Royds Withy King - ahead of the curve: Vol 4

Is Uber worth investing into?

James Lohan: the Mr behind Mr & Mrs Smith Ageing population: the good, the bad and the robotic

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Grey Matters

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8-9

Workforce of the future

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Life sciences: life after Brexit

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The Business Book Awards

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Competitive advantage in AI

Writing a business book 101

Making a Difference

12-14 Bringing gaming to the disabled

In our spring edition we have focused on areas that make a difference to our lives.

We look at life expectancy and our ageing population: in some areas of the UK one in three of the population is over 65, and by 2020 there will be more over 55s than under. We consider the ongoing effect of technology on every element of our lives from Artificial Intelligence, the emergence of Open Banking, to how tech is transforming the future workforce and bringing gaming to the disabled. As the first generation of humanity to recognise climate change and the last to be able to stop it, we look at sustainable travel and interview James Lohan, co-founder of the Mr & Mrs Smith global travel club that champions the world’s most eco-friendly and community-focused hotels.

We were delighted to be awarded Best Managed Firm at the Managing Partners’ Forum Awards which reflects the ambitions and hard work of everyone who has helped to steer our business through a period of considerable growth while managing the significant investments and changes needed. This award is for our people who have supported our firm on its journey and continue to play a crucial role in our success.

Want to be featured in a future edition or have any feedback on the current edition?

Email us at aoc@roydswithyking.com

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15-17 The Mr behind Mr & Mrs Smith

18-19 Is Uber worth investing into?

Leading Edge: stem4

20-21 Avoiding intergenerational conflict

24-25

22-23

The ageing population: the good, the bad and the robotic

What is Open Banking?

Royds Withy King is proud to sponsor TEDx Bath on 21 September.

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26-27 Little robot, big difference

Spotlight shines on life sciences sector at Life After Brexit event Around 70 people gathered at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford recently to look at the challenges facing the UK’s life sciences sector in a special Life After Brexit event.

The evening, which brought together sector experts and stakeholders, sparked rich discussions on the opportunities to ensure the UK remains a leading place in the world to develop and launch innovative medicines, technologies and diagnostics.

Guests were joined by speakers Professor Chas Bountra, Pro Vice Chancellor, Innovation, at Oxford University, and Bill Haynes, MD and Head of Site at Novo Nordisk Research Centre in Oxford.

There was also a lively question and answer discussion chaired by Labour peer Stewart Wood with panellists including Priya Mande, Chief Operating Officer from PsiOxus, Stephen Conway, Director of Research Services at Oxford University and Royds Withy King partner Claus Andersen, who heads up the firm’s Brexit taskforce and Life Sciences team.

The debate reflected on the transformative science as well as unique infrastructures, novel partnerships and great leaders. It confirmed life sciences work is hugely important for the UK economy and global health. While it was acknowledged there has been uncertainty from Brexit, there was an agreement that it’s essential for all stakeholders to remain outward-looking and work together and ensure the sector remains a magnet for talent.

Claus Andersen said: “We were very pleased to see so many people join us and be informed by our world class speakers and panellists. The event was very positive and interesting, and demonstrated there is a very clear focus for the future of the sector with talent, funding and collaboration being the key elements”.

“We’ve got some phenomenal universities producing great leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators.”

Professor Chas Bountra added: “We’ve got some phenomenal universities producing great leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators. We’ve got some awesome infrastructures across the country, and the UK has got a brilliant track record in drug discovery. A number of pharmaceutical companies are based here in the UK so I think it’s a great place for life sciences”.

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SUPPORTING BUSINESS CRITICAL EMPLOYEES THROUGH RELATIONSHIP BREAKDOWN

By Will MacFarlane, partner in Royds Withy King’s Family team If a company has business-critical leaders, preparation is the key to minimising any fallout from a relationship breakdown. Potential reputational issues, concerns amongst institutional shareholders about loss of focus and the question of voting rights are all very real risks that the right advice at the right time can help to resolve.

The initial announcement of Jeff Bezos’ divorce was wellcrafted. No doubt a settlement had been agreed before that announcement was even made. However, the subsequent media storm has seemed at times to be out of control and the result has been a significant fall in share price for the companies with which Mr Bezos is most closely associated.

Allegations that competitors of the Bezos-owned Washington Post have used intimate text messages as a means of blackmailing further muddied the waters. Conspiracy theories extended to those wanting to curtail scrutiny of President Trump’s administration.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering Mr Bezos’ profile, a personal issue has become a media storm that would have brought most businesses to their knees. Mr Bezos chose to tackle the media storm by instructing a trusted adviser to locate the source of the leak. He then posted a forceful blog which some have described as shocking. The ongoing allegations and counter-allegations, with associated threats of claims in defamation, have now contributed to putting the agreed New York location for Amazon’s new head office in jeopardy.

Reputation management experts asked the following questions in response: • Where was the advice on not posting on social media in anger?

• Where was the measured advice on how best to deal with the conduct of the National Enquirer?

• How do you safeguard the reputation of a business critical individual and best preserve the goodwill of the business?

Jeff Bezos, Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of

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The key is the skill and authority of the chosen advisers. Powerful and talented individuals are used to discounting advice and trusting their instincts. Under the intense personal pressure of a pending divorce, those instincts are often compromised. The adviser needs to have the skill and confidence to rapidly gain their trust under huge pressure and the authority that will make the employee take notice of their advice. That requires the backing of the Board.

In addition to the need to preserve the company’s public reputation, there is also a need to retain the confidence of institutional shareholders who are keenly aware of the risks triggered by a relationship breakdown.

THE DECREASE IN INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY ARISING FROM THE IMPACT OF A DIVORCE IS SIGNIFICANT AND CAN BE FELT FOR UP TO FIVE YEARS AFTER THE DIVORCE IS FINALISED. In addition to the lack of focus, a notable reduction in the wealth of a decision maker can also affect their attitude to risk. A 50% reduction in wealth is likely to make an individual more risk-averse when dealing with their remaining assets. They may also be less willing to embrace innovation and may no longer be willing to face the pressures of their role.

In practice, high profile individuals usually agree the division of assets before their divorce is announced to the public. No doubt this happened in the Jeff Bezos case. This should help control shareholder jitters. Private, pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements potentially dealing with the transfer of shares and voting rights are also a key practical step that can prevent protracted and public litigation. Some individuals will be wealthy enough, or their shares such a limited part of their assets, that they will not need to dip into them in order to fund a settlement. However, that is often not the case.

In the event of an acrimonious relationship breakdown and in the absence of a prior agreement, the other party could demand a seat on the Board, sell their shares to a competitor or to an activist group. A properly drafted agreement will do much to calm shareholders about how dependent a business is on a key individual, even if it is never needed. Terms to be considered are the removal of voting rights from the shares before they are transferred to the other party or increasing the voting rights attributed to the retained shares.

While the Government has yet to legislate to make pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements legally binding, the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the case of Radmacher v Granatino has meant that they are likely to be upheld if certain procedural safeguards have been adhered to. These include the requirement for both parties to have received independent legal advice, for there to be no duress applied by either party, for there to have been an exchange of financial disclosure and for the financially weaker party not to have been left in a ‘predicament of real need’. As well as setting out the arrangements to apply on divorce, nuptial agreements can include specific terms dealing with confidentiality. Although there is an implied confidentiality attached to family proceedings, clauses in which parties agree not to discuss any aspect of the breakdown with a third party can act as a useful deterrent. Parties frequently raise conduct arguments relating to drug use, financial misconduct or citing issues which are linked to a party’s integrity or mental health. This frequently leads to city professionals worrying that adverse publicity may lead not only to a loss in investor

confidence but also to a loss of their FCA registration. The additional comfort of confidentiality clauses in a pre-nuptial agreement can go some way to mitigating that risk.

