Business

JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest bank by assets, has approved the use of its in-house artificial intelligence system to help employees write annual performance reviews — a move that underscores how rapidly AI-generated content is being integrated into corporate workflows.

According to the Financial Times, the US banking giant has launched a large language model (LLM) tool that enables staff to generate draft reviews based on prompts, streamlining a process that can be notoriously time-consuming in large organisations.

The rollout, which follows months of internal testing, highlights both the productivity gains and ethical dilemmas associated with AI in the workplace — where the line between human and machine-generated text is becoming increasingly blurred.

JPMorgan’s internal guidance instructs employees to use the AI system as a starting point when composing reviews, emphasising that final responsibility rests with the author. The tool cannot be used for compensation or promotion decisions, according to people familiar with the rollout.

The bank declined to comment publicly but sources said the move was intended to improve efficiency and consistency across its global workforce of more than 300,000 employees.

A recent report by Boston Consulting Group found that AI-assisted drafting of performance reviews can reduce writing time by up to 40 per cent, freeing managers to focus on coaching and qualitative feedback.

JPMorgan has already rolled out its LLM Suite, an internal AI platform comparable to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to around 200,000 employees within eight months of its launch last year — one of Wall Street’s largest-scale adoptions of generative AI.

The platform, developed in-house for security and compliance, allows employees to safely access and experiment with third-party AI tools while protecting client and regulatory data.

The technology is already used across the bank — by software engineers to review code, investment bankers to draft presentations, and legal teams to review contracts.

JPMorgan invests more in technology than any other global bank, with plans to spend $18 billion in 2025, including $2 billion annually on AI initiatives, according to chief executive Jamie Dimon.

“It affects everything — risk, fraud, marketing, idea generation, customer service. And it’s the tip of the iceberg,” Dimon told Bloomberg earlier this month.

Raj Abrol, CEO of AI firm Galytix, said the announcement demonstrates how financial institutions are accelerating AI adoption — but warned that trust remains a key barrier.

“It’s clear the banking industry is warming up to the limitless power of AI to transform critical processes,” Abrol said.
“However, the use of specialist AI assistants must go further — particularly in risk and credit management — if banks are to fully realise the long-term benefits.”

Across the financial services sector, AI is increasingly viewed as a strategic differentiator, with firms from Goldman Sachs to HSBC exploring how to integrate large language models into their operations.

Dimon has previously said AI will “change every job”, eliminating some roles while creating new ones.

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JPMorgan launches AI chatbot to help staff write performance reviews

The Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards, in association with BGF, have revealed a powerhouse lineup of female founders shortlisted for the UK’s leading awards celebrating women in business.

Now in their 22nd year, the awards have championed women transforming industries and communities since 2003. This year’s finalists — selected from nearly 1,000 entries nationwide — span every sector from healthcare and technology to hospitality, manufacturing and creative industries, representing the full breadth of the UK’s entrepreneurial talent.

The 2025 finalists include pioneering start-ups, established leaders running multimillion-pound companies, and purpose-driven entrepreneurs using business as a force for good.

The awards do more than celebrate achievement — they aim to create tangible growth opportunities for women-led businesses. Winners gain access to a network of mentors, investors and commercial partners designed to help scale operations and secure funding.

This year, headline sponsor Tide will also award a £20,000 grant to one outstanding female-founded SME, selected from the finalists by an expert judging panel.

Nicole Goodwin and Sophie Catto, joint managing directors of AllBright everywoman, said: “Access to funding continues to be one of the greatest challenges faced by women starting and scaling their businesses.
These awards exist to change that — building a powerful ecosystem of role models, mentors and investors who champion female founders. They don’t just celebrate success stories, they help create them.”

Despite growing awareness of gender inequality in entrepreneurship, female-founded businesses receive only 2p of every £1 of UK equity investment. Closing that gap could add an estimated £250 billion to the UK economy, according to industry research.

Heather Cobb, UK managing director at Tide, said: “We’re proud to celebrate the resilience, optimism and innovation of women transforming industries across the UK.
Recognition is important, but tangible support is vital — that’s why we’re awarding a £20,000 grant to help one exceptional founder accelerate her business growth.”

