Having recently realized that Pret gave away a million cups of coffee a year for free as their "random act of kindness" loyalty scheme, I was immediately inspired by such a campaign. Having gotten a free coffee for 2-3 times from Pret myself, I had not quite realized it could have been a company policy. After all, I had never in any other occasions received free drinks or food, except when it was them who made a mistake. The very first time I got a free coffee from Pret, it so happened that it was the same day the entire office building’s power was cut by accident, I thought they might have known and pitied us, that’s why I got a free coffee. I ran telling everybody in the office they could get free coffee from Pret. It turned out that it was the staff’s random act of kindness, although [...]

Corporate social responsibility is becoming a very important hot topic in today’s business world. It is no longer just about making a profit and going global. Now is also a time where companies care equally about giving back to the society and creating a sustainable operating environment. Sustainability has become as critical as profitability has. In recent years, organisations are voted and rewarded for fighting climate change and global warming. For example, in the US, a dozen leading companies have committed to investing a total of $140 billion in new funds to combat climate change in a government initiative created to demonstrate the private sector’s commitment to the issue. These companies committed both money and resources to fighting climate change. They included many of the most prominent corporations, including retailers, banks and tech companied in the country. In the UK, companies such as Google, Apple, Starbucks, Unilever have all formalized [...]

In the London job market, there seems to be an overwhelming consensus that if you do not have significant experience in a job that is being advertised, mostly likely you will never be considered for the position. This is especially so for big companies who use computer-generated systems as a screening measure to filter out candidates as much as they can before the first round of interview even starts. In the case of a busy and growing company who engages with external recruiters to source talents for them, less experienced recruiters, while under KPI pressure, become mere telephone machineries and adopt a simple ‘tick boxes’ approach to sourcing candidates and completely miss the hidden gems and talents amongst a pile of applications. This is a pretty worrying phenomenon. London is supposed to be one of the most open-minded, talent-rich and innovative cosmopolitan cities in the world. On one hand, you [...]