Confidentiality has been even more of an issue in family law since the Government granted the media access to family courts in 2009 and allowed them to report details (subject to reporting restrictions) from April 2010 following changes to the Children, Schools and Families Act. This has increased pressure on high profile clients to reach settlements outside court, often using alternative forms of dispute resolution including mediation and more recently arbitration. Perhaps the most successful and popular route has been the use of so-called Private Financial Dispute Resolution hearings (‘Private FDRs’). Rather than using the court process for a court-led FDR when judges are frequently pressed for time and unable to devote sufficient time to preparation, a senior barrister or retired judge is appointed to act as ‘Judge’. Whether in the court process or private, FDRs are designed to encourage settlement, take place on a without prejudice basis and cannot be referred to later in proceedings. A Private FDR judge will devote an entire day to the case, reading everything and providing a carefully considered indication as to what the outcome might be at a final hearing. The settlement rates are high and parties are able to negotiate flexible outcomes in a private environment away from a bank of cameras outside the Royal Courts of Justice and the prying eyes of reporters at the back of the courtroom.

The starting point for asset division on divorce is one of equal division. Occasionally a divorcing party will claim they should be entitled to an increased share of the assets due to their alleged genius, special or stellar contribution. In reality, the bar to achieving a departure is high with only a handful of stellar contribution cases ever being recorded. Examples include Michael Cowan (inventor of the bin liner) retaining 62% of the assets in 2001 and Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of advertising giant WPP, retaining 60% of the £75 million of joint assets in 2005.

While press reports of high profile divorces such as those of Ryan Giggs or Adele suggest that these arguments are often run, those cases are usually settled privately away from court and are not reported. The reality remains that stellar contribution arguments will remain irrelevant and successful business people will have to look to other ways to protect their assets including entering in to prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.

OF 24 CHIEF EXECUTIVES WHO WERE DIVORCED BETWEEN 2009 AND 2012, 29% STEPPED DOWN WITHIN TWO YEARS OF THEIR DIVORCE. With all these factors to take into account, seeking the right advice from a team of specialists who have access to additional support, from counsellors to online reputation managers, will bring a significant benefit both to the business and to the wellbeing of all individuals involved.

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WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE DECADE AHEAD As we look to the decade ahead, the future of work will be dominated by three themes: the quality of work, the challenge of AI-led automation and the competing pressures of work-life balance.

In everyday conversations, the phrase “gig economy” has become shorthand for all types of non-standard working ranging from the app-based platforms (such as Uber and Deliveroo) to zero hours contracts, sham self employment, freelancing and misuse of agency work.

In one way or another, these are all essentially attempts to more closely align demand for worker services to the available supply – with the aim of eliminating employee downtime and so maximising productive output.

In an earlier edition of Ahead of the Curve, we looked at how the development of AI technologies goes a step further by removing the need for human intervention in the production process altogether.

So far the political reaction to these developments has been firmly focused on gig economy issues – with all the main parties expressly acknowledging the potential social harm some of the developing working practices can cause: uncertain work and incomes, long and irregular hours and little, if any, job security.

“

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Different models of shared ownership, control and income-sharing will become increasingly important to spread wealth, power and other benefits generated by new technologies.”

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The Government’s approach was to commission the Taylor Review which reported in 2017 and has led to legislative proposals to create more certainty and security around non-standard work. Critics feel this is a disappointingly thin outcome for a report which had high ambitions.

The Labour Party has embraced the potential for more significant change with some firm commitments in a paper entitled ‘A Fair Deal at Work’. In the event of a Labour government, we could expect to see a much more significant role for trade unions with the prospect of repeals of aspects of the legislation governing trade disputes.

But there is also a promise to create high quality jobs through public investment and radical proposals such as equal employment rights from day one and banning zero hours contracts and unpaid internships altogether.

In an attempt to align the interests of employees and shareholders, Labour also proposes to introduce compulsory share ownership in companies with more than 250 staff – with a maximum of 10% of the shares being allocated to staff. Similarly, increased employee ownership is a theme that is strongly promoted by the Institute for the Future of Work.

Ensuring that the financial benefits of new technologies are shared with the workforce could produce a virtuous cycle in which workers spend less time at work but can maintain their spending power. The better work-life balance this would potentially create could also be a solution to two other UK workplace problems: low productivity and poor wellbeing.

Transition to a shorter working week In part it is this that has led a number of influential commentators to call for the UK to move towards replacing the traditional five day, 9 to 5 working week with a four day week (or variations on this theme).

The think tank, Autonomy, has just published “The Shorter Working Week: A Radical and Pragmatic Proposal”. The report has been welcomed by John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, who said: “This is a vital contribution to the growing debate around free time and reducing the working week”.

His commitment to this was emphasised by the appointment of the economist Lord Skidelsky to conduct an inquiry into this possibility.

The Shadow Chancellor also suggested that Labour could include a commitment to reduce the working week in its manifesto for the next General Election.

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Reducing the working week is a powerful and pragmatic response to a series of deeply embedded and interconnected problems within the UK economy that are set to be exacerbated in the coming decades.”

“

Imagine a single policy that would slash unemployment and underemployment, tackle health conditions, increase productivity, help the environment, improve family lives, encourage men to do more household tasks and make people happier.”

Proponents of the idea identify important benefits including: •

Happy productive workforce with a healthier work-life balance

•

Higher gender equality in paid and unpaid work

•

Quality well-paid and secure employment available for more people

•

High-skilled workforce, reduced work time and more productive economy

•

Reduced air pollution and overall carbon footprint

At the other extreme, Chinese tech firms encourage extremely long hours known as the “966” schedule. This is a relatively new development as China’s tech industry has expanded with start-ups that model themselves after those in Silicon Valley. Chinese tech employees are pushing back against “996”, which means working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. What began as a joke among tired Chinese developers has turned into a nationwide debate about work culture and a rare protest against practices at some of the country’s largest companies.

Companies pioneering a shorter working week Pursuit Marketing operate a four day week with no loss in pay; if staff want to earn more towards their bonuses they can come in on a Friday.

Perpetual Garden experimented with a four day week with five days’ pay, and this has allowed employees to spend more time with their families and save on childcare costs.

®

The7stars have no fixed term contracts and unlimited holiday.

We have launched HELP (HR, Employment, Legal, Protection) which provides our clients with a fixed fee employment service, an insurance product and legal advice of issues.

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Q Keeping you ahead in business Lucy McCarraher FO U NDE R OF T H E B US IN ESS B O O K AWA R DS

TELL US ABOUT THE BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS

The Business Book Awards were founded to celebrate the work of authors who have shared their industry or market knowledge, experience and expertise in published book form. The global business book market is growing faster than ever, with millions of titles being sold in the UK every year. This is partly due to changes in business itself - at the end of 2017, 5.7 million SMEs made up over 99% of all businesses in the UK. While a selection of the big names continue to publish high profile books, it is entrepreneurs – founders and owners of burgeoning small businesses – and other experts who are writing books in ever greater numbers.

The Business Book Awards highlight the quality and variety of business books in the market. They offer industry-wide recognition to new and established authors writing on a multitude of subjects for a diverse readership, with no barriers to entry. We welcome entries from publishers and all authors published in the UK. The Business Book Awards give every publisher, regardless of size or type, and author, regardless of experience or route to publishing, of a business book the opportunity to participate in a high quality, impartial judging process.

For the 2019 Business Book Awards we had 156 incredibly highquality entries from international publishers like Pearson, Penguin and Bloomsbury, independent publishers like Kogan Page, hybrid publishers like Rethink Press and self-published authors. A judging panel of 30 eminent authors, publishers and business experts seplected their shortlists in nine categories.

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WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SET THE AWARDS UP?

I started Rethink Press to offer quality hybrid publishing to business authors eight years ago; and I’ve been the Publish Mentor of Dent Global and their Key Person of Influence programme for five years. During this time, I’ve mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs to write and publish their books and seen the business book market grow and develop massively. I’d been thinking about awards for the sector for some time, but it wasn’t until I connected with ThinkFest and their superb awards and events experience that I saw a way to make it a reality.

There are so many great authors of excellent books in the market that they deserve a prestigious set of awards to recognise their work and support them to get bigger audiences and wider appreciation for the ideas and expertise they are sharing. The first Awards event was such a brilliant and glittering evening that I think the whole publishing and business industry was a bit taken aback by its success.

WHAT DRIVES YOU TO KEEP GOING?