Andy Gregory, CEO of BGF, added: “The everywoman Awards play a vital role in championing female founders. We’re committing £300 million to female-powered businesses over the next five years to ensure talented women have access to the capital and strategic support they need to thrive.”

2025 finalists announced

Finalists span nine award categories, including the Balance Award, Entrepreneur for Good, International Expansion, Scale Up, and Tech Innovator awards.

THE BALANCE AWARD:

Rana Righton, managing director of The Gluten Free Bakery, from London

Abi Selby, founder of Spabreaks.com, from Brighton

Zoe Williams, founder of Aegle’s, from London

ENTREPRENEUR FOR GOOD AWARD – sponsored by Specsavers:

Maya Amangeldiyeva, founder of Mayas Community C.I.C, from Herne Bay

Gillian Ashcroft, founder of Exceptional Care, from Ormskirk

Alex Head, founder & CEO of Social Pantry, from London

Ruby Raut, CEO of WUKA Ltd, from Welwyn Garden City

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION AWARD – sponsored by Rathbone Financial Planning:

Hinna Azeem, founder & creative director of H.AZEEM London, from London

Karen Hewitt, chief of retail at Character.com, from Swansea

THE NEXT LEVEL AWARD:

Toria Chan & Jules Shiel-Boulger, co-founders of STEPS, from Sheffield

Amy Knight, co-founder & director of Must Have Ideas, from Maidstone

Jessica Lancaster & Charlotte Stagg, co-founders & CEOs of Coconut Lane UK/Cocopup London, from Witney

SCALE UP AWARD – sponsored by BGF:

Olivia Bishop, co-founder of Toco Swim Limited, from London

Julie Collison, director of Clear Strategy Limited, from Dublin

Niamh Murdock, chief executive officer of The Avoca Clinic, from Dublin

SOCIAL STAR AWARD:

Claudia Bish, director of The Blogger Agent, from Brighton

Daisy Kelly, founder & CEO of Glow For It, from Hammersmith

Melissa Neill, founder & CEO of Body By Bikini, from Bristol

SOLOPRENEUR AWARD:

Katy Fridman, founder of Flexible Working People, from London

Emma Harper, CEO of Core Plus Tuition Limited, from Banbury

Leah Rendall, owner & CEO of Callander K9, from Callander

Erika Tranfield, CEO of Pride Angel, from West Kirby

SMALL ENTERPRISE AWARD – sponsored by Tide

Dina Jahina, director of ETO, from London

Lucie Macleod, founder of Hair Syrup, from Goodwick

Sylvia Oates, CEO of Six Till Six, from Nottingham

Rosie Skuse, founder & CEO of Molto Music Group, from London

TECH INNOVATOR AWARD

Amber Michelle Hill, founder & CEO of Research Grid, from Norwich

Katya Linossi, co-founder & CEO of ClearPeople Limited, from London

Emma O’Brien, founder & CEO of Embridge Consulting, from Kent

This year’s judging panel includes some of Britain’s most successful business leaders and investors, such as Chrissie Rucker (The White Company), Susan Allen (Here We Flo), Sarah Anderson CBE (The Listening Place), and Nell Daly (Revenge Capital).

The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony at The Londoner, Leicester Square, on 2 December 2025.

For ticket information, visit www.everywoman.com/entrepreneur-awards.

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Finalists announced for 2025 Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards

Women working in the technology sector have been urged to trust their instincts, back their ideas, and challenge barriers to change, as industry leaders gathered at the first Inspiring Women in Technology event in Birmingham.

The event, hosted by the School of Coding & AI (SOC), brought together innovators and senior professionals from across the Midlands to discuss how women can turn the challenges of AI into opportunities for leadership and impact.

Suki Gill, (pictured) Director of Education and Quality at SOC, was joined by Aditi Desai, Consultant in Maternity and Gynaecology at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and co-founder of the iCount surgical safety system, and Hollie Whittles, Information Security & HR Director at Purple Frog Systems.

Reflecting on her own career, which began at Marconi before retraining as a teacher, Gill shared her perspective on building confidence and resilience in an industry still seen as male-dominated.

