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Most of us aspire to be remembered fondly and reverently, having left a positive mark on the world, or the business you have been at the helm of.
‘Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.’ (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
As useful as it would be, none of us have a crystal ball to tell us exactly how the future is going to pan out, or how soon the end of our careers may come. As a business leader, proactively starting conversations about your succession and legacy early will put your organisation in a much stronger position to deal with what may lie ahead and enable a smooth leadership transition when the time comes…be it in five, 10 or 20 years’ time.
Yet, in our experience at Grey Lemon, founders across many sectors ignore such thoughts until the clock starts ticking and the inevitable is staring them in the face. That is unless something unfortunate happens and they no longer have a say in the matter.
The reality is that if you’re not talking about leadership transition at least three years in advance (at the very minimum), you’re setting yourself up for an exit that is troublesome at best, and disastrous at worst. Any level of ambiguity or doubt when passing the baton can perturb shareholders, disrupt teams and hurt your bottom line.
So, where to begin? Let’s consider a few key points:
When is the right time?
‘I’ve got a few good years in me yet!’ Sound familiar?
Procrastination in relinquishing control is more common in business than you may think. With so much time, energy and money invested, it can be tough to even contemplate it happening, let alone start preparing for it.
Legacy planning and leadership changes can be sensitive and confusing topics to tackle, so it is worth consulting an expert in the field to guide you through your options.
Start as you mean to go on
As in most areas of business, clarity and collaboration is crucial. By including your senior leadership team in the process as early as possible, you can develop a plan that everyone buys into both structurally and culturally.
Succession planning requires a 360° approach. You must examine the impact of your departure from all angles and consider the perspectives of everyone involved. After all, an exit is as much about them as it is about you.
Who will steer the ship?
A change of ownership can drastically shift the way a business operates. Choosing the right successor is therefore critical. Understanding the nuances of the figurehead role and the unique value of what they offer is key. If there isn’t an awareness of how the person exiting is perceived both internally and externally, it can create a huge void which can be difficult to fill.
Time is critical in order to grow and position the right people. Taking a long-term view enables firms to avoid any last-minute power struggles or politics as it gives stakeholders the space to agree on who best fits the bill.
Unfortunately, change can sometimes happen much earlier than expected. With no succession plan in place, uncertainty will undoubtedly follow both internally and externally. Who is leading the business? What will it look like going forward? Will the name above the door change? How will it affect the standard of service/product?
Family ties
Of course, some matters of succession should be more straightforward than others…but that is not always the case. Often the trickiest situations to manage are those involving family where nepotism and rivalry can quickly unravel a successful business.
Encouraging alignment on company purpose and shared ambition is the best place to start should discord arise. If things get tricky, consider bringing in an independent facilitator as a first step to aligning disparate perspectives and reaching agreement on how to move forward. If that doesn’t work, mediation is also a highly effective way to reach a resolution that everyone can get onboard with.
Financial affairs
Financial considerations are a natural priority for any exiting leader and, indeed, all parties within the ownership structure. Whether shares need to be reallocated or opportunities given for people to ‘buy-in’, all exit options must be carefully considered for both the departing founder, and the health of the business.
It is always best to consult with a specialist legal and/or financial advisor to ensure that everyone concerned has defined their individual and collective objectives and understands the choices available. The earlier a mutual decision can be reached the better, to maximise the value of the business while the owner is still in place.
(Re)defining your purpose
A new era of leadership can offer the chance to reassess the business and its place in the market. For any shift in direction to succeed, it is vital that the company’s purpose or vision for the future is clearly defined and agreed by the new leaders, an external fresh perspective can support this process to its best conclusion.
A revised purpose should build on the organisation’s history and legacy while establishing a new roadmap that the entire workforce can engage with and support.
Agreeing specific, measurable and timely objectives along with role clarity will enable senior employees to feel confident and empowered to drive the organisation forward.
Managing perceptions
Let’s not forget about your employees.
