The tipping point Written by Michael Robertson, founding partnerNews round-up by Li-Ann Chin, associate23 September 2020 Good morning, I spent the weekend clambering over three Scottish mountains. I go up there to clear my head, but thoughts of a second lockdown and my growing anxiety as a father, a son and a brother weighed almost as heavily as the load on my back. It is often easy for those of …
Rightly or wrongly Written by Katie Stanton, associate partnerEdited by Kevin Pringle, partner21 September 2020 Good morning, American mathematician, Katherine Johnson, said famously: “in math, you’re either right or you’re wrong.” Now, I decided for myself from a young age that maths wasn’t for me. Whether I was born that way or persuaded of it by our …
No place like rented accommodation Written by Katie Stanton, associate partner Edited by Iain Gibson, associate partner 15 September 2020 Good morning, I had the pleasure of a two-hour call with my bank earlier this month in which they explained to me I’d booked an appointment five hours too late to qualify for a 90% mortgage. …
These people don’t exist Written by Katie Stanton, associate partnerEdited by Iain Gibson, associate partner11 September 2020 Good morning, After two weeks spent pickling my insides with slushy strawberry daiquiris and shrivelling under the Croatian sun – I find that sun cream, once applied, determinedly seeks out recesses (eyeballs, belly button, that weird hammock betwixt …
Soft(Bank) Reboot Written by Iain Gibson, associate partner Edited by Kevin Pringle, partner9 September 2020 Good morning, In a room full of princes and serious global power players, those two stood out. It was May 2017 in Riyadh, and the inaugural Saudi-US CEO Forum at the Four Seasons hotel. I was there, in my previous working life, lucky enough …
A cultural reset Written by Li-Ann Chin, associate Edited by David Gaffney, partner7 September 2020 Good morning, In 2017, I had the pleasure of visiting Krabi, a province on southern Thailand’s west coast. The location for the film version of Alex Garland’s novel The Beach, it is the stuff that bucket-lists are made of. And yet, what I remember most vividly is the food, but …
One person’s rubbish… Written by Tom Gillingham, associate partner Edited by Kevin Pringle, partner 3 September 2020 Good morning, Twenty-five years ago today, French-born Iranian-American Pierre Omidyar founded a company called AuctionWeb. Its successful early sale of a broken laser pointer did not indicate the heights the site, later re-christened ‘eBay’, would scale. In becoming a …
The not-so-new “new deal” Written by Scarlett Regan, reseacherEdited by Sabina Kadic-Mackenzie, associate partner1 July 2020 Good morning, Yesterday, from the English market town of Dudley, prime minister Boris Johnson swapped his Downing Street background for an industrial themed one, complete with hard hats and hi-vis vests, as he outlined a “new deal”. He spoke of …
The big reveal Written by Katie Stanton associate partnerEdited by Sabina Kadic-Mackenzie, associate partner18 June 2020 Good morning, This crisis has been nothing if not revelatory. Like a flasher in a trench coat or a sculptor exhibiting some vast mass cloaked in silk; with one swift tug of the drape, the artiste’s spindly fingers expose a reality …
The policymaker’s dilemma Written by Juan Palenzuela, associate Edited by David Gaffney, partner17 June 2020 Good morning, Those familiar with game theory have probably heard about the prisoner’s dilemma. In it, two convicts who cannot communicate with each other are interviewed by the authorities. If both of them cooperate and keep their mouths shut, they will receive …