“For all its advancements, the technology sector is still regarded as a male-dominated industry,” Gill said. “But there are countless opportunities for women, and I was delighted to join others in the field to discuss this.

At School of Coding & AI, one of our key missions is to increase opportunities for women and girls, regardless of background.”

The School of Coding & AI, headquartered in Birmingham, continues to play a prominent role in national efforts to boost digital literacy, AI education and gender diversity in technology.

During Birmingham Tech Week, the organisation hosted CyberVerse Unmasked – Shaping the Future of Digital Resilience, a major conference exploring cybersecurity, innovation and the future of AI.

The event brought together cybersecurity professionals, entrepreneurs and academics to discuss emerging digital threats and how to strengthen resilience across public and private sectors.

SOC founder and CEO Manny Athwal also addressed the ScaleUp Summit at Birmingham’s STEAMhouse, where he shared his entrepreneurial journey — from starting the company in his bedroom to building a multi-million-pound enterprise operating in 17 countries.

“The road to creating a successful business is never straight,” Athwal said. “I built School of Coding & AI from a single idea into a global organisation.

Success doesn’t come from the idea alone — it comes from execution, leadership and resilience. If my journey can help others succeed, it’s a story I’m proud to share.”

The Inspiring Women in Technology event is set to become a regular fixture in Birmingham’s technology calendar, part of a growing effort to encourage more women into STEM careers and leadership roles within AI, cybersecurity and data science.

Organisers said the next event will expand its focus to include female founders, investors and educators, with the goal of creating a national platform for women driving innovation in tech.

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Women in tech urged to trust their instincts and lead change

The United States and China have reached a final agreement on the sale of TikTok’s US operations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Sunday, marking a breakthrough in a long-running dispute over the video-sharing platform’s ownership and data security.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Bessent said the transaction would be formally endorsed by President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting in Korea later this week.

“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said. “We reached it in Madrid, and I believe all the details are ironed out. It will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction.”

While Bessent declined to share details of the agreement, he confirmed that the TikTok deal formed part of a broader trade framework now being negotiated between Washington and Beijing, expected to cover agriculture, technology access and fentanyl control.

The announcement follows Trump’s 25 September executive order, which cleared the way for new American-led ownership of TikTok, including a majority stake held by US investors.

“My remit was to get the Chinese to approve the transaction,” Bessent said. “I believe we successfully accomplished that over the past two days.”

According to sources familiar with the talks, the deal — valued at around $14 billion — will give US and international investors a 65 per cent stake in TikTok’s US business, leaving ByteDance and Chinese shareholders with less than 20 per cent. The agreement also hands control of TikTok’s algorithm and six of seven board seats to the new American owners.

The transaction has already drawn political scrutiny in Washington. Reports suggest that Rupert Murdoch and Oracle founder Larry Ellison are among the investors backing the acquisition. Barron Trump, the president’s 19-year-old son, has been floated by former Trump media aides as a potential board member.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has been at the centre of geopolitical tensions since Trump’s first term, when he sought to ban the app over national-security concerns. His successor, Joe Biden, signed a bipartisan TikTok ban into law in April 2024, but enforcement was repeatedly delayed to allow time for an ownership transfer.

The timing of the agreement is significant. Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday ahead of the ASEAN summit, part of a five-day tour of Asia that will culminate in Thursday’s face-to-face meeting with Xi.

The two leaders are expected to discuss soybean and agricultural purchases, the US trade deficit, and the American fentanyl crisis, which the White House has cited as justification for maintaining 20 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports.

Analysts say the TikTok deal is likely intended to demonstrate progress in US–China negotiations ahead of more complex trade discussions later this year.

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US and China agree final TikTok sale deal as part of wider trade framework

His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has seen its annual wage bill rise by £29.4 million over the past year, driven by an increase in senior-level employees, according to new research from the Global Payroll Alliance (GPA).

The analysis shows that HMRC’s core workforce grew by 3.6 per cent between August 2024 and August 2025, with full-time equivalent positions rising from 64,580 to 66,880. While much of the expansion was at mid-level grades, the most significant cost impact came from growth among higher-paid staff.