Clear internal communications will help mitigate any concerns or uncertainty among your team, especially if the person leaving is the original founder. Ensure your employees are afforded the time to engage with and buy into the future vision and build trust in the new leadership. Your employees must feel part of the journey.
Well-timed and appropriate external messaging is also critical. A risk assessment completed well in advance can help gauge the impact on the business from an outside perspective. This includes how clients, customers, stakeholders, shareholders and the wider market will react, identifying any potential damage to the perception of the business and its future success.
What’s next for you?
As the business owner, it’s crucial that you’re prepared for the next phase of life. Without an obvious path in mind, it can be all the harder to step away from your ‘baby’. You may wish to still be involved in some capacity or perhaps you’re leaving to set up on your own or in a different field altogether. Whether business life continues or you’re retiring to enjoy the fruits of your labour, therein lies another message that needs to be carefully aligned to communicate next steps in a positive light for all parties, both internally and externally.
To sum up
The key to success? Allow yourself the time to craft a worthy ending so you can walk away feeling proud of all you’ve achieved, and excited for all that’s yet to come.
Read more:
Succession & legacy planning: Can it ever be too soon?   

Over the past two decades I have been lucky enough to work with dozens of business and political leaders.
The best leaders are those that are able to make professional decisions quickly based on the information available to them.
But this does not mean they are immune to procrastination. They are just using tools to manage it.
Most of us if we walk into an ice-cream parlour struggle to choose a flavour.
We have eaten ice cream hundreds of times and know all the flavours. But we still stands there at the counter examining the pistachio, chocolate, cookies and cream and salted caramel in the hope that divine inspiration will come to us.
And that is a simple decision.
Presented with hard decisions, such as where to invest or whether to enter a new market, can be crippling.
Kicking hard decisions into the long grass is the easy option. But it is rarely the right one.
We are told from a young age to not rush to decisions but our gut instinct is usually right.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking he makes a powerful argument for going with your gut.
He showed that geologists at the Getty Museum in California spent 14 months investigating whether a statue was a fake. Within seconds three different art historians could tell that it was. Their years of looking at masterpieces had given them a gut advantage that experts couldn’t match.
As a leader in your own field you have years of experience. Do not underestimate how valuable that is.
While you might want to gather all the information to make the right decision. At a sub-conscious level, within two seconds your mind has gone through thousands of data-points and previous experiences.
More than 90% of the time you will be right in your decision first time. The decisions that are wrong are wastage. Don’t waste time regretting them.
Even if you really sweat a decision, waiting until you have every bit of evidence you possibly can get will fractionally reduce your bad decision making. Even if you really sweat a decision you may only reduce your wrong decisions fractionally.
The extra time it will have taken will have closed other doors to you.
Shall we enter these awards for this great work we did? Oh dear the deadline to enter has passed. Decision made: no.
Shall we enter this new market? Oh dear now our competitor is dominating that sector so we can’t get a foothold. Decision made. It’s a no.
Shall we invest in training for this valuable staff member? Oh dear they have been poached by a rival. So that’s a no as well.
In your mind procrastination is putting off a decision. But as a leader a lot of the time it is not just putting off a decision. It is allowing time to make the decision for you and that answer is almost always no.
So here are seven ways to stop procrastinating and regain the most important tool for you as a leader – decision making:
Split your week: Assign yourself days of the week for the jobs you need to do.
(My week is split into Monday and Tuesday clients and new business, Wednesday content creation, Thursday management, Friday finance)
Wedge difficult jobs: If you have a job you really don’t want to do but keep putting it off, schedule it in BEFORE something you do want to do and force yourself to do it then.
Deadline decisions: If you need to gather more information to make a decision, set a clear time frame for when you will get that information.
Do not go back on decisions: Unless circumstances change move on.
Delegate decision making. You have a team; use them.
Minimise distractions. Turn off all notifications on your phone and laptop. Tell your staff that you only look at emails at certain parts of the day and do it.
Two minute rule: Anything you can do in two minutes do it immediately.
