Nearly a century ago John Maynard Keynes, the famous economist, predicted a 15-hour working week by the turn of the 21st century. Depressingly, the TUC found more than 1.4 million people in the UK were working seven days a week and the average work-related hours folks engage in to close to 60 hours per week. […]
In 1999, we were a stripling high-tech business, just a couple of years old. One of the first digital agencies in the UK (only a handful of those super-early adopters survive to this day). Adaptability has been the key to surviving the greatest and most turbulent period in human history: 1999 vs 2019 News: Was […]
The best way to predict the future is to ensure you’re part of crafting it, or so the saying goes. Everyone dreams about reading the future, getting the right lottery numbers, choosing the ideal partner or job, even avoiding death. But that’s not what we are talking about, we are talking about predicting the upcoming […]
Most in the digital space agree that blockchain-derived technologies are going to become mainstream in the next decade, even those don’t understand how it works (hint: you don’t need to). The beauty of blockchain is that it solves so many of the current challenges facing an automated and globalised society. Anyone who has played with […]
For nearly a decade we’ve been driving down our carbon emissions. We looked to efficiency gains first and, like Forrest Gump, we simply kept going to become a zero carbon company. This entailed a radical re-think if how our business operated, how it consumed resources and how it viewed energy. In less than a decade […]
As someone who watched Apple rise from the ashes 20 years ago, I stand open-mouthed and shaking my head at Apple’s latest launch. Ok, we know they’ve moved on from being a hardware innovator – but if the best they can do is launch an uninspiring magazine subscription service, a funny credit card and a […]
Read More… from Apple stops Innovating – in shock, old-new news conundrum
By Martin Dower, CEO (and beer lover) Even the brightest and best can get it very wrong when it comes to the execution of marketing plans. And we’re not just talking about high-profile, indignation-raising cock-ups that offend members of parliament or outraged special-interest groups. Day to day, companies often make marketing promises that operations cannot […]
Read More… from When marketing trumps operations it can all go wrong
Write that down … and glance at it every time you’re tempted to buy an Android-based Smartphone. This is a brave new world; information obesity and data leakage, a world where our information and privacy is packaged up and traded without our knowledge or permission. We are ruthlessly mined for all our worth. Would you […]
Read More… from Apple is hardware & services. Google is surveillance & advertising.
Twenty years ago we were operating a complex and expensive multi-line phone system. We only had 12 extensions and a handful of lines, but the cost was significant at about £10k per annum. We were not unusual, at the time most businesses operated expensive fixed-line exchanges to route the hundred or thousands of calls executed […]
New Year, new you Or so the mantra goes. 2019 is right around the corner, so here’s a quick update of where we are and what we’re up to: Again freezing our rate-card until at least June 2019. Hiring: we need another world-class copywriter, know anyone? Say goodbye to the paper cheque, forever Make a […]
We’ve all wanted to learn something new, a new skill. Perhaps it’s learning Spanish or chess. Learning the basics of new stuff is pretty straightforward. Mastering it is a different kettle of fish and usually evades us. This is mostly due to the time and commitment required to master a subject as complex as language, […]
Support operates 24×7 over the Christmas and New Year period. But the rest of the company takes a well-deserved break. Since we founded in the late 90’s we’ve always encouraged folks to aim for a great work/life balance, and nothing helps that more than extended holidays, short working weeks and, of course, our now-famous Xtended […]
Read More… from Christmas & New Year 2018 : Working / Support Hours
There is a school of thought that says AI will replace routine jobs, and a lot is made of what we should do with the many millions of low-skilled people who will be made redundant. But this is not what we believe, or have seen to date. AI does indeed bring a set of tools […]
Read More… from AI won’t replace all jobs – but it will de-skill many of them
Say farewell to the humble paper cheque, in reality it’s pretty much died all by itself but, officially, from January 1st 2019 we will no longer issue or accept paper cheques of any kind. Accounts Payable We settle UK standard terms invoices in 7 (seven) days from receipt via electronic payment from our master bank […]
No-one wants a data breach: It’s a gut-wrenching experience filled with dread Let’s be clear; since GDPR in May of this year companies have new found and onerous responsibilities to deal quickly, openly and honestly with any form of data breach. So whilst we might have all done our data audits and updated our privacy […]
In the U.K. we have an ever increasing tax burden – funding our modern-day needs has become increasingly onerous yet we rarely, if ever, celebrate the taxation process. The reverse is often true, tax avoidance is so deeply ingrained in culture that we don’t bat an eyelid at the weird and wonderful tax-dodging scams employed […]
We’ve often reflected on what the important numbers for a business are – and why so many seem to be looking at the wrong stuff. Any good business is a well-oiled machine turning demand into profit into reserves – that bit is not hard to understand, so why is it so many businesses don’t make, […]
Peerless WordPress Support: May 2018 100% client satisfaction, sub 4hr response, and 474 WordPress tickets solved. We also publish the latest support update on Twitter. We are still the only major WordPress Agency in the U.K. to publish independently audited support numbers – underlining our cornerstone commitment to peerless support. This brings the current 100% […]
The world has moved on In the days of cubicles, meeting rooms and fixed office then most shared communication occurred at during meetings. Yuk, we have major issues with “meetings” because: They require folks to be physically in the same place at the same time. That requires coordination, travelling and planning Not everyone contributes to […]
Its time to say farewell to Penny, she joined Connected in 2009 as Acting Head of Social and Content, after a long history in the User Generated Content world – running blog sites, forums and social campaigns for more than 15 years. She’s a heavyweight pro and we’ll really miss her around the place. Born […]
