Philippa Kaur

WHO IS consulting good for? Consultants, obviously. Chief executives, who can blame failure on bad outside advice and take credit for successful counsel. Also, for the industry’s one listed behemoth, its shareholders. Between the start of 2015 and the end of 2024 Accenture, which split off from its accounting sibling in 2000 and went public a year later, generated a total return (including dividends) of around 370%, handily outdoing not just the S&P 500 index but also Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, rival redoubts of advisory smugness. As America’s stockmarket climbed to an all-time high in February, the firm was worth $250bn, more than either investment bank. More

Damp carpet and old coffee. That is how a perfumier might have described the “top notes”—industry speak for the initial olfactory experience—at SIMPPAR, the annual fragrance-ingredient expo held this month in Paris. It is where vendors from Sicilian dynasties to Japanese chemical firms gather to showcase their ingredients. Some are natural. The centifolia rose, a beautifully pungent pink flower harvested at dawn, at its peak potency, makes for excellent marketing material. Less romantic but highly lucrative are the synthetic ingredients. These molecules allow their makers to isolate specific smells, spare the animals once killed for their secretions and give fragrances staying power. More

In his office in upstate New York, Wendell Weeks is about to do an ad hoc product demonstration. He brandishes something he calls a Norwegian hammer, a device used to test how resistant materials are to hard knocks. Mr Weeks first experiments on a thin sheet of metal; the hammer leaves a visible dent. Then he places the hammer over a small sample of glass; its percussive impact leaves no trace. More

Vibe coding, or the ability to spin up a piece of software using generative artificial intelligence (AI) rather than old-school programming skills, is all the rage in Silicon Valley. But it has a step-sibling. Call it vibe valuing. This is the ability of venture capitalists to conjure up vast valuations for AI startups with scant regard for old-school spreadsheet measures. More

Since it was founded in 2016 by a well-heeled Brit, OnlyFans has grown into a giant of x-rated content. The platform, whose current owner, a secretive Ukrainian-American, is reportedly looking to sell it for $8bn, is used by over 4m “creators”, who post content, and over 300m “fans”, who pay for it. In the 12 months to November 2023, the latest data available, it brought in revenue of $1.3bn. At around 50%, its operating margin was higher than those of tech giants such as Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft. OnlyFans has not only been an enormous financial success. It has transformed how porn is made, shared and consumed online. More

Labubu dolls are hard to come by. Even at the giant flagship store of their maker, Pop Mart, in Shanghai, throngs of customers are told they need to wait a week or longer. The grimacing elvish creatures, which come in “blind boxes” that keep buyers in suspense over which one they might get, sell for as little as $20. But a rare variety sold for $150,000 at an auction on June 10th. It is not just Chinese children trying to get their hands on the dolls; celebrities including David Beckham, a British football player, and Rihanna, an American pop star, have recently gone public with their appreciation. More

It’s precisely midday, and it’s my great pleasure to be chairing the last panel discussion of the morning. We’re going to spend the next 30 minutes talking about the impact of something important on something else important. I’m your moderator and I should have done more preparation. More

When Mark Zuckerberg decided to launch his quest for the metaverse in 2021, he threw fistfuls of cash at the effort. Meta’s boss is now repeating the act, this time with generative artificial intelligence (AI). Hot on the heels of what may be the world’s most expensive acquihire—a $14.3bn deal to buy 49% of Scale AI, a data-labelling firm whose main asset is Alexandr Wang, its 28-year-old founder—people close to the matter say Mr Zuckerberg is planning to offer more than $1bn combined for two of Silicon Valley’s hottest AI brain boxes, who would work under Mr Wang. It marks the start of a reset of Meta’s generative-AI ambitions. More