Note: To write this article I used techniques 1,2 and 6.
Read more:
How to stop procrastinating and start leading

Amid escalating cybercrime threats British-based cybersecurity firm Darktrace have reported a robust quarter with revenues surging by over a 25 per cent, driven by heightened demand from concerned companies.
In the three months ending March, Darktrace witnessed a significant 26.5 per cent increase in revenue, soaring to $176.1 million compared to $139.2 million in the same period last year. This surge has led the company to revise its revenue growth forecast for the year to 25.5 per cent, marking the third upward adjustment this year alone.
Darktrace’s share price responded positively to the buoyant results, gaining 6.3 per cent to close at 462p. Founded in 2013 with backing from technology magnate Mike Lynch, the Cambridge-based firm utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify cyberthreats within business computer systems.
Cathy Graham, Darktrace’s CFO, highlighted the evolving tactics of cybercriminals, who exploit generative AI and automation to enhance the speed and sophistication of their attacks. Despite these challenges, Darktrace remains optimistic about the future, anticipating a surge in revenues from new clients as economic conditions stabilize.
With an 11.9 per cent annual growth in customer numbers, Darktrace added 170 new clients in the last quarter and nearly 1000 over the past year. The company also revised its core profit margin forecast for 2024 upwards, demonstrating confidence in its ability to deliver sustainable growth.
Analysts at Jefferies view Darktrace favourably, citing its strong position in the cybersecurity industry and potential for rapid growth. However, not all cybersecurity firms share the same optimistic outlook, as spending fatigue becomes a concern for some players in the market.
Darktrace’s journey has not been without challenges, facing scrutiny from short-sellers and controversies surrounding its ties to Lynch, who is currently embroiled in legal proceedings in the United States. However, Darktrace recently severed formal ties with Lynch, marking a significant milestone in its journey towards independence and enhancing investor confidence.
Read more:
Darktrace on a high amid escalating cybersecurity concerns

New guidance to ensure that Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) acts as a force for good in society has been published by BSI, aiming to help organisations navigate the ethical challenges associated with the use of the technology and build trust in its use as a result.
Use of Artificial intelligence (AI) powered facial recognition tools is increasingly common, including for security purposes such as at King Charles’ Coronation or major sporting events like football matches, and to curb shoplifting. FRT maps an individual’s physical features in an image to form a face template, which can be compared against other images stored within a database to either verify a high level of likeness or identify an individual’s presence at a specific location at a given time.
BSI’s recent research showed that 40% of people globally expect to be using biometric identification in airports by 2030. Its proliferation has prompted concerns about safe and ethical use, including around error rates linked to racial or gender differences, as well as high-profile legal cases, among them one involving software used by Uber. A 2022 audit assessed police use of facial recognition, finding that deployment regularly failed to meet minimum ethical and legal standards.
The new standard has been developed by BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, to assuage concerns by helping organizations navigate the tools and build public trust. It follows BSI’s Trust in AI poll showing that 77% of people believed trust in AI was key for its use in surveillance.
Designed for both public and private organizations using and/or monitoring Video Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Biometric facial technologies, the code of practice is applicable to the whole supply chain, beginning with an assessment to determine the need to use FRT, to its procurement, installation, and appropriate use of the technology. Facial recognition technology – Ethical use and deployment in video surveillance-based systems – Code of practice (BS 9347:2024)sets out six key overarching principles of ‘trustworthiness’. These are backed up with a summary of policies that are required and to be maintained by those across the supply chain. The guide covers its applicability across governance and accountability, human agency and oversight, privacy and data governance, technical robustness and safety, transparency and explain-ability, diversity, non-discrimination, and fairness.
With the industry expected to be worth $13.4 billion globally by 2028, the standard sets out the importance of regularly reviewing the ethics of AI and its application in FRT. It embeds best practice and gives guidance on the appropriate guardrails for safe and unbiased use of FRT through the definition of two scenarios: identification and verification. For the former, such as identifying individuals in crowds at events, the standard requires that FRT is used in conjunction with human intervention or human-in-the-loop measures to ensure accurate identification before action is taken.
