Six months of Off to Lunch...
An update...
It is now six months since I launched Off to Lunch so I wanted to give you an update on how it is going and some forthcoming plans.
Firstly, thank you to you - the subscribers, readers and listeners. When I launched this publication in April I thought there was an opportunity to present business and finance news in a different way, but I couldn’t be sure until I pressed send on the first edition. What has happened since then has been incredible, frankly. Not just in terms of subscriber numbers but the levels of engagement with you all and the stream of brilliant ideas that have arrived in my inbox from readers. So, thank you, not just for reading, but for making it such good fun.
Setting up, running and growing my own publication has been hard work. The easy part has been writing and putting together the newsletter, interviewing business leaders for the podcast and scouring the internet and documents for important or fun stories to share with you. I spent the last 15 years doing similar in my previous roles at the Telegraph, Guardian and Times. What has come less naturally, and probably does to many journalists, is the rest of running a business. This includes marketing and promoting the publication, keeping on top of the finances and accounts, and thinking short-term and long-term at the same time, in terms of content and strategy.
The beauty of running your own business, however, is that you have to learn fast. And over the last six months I feel like I have learned a remarkable amount, not just about the world of business and finance, but how to set-up, run and grow a start-up. I am going to write a piece in the near-future about what I thought I knew about running a business and what I actually know now, because crikey, it will be some piece. One of the most valuable lessons has been about the power of trial and error as a form of innovation. The modern-day mantra of this is Mark Zuckerberg’s famous internal motto at Facebook - “Move fast and break things” - but this is really just a 21st century twist on an entrepreneurial approach that has existed for a long time. For what it’s worth, Zuckerberg seems to be leaning heavily on the “break things” part of this motto at the moment as Meta pours billions of dollars into virtual reality worlds. For more on the importance of trial and error and other useful insights, check out this series on the entrepreneurial spirit in China. Thank you to everyone who has given help and advice along the way, including the chief executives who have been happy to share their own wisdom and experience.
Alongside the newsletter, we now have the Business Studies podcast. This has provided the opportunity to interview fascinating people and share fascinating stories, ones that deserve to be shared and consumed with a wider audience than they were previously. It has been great fun, and there is much more to come in our forthcoming episodes. Again, thank you to you, the audience. The listener and subscriber numbers are well ahead of what was forecast. There have also been some brilliant ideas from listeners about potential guests and questions…
Off to Lunch was launched with a pledge to cover what really matters in business. I said it would try to look long-term rather than short-term, avoid getting caught up in noise, look at solutions rather than just problems, and have a special focus on business news and analysis outside London, stories that just weren’t being told enough.
Six months later, I feel more passionately about the importance of these ambitions than ever. I have spoken to businesses across the UK since Off to Lunch started (literally from Cornwall to Scotland and from Kent to Northern Ireland). Some of these stories I have already shared with you - like the University of Oxford’s spin-outs, the rise of English sparkling wine, an interview with Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands and the debate about Manchester’s HS2 station. Other stories are coming up in the next few weeks and months - there are stories of success, but also stories about areas looking for fresh solutions.
Over the last month-and-a-half, however, the news agenda and Off to Lunch have been dominated by wider events - specifically Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, the reaction in financial markets, the resignation of Truss and the appointment of Rishi Sunak, and what it all means for you.
It has been apparent during this period how much readers have valued Off to Lunch’s approach. Readers have been keen to understand what has actually happened, what actually matters and what it means for them. It has also become clear that people valued Off to Lunch’s approach because you knew where I was coming from. You understand the position and biases I am writing with, namely long-term over short-term, signal over noise, the focus on outside London - what I wrote above and what is on our “about” page here. I take pride in the fact that my analysis straight after the mini-Budget focused on the reaction in financial markets, namely gilt yields. It was headlined “You are going to see this graph alot…” You will probably be aware that some national newspapers and columns had rather different headlines the next day, including those that celebrated “A True Tory Budget” and “Britain back at its boldest”.
On the day of the mini-Budget and the weeks after, it also became clear that another voice that Off to Lunch has is important, and that relates to age and generations. Views on income tax, mortgage rates, the triple-lock pension, energy bills and pay vary dramatically in the UK according to a variety of factors, including age. Kwasi Kwarteng started his infamous mini-Budget speech by saying: “Let me start directly with the issue most worrying the British people – the cost of energy.” But to many people, particularly young people, that just wasn’t true. Many young people were already more worried about mortgage rates than their energy bills before the mini-Budget, and they certainly were afterwards. If you own a flat, higher mortgage rates mean your monthly repayments going up by hundreds of pounds a month, and a lot more than your energy bills. If you rent a flat or live in shared accommodation, then higher monthly repayments mean the prospect of buying a house is delayed for another few years because you can’t afford to raise the money for a deposit and meet the surging repayments. Oh, and your rents were already going up anyway. However, the voice of this generation - my generation - has been often quiet during the last few weeks, certainly compared to older generations, which isn’t surprising given the audience for traditional media.