I have an insatiable desire to show more people how to express their ideas with impact in written (and published) form. I love writing myself – I actually need to write in order to unpack my thoughts on any subject and get clarity on ideas, and I love teaching other people how to present their own experience and knowledge to others through rigorous planning and structuring, and then a step-by-step writing process. I am immensely proud of our authors’ work and the beautiful books we create for them.

The first Business Book Awards were won by eleven excellent books written by brilliant, talented authors – but unexpectedly they were all white men. Despite having picked a completely gender-balanced judging panel with me and a female head judge setting the categories and criteria, we had got something wrong. I tracked back and found that one third of our 150 entries had been from women, slightly fewer than a third of our shortlists were books with female authors and not one was picked as a winner. At Rethink Press, authors approach us to publish their books, we don’t discriminate between types or gender of authors, but I realised that again only approximately one-third of our authors are female.

I’ve done a lot of research on this imbalance now and written A Book of One’s Own – a manifesto for women to share their experience and make a difference analysing why fewer women write their books, why they should and how to do it.

I’m driven now to get an extra 1,000 women in business to start writing their book in the next year, to boost their own authority and credibility and bring respect to women more broadly.

“A ten minute read can help transform your business idea into reality.”

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered

“I'm to 1,000 get adriven n bu w n e ow wr siness omen xtra bo iting to in nex ok in thei start the r – L t ye ucy ar M ."

WHAT BOOK DID YOU WISH YOU HAD WRITTEN? The Frieda Klein series by Nikki French

CAN YOU REMEMBER THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY? A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE YOU LAUGH?

cCa

rra

The Eldest Daughter Effect by Lisette Schuitemaker and Wies Enthoven. The laughter of recognition – I am an eldest daughter.

her

IS THERE A BOOK THAT HAS INFLUENCED YOU? So many, but – The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz

WHICH BOOK DO YOU GIVE MOST OFTEN AS A GIFT? Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT AT WORK? Spend time with family, walk dogs, read books, listen to audio books (mainly fiction), write, read The New Statesman, listen to The Archers omnibus.

WHAT THREE PEARLS OF WISDOM WOULD YOU OFFER MODERN BUSINESS LEADERS?

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Educate yourself about unconscious bias against women in business; stay alert and make changes to counteract it all the time (this goes for women as well as men).

Write and publish your book to gain authority and become an influencer in your niche. It doesn’t have to be a best-seller; you’re doing it to share your personal experience and knowledge with those who can benefit from it.

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Even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time, failures and setbacks are a gift. Use them as reasons to recalibrate, rethink and reboot.

Royds Withy King sponsor the Business Book Awards

Thinking of writing a business book?

See tips from successful authors overleaf.

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Writing a business book 101 There are many ways to market your business, products or services, but one way to achieve a connection with your clients or customers is by sharing your expertise and experiences with them. You can do this by writing a business book, which will give you both personal and business credibility as an expert and can also give your brand clarity.

But how do you get started? We spoke to five business authors who were winners in this year’s Business Book Awards to find out their top tips.

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“Leave a tip in a box. Small tips in boxes (yes actual boxes) are the killer app of the author’s world. People love tiny, bite-sized summaries that they can take away with them. Give your readers the soundbite they can drop at a dinner party or in a speech that makes them look and feel smart. They will love you for it.”

Dr Philippa Malmgren, co-author with Chris Lewis of The Leadership Lab. (Winner of Leadership category and overall winner)

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24 FI VE AWARD WINNING BUSINESS AUTHORS SH ARE THEIR TOP TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED

“Remember: the book is not about you.

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and ask yourself why would they buy your book?

Consider what information do they need from you to enhance their businesses and lives. How can you influence and shape their thinking, ideas and thoughts? How would they be able to implement your strategies, tactics, techniques and tools easily? It is important to consider what is already out in the marketplace regarding your subject matter. Why would the reader listen to you and how are you different from the other authors in your industry?”

Bindar Dosanjh, author of Power Property Investing for Women (Winner of An Exceptional Book by a Woman category)

“Illustrate every piece of advice that you give in your business book with a relevant case study. These should back up what you are saying and also be interesting, succinct and tightly worded. This helps verify your advice and also puts it into different contexts. But also do tell your own story honestly and in detail and run this golden thread throughout your book, being sure to include both the ups and the downs. People are drawn to reading personal stories and case studies. These help to hook the reader into your subject so that they absorb your points easily.

These stories and case studies will break up heavier text and help make it more accessible and engaging.”

“Be clear on who you’re writing for. I chose two main characters whom I expected to read my book. The very first draft of each chapter felt like a download of everything that I knew about that subject.

I had to capture my thoughts before they escaped me. The second run through was written with my characters in mind, as if I was talking to them. I imagined their responses, and whether my words and examples would be clear to them. I could almost hear them stopping me to ask for clarification on a point. I thought about what I had needed to know at each point in my business. I imagined their look if I spouted irrelevant nonsense.

I chose vocabulary that they would understand. I love words and it became a bit of a game finding the English word which meant exactly what I was trying to convey. No flowery descriptions but a single, concise word.”

Della Hudson, author of The Numbers Business (Winner of Specialist Book category)

“One of the key things that it’s easy to forget when you’re writing is that, as the author, you already know what something looks like and how it’s used. The reader doesn’t. So, I would suggest using as many examples that people can relate to as possible, especially when tackling more conceptual ideas or new theories.

Without being able to picture what a theory or suggestion looks like in real life it’s difficult for a reader to understand how to pragmatically apply it to their own environment.”

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Harriet Kelsall, author of The Creative’s Guide to Starting a Business (Winner of Start-up Inspiration category)

Fiona Murden, author of Defining You (Winner of Self Development category)

HOW WILL THE UK MAINTAIN ITS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE AI INDUSTRY? Dave Eagle, Head of Client Solutions & Innovations, Royds Withy King

When it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI), the UK is absolutely impressive. Alongside leading technology companies, the Government has prioritised and invested in AI; our world-class universities are driving AI innovation; we are home to many trailblazing AI start-ups. AI is far more than a niche technology issue for the UK: it is a central factor in our future success.

A recent article in Information Age says that “AI is now considered to be one of the most impactful and growing sectors affecting the future of the UK” .

In April 2018, the Government announced a £1 billion deal to put the nation at the forefront of the AI industry. IT PRO writes that such support has helped the UK aggressively position itself as a “pioneer in the AI scene”, which is “potentially one sector that it can rely on to deliver post-Brexit.” Equally, Forbes describes our nation as the “European hub for AI excellence” ranking third in the world for “AI talent, research and expertise behind the US and China.”

However, Brexit uncertainty is threatening UK AI in terms of securing funding from overseas, and recruiting and retaining talent.

A survey by Global Tech Advocates reveals that 55% of overseas technology leaders would not expand their business into the UK as a direct result of Brexit, and that 25% would not invest in a British technology company in the next 12 months.

The Government’s 2018 AI deal marked “the first phase of a major innovation-focused investment drive in AI which aims to help the UK seize the £232 billion opportunity AI offers the UK economy by 2030”. To realise this potential and for the UK to sustain its worldleading position, after Brexit it is vital that the Government maintains its strategic focus on AI. We need to continue to attract corporate investment in start-ups and avidly fuel our appeal as an AI hotspot.

54%

of all employees will require significant reskilling and upskilling

38%

of companies expect certain jobs to be eliminated by automation within the next three years

AI and digital disruption is impacting every facet of the business world. Businesses need to be aware of the challenges they face in order to strategically plan for the road ahead. Now is the time for leaders to prioritise how they adapt to these changes by transforming their business models. There is a huge opportunity for businesses to grow, develop and succeed. By developing a new AI-led approach which looks to improve customer relationships, develop business ethics and bring in machines to improve productivity, we can reap rewards in terms of revenue and employee retention. The connected future for businesses is something to be very excited about.

4.4%

of the UK workforce operate in the gig economy

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A NEW WAY TO PLAY HOW ONE CHARITY IS BRINGING GAMING TO THE DISABLED

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ove them or hate them, video games are now firmly part of life. Whether you’ve idled away a few minutes on a bus with Candy Crush or spent a weekend racing against your friends in the latest F1 simulator game, you’re one of over 30 million people in the UK enjoying unique and engaging environments built by an industry that’s bigger than the film business.