In verification scenarios where the technology can operate autonomously, such as building access control, authenticating a payment transaction, or opening a phone, the standard puts guardrails in place for the technology’s learning by ensuring training data includes sets from diverse demographic pools and across a variety of lighting levels and camera angles, to eliminate inaccuracies and mitigate the risk for bias by way of false positives.
Scott Steedman, Director-General, Standards, BSI said: “AI-enabled facial recognition tools have the potential to be a driving force for good and benefit society through their ability to detect and monitor potential security threats.
“This code of practice is designed to help organizations navigate the ethical challenges associated with the use of FRT systems and build trust in its use as a result. It aims to embed best practice and give guidance on the appropriate guardrails organizations can put in place to safeguard civil rights and eliminate system bias and discrimination.”
Dave Wilkinson, Director of Technical Services, British Security Industry Association, said “The use of FRT has not come without its own challenges, whether that has been down to the accuracy of the technology, or how and where it is deployed. Many relevant questions have been asked by privacy groups, industry stakeholders and other interested parties on the appropriate and proportionate use of such technology. This code of practice aims to instil trustworthiness in the use of FRT by setting out key principles covering the whole process from assessing the need to use it, to ensuring its continued operation remains fit for purpose and justified.
“Aligned to the understanding of developing regulation both here in the UK and the wider international regulatory landscape, the code of practice sets out to build trust with those that develop, use, and are subject to its use.”
Read more:
Guide to safe and ethical use of facial recognition tools launched

Reports have surfaced alleging that Chinese factories are producing counterfeit British stamps in large quantities, raising concerns about the integrity of the UK’s postal system and potential economic implications.
According to these reports, Chinese suppliers are offering to manufacture up to 1 million fake Royal Mail stamps per week, with some websites selling them in bulk. This has led to speculation about possible state involvement, with suggestions of “economic warfare” targeting the UK’s postal infrastructure.
Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has called on Royal Mail to investigate the allegations and prevent counterfeit stamps from entering circulation. There is recognition of the need to identify the source of these fake stamps and address any vulnerabilities in the supply chain. However, detecting counterfeit stamps has become increasingly challenging, as they have become more realistic, making it difficult even for experts at Royal Mail to distinguish them from genuine ones.
The presence of counterfeit stamps in the supply chain poses risks for retailers and consumers alike. Smaller shops and online marketplaces may unwittingly sell or purchase these fake stamps, leading to financial losses and potential legal consequences. Royal Mail acknowledges the problem and states that it is actively working to remove counterfeit stamps from circulation. This includes monitoring online marketplaces, collaborating with law enforcement agencies, and recovering counterfeit stamps with significant retail value.
However, the Chinese embassy in London has denied any state involvement in counterfeiting stamps, dismissing the claims as “absurd.” Instead, they emphasize the need for thorough investigation into the internal supply chain to address the issue. Despite this denial, concerns persist about the impact of counterfeit operations on the UK’s postal system and the need for concerted efforts to combat counterfeiting effectively.
Read more:
Royal Mail urged to investigate claims of Chinese-made fake stamps

Establishing trust in a B2B market is one of the biggest challenges faced by SMEs. Without being a global household name, how do you go about establishing your business as reliable, trustworthy, and capable of delivering high quality results?
Trust is the currency that drives successful customer relationships but gaining that trust with increasingly cautious prospects can be a daunting task, particularly in a world inundated with a myriad of sales messages and questionable practices.
Sales expert Richard Lane, the co-founder and CCO of durhamlane, a strategic global revenue acceleration agency, discusses effective strategies to overcome doubt and build strong relationships in B2B markets, drawing insights from his firm’s work with Centrica (British Gas) during the recent energy crisis to ensure their sales lead pipeline remained steady in a declining market.
