Why we need to stop being negative about UK business
The business news that matters.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
Almost every day it feels like there are negative stories about the UK business scene. The everyday battering – yes, I understand the irony of this coming from a media publication – is enough to give anyone a complex about the ecosystem we find ourselves in. However, what does someone not from the UK think about doing business here?
I think that the UK often is too negative about itself. Look, someone that has come to the UK has really made a living here, I love the UK in all the opportunities that it delivers.
That was German-born Oliver Prill, the CEO of the business banking platform Tide. He succeeded the company’s founder George Bevis in 2018 – no easy feat – and has taken it from being a promising business to just shy of the coveted unicorn status. When he took over people doubted that Tide would reach 1 per cent market share; six years later and the bank’s market share is at around 10 per cent.
He continues:
I think in the UK, in terms of doing business, one of the challenges is that there is a lot of negativity. Often in business, it's about confidence and so if you speak long enough about all the things that are wrong, at some stage we believe there must be something wrong…
This conversation took part in the new episode of our podcast and really stuck out to me. As someone who has also immigrated to the UK, I always found the country’s self-deprecation almost charming. But at some point, it becomes detrimental to your psyche.
The reality is that the United Kingdom outperforms most of the world’s countries in terms of income, jobs, education, social connections, safety and life satisfaction. Let’s zoom out even further, shall we?
There’s never been a better time to be alive in the course of human history. Comedian Jimmy Carr on a recent appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast put it so subtly and beautifully into perspective:
"No one had a hot shower until 50 years ago. When you stand in a hot shower, just for a moment, think about the fact that no one that you admire from 100 years ago had this simple pleasure in life..."
Unless you’re allergic to water or a dog allergic to getting clean, “simple pleasure” is the perfect way to sum up a hot shower. It also sparks ideas: in the 2013 book The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, authors Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack talk about how the activity essentially puts your brain into autopilot and allows us to make sense out of chaotic thoughts.
Tangent over.
So please, in a year littered with political jostling, let’s all try to be a little more positive about this great country as a place to do business.
You can listen to the full podcast episode with Oliver Prill on Substack here, Spotify here and Apple here
Other stories that matter…
1. A cyberattack at the head office of Carpetright has seen the retailer’s 400+ stores unable to trade for almost a week. Despite online customers being “largely unaffected”, this shutdown has heavily affected the business with some suppliers claiming not to have been paid. You can read more here.
2. Challenger brand Revolut is looking to increase its global workforce by 40 per cent. The remote-first business has over a third of its workforce based outside London. It came into 2024 with over 8,000 employees, hit 10,000 by the end of March, and says it’s on track to reach its target. You can read more here.
3. A report from PitchBook has pinpointed 300 European businesses that could be ready to float, begging the questions where and when? With the election looming large on our calendars towards the end of the year, The Times’s Katie Prescott breaks down the report’s findings. You can read more here.
4. Women-only co-working spaces are in the spotlight. After hitting the headlines eight years ago against the backdrop of the MeToo movement and Donald Trump's rise to power, Dougal Shaw has looked into the concept and spoken to the people who run and frequent them. You can read the piece here.
5. Spotify has delivered its largest quarterly profit in its history. The streaming giant cut a quarter of its workforce late last year and, while that comes with its challenges, chief executive Daniel Ek is confident in its new direction saying: “It is really a new Spotify you’re seeing, where we are being relentlessly resourceful in all of our costs.“ You can read more here.
And finally…
April is Stress Awareness Month. It’s been held every April since 1992 to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.
Businesses up and down the country have introduced great initiatives to help their team members manage stress. One of these is environmental consultancy Tyler Grange, whose changes have resulted in a 76 per cent drop in absenteeism.
You can read more about this and the stories of other businesses here
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