For many, video games facilitate inclusion, friendship, confidence and creativity. But the vast majority of games rely on small, complex handheld controllers or keyboard presses, both of which demand access, dexterity and speed, things that many people with physical disabilities simply can’t manage. So they miss out. That’s where Oxfordshire-based charity SpecialEffect come in.

Will’s playing the football video game FIFA, and he’s immersed in a tense match against a friend. With seconds to go, he launches the ball forward from defence, switches control to his striker, and smoothly buries the ball in the back of the opposition’s net.

Like many other young men of his age, Will has always loved video games.

Will is also a C4 tetraplegic. A cycling injury in 2012 left him paralysed below the shoulders, and shortly after his accident he was told that he’d never be able to play video games again as he couldn’t hold or use a games controller.

But 30 minutes into a visit to SpecialEffect, he was overjoyed to be playing FIFA for the first time since his accident. He was able to achieve this by using a personalised games control setup based on two shoulder-operated switches and a chin-controlled joystick.

“I’M SO GRATEFUL I FOUND OUT ABOUT SPECIALEFFECT,” HE SAID. “I'M REALLY ENJOYING BEING BACK IN THE GAME AND SURPRISING A FEW FRIENDS WITH HOW COMPETITIVE I AM. I HATE TO SAY THAT I WAS UP UNTIL 4AM GAMING WITH A FRIEND THE OTHER NIGHT SOMETHING MAYBE I’D HOPED I’D NEVER DO AGAIN!” 12

Video games are now providing a great way for Will to relax away from his working life as a Lib Dem County Councillor in Cumbria and a proactive charity worker. “They’re a real social occasion,” he said, “It’s great to be competing with friends, or just passing time by myself.”

Will’s one of the many hundreds of people with physical disabilities that SpecialEffect help each year. By using technology ranging from modified games controllers to eye-control, they’re finding a way for people of all ages to play to the very best of their abilities.

There's no ‘one size fits all’ way of doing this, so SpecialEffect meet people face-to-face to find out exactly what they want to play and what they need to play. They then match or modify technology to create and loan truly personalised gaming control setups, and back this up with lifelong follow-up support.

Founded in 2007, they’re providing individual support to hundreds of people across the UK every year. They’re also answering thousands of enquiries from around the world. It’s no surprise that the waiting list for their support sessions is several months long.

“The difference this specialist one-to-one support can make is literally life-transforming,” said Founder and CEO Dr Mick Donegan. “One gamer who hadn’t been able to play his favourite game for 15 years simply said, ‘Thank you for giving me my life back.’”

“THE

DIFFERENCE

THIS

SPECIALIST

ONE-TO-

ONE SUPPORT CAN MAKE IS LITERALLY LIFE

Founder and CEO Dr Mick Donegan

TRANSFORMING,” SAID FOUNDER AND CEO DR MICK DONEGAN. “ONE GAMER WHO HADN’T BEEN ABLE TO PLAY HIS FAVOURITE GAME FOR 15 YEARS SIMPLY SAID, ‘THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME MY LIFE BACK.’” 13

But the charity’s one-to-one solutions don’t just benefit individuals.

“The insight and detailed knowledge we gain from the personalised, life-long assessment and support we provide puts us in a perfect position to share what we learn with both hardware and software developers worldwide, so they have an opportunity to incorporate our ideas,” said Mick.

A powerful example of this is the award-winning new Xbox Adaptive Controller released by Microsoft last year. The controller is essentially a gateway though which a huge range of switches and joysticks, positioned wherever the gamer can use them – by the head, feet, elbows etc – can be connected to an Xbox.

Microsoft invited SpecialEffect to give feedback on the design and functionality of the prototypes based on their many years of first-hand user-centred experience. Several of the people they’d helped became user testers.

The charity is also producing some pretty remarkable software of its own. Last year they launched EyeMine, freely-available software which, paired with low-cost hardware that converts eye movement to computer control, has the potential to open up the insanely popular game MineCraft to severely disabled people who can only move their eyes. This is yet another example of how SpecialEffect are bringing gaming to those who may never have had access to it before.

Finally, perhaps the greatest example of SpecialEffect’s dedication to bringing gaming to the disabled is how they work – offering all of their services completely free of charge. They do this by fundraising through various events, for example through the Twin Town Banger challenge attended by staff from the Royds Withy King Oxford office, or the GameBlast gaming marathon which took place most recently at the end of February. Last year, these events have raised over £600,000 for SpecialEffect to keep doing what they do best: increasing the quality of life for as many disabled people across the world as they can.

At Royds Withy King, we are proud to announce our inaugural Oxford Brain Injury Conference – this year focusing on supporting the family and professional relationships in the context of acquired brain injury. Taking place in the iconic Rhodes House in Oxford on Thursday 12 September 2019, this conference for professionals will bring together family members of brain injury survivors and internationally recognised experts in the field to share their stories, learning and wisdom in understanding family needs after brain injury.

See roydswithyking.com/ahead-together and our social channels for more details.

You can find out more about SpecialEffect via their website: www.specialeffect.org.uk Or by emailing: info@specialeffect.org.uk

14

MR

THE MR BEHIND MR & MRS SMITH

James Lohan HOTEL AND TRAVEL AFICIONADOS WILL

NEED LITTLE INTRODUCTION TO MR & MRS SMITH. SINCE ITS ARRIVAL IN 2003, THE TRAVEL CLUB HAS PROVIDED ITS DISCERNING MEMBERS WITH THE INSIDE TRACK AND THE BEST RATES ON THE WORLD’S FINEST BOUTIQUE HOTELS AND VILLAS.

WHY MR & MRS SMITH?

WITH 1,300 HOTELS ALL PERSONALLY

The world did not need another luxury hotel guide.

Everything was called the ‘ultimate this’ or the ‘luxury that’ but with zero personality. If you are going to disrupt an industry you’ve got to do something different.

VISITED AND INDEPENDENTLY REVIEWED, THE CLUB’S REVENUE THIS YEAR SHOULD HIT £75-90 MILLION.

WHERE DID THE INSPIRATION FOR MR & MRS SMITH COME FROM? It started with a disastrous date with my then girlfriend, now wife Tamara, and a weekend away.

Hotel guides back in 2003 were old-fashioned and fusty – a picture of the maître d’ pointing to country house or stately home, with terrible copy on how they were voted the best hotel in the Lake District, their Michelin star restaurant, and where to play a round of golf.

As a 30-something I wanted something more interesting more pictures, more insider information on the best rooms to book, the best table in the restaurant, and restaurants that wouldn’t dress me in a jacket and tie! And I wanted to really understand the hidden boutique hotels that were emerging back then.

That particularly disastrous weekend in a Lake District spa hotel spurred us into action.

It is mainly couples that stay in boutique hotels and we didn’t want to do something shmaltzy; we wanted to do something wildly romantic – and that is where Mr & Mrs Smith came from.

It was a term popular in the post-war years when it was frowned upon to stay with someone in a hotel out of wedlock, so people would sign in as Mr & Mrs Smith. It means you are checking in under a pseudonym - away for a dirty weekend with someone you love or perhaps someone you shouldn’t be with.

The name captures a little bit of that English irreverence, people’s imaginations, as well as being a little adventurous.

TODAY YOU HAVE 1.6 MILLION MEMBERS – WHAT WERE THOSE EARLY HURDLES? HOW DID YOU GET THOSE FIRST MEMBERS? Well, to be honest, we slightly conned people. The first book – a coffee table guide – included a membership card alongside all the wonderful information and pictures.

It was a proper plastic credit card with magnetic strip to fool people into thinking we had this amazing database matching people to hotels. We didn’t – we just wanted people to go online and sign up.

15

AND DID IT WORK? It did - about half of everyone who bought the book signed up. In fact, we sold up a lot of books very quickly, which our publishers said we wouldn’t.

The original idea was to find a publisher to take on the book so we could collect the royalties. Quite literally, every publisher turned us down. So, we decided to self-publish.