The GPA report found that Executive Officer roles — one of the more junior ranks in the Civil Service pay structure — rose by 4.8 per cent, reflecting ongoing recruitment to support frontline operations and compliance activity.

However, the number of Grade 6 and Grade 7 employees — the second-highest tier in the Civil Service — climbed by 4.6 per cent, while those in Senior Civil Service (SCS) positions increased by 3.8 per cent year on year.

These senior appointments have had a disproportionate impact on total payroll costs. HMRC’s pay bill rose from £287.1 million in August 2024 to £316.6 million a year later, representing a 10.3 per cent increase.

Commenting on the findings, Melanie Pizzey, CEO and Founder of the Global Payroll Alliance, said the figures raised important questions about whether the agency’s headcount growth reflects strategic necessity or inefficiency.

“An increase in HMRC’s wage bill of £29.4 million in just one year is significant, particularly when much of that rise is attributed to growth in senior roles,” she said.
“While investment in people can be essential — especially for an organisation tasked with ensuring effective tax collection — it’s important to ask whether this growth reflects a genuine strategic need or an over-reliance on expanding headcount.”

Pizzey added that technology could play a larger role in reducing costs and streamlining processes.

“At a time when all government departments are under pressure to deliver more with limited resources, it’s worth questioning whether HMRC is making the best use of automation to manage workloads and reduce staffing costs where possible,” she said.

The GPA noted that while expanding HMRC’s senior ranks may improve oversight and compliance, it also underscores the importance of transparency and measurable outcomes in the use of public funds.

“If these roles are helping to close the tax gap and improve compliance, there may well be a case for them,” Pizzey said. “But accountability and demonstrable results will be key to justifying this level of payroll growth.”

HMRC has not yet commented publicly on the findings.

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Senior staff expansion drives £29m rise in HMRC wage bill

The new Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Peter Kyle MP, has vowed to leverage AI and accelerate deregulation as central pillars of the government’s strategy to reignite economic growth.

Addressing more than 200 technology and business leaders at the UKAI Conference at the University of Sussex, Kyle drew parallels between government and corporate leadership, arguing that Britain must “innovate its way out of crisis” rather than rely on austerity or caution.

“Look at Apple when they re-hired Steve Jobs,” he told delegates. “They were 90 days from insolvency — and he didn’t sit down and say what they couldn’t do. He threw everything at it. That’s the approach we need now.”

In one of his first major speeches since joining the Cabinet, Kyle pledged to make artificial intelligence a driver of productivity, job creation and investment, while promising to cut red tape for small and medium-sized enterprises.

He highlighted a 11 per cent rise in R&D investment since Labour came to power and promised to expand innovation funding through partnerships with universities, start-ups and the private sector.

“The UK has world-class researchers, entrepreneurs and engineers,” Kyle said. “Our job is to make sure that regulation works for them — not against them.”

The announcement drew strong support from industry leaders attending the conference.

Kenny MacAulay, CEO of Acting Office, said: “With financial services playing such a crucial role in driving UK growth, it’s reassuring to hear the Secretary of State endorse AI and technology as engines of business development.
A deregulated, tech-first approach will help turbocharge the next generation of entrepreneurs, creating jobs, spreading wealth and improving lives.”

Lee Beard, National Security & Defence Specialist at Check Point Software, welcomed the government’s embrace of AI but warned that cybersecurity must underpin progress: “AI is a powerful catalyst for innovation, but we’re seeing it used by both defenders and adversaries — that raises the stakes.

For public services and critical infrastructure, security must be proactive, not reactive. Cyber resilience shouldn’t be a brake on progress; it’s the foundation of safe, sustainable innovation.”

Kyle acknowledged that as AI adoption accelerates, digital safety and ethical standards must evolve in parallel. He reiterated the government’s commitment to building secure, transparent AI systems that maintain public trust while driving commercial value.

Industry observers say the speech signals a renewed industrial strategy built on innovation, investment and intelligent regulation — an approach that could define the government’s economic narrative in the run-up to next year’s spending review.

