Procter & Gamble has named 11 British athletes, who are set to compete in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as brand ambassadors for a range of its products, including Gillette, Olay and Ariel, as part of its tier one sponsorship activity. James Murdoch has been re-elected as BSkyB chairman at today's annual general meeting of Sky shareholders, securing 81.2% of the votes cast. John Lewis has won the Marketing Society's Brand of the Year for the second time running, beating competition from brands including British Airways and Foster's. WPP out of home agency Kinetic has appointed Andy Jonesco, the former managing director of BSkyB's online product group, as its chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), replacing Simon Crisp. Müller marketing director Lee Rolston is leaving the company after just over a year in the role, amid swingeing cuts to the dairy-product company's senior management and a shake-up of its UK business. KidsCo, the international children's channel, has announced its managing…
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GEORGE OSBORNE was forced to announce two more years of austerity measures yesterday, after official figures showed the national debt spiralling out of control due to rising unemployment and flagging economic growth. Fitch warned that the UK was now the most indebted triple-A country in the world, with the exception of the US. Fitch added that in the event of further financial shocks, such as a meltdown in the Eurozone, Britain would be unable to retain its triple-A rating without more austerity measures. Osbourne admitted as much when he deliverd his autumn statement to the House of Commons yesterday, warning that if the rest of Europe heads into recession, it may prove hard to avoid one in the UK. Britain's blue chip index rose yesterday, building ontwo straight sessions of gains as strong consumer confidence data from the US offset renewed concerns about the euro zone debt crisis. European shares are set to snap a three-session winning streak today, with financial stocks seen coming under…
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Condé Nast's UK managing director, Nicholas Coleridge, will assume the newly made-up role of president of the publisher's international operations from the start of 2012. Cennydd Roberts, the head of emerging platforms at Clear Channel Outdoor, is leaving the company to join former Ocean Outdoor chief executive Damian Cox at his new outdoor consultancy business, Wildstone. Muller marketing director Lee Rolston is leaving the company after just over a year in the role, amid swingeing cuts to the dairy-product company's senior management and a shake-up of its UK business. KFC has hired Gu marketer Meg Farren as its marketing director of new concepts and strategy. Aviva's chief marketing and communications officer, Amanda Mackenzie, has been unveiled as president of The Marketing Society. Steve Atkinson, the group sales director of Clear Channel Outdoor UK, has resigned from the business after three years. MORGAN STANLEY The company has named Shirish Godbole as the head of its global real estate investment fund in India, the Wall Street bank…
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ITALY and Spain have not asked the International Monetary Fund for any funding despite fears they will need help beyond a European rescue scheme, its boss Christine Lagarde said last night. She called for a swift solution to the crisis and said the IMF can make loans only when governments ask for them, as happened with Portugal, Ireland and Greece. "The IMF has not received any request for assistance from, nor are we negotiating with, either Italy or Spain." ITALY and Belgium saw their debt costs rocket to new records in bond auctions yesterday in an ominous precursor to Rome’s much larger long-dated debt sale this morning. Despite an early market rally due to reports of a bailout plan for Italy, Rome was forced to pay over 7.3% plus inflation to borrow just 567m euros. The UK will fall victim to a second recession, a leading economic forecaster warned yesterday, pushing up unemployment and further damaging George Osborne's hopes that he will be able to…
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Recently, convicted fraudster (this will forever be his moniker), Bernie Madoff, told his interviewer: "I have no decisions to make." He is scheduled to be released in 2139 and he told Barbara Walters; "I know I will die in prison. I lived the last 20 years of my life in fear. Now I have no fear because I’m no longer in control." Perhaps he is on to something. Anxiety can stem from a fear of losing what we have, that the future will not live up to our earlier expectations. Have you ever seen how terrified rich people are about losing their money? Rather than fighting to secure what we want, perhaps it’s easier to just give up and get rid of any sense of doom by eliminating the struggle altogether. This defeatist attitude fits in with a Psychological Science study, which looks at the ways people respond to rules. Their research shows we often respond to restrictions on our behaviour by rationalising the new…
