A good dinosaur is a big investment
It's coming home
Dear reader
There are many reasons England winning tonight would make my year; the release of decades of collective trauma, a new narrative for ‘broken’ Britain’s largest nation, and Alan Shearer's joyous swearing on The Rest is Football tomorrow.
Most of all though is what it would prove about Gareth Southgate’s approach to management. It is the approach of a man who has listened to every podcast and audiobook about leadership and actually taken them on board. It was summed up when Declan Rice said in his post-match interview after the game against Slovakia “we’ll do anything to protect this manager, we’ll do everything we can to protect each other.”
Everything from their absurd coolness under pressure to the siege mentality that has bound them together speaks to a leader who has carefully developed a specific culture and mentality in the team. I am not in the least bit qualified to comment on Southgate’s tactical decision-making which has been under much scrutiny but the prioritisation of psychology I find fascinating.
Let’s not pretend it’s the taking part that counts. We all want to be winners and phrases like “trust the process” and “it’s all about mindset” feel like platitudes if there is no proof in the pudding. The truth is though, whatever the result, this is a team who have already demonstrated to millions that mentality is everything and believing in yourself and each other will take you a long way. Let’s just hope it’s all the way. Come on England.
Vindaloo Vindaloo,
Hugo
Chief Cheerleader
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Market in dinosaur fossils continues to boom 🦖 - next week a 150 million year old Stegosaurus will be auctioned at Sotheby’s which is expected to go for up to $6 million. There have been a number of big sales in recent years including a T-rex called Stan that went for $31.8 million. Why any billionaire is wasting their money on superyachts when they could be buying dinosaurs is quite frankly beyond me.
India is the biggest real time payments market in the world 🇮🇳 - in most of the world when you pay for something with a card the transaction is actually settled at the end of the day when the banks basically work out the difference of all the payments that have happened. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India, a collaboration between the central bank and industry has catapulted the country to 14 billion transactions per day.
Unilever cutting to jobs amidst activist pressure ✂️ - Nelson Peltz and other shareholders have been urging the company to improve productivity, which has led to them shedding a number office-based roles. This is particularly challenging for Unilever as they have positioned themselves as a purpose-driven company and the cuts are bound to have an impact on morale.
Luxury grocers will take all your money 🍓 - level 3 gentrification is a Gail’s appearing on your high street then level 4 is when Bayley & Sage arrives. They make Whole Foods look like Asda but shops like Bayley and Erewhon in LA have managed to give the cost of living crisis two fingers as some people continue to pay £8.50 for some strawberries.
3D printers are threatening Games Workshop 🖌️ - they’ve managed to convince people to pay lots of money for figurines that then have to be painted and assembled for a long time but their dominance could be under threat by people making them on the cheap. Games Workshop have of course not taken kindly to this and filed a number of lawsuits.
Employees taking their bosses to court rather than go back to the office 🫸 - getting some people to return to work has been like putting toothpaste back in the packet (pointless, I’ve tried). It is tough for employers who need to balance the fact there is a definite benefit of face to face working with the quite understandable challenges some people have with getting into the office regularly.
JP Morgan generates record profits as deals ramp back up - confidence is risking in the economic outlook which is leading companies to raise funds and seek takeovers which is good news for investment banks. Jamie Dimon, the CEO, did however urge caution about tail risks like the geopolitical climate and it finally coming home which would lead to a dramatic decrease in productivity in the UK.
Superdry has been taken off the London Stock Exchange 📉 - the struggling clothes retailer which allegedly hasn’t had a customer over the age of 19 since 2010 is delisting as part of a rescue package which involves raising £10m underwritten by the founder. If you would like to invest in Superdry it will be listed on the JP Jenkins securities matching platform. It’s giving the Investor’s Centre bit in The Wolf of Wall Street.
The UK is the world’s third largest venture capital market 💸 - it has recently overtaken India having had a poor year in 2023. Deals have started to pick up again according to the British Business Bank. This isn’t necessarily a good thing however as a lot of the investment is coming from outside the UK, which will potentially lead to a talent drain if the companies are required to move to other countries.
The AI bubble shows no sign of deflating 🫧 - the S&P 500 reached yet again reached all time highs this week driven almost exclusively by the shareprice of the technology companies that sit at the top of the table. The challenge is that AI is yet to change anyone's life in the same way that the iPhone has, leaving investors wondering when rubber will finally hit the road.
Quote of the week
“I’m not a believer in fairytales, but I am a believer in dreams” - Gareth Southgate