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Business Secretary vows to harness AI and deregulation to turbocharge UK growth

The bosses of the UK’s biggest supermarket chains have warned that food prices could rise again if Chancellor Rachel Reeves increases taxes on the retail sector in her forthcoming Budget.

In a joint letter to the Treasury, executives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, M&S and Iceland cautioned that households would “inevitably feel the impact” of any increase in business rates or other levies on the industry.

“Given the costs currently falling on the industry, including from the last Budget, high food inflation is likely to persist into 2026,” the letter stated. “This is not something that we would want to see prolonged by any measure in the Budget.”

The supermarkets’ intervention comes amid speculation that Reeves will unveil new tax measures to plug a £22 billion shortfall in the public finances, following the Office for Budget Responsibility’s downgrade of growth forecasts.

In particular, retailers are concerned about the government’s plans for a “business rates surtax” on large commercial properties — a move expected to hit supermarkets and distribution hubs hardest.

Under the proposed changes, smaller shops and hospitality venues with rateable values below £500,000 will benefit from lower rates, while large premises above that threshold — including major retail stores and warehouses — will face higher bills.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), representing the country’s largest grocers, said large stores account for only a small share of retail locations but contribute around one-third of the sector’s total business rates.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers are doing everything possible to keep food prices affordable, but it’s an uphill battle with more than £7 billion in additional costs expected in 2025 alone. The simplest way to help would be to ensure business rates don’t rise further.”

Reeves is facing one of the toughest fiscal tests of her tenure ahead of the Autumn Budget on 26 November. Following last year’s £40 billion tax package — which included an increase in employer National Insurance contributions — she pledged not to “come back for more tax rises.”

However, analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warn that weaker growth, rising borrowing costs and unfunded spending pledges will almost certainly require further tax increases.

The Chancellor has hinted that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, but economists question whether targeted taxes on professional partnerships or the wealthy can raise sufficient funds without broader measures.

Food inflation, which peaked above 19 per cent in 2023, has eased but remains well above pre-pandemic levels. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that prices for staples such as butter, milk, chocolate and coffee have risen by between 12 and 19 per cent year on year.

Retailers argue that additional fiscal pressure could extend high prices into 2026, particularly as the sector grapples with global supply shocks, poor harvests, and rising wage costs.

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said recently that “enough is enough” on business taxation, revealing that higher National Insurance contributions have already cost the company £235 million this year.

Despite those pressures, Tesco expects profits of up to £3.1 billion for the full year, while Lidl reported its pre-tax profits more than tripled to £156.8 million in the year to February.

A Treasury spokesperson said that tackling inflation “remains a priority” and highlighted recent measures to cut business rates for smaller retailers, including butchers, bakers and high-street shops.

They added: “Business rates will be adjusted to reflect changes in property values so that the system continues to raise the same amount of revenue in real terms. Even if a property’s valuation rises, its bill may still fall if the tax rate is lowered.”

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Supermarkets warn tax rises could drive food prices higher

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has stopped short of ruling out an income-tax increase in next month’s Budget, amid reports that she is considering breaking a key Labour manifesto promise to balance the nation’s books.

Asked directly about Treasury discussions first revealed by The Guardian, Reeves said she would “continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible”, but declined to repeat her earlier categorical commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

Her carefully worded comments, made during a visit to Leeds on Friday, mark a shift from her stance in September, when she insisted Labour’s “manifesto commitments stand”.

Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged not to increase the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax. Yet Treasury officials are said to be in “active discussions” about adding 1p to the basic rate, which could raise more than £8 billion a year, or lifting higher-rate thresholds for top earners.

Reeves faces one of the most constrained Budgets in modern times. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) recently downgraded UK productivity forecasts, blowing a £22 billion hole in the public finances and wiping out much of the £10 billion headroom she had set aside in March’s spring statement.

Government borrowing hit £20.2 billion in September — the highest for that month in five years — according to the Office for National Statistics, leaving the chancellor with limited scope to meet her own fiscal rules without raising additional revenue.

Reeves told reporters she understood that “the cost of living is still people’s number-one concern”, but emphasised her commitment to “support working people while ensuring sound public finances”. She added that although inflation had “come in better than expected”, significant challenges remained.

