an indefinite leave of absence due to “extreme fatigue”, £1bn was wiped off Lloyds share value. The 47-year old chief executive had been in the post for just seven months.
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Category:
Special Report
Squaring the circle
I love great brands as much as anyone, but I was reminded this week of the unsung heroes amongst our clients – the private label manufacturers.
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Almost is not good enough
With a highly successful career spanning leadership roles at Woolworths South Africa, Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Holt Renfrew in Canada, and Harrods and House of Fraser in the UK, Andrew Jennings has a hard-earned reputation as a leader in the international retail industry. Earlier this year, he took charge of Karstadt, Germany’s leading department store, in what many consider one of the biggest turnaround challenges in European retailing.
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Event: Panel debate
The future audience
On Sunday afternoon I walked into my local cinema foyer and it was almost unrecognisable since my last visit – it’s had a serious revamp. It looks, well, pretty spectacular: things have changed.
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Deli-sh!
I remember the first time I went to New York in the early 80’s and made a trip down to the Lower East Side – a very different place from the one it is now – for a salt beef and pickle sandwich on rye. Authentic and just like the movie, Crossing Delancey, it was run-down, rough, and not altogether safe, but vibrant and alive. What I remember most were the delis, the over-crowded houseware stores and, especially, the men walking down the streets in their furry hats and long frock coats. Fast-forward thirty years to Blandford Street in London this week, and I had to blink to make sure that I was not in New York! On Tuesday, I went to The Deli West One with great excitement to get a sandwich for my lunch. After just five days trading, the queue was snaking around the block and, when news gets out, it’s only going to get longer. It was mostly local business people, but intermingled with them were…. none other than the men in the furry hats and frock coats coming for authentic, kosher, New York deli-style food in Central London.
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The paradox of choice
The former CEO of a FTSE 100 company, and a marketer by background, once recommended me a book called The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz. An interesting (if slightly theoretical) read, it basically says that less choice, rather than more, will make us all happier. This was borne out this week for Jon in my office, who has been struggling to choose between the vast array of hotels in Manhattan – he has a significant wedding anniversary coming up. A quality problem, you may think, but he says that the number, style and differing locations make it tricky to get a once-in-a-lifetime stay perfect – there’s so much pressure not to get it wrong! Meanwhile, overlay this with countless online reviews with completely divergent opinions, even on the same establishment, and Schwartz’s theory holds up pretty well.
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Not 'Finnished' yet
Do you remember when Nokia was the ‘de facto’ mobile of choice? It seems like ages ago, but it is worth remembering that the Finnish brand was once a synonym for ‘mobile phone’ in much the same way Google is for Internet search, Hoover was for vacuum cleaners and Biro for ballpoint pens.
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