Naturally, large and small businesses have innumerate differences in their motivations and capacity to operate. For instance, SMEs commonly benefit from the flexibility imparted by smaller and more focussed teams, with ownership often aligning with management. Conversely, they may have less financial freedom to invest in diversifying or building the kind of economies of scale enjoyed by more established enterprises.
Employees are at greater risk than ever of suffering burnout and employers should consider putting in place preventative and curative measures. For startups in particular it is important to look at tackling burnout in a sustainable way, eradicating the factors and issues before they take hold. Debra Clark, Head of Specialist at Towergate Health & Protection explains.
It’s been a challenging year for all businesses and the startup community has been particularly impacted by ‘unprecedented times’. Kindred opened in 2018 and we had just celebrated our first birthday when the pandemic struck. As an owner of a space centered around community and connectivity, and one that constitutes as a hospitality business, I’ve ridden both personal and professional waves of uncertainty that we’ve experienced throughout the pandemic.
Business festival sTARTUp Day has announced the programme of this year’s hybrid event. The festival brings to the stage over a hundred speakers in the course of two festival days and one side event day. On 25th-27th August, the Estonian National Museum in Tartu will become a meeting place for all the startup-minded people, with performers sharing their experiences on four stages, dozens of practical seminars, sTARTUp Pitching Powered by EstBAN, and many side events.
Fully embedding a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy within a business is more important now than ever, and this applies to startups just as much as to any blue chip. One may be forgiven for thinking that startups have more urgent priorities: securing investment, gaining customers, hiring talent or simply turning a profit, for instance.
As a startup, it’s easy to find yourself admiring a colossal corporation and begin mentally listing all the ways entering into a partnership with it could help you get where you want to be. There’s no doubt that the economies of scale, the vast customer reach, and the global brand reputation of a blue-chip player can help elevate a startup company to another level.
Winning any award is nice, but it means so much more when that award reflects a mission you’ve intentionally set out to accomplish. For our team at Plux X Brighton, that’s what it meant to pick up the prize for Best In-House Workplace Mental Health Awareness Initiative at the inaugural Company Culture Awards in April. The building is also on track to become the first in South East England to achieve WELL Platinum accreditation from Wellspace, global benchmark setters for wellbeing at work.
GEICO, the second-largest auto insurer in the US, is partnering with Tractable to accelerate its auto claim and repair process. Tractable’s proprietary computer vision technology, trained on millions of historical claims, assesses vehicle damage like a human appraiser. Inserting AI into the process, GEICO will be able to accurately review estimates within seconds while also reducing administrative overhead.
ICAS World Ltd (ICAS), a global provider of mental health and employee wellness services has acquired the NHS-commissioned mental health tech startup, Hello Tomo. The acquisition is the first major milestone for ICAS as it rolls out its new global digital health strategy, tapping into the $121bn mental wellness market and expanding its support for the 790 million people around the world currently affected by a mental health condition.
We face a forever-altered landscape of communication and commerce. As a native of Ukraine, I have survived difficult times. As an entrepreneur, I have kept my company alive in the face of war and revolution. And, though the details and depth of our situations differ from day to day and person to person, these steps can offer a port in any storm.
Richard McCall, CEO of Armalytix, believes that despite the post COVID-19 road to recovery, Britain’s army of small businesses face an extremely uncertain six months as the implications of tax deferrals, loans and uncertain growth combine. Richard argues access to up-to-date financial information, made easier by Open Banking will help these businesses maximise the potential upside of the recovery.








