EDITION 1039
30 SEPTEMBER 2024

On this day in 1938, the leaders of Britain, Italy and France signed the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, allowing the Third Reich to annex part of what was then Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain claimed it would prevent a Second World War, but it is widely seen as an act of appeasement that emboldened Nazi Germany. This year some European leaders cited the treaty as a warning against delaying support for Ukraine and similarly enabling Russia.

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

Just before you dive in, remember our POTENTIAL workbook [see below] is on offer for only £99. This unique workbook will help guide your organisation to its highest potential. Contact us today to start your transformation.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to identify your strengths. Understanding your strengths in the workplace is an important part of being self-aware and taking control of your career. Knowing your strengths and how to improve them can help you find work that you enjoy while also enabling you to hone your skills in the areas most relevant to your career path. READ MORE

2. The most talent-competitive country. Switzerland is the world’s most talent-competitive country for the 11th consecutive year, according to the IMD 2024 World Talent Ranking. The ranking scores countries across three different criteria, including their ability to sustain homegrown talent, the appeal they have for overseas talent, and the quality of skills and competencies present in their local talent. Singapore came second, while Luxembourg was third. Eight of the top 10 ranked countries were based in Europe, but leading economic powerhouses Germany, France and the UK landed at 15, 21 and 27 respectively. CNBC

3. Then there were four. The Conservative Party conference has kicked off, with the leadership contest the hottest topic at the ICC in Birmingham. The four remaining candidates - Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat - are making their case to members before they are whittled down to two by MPs on 9 and 10 October. All four leadership candidates will face on-stage questions and give separate stump speeches before the conference concludes on Wednesday. The winner is due to be announced on 2 November. Who do you think will be the next leader of the Conservative Party? Please share your views in our latest poll. VOTE HERE

4. EU business shrinks but UK resilient. The eurozone's private sector activity has unexpectedly contracted in September, according to a monthly survey of senior executives by S&P Global. The US rating agency's composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gathers data from both services firms and manufacturers, sank sharply by 2.1 points to 48.9 this month from August's 51.0, falling below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the first time since February. Analysts had predicted a modest decline to 50.5. The slump was fuelled by Germany's business activity hitting a seven-month low, and France returning to contraction after an uptick in August due to the Olympics. Reuters

5. OECD upgrades global growth forecast. The world's largest economies have "turned the corner" on inflation, the OECD said, though it tempered its optimism by telling governments to cut spending and raise taxes in order to recover fully. The UK's growth forecast for 2024 was upgraded to 1.1%, from a 0.4% prediction in May. The OECD now expects the UK growth to outpace Japan, Italy and Germany, ranking it joint second with Canada and France and behind only the US. The Paris-based think tank remained concerned about Germany, where consumers face a 16% increase in food prices above average wage growth since 2019. However, the eurozone as a whole had its forecast upgraded, from 0.7% growth to 1.3%. Global growth is expected to stabilise at 3.2% in 2024 and 2025, an increase from the 3.1% forecast in May. Bloomberg

6. Global warming worsened Storm Boris. Global warming doubled the chance of extreme rain seen in Europe earlier this month, research has found. Scientists at World Weather Attribution analysed the rain which fell over four days during Storm Boris in central and eastern Europe and compared it to a simulated world which was 1.3C cooler. They found that the storm was twice as likely to happen, and the rain was 7% more intense than a world which had not been as warmed by burning fossil fuels. If the world warms more than 2C above the preindustrial average, such storms would be 50% more likely and 5% more intense, the study found. The Guardian

7. The end of an era. Britain's last coal-fired power station ceased operations today, marking the end of an industry. Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire, the country's "last bastion of coal", shut down at one minute past midnight, The national milestone brings down the curtain on nearly a century and a half of a polluting fuel that powered Britain's industrial revolution. The UK will be the first G7 nation to phase out coal, a testament to a remarkably successful drive to stamp down on the dirtiest source of carbon emissions. This is partly due to luck (the discovery of abundant gas in the North Sea) but is also the result of deliberate policies. The Economist

8. 50 pubs closing each month. Over the first half of 2024, 305 pubs in England and Wales permanently closed, averaging 50 closures per month. Although this marks a decline from the 383 closures during the same period in 2023, pubs continue to struggle under rising costs, inflation and the impending removal of business rates relief, with experts warning that further closures are likely due to upcoming tax hikes in 2025. Industry groups are calling on the government to cut beer duty, reform business rates and freeze other alcohol duties to help the sector recover and prevent more closures. The north-west of England experienced the most closures (46), while Wales saw the fewest (15). The Guardian

9. The shifting shoals of politics. 60% of voters believe that Labour will lose the next election, while just over half do not expect Keir Starmer to be PM by then, according to a poll by More in Common. One in six of those who voted Labour in July’s general election now regret having done so, and 53% of voters believe that Starmer is doing a bad job, according to YouGov. But Labour is still the first choice among voters 65 and over, according to Techne UK: 19% support Labour, 14% the Conservatives and 12% Reform UK. Editor

10. The bottom line. The number of people claiming incapacity or disability benefit, or both, has risen from 2.8 million before the pandemic to 3.9 million today. About a quarter of claimants are in full or part-time work. The number of under-40s applying for sickness benefits has risen by 150% since the pandemic, to 11,500 a month. Daily Telegraph