Investment banking falters
The revenues of top investment banks in 2019 fell to their lowest level since the financial crisis, according to research from industry monitor Coalition. It says the world’s 12 largest investment banks posted combined revenues of $147.5bn across their trading and investment banking businesses last year, down 4% year-on-year, and at the lowest level since 2008. According to Coalition, the banks responded by cutting 6% of workers in those divisions – some 2,900 people – the biggest drop in employment since it began collating the data in 2012. The growing trend towards passive investing has been identified as one of the causes, with fewer opportunities for banks to take trading commissions.
MBAs get ethical
Responsible and ethical leadership is a critical issue for MBA students, according to Tomorrow’s MBA, an annual survey by UK education market research consultancy CarringtonCrisp. In its latest study, of 600 prospective business school students, 70% identified ethical leadership as important to business education teaching and research. The next most important factor was diversity and equality, cited by 67% of respondents. Potential students regard responsible leadership as a fundamental aspect of business education teaching and research, not as a specialist add-on, says the company. They are asking for exposure to not-for-profits or NGOs as part of their MBA.
Reefs in danger
The world’s coral reefs may completely disappear by the end of the century, according to scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Researchers at the university say that the reefs will be killed by a combination of warming waters – caused by climate change – and ocean acidification. They examined areas where they thought that reefs might be able to survive the changing ocean and found that, by 2100, on current trends, there will be virtually none left. The researchers simulated ocean conditions such as sea surface temperature, wave energy, acidity of the water, pollution, and overfishing in areas where corals now exist. They also considered human population density and land cover use to project how much waste would be released into the surrounding waters. Baja California and the Red Sea are among the few locations where coral is expected to survive by the end of the century.
Bilingual bonus
Babies in bilingual homes are 33% faster at switching attention than their peers in homes where only one language is spoken, a study has found. Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University used eye-tracking technology with seven- to nine-month-old babies to see how quickly they responded when a new picture was displayed on the screen in front of them. They chose babies to isolate the effect of simply hearing two languages from speaking them. The researchers concluded that “the bilingual babies were exploring more of their environment”. In the next phase of their research, they will look at whether this faster attention span in infancy will have a longer lasting development impact.
Cake culture threat
HR health and wellbeing initiatives are being undermined by the prevalence of office cake, new research has suggested. A study on office ‘cake culture’, conducted by health coach Lou Walker at the University of Chester, highlighted the availability of cakes and snacks in office environments, and suggested that this could be reducing the benefits of companies’ investment in the health and wellbeing of employees. Of 940 UK office workers surveyed in the report, 87% said cake was available in their office at least once a week. More than a third (36%) said they never refused cake and 68% found it hard to resist, but almost all (95%) said cake should only be on offer once a week or less. Nearly a third (31%) of respondents said office cake had led them to gain weight, and 38% felt an abundance of cake made it difficult to eat healthily at work.