Understanding the market
In a sceptical market, potential customers approach B2B sales and marketing messages with a healthy dose of doubt. It’s likely they have come across exaggerated claims, overblown statistics or disappointing results from other SMEs in the industry. Why shouldn’t they be wary of engaging with new businesses? If they’re questioning your practices or the validity of your claims upon first meeting, take a moment to recognise this isn’t an attack. It’s the first moment you can start to build trust with your potential client. By recognising their concerns and providing high quality evidence as to your promised outcomes, you begin to build a relationship where your client expects and trusts you to deliver this kind of result for them, too.
So, keep your standards high, and your outputs honest, to kick off a relationship of trust with a client. You’ll only disappoint them if you don’t.
Don’t back off from a challenge
When difficulty hits a business, or even the wider industry, that business will often turn to sales and marketing companies for help. It’s something I’ve seen over the years at durhamlane and it can be a tricky place to start from. With the recent turbulence in the UK energy market, companies like Centrica face the challenge of how to continue expanding their customer portfolio amidst this market uncertainty. Centrica approached us at the start of the energy crisis looking for help to do just that.
Since the project went live in 2021, we’re closing in on 800 sales qualified leads, with significant numbers of these converting into revenue.
There’s nothing that says ‘trust’ like delivering on your promises, especially in the face of adversity.
Grappling with doubt
Potential clients may have specific doubts and objections when considering your product or service. These doubts can range from concerns about quality and reliability, to worries about hidden costs or poor on-going support and communication. Addressing these doubts head-on will serve to strengthen your relationship. Recognising the work you’ve done to address and avoid these negative experiences with other clients, sets a strong standard of reliability. If you anticipate and proactively address common objections, you can fill your potential clients with confidence about your conscious approach to common weak points.
Be honest and interested
Transparency is a crucial tool for building trust. People work with people, and your clients want to know they’re working with a team that is trustworthy and honest. You might be thinking, “Surely that goes without saying?”, but you’d be surprised how small things like poor comms and over-promising and underdelivering can create an environment of mistrust and cause relationships to falter.
If you’re truthful from the start about pricing, policies, and processes, you immediately help alleviate doubt and demonstrate a commitment to fairness. When committing to a service, wouldn’t everyone love to see an honest display of exactly what they are getting and how much it will cost? Extend that privilege to your potential customers, and you’ll find people appreciate it, and trust grows from there.
Maintaining consistent and transparent communication throughout the sales process also contributes to the development of your strong relationships. It’s not a case of wooing them just to get them on board, but a case of giving them high-quality treatment throughout, and being transparent about that. That’s how you keep their trust in you, so start with being transparent upfront, and maintain it.
Spend your time listening actively to your prospective customers. Focus on business fit to ensure you are focused on helping them create success rather than chasing the order.
Demonstrating excellence
Remember that high-quality evidence I mentioned earlier? The best thing you can do to build the reputation of your business, and thus the trust in your enterprise, is to develop a bank of outside opinions. This can take the form of customer testimonials, case studies, reviews, or similar qualitative evidence that provides social proof and establishes credibility. If you are delivering a quality service, you will have served positive experiences to existing clients— make use of them! By promoting them to potential clients, you demonstrate your expertise and reliability. A strong track record speaks for itself.
This tactic was also essential to our work building a sales strategy for Centrica. Our goal was to help Centrica distinguish itself from its competitors by taking a different approach to the market. One of the key ways we connected with leads was by advising prospects on how to adapt to the decarbonisation agenda of the UK government. By positioning Centrica as knowledgeable and trustworthy, we were able to deliver a well-rounded approach and generate high-quality results.
Holding standards high
Building trust is not a one-time effort; it’s common sense that it’s a matter of consistency and ongoing relationship-building. But I can’t overstate how important it is to focus on nurturing long-term relationships with your customers, and how often this gets forgotten about.
This means personalised communication, regular follow-ups, and delivering on promises consistently and on time, whether it’s monthly reports or bigger proposals. You want to demonstrate a genuine interest in your customers’ success and provide ongoing support in all areas, building your relationship to last beyond the initial sale to ensure repeat business and loyalty.