Under Labour’s self-imposed fiscal rules, the chancellor must ensure that government debt falls as a share of GDP by 2029-30 and that day-to-day spending is funded by tax receipts rather than borrowing.

The influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned this week that Reeves will “almost certainly” have to raise taxes to remain within those limits. Analysts note that while the effective interest rate on UK debt has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, the relief it offers is insufficient to close the gap.

Reeves has repeatedly signalled that “those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share”, suggesting a focus on wealthier individuals and professional partnerships used by lawyers and accountants.

However, economists say such targeted measures would raise only a fraction of the required sum, meaning that more politically sensitive options — including an income-tax rise — remain on the table.

If implemented, it would be the first increase in income-tax rates since 2010, when Labour introduced a 50 per cent top rate on earnings above £150,000, later reduced to 45 per cent by the coalition government.

At present, income above £12,570 is taxed at 20 per cent, rising to 40 per cent for income between £50,271 and £125,140, and 45 per cent above that threshold.

The Budget on 26 November will be a defining moment for Reeves as she seeks to reconcile fiscal credibility with political caution. Any move to raise income tax would risk a backlash from voters but could also reassure markets that Labour remains committed to disciplined, rules-based economic management.

As one Treasury insider put it this week: “She knows the politics are tough either way — but if she gets this right, it could buy her the credibility she needs for the long term.”

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Reeves refuses to rule out income tax rise as pressure mounts before Budget

From handcrafted partyware to science-backed pet supplements, few firms look less alike than Meri Meri and PetLab Co. Yet they share a single, telling decision that has transformed how they work: both built their next phase of growth on Oracle NetSuite.

In separate conversations, Meri Meri’s managing director, Paul Cripps, and PetLab Co.’s chief financial officer, Tony Morreale, described, in unvarnished terms, what happens when a high-growth company ditches a patchwork of systems for a cloud ERP that acts as the business’s command centre.

Cripps arrived at Meri Meri—a San Francisco-registered, UK-run design house whose seasonal launches light up kitchen tables from London to Reno—mid-pandemic. He found a company with enviable creativity and a back office straining at the seams. Shopify, Amazon, B2B portals and a constellation of 3PLs all fed a heavily customised legacy ERP. The plumbing never quite held. Reports froze. Orders jammed in queues. “Every day there was an issue,” he says. “If a report ran, people made coffee while it locked up.” Decision-making slowed to the speed of a spinning progress wheel. In a global business that designs Christmas two years out and ships to two continents, uncertainty is more than an annoyance; it is drag.

Meri Meri faced a familiar crossroads: pay handsomely to re-implement an ageing system already papered over with one-off fixes, or start again with something built for best practice in the cloud. Cripps had implemented ERPs before. This time, NetSuite’s appeal was less about bells and whistles than about discipline. “Don’t try to make NetSuite fit your business—change your processes to match best practice,” he says. The company adopted OneWorld to reconcile a UK-led, US-registered structure and kept customisation to a minimum. The implementation took two and a half years in calendar terms, not because of complexity but because the company only had one safe cutover window—April to June—each year. A sandbox went up quickly; teams prodded, tested and suggested changes; and when the switch was finally thrown mid-May, something unusual happened: the noise stopped.

What changed first was the rhythm of the day. Under the old set-up, the Reno distribution centre opened before dawn and then waited for someone, somewhere, to release orders. Under NetSuite, Shopify purchases appeared in the ERP within about half a minute, hit the DC pick list moments later and were being packed inside five minutes. The pendulum swung from frustration to speed so quickly that customers began emailing ten minutes after checkout asking to amend orders already sealed in boxes. Cripps’s measure of success was delightfully un-technical. “By the end of June, it was almost like we’d never been without it,” he says. The floor went quiet. Exceptions evaporated. Customer service tickets, once counted in the hundreds each week, fell to a handful of genuine user mistakes. Overtime all but disappeared. The team that had been firefighting became, once again, a team.