So, you can expect more from Off to Lunch on helping to understand what is going on in business, finance and markets and why it matters to you. For millennials - those born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s - and Gen Z - the following generation - this will be one of the only places you can find such analysis.
Our weekly publishing schedule will also be changing slightly. The Monday, Friday and Sunday newsletters will remain as they are. As a reminder, Monday’s edition will still be free but you will need to pay to get full access to Friday’s edition and to be sent the Sunday press review. However, from next week, Wednesday’s edition will be replaced by more impromptu newsletter when there is big news or developments that need to be shared and analysed with you. These will be free, at least for now. Finally, podcast episodes will now be launched on Tuesday mornings, not Monday mornings, also starting next week.
These changes mean that your content throughout the week will be better - more in-depth but also more agile. I am excited to share that content with you.
Finally, and this is the financial bit, please do sign-up to become a paying member and support Off to Lunch if you haven’t already. The future of Off to Lunch and Business Studies relies on the continued support of you, the brilliant community that has developed around them. As a reminder, we have packages available for £6-a-month or £50-a-year as well as a founding member status if you want to contribute more. There is also a corporate/group package for bulk sign-ups, which offer a great discount. The price of £6-a-month is less than one pint of beer these days. I hope you agree that is a bargain…
Twitter…
The best way to cover the Twitter story right now seems to be just a livestream of Elon Musk’s tweets. So, here are some of Musk’s tweets since he completed a $44 billion (£38 billion) deal to buy Twitter last week. Musk now describes himself as Twitter Compliant Hotline Operator on his Twitter account…
Musk on plan to charge $8-a-month to have a blue-check, verified account…
Musk suggested $20-a-month at one stage but author Stephen King wasn’t happy about this…
Musk thinks a lot of the criticism about the $8-a-month charge is because people with a blue-check at present like the status it gives them. Musk says the charge is needed to stop fake accounts and bots…
Accounts which have been banned for breaking Twitter’s rules before Musk’s takeover (ie Donald Trump) won’t be reinstated for at least a few weeks…
He isn’t happy with The Guardian’s coverage and criticism of the Twitter takeover (Dominic Cummings retweeted this)…
Other stories that matter…
Despite concerns about levelling up, the north-south divide in UK tech is diminishing, with new investment, jobs and infrastructure emerging (Tech Monitor)
An analysis of the reliability of the UK’s electric vehicle charging network shows that it is a long way from hitting the government’s target of 99 per cent of charging points being available at any time (Fast Charge)
The end of the fax machine is nigh. Ofcom, the telecommunication regulator, has proposed changing the rules so that BT and Kcom no longer have an obligation to provide fax services in the UK (BBC)
Britishvolt has secured funding for another five weeks of operations as the gigafactory project in Blyth battles to secure its future. Staff will take a pay cut, with executives paid nothing for a month (Financial Times)
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group is interested in buying the Coventry Building Society Arena, the home of Coventry City football club and Wasps, the rugby union team (Telegraph)
We wrote in Off to Lunch during the summer about how the legacy of former General Electric boss Jack Welch is being reconsidered on the back of a new book called The Man Who Broke Capitalism. Malcolm Gladwell has now looked at this topic for The New Yorker as part of a review of another book about Welch and GE - Power Failure by William D. Cohan (The New Yorker)
An interesting look at the feasibility and benefits of constructing city-sized buildings. Saudi Arabia has plans to do this, meaning they are no longer just futuristic fantasies (BBC)
Unilever is to offer a four-day working week to staff in Australia after a promising trial in New Zealand (Guardian)
How is Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the owner of Facebook, spending up to $25 billion-a-year on developing its virtual reality metaverse? The answer is that Meta is spending it on 20,000 staff, computer chips from Qualcomm, hardware from China-based Goertek and developing its own artificial intelligence chips (The Information)
Amazon is expanding the music service it offers for Prime members in an attempt to be a genuine alternative to Apple and Spotify. The music catalogue is expanding from 2 million songs to 100 million songs (albeit many of these will only be available as part of playlists or shuffle mode) and the podcast service is also being upgraded. The 100 million songs were previously only available with an extra monthly payment (Tech Crunch)
The secret to the success of sportswear brand Lululemon (market value $42 billion) is not its yoga clothing and leggings. It’s actually that men are obsessed with its trousers (Wall Street Journal)
Thanks for reading. I will be back on Friday. If you enjoy Off to Lunch then please share it with others and spread the word. If this newsletter was shared with you then please sign-up below to become a member, get Off to Lunch sent directly to your inbox, attend our forthcoming events and contribute to the work of Off to Lunch
Best
Graham