How will corporation tax change under Making Tax Digital?

As part of ‘Making Tax Digital’, an initiative to make tax administration more effective, the UK government is opening a consultation for the design of a digital platform for filing corporation tax

Social Impact: Embedding social impact into the heart of business

By partnering with social enterprises, businesses can accelerate growth and ensure their operations include a positive humanitarian and environmental impact

Climate change: Managing the ‘Green Line’ to address climate action

Traditionally, the top and bottom lines of a business are its most important metrics. But companies need to start treating their “green line” – the measurement of their environmental efforts – with just as much importance

The circular economy: Enabling the transformation to circular business

The circular economy could unlock $4.5trn in economic growth. To capture this growth, transparency and collaboration within business are crucial

The five costliest product recalls of all time

With GM forced to recall some 1.7 million reportedly faulty vehicles, we take a look back at some of the world’s biggest product recalls to date

Jeffrey Almer of Savage, Minnesota, gets emotional while talking about his mother dying from salmonella poisoning during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Peanut Corporation of America's contaminated products

1. Merck’s Vioxx

Merck’s FDA-approved arthritis drug Vioxx was later discovered to carry with it “unacceptable cardiovascular risks,” and in 2004 was pulled from the shelves. The pharmaceuticals giant said shortly after that it expected some $725m in lost sales and later agreed to pay $4.85bn to settle 27,000 lawsuits in 2007.

Before being recalled from shelves, Vioxx was thought to be used by millions of arthritis sufferers around the world

2. Ford’s Firestone tyres

The American automaker recalled millions of Firestone tyres in 2000 after widespread reports of unusually high incidence of failure, hundreds of deaths and thousands of major injuries. Ford’s decision to pull 6.5 million tyres cost the company $3bn, alongside approximately $600m in lawsuits relating to the issues at hand.

Many of the Firestone tyres recalled in 2000 were used on sports vehicles

3. Toyota’s pedals

The Japanese car manufacturer initiated a string of pedal-related recalls towards the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010, pulling approximately nine million vehicles over the course of three months. The recalls combined cost Toyota $2bn, alongside a further $1bn used to settle lawsuits with previous car owners.

4. The Peanut Corporation of America’s bankruptcy

An outbreak of salmonella prompted the Peanut Corporation of America to instigate one of the largest food recalls in US history and led to the loss of some $1bn in lost sales. The ramifications were so huge that on February 14 2009, the company was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and to liquidate its assets.

5. Westland/Hallmark’s unfit meat

After an USDA-led investigation discovered Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company products to be “unfit for human consumption”, the company was left with no option but to recall in excess of 143 million pounds of beef. America’s then second largest meat processing plant was shortly afterwards forced into bankruptcy.