We re-mortgaged the house, borrowed from friends and family, only to discover that the publishers who had turned us down where also the distributors.

I thought you could simply phone up Waterstones and say, ‘we have this lovely book - how many would you like’? That’s not how it is done.

So, we found the only independent distributor in the UK – Portfolio Books.

It was a case of ‘thank god we found you - we were all ready to go with the print run’ when they threw a further spanner in the works: they only took on customers with two books.

I massaged the truth about how much media interest we had secured off the back of the book, with Portfolio Books taking more interest when I was explained how Vanity Fair, Vogue and The Sunday Times Style magazine were all running editorials on Mr & Mrs Smith.

Tamara at this point was nodding at me in an approving way to keep going. There are two distinct Tamara looks – the ‘keep going, James’ and the ‘shut up, James’ look, and I am now fully aware of both!

Eventually, they said “we’ll give you a go, but you won’t sell more than 5,000 books”. Given that

WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY? The next big thing will be experiential travel. We have introduced SideStory experiences, which are similar to the old-fashioned organised tours. We capture, for example, an amazing London graffiti tour, or a foodie tour of the West End, or a cheese-making tour. It is these cool side stories that make a holiday memorable.

HOW DO YOU BUILD THOSE EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF CUSTOMERS? Social media is a hugely important part of what we do.

But you cannot forget that people want to connect through people they trust - and everything we do is about building trust with customer. We are not in the business in representing any old hotel or villa because they have paid us a ridiculous fee. Everyone has to go through our strict curation criteria. It’s about delivering on a promise.

Social media gives us many more ways to connect with our audience, but it does mean we need more people to produce great content.

I don’t believe anyone has truly cracked personalisation yet in the travel industry. A customer who is 25 on their first weekend away and someone who is 75 taking the family away on an expensive trip need to be looked after in very different ways. Our members are a broad church, and we tend to pitch our marketing at the 30-something with no kids. Some will of course be older or young, but will broadly want the same thing.

10,000 copies was our break-even point that was disheartening. We, thankfully, ignored their advice, printed 10,000 and sold out in six weeks.

Mr & Mrs Smith captured the imagination of the public and the media, and the little white lies around media interest came true – the name was right, the pictures were right, and the press loved it.

WERE YOU NOT ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED YOU WERE GOING TO LOSE YOUR HOME? When you are young you have less to lose; your fear factor is low. Naivety is one of the greatest weapons of the young - if you knew what was around every corner you wouldn’t get of bed. And if you know too much about an industry you tend to follow a certain path. If you don’t, you are more likely to reinvent it.

AND IS IT HARD WORKING WITH YOUR WIFE?

No, it’s brilliant. We really do enjoy working together.

She is really clever and has a very different skill set to me. She is very tech focused, whereas I am incredibly passionate about what we look and sound like, and how we service customers. She understands and appreciates that and is more focused on the functionality of how we manage that. It’s a perfect partnership.

We sit at either end of the office and have an agreement that we can talk openly - and can be pretty punchy - about what we do and don’t like about each other’s part of the business. If we can’t agree, we have the agreement that brand decisions rest with me and tech decisions with Tamara.

And it’s great when at home to know what each other’s day was like. If it was a great day we celebrate together, and if not so great we have a drink together.

16

Skill sets do need to be different and complementary for it work, and it’s important to have written agreements. We both have written job descriptions and agreements, right down to what happens if we were to separate.

WHAT ABOUT THE BAD DAYS? One of the worst days we’ve had was closing an office in Melbourne. We had some great people in the office, and we tried to relocate some of them to Singapore but had to let some go. That was tough.

And running out of money is never good – and it happened regularly! But now, we are cash rich following a successful crowd funding, and profitable.

The business has historically never been as good as the brand. It’s a tough business with small margins, particularly given the very high standards of customer service we provide. But that is changing: the business is catching up with brand. It takes a long time to get a business to a scale where the cost base and revenues make more sense.

We have great people visiting hotels, anonymous reviewers, and a genuine editorial team hired from the best travel publications. Everything we do is so lovingly done and that costs money. But I believe it will last. I may not own the business in the future, but I will sit in my rocking chair and say, proudly, that I started it.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY IS REALLY IMPORTANT. HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE CUSTOMERS KEEP BOOKING? Retention is really important, and we have a pretty sophisticated customer retention programme. As a start, there are different tiers of membership – BlackSmith which is free, SilverSmith, and GoldSmith. GoldSmith is a full travel concierge service designed around you to ensure you have an incredible time.

We are also looking at personalisation. We want to get to know you - not in a creepy way, but in a way to help us to help you travel with less friction. For example, are you a vegan, do you have children, do you prefer to fly BA? Once we know these things, we do not need to ask you every time you book.

And we also like to surprise and delight. It’s a terrible marketing buzzword, but we want to show our members how much we appreciate them. So, for example, you may stay at a lovely French hotel, and have a wonderful bottle of wine over supper. We might ask the hotel what you were drinking and send you case.

And of course, all our members can use their membership cards to claim perks when booking a hotel – perhaps a room upgrade, a massage or complimentary bottle of wine.

YOU’RE VERY DRIVEN. WHERE DOES THIS DRIVE COME FROM? A good question and I don’t really know. I’ve always had it.

I think it’s partly fear of what am I going to do if I don’t do this!

When you know that you are probably unemployable, you really want to make sure that what you are doing is successful. I genuinely couldn’t get a job now - I’m too opinionated: I want to do what I want to do, and just get on with stuff. And that isn’t always possible in the workplace.

And when an entrepreneur is used to paddling your own canoe, you have to keep paddling. You have to have that enormous belief in what you’re doing. And I’m still excited about what we do and what we can still do.

FIVE YEARS’ TIME - ARE YOU GOING TO PACK IT IN AND SELL? I would love to stay with the business for as long as I am relevant.

Provided you don’t become a dinosaur in your business and hold it back, you will be fine. As soon as you start feeling you’re not really there, then you shouldn’t be in that business.

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL EVENTUALLY SELL? Selling is not something I look for, and we get approached a lot. The time we sell the business is when those who want to acquire us can help Mr & Mrs Smith achieve our goals more quickly than we can through our own means.

So, if we ever find a big brother or sister who can accelerate our travel nirvana – where we want to get to – I would be interested in those conversations. But we certainly do not have the for-sale sign up.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A BUDDING ENTREPRENEUR? People often think being an entrepreneur is a cool thing to do. You really have to make sure you are the right kind of character. The highs are very high, and the lows are very low, and you need to be able to take it – it can be hard and relentless. You will not stop thinking about your work.

Whatever you think you want to do, make sure you love it. You are about to marry it, hopefully for a long time.

And bring a bit of wisdom with you - some grey hairs around the boardroom table. But I would caveat that: don’t bring people that will stifle what you are trying to achieve, only those that can accelerate your business.

Competition TO CELEBRATE OUR INSPIRATION SERIES, WE HAVE 10 AUTOGRAPHED, FABRIC-BOUND COPIES OF MR & MRS SMITH’S LATEST ALLURING COFFEE TABLE BOOK, THE WORLD’S SEXIEST BEDROOMS, TO GIVE AWAY. THIS 296-PAGE HARDBACK TOME FEATURES HOTELS – WITH AN ODE TO THE ROOM’S ROMANTIC LURE, AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE HOTEL AND THE LOCAL AREA. VISIT OUR TWITTER @RWK_PWEALTH FOR DETAILS ON HOW YOU CAN WIN.

In the first of a series of Inspiration events, we hosted an evening with James Lohan interviewed by fellow entrepreneur and host of the phenomenally successful The Makers Podcast Ollie Forsyth.

17

UBER confident:

is the transportation disruptor worth investing into?

Uber’s initial public offering (IPO) earlier this month made headlines across the globe. It was particularly hotly anticipated since Uber’s main rival in the US, Lyft, had gone public in March.

Before it went public, private investors valued Uber at $72 billion.

Its lacklustre market performance since the market debut puts the giant’s market capitalisation of $62.2 billon, the lowest since July 2015.

Most people know that Uber loses money, but few know that in 2018, its losses amounted to $3 billion.

