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☆ A CEO's apology is a make-or-break moment. Here's how to do it right.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When a CEO or company messes up and trust is broken, the apology must be done right. Trust is the everyday currency of business, PwC's Wes Bricker says. CEOs must be aware that the way they apologize is just as important as the words "I'm sorry." In recent years, a corporation's or CEO's apology has taken on greater significance because customers and employees are often quick to demand that leaders take ownership and show transparency around their actions. Sucher said CEOs were receptive to a framework on how to apologize because "everyone messes up at times."

☆ UK train strikes will disrupt return to work this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Britain’s largest transport union, RMT, said workers will strike on January 3, 4, 6 and 7. The rail strikes will make city centers “ghost towns” for another week, Nicholls said. “The sector has struggled to recover from Covid and these protracted rail strikes since May have made that bounce back much tougher,” she added. According to PwC, the average British worker’s pay in 2023 is expected to fall back to 2006 levels once inflation is taken into account. In a statement, Network Rail said that the RMT strike was “unnecessary and deeply damaging” to the railway and the economy.

☆ Trust is the currency that CEOs need to be using to build their businesses, PwC exec says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Leaders can't expect to inspire transformation and change without trust, a PwC exec says. CEOs and leaders should be using trust daily to build teams and business strategies, as well as to connect with clients, Bricker said. In PwC's survey, 87% of business executives said they thought consumers had a high level of trust in their business, but only 30% of consumers said they did. Leaders can't expect to inspire transformation and change without it. "Trust comes first, and it's what gives us all as business leaders the right to solve important problems," he said.

☆ UK wages next year will be at their lowest level since 2006, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The report confirms that wages have stagnated in Britain even as inflation hits double digits, sparking the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. That’s led to widespread strikes across the UK economy, encompassing railways, schools, nurses, hospitals and the postal service. “Despite a contracting economy, the UK remains an attractive destination for workers,” PwC economist Jake Finney said in a statement. “The rise in inactivity poses serious challenges to the UK economy. PwC’s Kupelian added that UK inflation likely peaked in October and “will gradually begin to return to target over the next two years.”

☆ A weak economy will test consumers' wanderlust, but these stocks could prove resilient in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The U.S. Travel Association anticipates domestic leisure travel demand will hold up, although growth may be a bit slower in 2023. The stock has an average analyst rating of buy and 47% upside to the average price target, according to FactSet. Marriott has an average analyst rating of overweight and 13.5% upside to the average analyst price target, per FactSet. Norwegian has an average analyst rating of overweight and nearly 27% upside to the average analyst price target, while Royal Caribbean has an average analyst rating of overweight and about 24% upside to its average price target. However, Carnival has an average analyst rating of hold and 24% upside to the average price target.

☆ Analysis: Italy's cash payments U-turn is all gain, no pain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Valentina Za | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Italy is scrapping from the draft budget a provision on retailers who refuse card payments that limits fines to transactions worth more than 60 euros ($64). A one percentage point increase in the use of cash leads to a 0.8-1.8 percentage point rise in undeclared value added tax (VAT), Italy's central bank found. "The government's U-turn on card payments marks a victory for consumers and the country," Italian consumer group Unione Nazionale Consumatori President Massimiliano Dona said. Nearly 73% of respondents in a 2022 survey by The European House-Ambrosetti's Cashless Society wished to reduce cash payments to improve speed and security, up from 60% in 2020. To defend the plan, the government has criticised the cost of digital payments saying cafe owners can hardly accept cards for 1.1 euro a cup espressos.

From almost nothing five years ago, the institutional residential property market has grown to the point where investors say housing is starting to challenge office buildings as a focus for their cash. And higher yields and scope for growth are spurring new projects, market players say. "We are currently surprised ourselves by the speed of the change and how the market is changing," he told Reuters. "Many institutional investors are looking to gain the first mover advantage and moving in," Wysokińska-Kuzdra told Reuters. The war in Ukraine has also created uncertainty, so that some investors are focused only on finishing current projects.

☆ A couple in their 20s who turned a side hustle into a business that brings in up to $19,000 a month share the 3 strategies they used to increase their income
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Entrepreneurs Steph Gordon and Den Mathu have managed to increase their income consistently. Start by with your current job: Can you negotiate a raise or land a higher salary with a different company? He and Gordon started their joint side hustle, which has evolved into a full-time business, in 2019. Mathu was working as a consultant at Deloitte, while Gordon was working in HR at PricewaterhouseCoopers. That way, they'll have more time and energy to spend on growing their company and revenue streams even more.

☆ DC United owner Jason Levien accused by MLS team's former top lawyer of dodging millions in taxes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jason Levien is CEO of DC United and owns part of Swansea City and the Brisbane Bullets. Levien denied wrongdoing and said he filed New York taxes. The lawsuit was brought by Christopher Deubert, who until last year was the top lawyer for Levien's DC United soccer club. In a statement shared with Insider, Jon Bouker, a lawyer for Levien, said his client paid all the taxes he owed and filed taxes in New York, contrary to Deubert's claims. December 14, 2022: This story has been updated to include comments from Levien's lawyer and a person close to Levien.

