Who’d be a forecaster these days? With the UK economy in Q3 showing 0.8% growth, construction led the way with a 2.5% increase. But despite this, construction output will be down by around by 1.5-2% this year before growing by c2.5% in 2014 and by 4% in 2015. As has been making the news, housing is leading the way. Boosted by government incentives, house-builders are busy and prices are rising as we try to make up for the severe shortfall in housing provision. Beyond housing, the other key area for […]

Latest research from McKinsey & Company shows that – as suspected – there is a marked apparent divergence between the core messages companies communicate about their brands and the characteristics their customers value most. They found that a number of the most important themes for customer perceptions of brand strength—including effective supply chain management and specialist market knowledge—were among those least mentioned by B2B suppliers. Honest and open dialogue, which customers considered most important, was one of the three themes not emphasized at all by the companies in their sample. […]