Mr. Shaun Taylor : "From 150k to 150million in 15 years"

On Friday 21st March, the Epsom College Economics and Enterprise society hosted a lecture from Mr. Shaun Taylor.  The lecture was thoroughly enjoyed by the society and wider members of the college.  He discussed the development of his business HiFX and telescoped attention onto the key characteristics that are necessary for success in the competitive business industry.

HiFx is a UK-based foreign exchange money broker, that provides foreign exchange and international money transfer services.  This service is used by the general public and large corporations.  For example, if an individual were to purchase a holiday home in Spain, they may use HiFX in order to convert their pounds into euros  make their payment.

Mr. Taylor shed light on the reason behind his business success, stating that it was due to his ability to provide better rates than the commercial banks.  However, despite his business not being a social enterprise, his approach to business was overtly ethical and his future business plans for his pension scheme continue to uphold this ethos. His passion and drive was very inspiring.

The lecture was also very informative and would have been particularly relatable to those currently studying AS Economics, since we have just grasped the topic of foreign exchange.  

I'm sure that the stress Mr Taylor placed on the importance of being passionate, driven and confident will benefit everyone who listened to the talk.  Even if they do not desire a career in this industry.

Diane Coyle educates us on the History of GDP

On Thursday 6^th March, students of the Epsom College Economics and Enterprise Society travelled to the acclaimed Eton College, where we were educated on the measurement of economic and social progress by Diane Coyle OBE. Mrs Coyle is a freelance economist and author of the newly published GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. Her talk consisted primarily about the shortcomings of GDP as a measurement of economic and social growth; she brought to our attention the extent of unrecorded economic activity including the informal and intangible economy. For example, the disregard of housework: if we included housework in GDP, our economy may be nearly double the size, however the government discount it on the grounds that it’s too difficult to record. The second half of her talk consisted of possible alternatives to GDP, which included Human Development Index, Happiness, or measuring what is important to the population. What fascinated me the most was the measurement of happiness. She noted that in Bhutan, instead of calculating GDP, the government measure Gross National Happiness (it’s even illegal to mention GDP). This evaluation of happiness is an attempt to unveil the quality of life using not only economic terms, but psychological terms, which seems only fitting – social welfare should be accounted for when assessing the extent to success of an economy. A booming economy with an unhappy population may not represent full potential or achievement. Ultimately, Diane’s conclusions that we should measure economic activity (GDP), social welfare, and sustainability were thoroughly convincing, and has certainly made me think more about the social and psychological sides of economics.