Listen this week for an entertaining 30-minute look at the most interesting technology and science stories from the last seven days, with Wired.co.uk’s Nate Lanxon, Olivia Solon and Liat Clark.
This week:
Top stories
1) Comet-bound spacecraft Rosetta wakes up from hibernation
2) Injecting genes into the eye improves eyesight, could treat blindness one day
3) Google developing ‘smart’ contact lens to monitor blood sugar levels for diabetics
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur” – Red Adair
By Marc Cohen, Director at ConSol Partners
A growing business depends on being able to attract the best talent in their industry to contribute to their future. But often overlooked, both by growing business and those looking to maintain their present scale, is the importance of retaining and motivating the people who you’ve worked hard to get through your doors. The consequences of high staff churn can be devastating, with money lost in productivity, increased recruitment and selection costs, wasted investment in training and a legacy of demoralization and disruption in the team.
This is particularly important in the technology/digital industries, where innovation, consistency and longevity are imperative for staying ahead of the ever evolving competition. In this modern age we are always online, and employees or prospective hires are constantly tantalised by new and exciting opportunities. As an employer you compete with this on a daily basis whether you know it or not. A recent survey by a UK employment website* yielded these figures…
• 70% of employees are either actively searching for or open to a new opportunity
• 69% say searching for new opportunities is part of their regular routine
• 30% search for new jobs on a weekly basis
Take one of our biggest clients, tech giant Cisco. In a recent interview with HR Grapevine, CEO Phil Turner expressed that talent should be the primary priority for technology firms. So how do you go about hiring the best people available, and keeping them happy?
Listen this week for an entertaining 30-minute look at the most interesting technology and science stories from the last seven days, with Wired.co.uk’s Olivia Solon, Liat Clark and Katie Collins
This week:
Top stories
1) Sudanese volunteers are printing £60 limbs in six hours for local amputees
2) Study: we cheat in video games because we assume everyone else does
3) Digital rights groups team up for day of action against NSA surveillance
4) Study: ‘clumsy’ emperor penguins climb vast ice shelves to breed
However, English law can be minefield!
Richard Goold (@gooldrichard), Corporate Partner and Co-Chair of the Tech team at Wragge and Co explains why.
In this four part blog, I’m going to look at the following areas that US companies need to take into account when coming to the UK:
– Part 1: initial considerations
– Part 2: subsidiary or “branch”?
– Part 3: employment law issues
– Part 4: data protection and IP
Part 1: Initial Considerations
In the last 12 months the UK has seen a notable uptick in the number of US headquartered corporations that are coming to the UK for the first time to access the European market (the world’s largest single market, with over 500 million consumers) in general but, specifically, to engage with the enormously dynamic Tech cluster around Silicon Roundabout and beyond.
Listen this week for an entertaining 30-minute look at the most interesting technology and science stories from the last seven days, with Wired.co.uk’s Nate Lanxon, Olivia Solon, Liat Clark and Katie Collins
Top stories
1) Nick d’Aloisio announces Summly-inspired News Digest app at Yahoo’s CES keynote
2) Google+ app monitors your video calls and tells you what to say
3) Electronic tongue knows its Merlot from its Pinot Noir, tells you when to harvest
4) CES special report from Nate Lanxon
Discussion stories
1) Met Office to launch round-the-clock space weather forecasting service
2) Facebook sued for scanning ‘private’ messages for profit
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To find out more about available office property in the Silicon Roundabout area contact Kushner here.
Brian Bell in ‘The Wired World in 2014’ says “Younger consumers…have proven more comfortable with sharing toys, cars,movies and dresses, and are impatient with inefficient models of consumerism….instead of purchasing physical media that may ultimately end up in a landfill,consumers can pay a subscription to Spotify and get instant access to a digital music collection millions of songs strong…..ownership will become something more special and significant,itself a change that will provide fascinating opportunities for business..”
We asked 6 leading entrepreneurs if they agreed?
Justo Hidalgo
Co Founder, 24 symbols
www.24symbols.com
The global aspect of any digital business and the flexibility of digital ecommerce provide unprecedented opportunities for new ventures and business models. But these same advantages also mean first comers have the opportunity of coping entire markets by themselves if they execute well enough. Finding niches becomes increasingly difficult as the bigger companies learn to manage the digital adoption life cycle. But they exist and new ones are created as user needs and technologies evolve over time!
Finland has rightfully collected heavy buzz for its gaming industry. The disruptive effects of the ever-expanding Angry Birds machine, and the groundbreaking mobile gaming attack by Supercell has suddenly, and finally, made even the skeptics realise that, yes, gaming is a real business and that the level of talent in Finland is shockingly good. It has been ignored for much too long.
Gaming is not alone in being heavily impacted by this odd, Nordic country. Linux, another Finnish creation, powers more computers (I’m including phones here) than any other operating system kernel in the world. Nokia, before its recent downfall, defined, and largely created, the explosion of mobile.
Bernadette Coleman
CEO of Advice Interactive Group
www.adviceinteractivegroup.com
Great ideas are born everyday, however, not every great idea is going to make you money. The secret to identifying a great “money-making” idea, in my opinion, is having the ability to analyze current & previous management experience to ensure the idea will utilize the lessons learned from that experience. I have found that the best and most profitable business opportunities tend to be those with a passionate owner and team. Good entrepreneurs tend to be visionaries. So, as an entrepreneur, you should devise your vision (idea) and surround yourself with the right team to bring the vision to fruition…a team of experienced entrepreneurs who can see a trend or a potential market for a product and turn a vision into a reality.
As a British chap myself, I’ve actually spent the better part of a decade building an incredible business in New York City. I felt the itch to expand internationally many times but knew that with “going global” came many unique challenges.
On top of the operational issues firmly sits the need to reach a certain scale and as an enterprise software player that’s meant helping to cultivate the SaaS ecosystem around Sailthru, carefully building and supporting each of our clients as they grow their businesses, and being a vocal advocate for the value and direction of personalized marketing communications.
