Articles

As we enter a New Year and the memories of our celebrations begin to fade, we will inevitably look to the 12 months ahead to understand how 2023 shapes in terms of work, holidays and finances. To that end Economists are like everyone else, except we will look ahead to what potential challenges and opportunities await the economy. While we will admit this is probably a dull exercise to many, we find this is quite a useful task, which will allow us to confidently advise our clients on how to ‘navigate’ the year ahead.

TEA is a measure of all entrepreneurial activity that is taking place in an economy at any given time. It is calculated by taking the sum of all entrepreneurship-related activities, such as starting a new business, expanding an existing business, and innovating within an existing business. TEA is an important metric for understanding the overall health of an economy, as it provides insight into the level of risk-taking and innovation taking place. High levels of TEA are generally seen as a sign of economic health and prosperity.

The last number of years have presented unique sets of challenges for businesses, whether that be navigating the aftermath of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing energy costs, or spiralling inflation and the associated cost of living crisis. This has led to business leaders making decisions that would have been unheard of a decade ago, and brought with it an ever-increasing level of uncertainty.

It is at this time of the year, that we usually reflect on the year just past, about how we might want to be a better leader or manager at work going forward. For many of us, it does not get beyond the thought process or indeed the first few weeks of January, before we fall back into our old ways of working.

The New Year brings a new penalty regime for VAT, replacing the existing VAT default surcharge regime starting with VAT periods starting on or after 1 January 2023. The new regime aims to create fairer results for taxpayers and this should be well-received by taxpayers, as there was a risk the VAT default surcharge regime could result in significant penalties being issued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for minor errors in comparison with other taxes.

What is a bot? If you look up the definition in the Oxford dictionary, you would learn that it is “a computer program that runs automated tasks over the internet”. That doesn’t sound so bad on its own, and it isn’t – a program is a tool, a little different in that regard to, say, a hammer. In the right hands, hammers can be used to build all kinds of things, from the mundane to the spectacular, and on the other hand, they can be used to break those things into pieces.

I scanned a carton of milk at the supermarket last week and was convinced the machine was faulty. Had I accidentally lifted a more expensive brand? I was so shocked that, against my usual nature, I even queried it with the shop assistant. To my slight embarrassment, the explanation was simple: that’s the price of milk now. Clearly, our net pay is not stretching as far as it once did. Is there anything employers can do to help?

In the past months, we have witnessed the slow return of travel as restrictions lifted. The startling images of airport queues during summer signalled a return to normality, but this was primarily driven by leisure travellers. The return of business travel has been at a much slower pace. Advancements in technology have reduced the need for business travel. With these advancements, organisations have been able to work with new clients or bid on projects they may not have previously considered due to location.

Has your business made a loss in the last couple of years? If so – you may have a decision to make. NI businesses have been particularly tested over the last number of years, not only from the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the NI Protocol but furthermore by the current “cost of living crisis”. These challenges have impacted the bottom line for NI businesses, pushing many companies into loss-making positions for the first time.

There remains a significant level of uncertainty for many Northern Ireland businesses, with high levels of inflation, rising interest rates increasing the cost of borrowing, and political uncertainty. These factors provide a timely reminder of the importance of managing cash flow.

The speed of change and its magnitude is continuously evolving, which means that individuals and organisations need to be adaptable to survive – just look back at the pandemic! For change to work and be sustained, it needs to be driven from the inside out, reflecting an organisations’ leadership, culture, values, beliefs and practices.

Fraud is costing business and individuals in the UK millions of pounds annually – with fraudsters stealing a total of £609.8m in the first six months of this year alone. The figures contained in a UK Finance report, are worth considering, in this International Fraud Awareness Week 2022, as we take stock and consider what type of frauds have been occurring and what you can do to help prevent yourself becoming a victim.

UK audit reform has been brewing for quite some time, on the back of large scale corporate collapses such as Carillion and BHS, which had a devastating impact on their employees, suppliers, and investors.

Employers have been grappling with the challenges brought about by The Great Resignation for many months now. Added to difficulties associated with finding high-quality candidates in a fiercely competitive hiring market, this trend has seen companies struggle with achieving strategic objectives and pursuing ambitious growth, not due to a lack of business opportunities, but rather a shortage in people available to capitalise on them.

On September 23, Kwasi Kwarteng, the now short-lived Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the much anticipated ‘Growth Plan 2022’, otherwise known as the ‘Mini-Budget’. In what was one of the biggest tax cutting budgets in living memory, the aim of the ‘Mini-Budget’ was to stimulate the UK economy and encourage growth, whilst counteracting the ongoing impact of the cost of living crisis.

In many of the leadership development programmes that we design and deliver for clients, we take a systemic approach. What does this mean? Systems leadership is about taking the wide-view; considering not only how to lead your team and organisation, but how to influence the wider system, which includes your suppliers, customers, and other external stakeholders.