18

By Nikita Sonecha, associate in Royds Withy King’s Employment & HR team

So what’s Uber’s long game?

The story Uber tells is that it’s still in the early stages of what they estimate to be a $12 trillion (yes, that’s twelve zeros – $12,000,000,000,000) market which includes transporting people, food and goods. When it comes to personal mobility, Uber is not stopping at taxis. Its plans include competing with public transportation. The company also has interests in logistics, restaurant delivery, bike-sharing services and self-driving cars.

Uber’s strategy is to “create the largest network in each market so that we can have the greatest liquidity network effect, which we believe leads to a margin advantage”. It’s playing the long game for ultimate market domination.

How likely is the not-yet-profitable giant to make money for its investors? This depends, broadly, on two key factors: •

•

Long-term: the rise of autonomous vehicles. Currently, Uber lets drivers keep all of the fare and pays for central costs from investor money. It even has to subsidise drivers on competitive routes. The company is betting on being an established market leader by the time autonomous vehicles replace drivers.

Short term: will the legal framework – or frameworks, as laws vary wildly between various countries Uber operates in – support Uber’s ambitions?

The gig economy

• Uber is available in 65 countries and over 600 cities worldwide • 15 million Uber trips are completed each day

According to Deloitte, in the US, more than 40% of the workforce now operates within the gig economy. But what’s the story here in the UK? In February 2018, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published its report on the UK gig economy. The research had three key aims: • To develop a working definition of the gig economy • To provide an estimate of the number of individuals who have found work via the gig economy • To provide information on the characteristics of gig economy workers.

• Well over 5 billion trips have been completed worldwide

In consultation with BEIS and the Institute for Employment Studies, the research created this working definition of the gig economy:

• Uber revenue for 2018 came to $11.3 billion – a 43% increase on 2017, while gross bookings were up 45%, to $50 billion

“The gig economy involves the exchange of labour for money between individuals or companies via digital platforms that actively facilitate matching between providers and customers, on a short-term and payment by task basis.”

The NatCen panel found that 4.4% of the population of the UK had worked in the gig economy in the last 12 months. Not surprisingly, a lot of gig workers were younger that the rest of the population and lived in and around London.

Uber was the most commonly mentioned platform.

The gig economy is set to grow. Entrepreneur, writer and regular contributor to Forbes and The Huffington Post, Abdullahi Muhammed, talks about the four reasons why: 1. The educational gap: it is predicted that by 2020, most developed economies will have fewer college educated workers than they need.

2. Changing attitudes towards work: as millennials become managers and Gen Z enters the workforce, existing attitudes about work are changing. For some, the lack of a 9-to-5 week and regular salary will be discomforting, but others will enjoy the flexibility and the ability to structure the work-life balance that is high on their list of concerns.

3. Employers are increasingly using gig workers to lower costs and meet project needs: the gig worker is often viewed as an ‘economy’ hire, and the desire to cut down the overheads is unlikely to disappear in the next few years.

4. Technology and infrastructure is developing rapidly to accommodate freelancers: cloud computing, advanced networks and other technologies are making remote working a possibility for people across the globe.

The legal framework Investing into Uber is betting not just on the gig economy, but also on the fact that legal frameworks would allow it to develop, grow and become profitable in the foreseeable future.

Uber’s treatment of drivers has long been the subject of discussion, with the legal battle between the platform and its British possibly-employeespossibly-not ongoing since 2016.

In the IPO disclosures, the company itself acknowledged that many of its drivers are unhappy, writing: “While we aim to provide an earnings opportunity comparable to that available in retail, wholesale, or restaurant services or other similar work, we continue to experience dissatisfaction with our platform from a significant number of drivers.”

What’s more, Uber is likely to make the drivers even more unhappy in the

• Uber’s market share of the US ride-hailing market is estimated at between 65% and 69%

future. It is investing in self-driving cars to reduce the numbers of drivers it needs and because it plans to reduce payments to drivers in order to increase its chances of turning a profit: “As we aim to reduce driver incentives to improve our financial performance, we expect driver dissatisfaction will generally increase.”

“Dissatisfaction” is putting it mildly: Uber drivers in seven major US cities staged protests to highlight what they claim are poor working conditions and low wages. The protests, organised by an aptly named Gig Workers Rising, coincided with Uber’s stock market debut.

This is not a one-off either. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), whose mission is to promote policies that improve the economic and social wellbeing of people around the world, is calling for union membership and collective bargaining for gig economy workers. OECD represents 36 nations across the globe, estimates that 14% of jobs could be lost due to automation and a further 32% change radically in the next 15 years. These major challenges to the future of work need to be addressed by governments whose mission should be to prepare both workers and companies.

In the UK, in December 2018, Uber lost an appeal against a ruling that its drivers should be treated as workers rather than self-employed. The essential question the Court of Appeal had to answer with regards to worker status was whether, as the drivers argued, Uber contracts with the passengers to provide driving services with which the drivers perform; or whether, as Uber argued, it only acts as an intermediary with the drivers acting as independent contractors. The majority held that drivers are under a positive obligation to be available to drive whilst the Uber application is on and that amounts to “work” for the purposes of the Regulations. Uber was, however, given leave to challenge this latest ruling at the Supreme Court and stated that it would do so.

How would that affect Uber’s future?

It’s not just in the UK that Uber is facing legal challenges. Its IPO filing admitted that the platform’s approach is being challenged in “numerous legal proceedings globally” and that losing these fights would mean it could have to take on additional costs, such as benefits, payroll tax contributions, minimum wages and paid breaks. “Any such reclassification would require us to fundamentally change our business model,” Uber wrote.

So how attractive an investment is Uber? The stock market will tell.

19

How to avoid intergenerational conflict Increased life expectancy around the world has contributed to a rise in intergenerational conflict.

Today’s patriarch or matriarch who has created a successful business is unlikely to want to retire the moment they hit 65. This often leads to arguments with their adult children who may want to play a more active role in the business and to test out new ideas.

“Tensions can always exist between family members.”

With technologies rapidly evolving and social norms shifting, a structure has been created in which the older generation often subscribe to more traditional attitudes to business, while the younger generation has been exposed to different values. This can lead to clashes between them around issues of strategy and long-term vision within a family business.

Complicated family set-ups can also feed into intergenerational conflict: increasing levels of divorce and re-marriage, blended families and couples not choosing to marry have all resulted in a need to consider ex-spouses, unmarried partners and step-children when thinking about the finances of the business. An additional issue to consider here is who should be entitled to a share in the family assets when members marry. Should everyone obtain pre- and/or post-nuptial agreements to clarify things? What if the spouse or the family members refuse? If not carefully considered and acted upon these decisions can muddy the waters and lead to further conflicts.

There are sometimes divergent views in relation to the markets, sectors and risks regarding family businesses and this can also lead to clashes between generations. Younger family members might want to pursue a more entrepreneurial path or riskier investment options in the accumulation phase of their lives, while the older generation might want to capitalise on and protect existing family wealth as they move towards retirement.

Differing income needs and tax profiles can also add to these tensions. The younger generation may be interested in capital growth, while family elders with a depleted income source may want to supplement it.

20

Tensions can always exist between family members. The fact of being related does not mean they necessarily have common aspirations. However, with hard work, support, proper advice and appropriate structures, everyone can begin working towards a shared ethos and mutual goals. There are various arrangements legal advisers can put in place that can help different family members get what they need from the family and its wealth while protecting that wealth for the next generation.

If, on the other hand, the head of a company wishes to retain an element of control while still ensuring their children receive an income, there are corporate structures that can be put in place that only allow certain amounts to be released to the younger generation at particular times. This avoids uncertainty, as well as promoting fairness among the younger generation, who might otherwise be squabbling over the amount each is entitled to. One of the key benefits of a corporate structure like this is that one can avoid the tax restrictions imposed on trusts. In other words, the family can protect a great deal more of their wealth without incurring charges to inheritance tax that can arise when setting up trusts.

These include appropriate trust structures that ensure fairness within a family business so that, even though perhaps only one child is entering the business, the others are treated fairly, with the child going into the business receiving additional benefit in line with their input. This can be done by making sure that everyone inherits only as and when it is appropriate for them to do so, while allowing the child in the business to continue the parent’s legacy. This does, of course, rely on an element of trust to work most effectively.