The financial consequences are easy to miss because they creep in through absence: no overtime, no backfills, no morning queues, no costly consultants to unpick brittle integrations. Meri Meri’s headcount drifted down from the mid-nineties to around eighty through natural attrition, even as revenue climbed by more than a fifth. Finance shrank without drama; the warehouse moved from two shifts to one and a half. Against the cost of a modern cloud ERP, those avoided hires alone turn into a six-figure annual saving—before you count the opportunity value of moving faster.

If Meri Meri’s story is one of a creative manufacturer rediscovering flow, PetLab Co. offers the CFO’s view of a scale-up growing from start-up reflexes into institutional reliability. The London-founded, US-focused pet wellness brand launched in 2018 and rode a wave of direct-to-consumer demand. When Morreale arrived, the finance stack—perfectly reasonable for an early-stage business—had become a brake. Month-end stretched to four weeks. Multi-entity consolidation was clumsy. Inventory insight at SKU level was elusive. “I’ve implemented NetSuite three times,” he says. “For a business a couple of years into its journey, it’s the right breadth at the right price.”

PetLab’s implementation in 2021 coincided with a professionalising of its operating cadence. NetSuite automated bank reconciliations, turned month-end into a matter of days and finally delivered the granularity to answer the questions a scaled consumer brand must answer: which SKUs make money, in which channels, and how does that change with tariffs, packaging costs and shifting fulfilment footprints? The company mapped its five US warehouses directly in NetSuite, reconciled physical stock against system positions and moved beyond “never stock out” as a mantra to something more useful: never be surprised. When US-China packaging costs bit, the team modelled the SKU-level impact and shifted to Vietnam, tracking margin effects from the general ledger to the pallet.

The knock-on effects are cultural as much as financial. Morreale’s team of eleven has not grown, even as revenue surged from around $70 million to well north of $200 million. Automation has not hollowed out the department; it has lifted it. The repetitive is handled by machines; people move up the value chain. That, in turn, changes how outsiders see the company. In the bootstrapped years, PetLab built credibility with HSBC by sharing NetSuite-derived forecasts fortnightly. When private equity arrived to take a majority stake in 2025, diligence advisers described the numbers as “robust”. It is a small phrase that carries weight. Investors fund what they can trust. Trust starts with auditable, real-time data.

Both leaders are practical about artificial intelligence. Neither is chasing chatty front-ends for their own sake. At Meri Meri, AI already sits inside demand-planning via Netstock and will increasingly draft customer-service replies and surface cross-regional trends—California versus Florida, north-south seasonality, the subtle ways Halloween plays differently in the UK and US—so humans can spend their time on judgement, not retrieval. “AI won’t design our products,” Cripps says. “But it will buy back hours across the business. If you don’t embrace it, you’ll be left behind.” At PetLab, the lure is scenario planning that actually fits how a finance team works, with natural-language prompts and explainable outputs; until then, NetSuite’s core gets them most of the way.

In the end, the case for NetSuite here is not framed in the glossy language of digital transformation. It is disarmingly plain. If your warehouse waits for the system rather than the system serving the warehouse; if month-end bleeds into a third or fourth week; if customer service has become an exceptions desk; if you cannot answer a SKU-level margin question in the time it takes to walk to a meeting, you are not simply inefficient—you are throttling your ability to grow. What Cripps and Morreale reveal, each from different industries and instincts, is that a modern ERP is less a software purchase than a managerial choice. It is a decision to run on standard processes, to measure silence as a KPI, and to treat reliable numbers as a strategic asset.

“By the end of the first six weeks, it was like we’d never been without it,” says Cripps. Morreale offers the CFO’s version: same team, roughly triple the revenue, with banks and buyers leaning in rather than looking away. For ambitious businesses wondering whether the ceiling they feel is real, the lesson is simple. A stitched-together stack adds people to chase problems. A single cloud backbone compounds growth—with confidence.

Read more:
The cloud engine behind scale: why Oracle NetSuite can super-power your business

For a long time, the concept of leadership was viewed as strict and rigid; as such, welcoming new ideas didn’t sit right with those at the top. However, with new technology and the need to adapt, modern organizations had no choice but to evolve, except they would be left behind.

