TDX Group, the leading provider of analytics-based debt management, today launches The Debt Standard - the UK’s first independently awarded quality mark for responsible and ethical debt solutions companies.
The Debt Standard addresses an urgent need to simplify the complex and confusing debt solutions market. TDX Group describes consumers seeking a way out of a debt problem as ‘extremely vulnerable' and believes that many are ‘panic buying’ the first debt solution they’re offered. The company points to figures from its own market study which shows that, of the £9 billion set to flow into debt solutions during 2008, around £8.1 billion (90%) will be managed by the first debt solution provider the debtor had spoken to.
The Debt Standard will enable over-indebted consumers to select the most appropriate advice when seeking a debt solution. Its quality mark will provide an instantly recognisable signpost - guiding consumers towards accredited IVA, Debt Management Plan and Trust Deed solution providers.
Read the full article here.
The Independent, Sunday 22 June 2008
When Sarah Holland set up a bed and breakfast business in the Old Butcher's Shop in Orford, Suffolk, three years ago, her first call was not to the local tourist board but to her son, asking him to help set up a website.
Mrs Holland, whose business is based in an area of eastern England that could be described as truly remote, calculated that the conventional approach to promoting a B&B – guidebooks and tourist centres – would not work.
...
One sure sign that B&Bs are seen as a market enjoying an internet-inspired renaissance is that larger operators are scrambling to sign them up to web portals. Nigel David, a former senior director of TUI and Thomas Cook, is now chief executive of Eviivo, one of the newest companies offering online bookings.
In Eviivo's case, a software package called frontdesk offers customers bookings direct from the websites of B&Bs and guesthouses, as well as linking the properties to more than 40 travel and leisure websites, including lastminute.com; hotels.com; Co-op Travel; expedia.co.uk; bedandbreakfasts.co.uk; and theAA.com. In return, Eviivo takes a 6 per cent cut of any sale.
It may seem curious that someone familiar with dealing with the high turnovers of major travel companies would be interested in the returns from a 6 per cent cut of a £40 room, but Mr David is convinced the internet has transformed the fortunes of the B&B. "Rural properties are the ones that are really benefiting," he said. "They've had to rely on local traffic and guidebooks in the past but I think the world is moving beyond the guide book. This is allowing small B&Bs and guesthouses to compete with the Travelodges of this world."
Daily Telegraph, 2nd June 2008
As the clock ticked towards midnight here last night, an evening that was made to show off Twenty20 cricket was ruled by a man who spent his life becoming the master of the game's most traditional format.
Shane Warne retired from Test cricket last year and then answered the call from English entrepreneur Manoj Badale to take a punt on the Rajasthan Royals, the Indian Premier League's cheapest franchise, and the cards fell his way in glorious fashion.
Warne has led his hotch-potch of international players and unknown Indian youngsters to the IPL's inaugural title and in the process help to partly heal the one niggling regret of his life. That he never captained Australia in a Test match was more down to off-field weaknesses than any cricketing ones. Too many dodgy tabloid stories damaged him, but in India it is the present, not the past, that counts.
But a maturity befitting a man pushing 40, allied with inspiring leadership, has brought together his Rajasthan "boys". His cunning cricketing brain has done the rest. He was there at the finish last night, at the non-striker's end, as Sohail Tanvir hit the required single off the final ball to beat Chennai by three wickets.
Economic Times, 18th May 2008
When quizzed about his high profile IPL team`s insipid performance, Vijay Mallya squarely put the blame on captain Rahul Dravid and ex-CEO Charu Sharma’s team selection.
While his public outbursts have not done much to improve the confidence of his team, would Mallya have done the same with an under-performing division at any of his businesses? With some teams backed by cash rich promoters suffering embarrassing defeats, and unfancied ones making a mark, IPL franchise owners are quickly realising that the principles of good management, sound business models, effective human resources management and communication hold good not only in the boardrooms but also in professional sport.
A little more than halfway into the season, Sunday ET finds out how successful have the corporate houses been in running their teams like a new business unit.
eviivo has won the prestigious Travolution Award for 'Best Use of Technology' in the 'Travel Agent Awards' category.
Eviivo were amongst the winners at the Travolution Awards 2008. Other winners included TravelRepublic, BA.com and TripAdvisor.
Judges commented on eviivo and its revolutionary online booking system, frontdesk:
“An excellent piece of technology which values and helps the smaller players in the industry to work with the major brands. This is changing the distribution landscape for small brands.”
The Travolution Awards is organised by Travolution Magazine - the UK's only media brand dedicated to the online travel industry - and is the most respected event for the travel sector.