We kept standards high on behalf of Centrica in a similar way, prioritising understanding customer needs, and positioning Centrica as a trusted advisor. This saw our team successfully build credibility and long-term relationships with prospects and deliver the results.
Make noise about yourself
Something else that needs consistent work is establishing your business, which is a well-known reality for any business owner! While it may feel like the work is never done, it can be made easier. Have a plan in place to continually generate noise about your business and just how good your knowledge and processes are.
Becoming a thought leader in your industry, sharing valuable insights and expertise through quality blogs, whitepapers, and educational content, will establish you as credible and trustworthy. Putting that emphasis on your understanding of customers’ needs demonstrates just how experienced you are, displaying to any prospective client that the quality of your product or service is critically important to you.
In summary..
Building trust in a sceptical B2B market requires time, care, and a great deal of consideration on your end. By delivering on promises, maintaining transparent communication, demonstrating integrity and leveraging social proof, you can demonstrate the value of your business and establish the kind of trust that leads to long-lasting customer relationships. Don’t ignore the existence of scepticism in your market, or amongst your prospective clients. Instead, embrace it – and turn it to your own advantage.
Read more:
Building trust in a sceptical market: how to overcome doubt

The cyber defences of UK businesses are faltering as 50 per cent of businesses reported a cyber attack or breach over the past 12 months, according to the government’s latest Cyber security breaches survey 2024.
The figure rose substantially among medium businesses (70 per cent) and large businesses (74 per cent), while 32 per cent of charities were subject to an attack or breach.
Phishing was by far the most common threat type facing businesses, attacking 84 per cent of targeted businesses. While organisation impersonation and virus or other malware were the next most common threatening 35 per cent and 17 per cent of targeted businesses respectively.
The increased threat landscape comes despite a rise in cyber hygiene, with 83 per cent using up-to-date malware protection, up from 76 per cent last year, and 75 percent deploying network firewalls, up from 66 per cent.
The most disruptive breach over the past year cost each business an average of approximately £1,205.
Commenting on the findings, Achi Lewis, Area VP EMEA for Absolute Software, said: “From the Prime Minister to large enterprises to charities, anyone and everyone can be targeted by a malicious cyber attack. It’s more important than ever for organisations to have cyber resilience underpinning robust defence measures, emphasising reactive, preventative, and recovery procedures, as threats are a case of when not if.”
“Especially in today’s work-from-anywhere world, security teams need visibility over an organisation’s entire network to protect devices, applications, and ultimately staff. Secure access technology can establish trust between devices and a network, alerting centralised IT teams to suspicious behaviour and providing them with the power to freeze or even shut down potentially compromised devices. An approach to security that includes cyber resilience built into defences is the best way for targeted organisations to ensure their measures are working as needed to avoid being breached.”
In total, 31 per cent of businesses claimed they have undertaken cyber security risk assessment over the past year, while a third (33 per cent) deployed security monitoring tools to bolster their defences.
Cybersecurity expert Oseloka Obiora, CTO, RiverSafe, commented: “There is no doubt that developments such as AI have made the job of security teams more difficult over the past year, increasing the volume and sophistication of external threats, as well as creating an open door for insider threat through tools like ChatGPT. Now, organisations need to be even more aggressive with their response and remediation plans if they are to withstand a new flavour of AI-generated cyber attacks.”
“To increase preparedness, security teams need robust network visibility to enable them to swiftly detect and address vulnerabilities across systems, mitigating the impact of cyber threats, especially across complex or dispersed IT systems.”
The number of businesses insured against cyber security risks rose from 37 per cent to 43 per cent over the past 12 months, a figure which rises among medium and large companies.
Read more:
UK cyber defences faltering as half of businesses hit by cyber attack, according to Government survey

According to recent findings from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), more than 7.4 million individuals across the UK encountered challenges in meeting bill payments or credit repayments in January, underscoring ongoing financial strain among a significant portion of the population.