We also act for farming families, in which the parents have perhaps never considered entering into formal partnerships with their children. As they approach retirement, however, they begin to consider more formal arrangements and worry what will happen to their estates when they are no longer around to run them. With a formal partnership agreement and forward thinking estate planning, the older generation can know that things will continue to run as they would wish once they retire, because they have been agreed by their children who are stepping in.

“With hard work, support, proper advice and appropriate structures, everyone can begin working towards a shared ethos and mutual goals.�

21

Open Banking: making a difference

By Dan Meadon-Bower and Bharti Moore Open Banking is one of the buzzwords you’ll hear a lot about in 2019, but what is it and why should you care?

Some of you will know it for its promise of ‘disruption’, ‘revolution’, or even ‘the end of banking as we know it’.

A few will know it from mobile banking apps and being able to access balances from accounts held at other banks.

One or two will know it from overhearing colleagues chatting about sandboxes, and wondering how they’re getting paid to play at work.

But research to date suggests that the vast majority of you will be wondering what Open Banking even is.

Open Banking as a concept is your ability to securely share your financial data, not just with your own bank or building society but also with approved third party providers of products and services (TPPs), providing you with more control over your financial data.

The TPPs will offer a range of services and products that broadly fall into two categories: 1. Account information services, such as simple account aggregation and money management tools, or comparison tools that base offers on actual spending habits.

2. Payment initiation services, letting you make payments directly from your bank account in place of using a debit card. You control which TPPs you want to share data with, and your bank must then share that data with the TPP via a secure application programming interface (API).

• TSB Bank

96

regulated providers made up of

64

TPPs

• Xero (UK) • Nordea Bank Abp • Figo GmbH • Ipagoo LLP • Skrill Ltd

third party providers &

• Alpha FX Ltd

32

• JPMorgan Chase Bank

account providers

22

• Yorkshire Building Society

12 third party providers live with customers

• APS Financial Ltd

97.93%

of API calls were successful in October with usage increasing steadily.

Collaboration and trust

Welcome to new open banking entrants:

Customers will be able to more easily compare competing products from different providers.

•

Comparison tools will be able to base switching recommendations on how people actually use their existing account.

•

Financial management tools will be able to help sweep money efficiently between accounts (potentially making these transfers) to maximise interest earned or minimise interest paid on credit card balances.

•

Debt advisory services will be able to access accurate and real-time data to provide more realistic and achievable management plans, instead of relying on customer estimates or old data held by the credit referencing agencies.

•

Detailed analysis of an individual’s actual account records could replace or complement traditional credit scoring, widening access to financial products to those potentially excluded by traditional methods - e.g. ‘thin file’ customers with little credit history, workers in the gig economy with erratic incomes, or individuals with adverse credit histories.

Sandboxes

Open Banking

Intellectual property

•

14.09.19

The sea change that Open Banking brings is that it is the customer, and not their bank or building society, that controls the power of their data. TPPs can now analyse that data to offer a range of innovative and potentially transformative services. The hope is that this will drive competition and innovation across the industry, putting customers in the driving seat.

disruption

Time for change

The future of Open Banking: •

Open-Banking-as-a-Service, with one TPP using its open banking platform to power the products of another.

•

Fintechs acting as friendly TPPs to support the testing and build of the bank’s dedicated interfaces.

•

Banks partnering with fintechs to plug capability gaps and fintechs partnering with banks to gain credibility in the marketplace.

•

Banks establishing or acquiring their own fintech entities to provide Open Banking services and a more innovative customer experience.

Open Banking for Good

Legal hot topics for Open Banking services

Nationwide Building Society’s Open Banking for Good (OB4G) Challenge provides a good example of the increasing role being played by ‘tech for good’ businesses (a sector worth £2.8 billion in 2018). In April Nationwide announced the initial seven fintechs that it would be supporting through the OB4G Challenge, enabling these businesses to access funding and support to develop or build on existing open banking based apps and services to help financially vulnerable people.

Collaboration and trust will be the measures by which Open Banking succeeds or fails. Getting the right framework in place is key to a successful collaboration. Common issues including protection and licensing of intellectual property, governance and ensuring responsibilities and dependencies are clearly established, and getting the right service level regime in place for long term relationships. Where agile delivery approaches are being adopted, addressing the inevitable divergence between the project and the contractual documentation will be key.

economy

bank

vault

safe

internet trust

technology

business online

storehouse

Undoubtedly, the main bar to customer uptake of Open Banking services is the requirement of a customer to place their trust in an unknown TPP. Banks themselves will be wary of the damage a TPP can do to their own brand. Ensuring contracts contain robust security compliance and oversight mechanisms will be critical to the ecosystem that is secure and stable enough to encourage consumer confidence.

Looking forward to September The key date is 14 September 2019, when the Open Banking principles go live. Banks and other payment service providers will be expected to have their dedicated interfaces ready. As the year progresses, we should see more TPPs and more products and services coming onto the market. This in turn should see greater consumer awareness of open banking and the benefits it can bring, and perhaps some indications of what tools and services customers are beginning to favour.

Dan Meadon-Bower, who recently joined Royds Withy King and was previously an in-house commercial lawyer for TSB, is the firm’s lead for commercial, technology and innovation. Bharti Moore is a senior associate in the Financial Services sector team.

wealth

financial system 23

THE AGEING P O P U L AT I O N THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE ROBOTIC Dr George Leeson, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing

PEOPLE ARE LIVING LONGER This is excellent news but an economic conundrum that politicians distracted by Brexit haven’t begun to address. The challenges of our ageing population are considerable. The resulting tax imbalance will rise to £15bn a year by 2060. Covering this gap will cost the equivalent of a 4p income tax rise for the working-age population.

It is easy to see why governments might regard raising the state retirement age as a way to cover the cost of an ageing population. A successful pursuit of full employment of people into their 70s will help cover the cost of our ageing population.

There are, of course, problems to this approach. Those who can happily work into their 70s and beyond are likely to be the privileged few. The highly educated elite who haven’t spent their working lives in physically demanding jobs that might have negatively affected their health. If the state pension age is pushed further away, for those with failing health, family responsibilities or no jobs, life will become very difficult.

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K E Y S TAT S • The number of people in the UK aged 85 or more is expected to more than double in the next 25 years – this is the fastest growing demographic.

• In some regions one in three of the population is over 65.

• Some coastal and rural towns are facing a pensioner explosion with them making up to 90% of the adult population.

• By 2040, nearly one in seven Britons will be over 75 .

• Some 10 million of us currently alive in the UK (and 130 million throughout Europe) are likely to live past the age of 100.

IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS! • 65 to 79 is the happiest age group for adults • 48% of pensioners shop online, a rise of 32% over the last decade • 72 year olds are the most frequent gym goers • 1,000,000 Airbnb users are over 60 (including 10% of all hosts) Dr George Leeson, Director and Senior Research Fellow from Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, which undertakes research into the implications of population change, shares some insights.

One of the greatest achievements of humankind has to be that as many people as possible are living as long as possible. Around the world, new generations can expect to live longer than previous generations.

However, with this come challenges for individuals, families, communities and societies.

A key challenge relates to the development of national policies which would maintain wellbeing for all citizens across increasingly long lives as well as address inequalities between and within generations.

Another relates to the way in which technological development will change our lives. The digital revolution of the 21st century threatens lowand even middle-skilled jobs, but also offers opportunities to develop new methods of providing health and social care for an ageing population.

The demography demands political attention in its own right. Recently, European populations experienced fundamental changes brought about by the ageing of their populations. Human longevity exceeded expectations and mid- and late-life mortality declined as the prevention and treatment of life style diseases such as cardiovascular diseases improved. The future will be one of a continued significant increase in length of life and the numbers achieving these long lives.

Bristol start-up Service Robotics Ltd has developed GenieConnect®, a robot companion service for the elderly in the UK to help them to live independently and alleviate loneliness.