Jeremy Snape, Performance Coach of the Rajasthan Royals, talks about their success
Shane Warne once said that a coach is just the thing that takes the players to the match, so you can imagine my trepidation on joining his Rajasthan Royals side as "performance coach" for this unprecedented journey into the Indian Premier League.
It's strange to think that six months ago the Royals were merely an idea on a piece of paper: no trophy room, no black-and-white pictures on the walls, no heritage. Now we have a stunning stadium, branded buses, top-class kit and a multimillion-pound player budget. This revolution has been on everyone's minds and a week out here has been enough to see why. Cricket's landscape is about to change forever.
My involvement in the IPL came about through the London-based businessman Manoj Badale and his links with my county, Leicestershire. Manoj hails from Jaipur and has a shrewd commercial eye and a passionate cricketing heart. The opportunity to secure his native franchise for his company, Emerging Media, was too good to miss.
Continue reading the article on The Guardian website
1/24/2008
The Indian Premier League, the BCCI-backed Twenty20 tournament, continues to gather steam. The 8 cities in which the teams are to be based was revealed on Thursday (January 24), when the bids for the franchises were opened.
Mukesh Ambani won the bid for the Mumbai team of IPL $111.9 million, while Shah Rukh Khan bagged the Kolkata team of IPL for $ 75.09 million. While, United Breweries chief -- Vijay Mallya -- has bagged the Bangalore team for $111.6 million.
Moreover, 'Investors in Cricket' [Emerging Media] won the bid for the Jaipur team for $67 million. GMR Group won the bid for the Delhi team of IPL for $84 million and Ness Wadia bagged the Chandigarh team for $76 million. 'India Cements' will take over the Chennai team, while 'Deccan Chronicle' will handle the franchisee for the Hyderabad team of IPL. While 'India Cements' won the bid for Chennai team for $91 million, 'Deccan Chronicle' won the bid for the Hyderabad team for $ 107.01 million.
After bagging the Bangalore team in the auction, an exhilirated United Breweries chief -- Vijay Mallya said:"I got the Bangalore team for 111.6 million. I was an underbidder for the Mumbai team, which went to Mukesh Ambani for $111.9 million. We are going to use it as a platform to promote all our brands. I am very excited."
The auction includes player contracts and the team franchises. A very relieved and happy M Badale, Winner of Jaipur Team said that a lot of work has to be done. He further added that they would work closely with -- Greg Chappell -- whose role would be of that of an advisor to the 20:20 franchisee.
StrategyEye is mixing Web search services with in-house analysis to provide companies with business info in easy-to-digest, interactive formats
by Mark Scott
What do you do if your average Google search just isn't finding the business information you need? That's a question troubling managers at some of the world's leading media and communications companies, such as IBM (IBM) and MTV (VIA), who are looking for a better way to sift through the mountain of Internet chatter to figure out what's really going on in their industries—and who's saying what about their global brands.
Enter StrategyEye, a London-based startup hoping to do for market research what Google (GOOG) did for the search engine. Founded in 2004 by former investment banker Nick Gregg, the company has developed technology that scans the Internet, including Web 2.0 services such as blogs and social networks, looking for everything it can find about a given company or topic. All the information is then packaged into an easy-to-use graphic display that helps even the most tech-illiterate manager grasp how his firm is perceived worldwide and find linkable resources for further research.
By David Blackwell, Financial Times
Published: Nov 28, 2007
Debt Free Direct, the personal insolvency specialist, is changing its name, its finance director and its year- end as it attempts to put behind it "the defining year for the IVA industry".
The Aim-traded group is also passing its interim dividend and suspending a share buy-back.
The group is the market leader in the supply of individual voluntary arrangements, which allow over-indebted consumers to pay off a proportion of their debts, usually over five years.
Early this year it warned that profits would be 10 to 15 per cent below expectations following a series of warnings from other IVA specialists as lenders took a tougher line.
Andrew Redmond, chief executive and one of the founders, predicted that two to three strong players would emerge from the turmoil of the industry this year and he expected Debt Free Direct to be a beneficiary. The buy-back had been suspended because of the consolidation opportunities becoming available.
He also predicted that a continuing flow of financially overstretched people would drive the business further. "Most people don't associate the credit crunch as good news - but from our point of view it is," he said.
From The Telegraph, 27th June 2007:
Debt management group Debt Free Direct has bought consumer debt advice group Clear Start UK for £10.9m and said profits more than doubled last year.
Andrew Redmond, chief executive, said: "Clear Start is a company we have admired for some time and the potential for collaboration is compelling.
"We believe that this acquisition represents the logical next step in Debt Free Direct's development and will provide an excellent opportunity for our continued success and further profitable growth for the enlarged group."