Although this figure represents a decrease from previous years, it remains substantially higher than pre-crisis levels, indicating persistent financial difficulties exacerbated by the cost of living crisis.
The FCA’s data, which tracks household financial distress, reveals a concerning trend of escalating financial challenges over recent years. In February 2020, prior to the onset of the cost of living crisis, 5.8 million individuals reported struggling to pay significant bills. By January 2023, following the impact of events such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this number nearly doubled to 10.9 million.
In response to these findings, the FCA emphasizes the importance of proactive engagement with lenders for individuals facing financial hardship. It reassures consumers that discussing financial concerns with lenders will not adversely affect their credit scores, underscoring the obligation of financial firms to listen to customer concerns and provide appropriate support.
Over the past year, 2.7 million individuals sought assistance from lenders, debt advisers, or financial support charities. Encouragingly, nearly half of those who sought help reported experiencing improved financial circumstances as a result. However, the FCA expresses concern over the reluctance of some individuals to engage with lenders about their financial challenges, with two in five individuals who fell behind on payments avoiding such discussions.
Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, acknowledges the mixed financial landscape reflected in the data, noting significant disparities in household financial resilience. While a substantial portion of the population faces financial precarity, a majority still maintain disposable income, highlighting the divided nature of the economic recovery.
In response to these findings, the FCA reiterates the obligation of financial firms to support customers and collaborate with them to address payment difficulties. Sheldon Mills, executive director of Consumers and Competition at the FCA, urges individuals struggling with payments to reach out to their lenders promptly, emphasizing the availability of support options and free debt advice through resources like MoneyHelper.
Read more:
7.4 Million UK Consumers Struggle to Pay Bills, Financial Regulator Finds

Recent revelations from internal meetings at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have shed light on discussions among managers, lawyers, and engineers regarding the potential acquisition of Simon & Schuster to procure books for training the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The recordings, shared with the New York Times by an employee of Meta, offer insights into deliberations on leveraging the renowned publishing house’s extensive catalog to enhance AI training, prompting ethical and legal considerations.
According to the recordings spanning March to April 2023, Meta personnel convened on a near-daily basis to explore avenues for acquiring additional data to train AI models. Discussions included the possibility of purchasing Simon & Schuster, with some participants contemplating paying $10 per book for licensing rights to new titles.
Simon & Schuster, a prominent player in the English-speaking publishing landscape and part of the esteemed “Big Five” alongside Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan, boasts a roster of distinguished authors such as Stephen King, Colleen Hoover, and Bob Woodward.
The prospect of Meta acquiring Simon & Schuster arose following Paramount Global’s announcement in March 2020 of its intent to divest the publishing house. Despite an aborted merger attempt with Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster was ultimately sold to private equity firm KKR in August 2023.
Ahmad Al-Dahle, Meta’s vice president of generative AI, reportedly informed executives that the company had exhausted nearly all available English-language literary content on the internet for AI training purposes, prompting the search for new data sources.
Employees acknowledged using text sources without permission and contemplated expanding these practices despite potential legal ramifications. Concerns raised by a lawyer regarding the ethical implications of using copyrighted intellectual property were met with silence.
Additionally, discussions revealed Meta’s employment of contractors in Africa to aggregate summaries of copyrighted fiction and non-fiction texts, raising further ethical and legal questions regarding data collection practices.
Maria A Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, expressed skepticism about Simon & Schuster’s willingness to entertain such a sale, questioning Meta’s intentions and its potential impact on authors and contractual agreements.
In a related development, California federal judge Vince Chhabria dismissed a portion of a copyright lawsuit filed by comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors against Meta over the use of copyrighted books in training its AI system LLaMA. Chhabria cast doubt on claims that the AI models’ outputs significantly resembled the authors’ works, underscoring ongoing debates surrounding AI and intellectual property rights.
Read more:
Meta employees discussed buying Simon & Schuster to train AI models, report reveals