Corporate
Is non-party political decision making really possible?
Craig Naylor, managing director, NTR: “It was great to hear [the shadow Chancellor] say that they are working on a system to reduce the influence of party-political interests in policy making. But at the same time he admitted that political point scoring is getting worse! We can only hope that the aggravation of effecting change is making things worse before they get better. I only know that businesses are tired of the rhetoric. I’m more interested now in seeing what we can do independently as an industry – with customers, suppliers and academia – to create confidence.”
Let the macro message get you moving
Chris Tompson, CEO, Xpresss Group: “I’ve been made aware that we must accelerate our investment plans. Jim O’Neill made it clear that, for wider industry and individual companies, the opportunities are in the BRIC economies – for Xpress the focus is Brazil. But his startling statistics on the rate of growth in the BRICs and how quickly those markets are developing show that we must move faster to gain a meaningful competitive position. We’re doing the right things strategically, but we must do them quicker.
Chris Sullivan, chief executive of the UK Corporate Banking Division at Royal Bank of Scotland stated that the bank “is holding £55bn in SME current account deposits.” He held this up as proof that most companies are not looking for debt and are cautious about re-investing their reserves in an uncertain climate.
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For the second series, filming was moved from Whale Beach in Sydney to Mount Eliza in Victoria, where male and female contestants were kept from view of each other in a beachside mansion. In each episode, three male and three female contestants go on dates.
This series, the final dates have been stepped up a notch, with elaborate sets adding to the spectacle – for viewers, at least. The first final date had a Roman theme, with contestants dressed in togas, sharing a bath and feeding each other grapes.
Such activities play to the show’s twentysomething demographic, Benson says. ”It’s for normal people in their 20s who are single and up for a bit of a laugh,” he says.
Contestants would want to be able to laugh off the experience, particularly if their dates don’t like what they see in the ”light reveal” at the show’s end. It might sound cruel but Benson says contestants know what they’re getting into.
”When we went on the casting tour, we were very honest. We said, ‘It’s very likely that you’ll come on this show, you’ll probably kiss someone and they might think you’re ugly and walk away from you.’ And we say, ‘Are you prepared for that?’ They say, ‘Yes.’ We say, ‘Are you sure?’ They say, ‘Yes.”’
There’s hope yet for the rejected, however. After the first series, love blossomed between two contestants from different episodes who met on the show’s Facebook page.