☆ Leading through change is one of the hardest challenges for CEOs — and one they must get right, PwC US Chair Tim Ryan says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Josée Rose | Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

PwC's US chair, Tim Ryan, said leading through change was the toughest challenge for CEOs. Ryan said the "war for talent isn't going away" and urged leaders to focus on the future. "What every company is trying to do is to get their people to do things differently," Ryan told Insider. Did all the things work the way they're supposed to?" Several companies have brought back CEOs to lead through turmoil because there's a "desperate need to reframe management," Ryan said.

☆ What the pro-business tax agenda is chasing in a changing Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Cheryl Winokur Munk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Main Street could find itself stuck in gridlock next year in terms of advancing pro-business tax objectives. For House Republicans, legislative priorities are likely to include extending business-friendly provisions of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by the Trump Administration in 2017. Even so, a divided Congress means that major pro-business legislative changes will be difficult to enact. Rather, tax and policy professionals expect House Republicans to focus on a number of positioning moves next year — ones that will establish their pro-business agenda ahead of the 2024 presidential election. "There are a host of provisions in the tax code that businesses would like to see changed or revised," said Rochelle Hodes, a principal in Crowe's Washington National Tax office.

☆ PwC invests $140 mln in China tourist hub for learning centre
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HONG KONG, Dec 10 (Reuters) - PwC said on Saturday it plans to invest more than 1 billion yuan ($140 million) to establish an education and innovation centre China's island province of Hainan, a tourism hub. The Reimagine Park project, to occupy 16 acres in Sanya in the Chinese southern province, is due to open in 2025. "I have absolutely no doubt the China market will rebound," Raymund Chao, chairman of PwC Asia Pacific and China, told Reuters, after Beijing this week eased many of the nation's strict COVID-19 curbs. The accounting and consulting firm partners with business schools such as INSEAD and Thunderbird School of Global Management to provide learning and training opportunities at the park for executives in the business community, it said. ($1 = 6.9559 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Half of US employers are planning layoffs. Here's how to start 'career cushioning' so that you aren't screwed if you lose your job.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Shana Lebowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It helps to be prepared — to "career cushion" — so you're not blindsided if you lose your job. Start by updating your LinkedIn profile, networking more creatively, and thinking about your goals. Knowing you're prepared for whatever comes next can help mitigate some of that terror. Update your social-media profilesHeitmann said the first — and potentially easiest — thing to do is update your LinkedIn profile. "It's always helped me to really think through how to be prepared," Heitmann said.

☆ A strong China open for 'Avatar' lays the ground for a film stock rally, Morgan Stanley says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Chinese audiences appear eager to see Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water," according to initial ticket sales ahead of the film's Dec. 16 opening. In 2009, China accounted for only $910 million in ticket sales, but 10 years later its box office receipts swelled to $8 billion. Stage set for box office recovery Morgan Stanley's Xu expects China's box office to rebound 50% in 2023, to Rmb51 billion, with the assumption that China's reopening gains momentum in the spring. In China, there is a "rich slate of blockbuster films" ready to come to theaters, Xu said. With this in mind, Xu raised her price targets for IMAX China, Ali Pictures, Wanda Film , Enlight and China Film.

☆ These 20 companies are hiring a ton of tech workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Career site Indeed put together a list with recent job posting data of the places hiring tech job seekers. Deloitte ranked at the top — with 1,774 new tech job postings per 1 million based on Indeed's data. Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Lyft, and other tech companies have recently announced layoffs. "Deloitte as a management and consulting company is doing quite well right now, and they need tech workers," Dobroski said. "They're not traditional tech companies, but they really assist and support and consult so many other companies that are trying to up level their tech presence," Dobroski said about the top three.

☆ One of the best bets in real estate is no longer a sure thing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The sure thing that's no longer a sure thing. But the shine is starting to come off what is considered one of the safest, and smartest, bets in real estate. The two largest single-family rental REITs — Invitation Homes and American Homes for Rent — have recently seen their ratings downgraded by Wall Street analysts, Insider's Alex Nicoll reports. More on the potential deal, which also might have participation from a former Wall Street CEO. If you want to leave Wall Street but don't know where to start, read this.

☆ EY sees other Big Four firms mirroring its proposed split
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Splitting EY into separate accounting and consultancy businesses will help pay rising technology bills and "inevitably" be copied by rival "Big Four" firms, a top EY official told a Reuters Breakingviews podcast. "It was an appropriate time to dust down the work we did before," Baldwin said. Some of the other Big Four firms have said they have no plans to copy EY. Critics caution that splitting the business could see the auditing side suffer in the shadow of what is traditionally more lucrative consulting work. EY says the split will make it easier to raise capital to invest and create two more agile companies.