One of the starting points for UK businesses in this regard was welcoming the idea of coaching platforms. These platforms provide a virtual environment to push personalized coaching in a very scalable form. It basically connects traditional coaching with digital learning effectively, and unsurprisingly, this shift is changing leadership culture. We’ll go into better detail about how this transformation is taking place.

The Changing Demands of Modern Leadership

Frankly speaking, modern leadership has more demands, and that explains the need for change. For starters, challenges faced today are more complex, fast-paced, and they never come in the same form all the time.

A good example of this is “complexity” is the increasing popularity of hybrid work environments. This is something that is relatively new to this generation, so leaders are forced to adapt so as to manage businesses well. Not to mention, organisations are embracing the digital route even more, and that in itself comes with a lot of change to the normal logistics of things.

So, with these changes, leaders are in a constant state of “figuring things out”, and that commands a lot of emotional intelligence and adaptability. As such, management has to be more people-centred, so every decision has to be made with the interests of everyone in mind.

However, these things don’t come easy. Just one-off training programs are not enough to make it a tradition, and this is where a good coaching platform comes into play. These platforms provide consistent and structured guidance. And in the long run, it brings about continuous growth.

What Makes a Coaching Platform Effective?

A common mistake that most businesses make is using generic online learning tools to fill the role of a coaching platform. And when it doesn’t work, they assume that coaching platforms are bad. But the truth is that they are entirely different; here are the features that an effective one has, compared to the generic counterpart:

Personalised learning journeys: On such platforms, everyone learns at their own pace. This is very important because people differ, and how they take in information is also different. So, a proper platform gives them room to learn at their own pace, according to what works for them.

AI-Powered matching between coaches and coachees: With artificial intelligence, it is possible to find the perfect coach. The platform demands every coachee’s preferences to the letter, and from the results, it automatically matches them to suitable coaches.

Progress tracking: Employee progress is not linear, so there has to be personalised tracking, and a good coaching platform does this effectively. It automatically checks progress and allows the admin to monitor it remotely. That removes the need to constantly ask them manually.

Scalable for organisations: Every working organisation is bound to grow at some point or the other, and a proper coaching platform eases them into this growth. It doesn’t matter whether there are just 10 or 100 people to train; it is designed to accommodate everyone effectively, while still retaining the personalised features.

Leading platforms are effective because they have mastered and implemented these features. They successfully combine technology and psychology, delivering very measurable leadership outcomes.

Empowering Business Leadership through Digital Coaching

Truthfully, coaching programs have always been available, even before digital platforms came into the picture. So, what exactly makes the digital version of it more effective for leadership development? That’s because it focuses on these three things:

Identifying personal blind spots: Since training is personalised, it doesn’t operate based on generic blind spots. Instead, it is able to pinpoint the one that is unique to each person.

Strengthen decision-making: Making decisions is a very important part of leadership, and most importantly, the interests of the people must be a priority. This is something that only executive coaching from digital platforms emphasises perfectly.

Improve communication: What is leadership without communication? This is deliberately worked on, making sure each leader checks this box repeatedly.

The best part of this digital side of things is how much it has democratised leadership coaching. Now, it is not only accessible to the top executive; every organization can afford to make it a mandatory process for those at the top. And that has brought about better performance, employee engagement through personalized tracking, and confidence in leadership teams.

Coaching as a Driver of Organisational Growth

For an organisation to grow in the long run, there has to be proper talent development to maximise those who will facilitate this growth. And this is exactly one of the things that leadership development helps to achieve; it identifies and develops talents early enough.

As such, organizations that invest in coaching platforms see quantifiable results like better employee retention, increased productivity, and all-around innovation. Not to mention, employee growth automatically aligns with company goals since they develop a growth-oriented mindset that puts the organisation ahead in many areas.

The Future of Business Coaching and Technology

As more technology comes into regular use, digital coaching is also integrating them to make it even better. Some of them are already in early deployment with models like hybrid coaching models, AI analytics for performance feedback, and even integrated HR ecosystems. While the future promises to be more human-centered, it’ll be data-informed to keep its relevance. So, it is up to businesses to adapt the right coaching platform if they really want long-term growth and leadership excellence.

Read more:
Empowering Leaders: How a Coaching Platform Transforms Business Leadership