One of life's great mysteries for men when they are at a bar or club is why women always seem to go to the ladies "powder room" in groups.
There could soon be an equally mysterious occurrence that women will puzzle over and that is why men will soon disappear to the "gents" together during a social evening out.
Well, it won't be to adjust their makeup or to catch up on the local gossip.
No, if UK company Captive Media has anything to do with it the visits to the toilet by men could soon be a great marketing opportunity.
In the eyes of Captive Media this represents a great advertising opportunity as rather than staring blankly at the wall in front of you (or telling the person with the clipboard and stopwatch to go away) they have developed a urinal-based games console which allows men to, how can we say it but aim and shoot at targets with their "stream".
The games are mixed with adverts and include for example a downhill skiing game which is controlled by your "stream".
It remains to be seen what products will be advertised in this way but one thing for sure ladies is that if your boyfriend or husband returns from the gents whilst you're out together on a social evening and he says that he's just beaten his personal best then you know what it refers to.
Was this an Innocent transaction by Coke?
"Smoothie drinks" have become very fashionable over recent years.
Smoothies are drinks made out of crushed fruit and are seen as a healthy alternative to carbonated drinks such as Coke or Pepsi.
Perhaps the most famous smoothie manufacturer in the UK is Innocent Smoothies. The business was set up in 1999 by three friends who famously gave up their jobs to start the business after they invested £500 on fruit and turned it into smoothies and sold them at a music festival. The business has grown since then and been a true success story.
The brand has a "quirky, playful" image as well as promoting itself to be ethically aware (it donates 10% of its profits to charity).
So, what has Coca-Cola got to do with all of this?
Porter's 5 Forces strategy model is well known to students of professional exams.
If a 5 forces analysis is done on for example the traditional Coca-Cola carbonated drink then a substitute product would be a smoothie. There is a general trend in a lot of countries towards healthier living and the threat of a substitute product such as a smoothie could be seen as a threat.
In 2009 Coca-Cola bought an 18% stake in Innocent for £30 million and then in the following year increased its shareholding to 58% for a reported £65 million. They then increased their shareholding to over 90% for an undisclosed sum. From a Porter's 5 forces point of view this is a good move as it means that one of the substitute products is now within the Coke family.
There has been a fair amount of discussion since the aquisition about whether Innocent is still the ethical likeable "under dog" that it was given that it is now part of one of the biggest companies in the world.
One thing is for sure though and whilst it was certainly an Innocent transaction it was also definitely a well thought out strategic acquisition.
https://www.theexpgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/innocent-smoothies.jpg 1355 2409 Steve Crossman https://www.theexpgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/styleguide-EXP-4.png Steve Crossman2018-07-11 17:11:392018-07-20 08:20:03Was this an Innocent transaction by Coke?
Oh dear. It certainly wasn't a great performance by the Big 4 when it came to their annual inspections by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in the UK.
The quality of the audits performed had decreased and for KPMG in particular, according to the FRC "there has been an unacceptable deterioration in quality".
The FRC is an independent body who check the quality of the audits undertaken by the 8 largest firms in the UK. Think of it as "auditing the auditors".
Overall results from the most recent FRC inspections during 2017/18 show that 72% of audits required no more than limited improvements (compared to 78% in 2016/17). Or to put it another way, 28% of the audits reviewed required improvements (category 2B) or significant improvements (category 3).
For KPMG though things were particularly bad. When the FRC looked at their audits within the FTSE 350 (the largest 350 companies on the London stock exchange), they found that 50% required MORE than just limited improvements (compared to 35% in the previous year).
If you take a step back then this really isn't very good is it. If you went to a restaurant where 50% of the meals served required more than limited improvements you'd be unlikely to go back to that restaurant again and I'm sure that restaurant wouldn't be in business for much longer.
KPMG are going to face increased scrutiny by the FRC in the next round of inspections. 25% more KPMG audits will be examined over the 2018/19 cycle of work and the implementation of their Audit Quality Plan will be closely monitored.
The FRC noted that there were a number of factors. These included a failure to challenge management and show appropriate scepticism across their audits.
Whilst the level of quality found within the Big 4 audits fell, the performance of the mid tier companies improved. The FRC inspections on BDO, GT, Mazars and Moore Stephens showed general improvements in the quality of inspected audits.