☆ I quit a stressful 6-figure job as a VP in finance to start a fitness business. It was scary but worth the career change.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Jenna Gyimesi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She began teaching fitness classes on the side and eventually gave up finance altogether. I started coaching fitness classes on the sideI did both finance and fitness for two years before quitting my banking job. I coached fitness classes a couple of nights a week and on the weekends in two different studios. Having this time to focus on fitness without fully leaving finance yet allowed me to transition in the most risk-averse way possible. This actually felt really easy to me because I was spending less naturally.

☆ Why business alliances are a triple-win for your company, partner, and customers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Viu Hub With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Strategic partnerships are one way organizations can expand their offering to drive significant customer satisfaction and engagement. Some well-known examples of successful strategic partnerships include Starbucks and Target. Businesses are looking at strategic partnerships for growth now more than ever. Partnering with another business means you'll be able to reach their clients as well, making strategic partnerships an incredibly effective marketing strategy for both sides. The ability to support the transactional experience, enabling strategic partners to provide their customers with additional value while staying focused on their core business.

☆ Private equity is starting to bet big on the cloud. Here's why firms like Blackstone are making the move.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Like other Wall Street firms upended by the technology, PE firms' motivation to make the move is tied to harnessing the copious amounts of data they manage. GFT works with more than 20 private-equity firms for digital transformation, including a handful of tier-one PE companies, he said. Some PE firms have tried to leverage their scale for pricing discounts among cloud providers, Mahenthiran said. Major cloud providers, like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, have been hungry for more Wall Street market share. That hasn't stopped PE firms from trying to hire out data-science and cloud teams to help front-office researchers find new opportunities and oversee internal cloud infrastructure, Vyas said.

☆ Ben Affleck and Matt Damon just scored $100 million from RedBird Capital. Check out 15 more private equity players making big bets on Hollywood.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Elaine Low | Claire Atkinson | Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Private equity firms are investing heavily in film and TV companies, even amid a possible recession. Private equity accounted for 42% of deals over the last year vs. 24% in 2018, according to PwC. RedBird Capital just invested $100 million in Ben Affeck and Matt Damon's new production company, Artists Equity. And earlier that month, Swedish firm EQT invested in UTA, which makes the private equity player the largest outside shareholder of the talent agency. Insider's second annual list of the top private equity players in Hollywood highlights 16 firms, based on our reporting and conversations with investors and insiders.

☆ Cost-of-living crisis casts shadow over Britain's Black Friday
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( James Davey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Britain's retailers are hoping Black Friday discount day will get shoppers spending, though it takes place against a backdrop of a worsening cost-of-living crisis and the distraction of the soccer World Cup. And they have begun their Christmas shopping early this year to help budget their finances. In France, 70% plan to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to research by PwC France. More than a decade since being brought to the UK by Amazon, Black Friday's worth to retailers still divides opinion. Naysayers argue the discounts suck forward Christmas sales with reduced profits and undermine consumers' willingness to pay full price again before the festivities.

☆ From Apollo to DZ Bank, funds snap up bargains in UK pension scramble
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Nell Mackenzie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File PhotoSummarySummary Companies Pension funds still need to raise cashCredit funds pick up bargains from pension fund salesSome credit funds already sitting on profitsLONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Credit funds at Blackstone, Apollo, DZ Bank and Astra Asset Management picked up bargains from UK pension funds during their scramble for cash, and some say pension schemes are still offloading assets as pressures persist. Hedge funds and private equity firms have taken advantage of the forced sales to snap up deals - including certain portions of collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), securities that pension funds invest in. The credit funds are already sitting on juicy profits on some of these trades. This is because these pension funds must match their portfolios to what they will owe retired members. Even though the markets have calmed, some pension funds are still dealing with the implications," said Mody.

☆ UK retail sales recover only partially as outlook darkens
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Retail sales volumes rose in October by 0.6% month-on-month, following a 1.5% drop in September. The ONS said retail sales volumes remained 0.6% lower than their pre-pandemic level, a reminder of the economic challenge facing finance minister Jeremy Hunt who on Thursday said Britain was in a recession. However, he also announced tax hikes and a more austere approach to public spending to fix the public finances and the country's economic policy reputation after former prime minister Liz Truss's controversial "mini-budget". "There is no question that the retail sector will face unprecedented challenges in 2023," said Lisa Hooker, industry leader for consumer markets at PwC. Britain's biggest supermarket group Tesco (TSCO.L) on Wednesday reported a sharp rise in the number of shoppers looking for "reduced to clear" food.

The valuations of listed financial technology firms have plunged 70% in 2022, analysts at Jefferies Group said in a note last week. The Columbus, Ohio regional bank is scouring for more targets after it bought Torana, a payments fintech, in May. PNC Financial Services Inc (PNC.N) in September bought Linga, a fintech focused on restaurant operations and sales. The slide in fintech valuations coincides with banks earning more from traditional lending businesses as interest rates rise. Fintech deals enable banks to buy new technology or products instead of developing them in-house.

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