Saturday November 9th is the Honourable Lord Mayor's parade in the City of London, where Fiona Woolf of CMS Cameron McKenna will become only the second woman in the institution's 800-year history to don the ceremonial ermine and tricorn.
The origins and traditions of the City of London certainly still ring true today. From its founding under the Romans as a trading post between the island and the rest of the Roman Empire, to its status today as one of the world's leading financial hubs, the City of London has always had a global scope when it comes to outward and inward investment.
Halloween is this week, which means all kinds of tricks, treats, and ghoulish creatures are soon to appear. Arguably one of Halloween's the most iconic characters is Count Dracula, the title character from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel.
This year's annual Chinese Golden Week holiday, where millions of Chinese tourists surge to the world's shopping capitals, naturally saw a large upswing in luxury sales among UK retailers. However, it also shone the spotlight on a missed opportunity for the UK economy, one that the government is looking to correct in time for next year's Golden Week.
Kai Hemmerich and Richard Lewis's new book, Fish Can't See Water, serves as the counter argument to Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. Delving into the successes and failures of various multinationals, the authors argue that even in our highly-globalised world, country differences still matter immensely, and how businesses approach those differences, be it within their customer approach or within the company structure itself, can make or break an organisation.
London Mayor Boris Johnson wrapped up a six day trade mission to China last week, in a bid to encourage investment in the capital. Widely reported as well received, he seemed to charm audiences while promoting the best of British. Here are five things Boris Johnson can teach you before doing business in China:
One of Japan's largest refrigeration companies has been ridiculed on the internet for its new mascot, an egg with wings with the unfortunate moniker "Fukuppy". The firm, Fukushima Industries Corp, a completely unrelated entity from the nuclear plant devastated in 2011, has since removed the mascot from their website and have said they are now looking into renaming it.
Asia's two premier instant messaging applications, both of which come intertwined with numerous social networking features, have their eyes set on the European market. China's WeChat, with roughly 500 million registered users, 100 million of which are outside of China, has made clear its plans to launch in France by the end of the year.
With GDP growth at 1.2 per cent, the British economy is growing at a rate not seen since 2007, a year before the financial crisis crippled economic output. And UK manufacturing, which accounts for 10 per cent of the UK economy, is at the heart of this surge. Manufacturing in the UK has been growing consistently for the last six months.
Last week Manchester City officially launched 10 new language-specific Twitter accounts, enabling them to connect with fans in 160 countries. Fans who speak Traditional Chinese, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai will now be able to read tweets from the club. These new languages follow previous Twitter accounts in English and Arabic.