Increasing length of life and numbers of citizens achieving these long lives will be challenging in both the developed and the emerging economies of the world. Regardless of location, the trend has fundamental consequences for the way in which individuals view and live these extending lives, but also for the way in which societal infrastructures (education, workplace, housing, transport, health and social care) will need to be adapted to the needs of these populations of the future.

At the individual level, these developments present a challenge to life course planning. Family dynamics will be challenged by the survival of these extreme aged generations delaying intergenerational succession and inheritance and depending on smaller families for support in frail and dependent old age.

The prospect of declining population size as well as this demography of super survivors also raises workplace issues as traditionally defined workforces contract, technologies increase and individuals look to continue working for many years past traditional retirement – both because of a desire to continue to contribute and a need to continue in order to remain financially secure into such great old age.

The challenges of ageing are truly multi-disciplinary. They require a lifecourse approach and recognition of the wider age-structural change within which they are occurring. Without significant improvements in health, population ageing will increase the amount of ill health and disability. Families and communities will face increasing pressure to balance care with other responsibilities. The productivity and economic success of countries will be increasingly tied to that of older workers.

Education and culture will become of even greater importance to enable personal and mental resilience and bring health and well-being across increasingly long lives. Appropriately designed urban environments are required, adapting to people’s changing needs as they age.

As governments around the world wake up to the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population, the need for robust research to inform policy development has never been more acute.

www.genieconnect.co.uk

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The little robot

MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE Research carried out by Age UK has found that loneliness is just as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. A sobering thought when we think that over 3.8 million people in the UK live alone, many of these being older and vulnerable adults.

This was the problem that Rob Parkes and his co-founder Tim Morgan wanted to solve when they started Service Robotics.

Following careers in telecoms, they were able to use their experience of the advanced technologies they had worked with to develop GenieConnect® – a robotic AI companion who provides companionship to older and vulnerable adults living alone.

Both Rob and Tim found themselves in situations where they had an elderly parent living alone for the first time. They wanted to create something that would help people continue to live independently.

GenieConnect® does just that – allowing elderly people to live in their own homes for longer using functionality such as stimulation, companionship, connectivity and safety and security applications.

Most importantly, the primary function of GenieConnect® is to alleviate loneliness –an epidemic in our society. Research has found that lonely people are 50% more likely to die prematurely than those with healthy social relationships – a problem that Rob and Tim are hoping they can help resolve.

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Behind GenieConnect® sits RemindMecare technology.

RemindMecare is a partner company to Service Robotics and is the UK’s foremost developer of software for the personalised engagement of older adults. This technology ensures that GenieConnect® is personalised to each individual user. RemindMecare started as a way to help early-stage dementia sufferers – something Rob and Tim are keen to incorporate into the GenieConnect® as it evolves.

The journey of the business hasn’t been without its challenges.

Among them was finding the right technical resources to work on the project, particularly as GenieConnect® uses voice engines and voice synthesis technology in a way that has never been done before.

Finding investors who share Rob and Tim’s vision was another challenge, one felt by many start-ups.

The ‘eureka’ moment came for the pair when they realised they could use robotics and advanced AI technologies in this unique way and offer a service to people in their own homes which would allow them to connect with other people.

The business has been on an incredible journey. However, in hindsight Rob feels that they could have done things slightly differently. Having spent a lot of time trying to work with off-the-shelf software the team realised they would have to create something themselves.

“Looking back, we would have started developing our own software sooner”, says Rob, “as we had a very particular take what was needed to be done”. They would have also set out with a less optimistic view on timescales; “everything takes longer than you think it’s going to,” Rob smiles.

“When working with technology partners – whether that is buying

Dan Meadon-Bower, partner and commercial, technology and innovation lead at Royds Withy King, comments: “When working with technology partners, whether that is buying a solution off the shelf or helping to develop your own – getting the contractual framework right is key. Protection of IP, scope and price are obvious issues, but creating a clear delivery plan with mechanisms for monitoring and managing project delays is often of greater practical importance. The use of AI and biometric technologies brings with them the added complexities of ensuring that the technology is used in a lawful, robust and accountable manner. GDPR is an ever-present concern, as much of this technology involves sensitive personal data. We’re all familiar with ‘privacy by design’, but it’s clear that the direction of travel for AI is ‘ethical by design’ too.”

independent for longer is to implement small solutions as problems develop. By re-enabling people’s abilities to do things for themselves, you can preserve independence.

As technology continues to develop and evolve so too will GenieConnect®. Next generation ‘bio-sensing’ technology could see gadgets such as Bluetooth insoles for shoes monitoring when people become unsteady on their feet and technology which could identify health issues before the patient realises they need help – just some of the ways technology can help medical professionals become proactive rather than reactive.

The GenieConnect® is about to be piloted with 150 people in the UK this summer. There will be no charge for people to try GenieConnect®, but the team will be keen to receive feedback from their ‘piloteers’ and to engage with them on how the service is going to iron out any kinks.

Royds Withy King social care expert Mei-Ling Huang adds, “There is apparently a theory in adult social care called ‘the compression of functional decline’ which suggests that the way to help people remain

GenieConnect® is designed to help people maintain their connections with others. It doesn’t purport to replace people but to connect them. It could help to combat the day-to-day problem of isolation before its serious ramifications take hold. Eventually, if healthcare technology (such as ‘sniffer’ technology, which can ‘smell’ or detect the molecules associated with disease) is integrated with GenieConnect®, it will help to spot illness early. The prevention of loneliness and disease could be valuable complements to social care in a person’s home, a care home or supported living service, keeping people happier and healthier for longer”.

To find out more or to get involved in the pilot scheme you can visit the GenieConnect® website at www.genieconnect.co.uk/ pilot-trial. You can register your interest and the team will be happy to let you know if there’s a pilot in your area.

GenieConnect® is about to be piloted with 150 people in the UK this summer.

There will be no charge for people to try GenieConnect®, but the team will be keen to receive feedback from their ‘piloteers’ and to engage with them on how the service is going, to iron out any kinks.

To find out more or to get involved in the pilot scheme you can visit the GenieConnect® website at www.genieconnect.co.uk/pilottrial. You can register your interest and the team will be happy to let you know if there’s a pilot in your area.

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Supporting teenage mental health through self-help apps on early awareness and practical steps to early intervention. Founded by a consultant clinical psychologist after a local teenager lost her life to anorexia nervosa, stem4 educates through its psycho education programme with secondary schools involving students, parents and teachers. stem4 also educates and trains health professionals such as GPs and school nurses. The charity provides information through its clinically informed website, mental health videos, booklets and guideline policies and procedures.

O

ne in eight children and young people aged 5-19 will present with at least one diagnosable mental health condition (NHS Digital, 2017).

Mental illness affects engagement with education, negatively impacts social interaction, leads to emotional distress. If not picked up early, mental illness often becomes a chronic condition. Early identification and intervention is crucial, as well as the urgent need for prevention. stem4 is a teenage mental health charity which aims to provide accurate mental health education

Due to demand, stem4 is putting digital as the heart of the charity and offer early intervention through a suite of self-help apps. Its first app, the award-winning Calm Harm, helps young people manage their urge to self-harm. The app has had over 900,000 installs from over 171 countries and is listed on the NHS Apps Library. Clear Fear, an app to help manage anxiety, and funded in part by Comic Relief and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation has had nearly 20,000 downloads since its release in December 2018.

distressing and difficult for parents and friends to know what to do best to help a young person struggling and also hard for the young person themselves to know how to ask for help without some sort of prompt or support. The app will provide helpful tips, information and resources.

Building and maintaining apps that are clinically effective is expensive. stem4 relies on donations and its wonderful fundraisers to enable the charity to continue providing its digital offers. They are currently working very hard to fundraise for this new app, so if you would like to help them, there are a number of fundraising opportunities as well a fundraising pack available.

Find out more at www.stem4.org.uk or find them on social media @stem4org @calmharmapp @clearfearapp

We have also started work creating an app to help parents and friends support a young person going through a mental health problem.

This is because it is very

Is your charity doing something innovative, enterprising or on the leading edge of the sector?

Then how would you like to be in with a chance to tell our readers about it, using the back cover of this magazine? Contact aoc@roydswithyking.com for more details.

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