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George Osborne's £5bn gamble to stave off recession. Extra £5bn of capital investment to form centrepiece of national infrastructure programme in chancellor's autumn statement Clive Punter, LinkedIn's global managing director of marketing solutions, has left the business-to-business social media site after just 14 months. Box TV, the joint venture between Channel 4 and Bauer Media, has appointed former Paramount Pictures director Julie Wright as its commercial director, replacing Richard Vivien. Alex Miller, the founder and managing director of Jam, has been promoted to chief executive as part of a restructure of the social media agency's management team. InStyle magazine, the IPC Southbank-owned fashion and beauty title, has named Rita Lewis as its new publishing director, effective 3 January 2012. UNICREDIT SPA UniCredit named Michael Baptista as its global head of research, effective from Dec 1. BNY MELLON BNY Mellon named Susan Traver as president of the company's wealth management office in Washington D.C. Prior to joining, Susan was the regional managing director for Wells Fargo…
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Empowerment and purpose are more important to job satisfaction than pay and perks. I’ve worked in many places and I’ve visited many places of work as an ad agency account director and as a marketing consultant and I can tell the good places to work from the bad very quickly indeed. The difference is tangible. In the good places it’s in the way people look you in the eye, the confidence they have, the sound of laughter and spontaneous fun. In the bad places it’s the slumped shoulders, the nervous glances, and the all pervading sense of fear. Why does it matter? Well, according to Jennifer Robin and Michael Burchell in their book, “The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It, and Why It Matters”, a significant competitive advantage is delivered to the companies which set out to become great places to work. Such companies perform better financially and are better prepared to weather economic downturns, receive more qualified job applications for open positions,…
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Od nowego roku stanowisko głównego ekonomisty PKO BP obejmie po Łukaszu Tarnawie Radosław Bodys. Będzie on również szefem departamentu analiz ekonomicznych banku. Bodys jest obecnie strategiem rynków wschodzących w UBS, gdzie pracuje od czerwca 2010 r. Wcześniej – od sierpnia 2004 do marca 2010 r. – był ekonomistą i strategiem ds. Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej) w Merrill Lynch International Bank, a w okresie styczeń 2000 - sierpień 2004 pełnił taką samą funkcję w JP Morgan. Pierwsze kroki w finansach stawiał w Citigroup, będąc przez rok analitykiem (do lipca 1999 r.). Bodys jest absolwentem SGH na kierunku finanse i bankowość.
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Italy managed to sell all 8bn euros of the six-month government debt it auctioned on Friday, but at almost twice the rate of its previous sale. The country was forced to offer 6.5% interest on its bonds, up from 3.53% in October, a record for this length of bond in the Euro era. Meanwhile rates on Italy’s two-year government bonds climbed to over 7.8% and ten-year bonds were trading at over 7.2%. The climbing rates came in spite of rumoured ECB intervention to purchase bonds before the auction in order to keep the yields down for the sale. The auction came two days after Germany failed to sell all its ten-year bonds offered to investors. THE EUROPEAN FINANCIAL STABILITY FACILITY may insure bonds of troubled countries with guarantees of between 20% and 30% of each issue to be determined in light of market circumstances, according to EFSF guidelines to be considered by finance ministers this week. The insurance would be in the form of tradable…
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Starbucks, the coffee chain, is installing a mobile payment system in the form of an iPhone app into 700 of its outlets across the UK and Ireland, following a successful US roll-out. Maxus has promoted Tim Irwin, its managing director, to the new role of chief operative officer. Clive Punter, LinkedIn's global managing director of marketing solutions, has left the business-to-business social media site after just 14 months. Box TV, the joint venture between Channel 4 and Bauer Media, has appointed former Paramount Pictures director Julie Wright as its commercial director, replacing Richard Vivien. Kevin Hand, the former chairman of Hachette UK, will become the new chairman of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), following Stevie Spring's departure from the PPA board. Publicis London has hired JWT's head of planning, Tony Quinn, as its chief strategy officer. Jane McNeill, one of the co-founders of Agency Republic, is leaving the digital agency she helped to launch 11 years ago. Tullo…
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