Francesca Cassidy

4 weeks ago | raconteur.net | Francesca Cassidy

When it comes to choosing where we want to work, only a lucky few of us get it right the first time. Laura Fenton is one of them. She joined Omnicom Media Group in 2004 on an agency graduate scheme and quickly worked her way up through the ranks. In 2020, she became CEO of one of the group’s agencies, OMD. Three years later, she was promoted to UK CEO for the global conglomerate.

1 month ago | raconteur.net | Francesca Cassidy

Investors in private companies are typically betting that one day the company will grow large enough to float on the public stock exchange, providing early backers with a bumper payday. But companies now are remaining private for longer, thus delaying opportunities for investors to cash in. This is partly because money is being allocated to private-market investments. But also, going public comes with additional expense and regulatory scrutiny, which may disincentivise growth-stage companies.

1 month ago | raconteur.net | Francesca Cassidy

For Tom Hale, CEO of Oura, the Finnish smart-ring company, the “right” role was worth waiting for. After graduating from Harvard, Hale took senior positions at some of the world’s most exciting tech companies, including Macromedia, which was acquired by Adobe in 2005. He then served as chief operations officer at HomeAway, a travel company, before spending five years as president of Momentive AI. But when the chief executive role opened at Oura, Hale knew that the right role had finally come.

2 months ago | raconteur.net | Francesca Cassidy

For decades, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been dominated by consumer-facing campaigns – brands that wow audiences with emotional storytelling, viral videos and purpose-led messaging. Business-to-business marketing, on the other hand, has been traditionally viewed as dry, unimaginative and statistic-heavy. But that tide is turning. B2B is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting frontiers for marketing creativity. Unlike some B2C budgets, B2B budgets are growing.

2 months ago | raconteur.net | Francesca Cassidy

Last week – on so-called ‘Liberation Day’ – US President Donald Trump announced a slew of new tariffs on dozens of counties. Although there has been much discussion of tariffs since the president took office, the scale of the levies announced caught many off guard. The EU has been hit with a blanket 20% tariff and many Asian nations, including Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan, have also been targeted. The highest tariffs have been levied against China.