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Fewer than three in 10 people with autism in the UK are in employment, according to government figures – and the National Autistic Society recently put the number as low as 22%.

Employers with no experience of working with neurodiverse people may be apprehensive about managing somebody who is autistic, or has dyslexia, ADHD or dyspraxia. It requires an investment of time and money because employers are required by law to provide reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent employees.

The good news is that more recruitment companies are starting to specialise in this area – for example, Divergent Talent, an agency that represents neurodiverse actors, writers and creatives.

The most established firm operating in this field is Exceptional Individuals – founded in 2015 by Matt Boyd, who has dyslexia – which has worked with big companies such as HSBC and Aviva.

In an interview with Positive News, Boyd said it’s important to dispel some of the myths about neurodiversity. “A person might be a genius and have autism, but they’re not a genius because they have autism,” he says. “They’re unique human beings with different experiences. That means the job opportunities they get depend on the individual.”

C-suite talk

PwC recently published its annual CEO survey, now in its 27th year, recording the views of some 4,702 CEOs. Here is a selection of the key findings…

• 45% of responding CEOs are doubtful their company is on track to survive the next decade – up from 39% in 2023.

• Although the percentage of CEOs expecting the global economy to improve (38%) has more than doubled since this time last year (18%), 45% still expect it to decline in 2024 – a net rating of -7%.

• Technology is viewed as the most important factor driving change at 56%, while climate change stands at 30%, behind competitors and government regulation.

• 65% of companies are in the process of improving energy efficiency, while 10% say they have already done so.

• 64% say generative AI will increase the cybersecurity risk to their business and 52% say it poses problems of misinformation.

• 70% say AI will significantly change the way their company creates, delivers and captures value.

• 64% think AI will create efficiencies in their employees’ time at work.

• Four in ten CEOs have accepted significantly lower rates of return on climate-friendly investments.

Make our day

From tentative beginnings, International Women’s Day, which falls on Friday 8 March, has become a worldwide call for gender equality

1911

The year of the first International Women’s Day (IWD), held in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany – the brainchild of Clara Zetkin, Chairwoman of the German Social Democratic Party's Women's Office

1917

A “Bread and Peace” strike by Russian women on IWD contributed to the downfall of the royal family, with the Tsar abdicating just four days later

1975

The year IWD was first marked by the United Nations, followed two years later by a call for all member states to formally adopt a day for women’s rights and peace

100

To mark IWD’s centenary, President Obama decreed March 2011 should become International Women’s Month

3

IWD is a women-only public holiday in China, Madagascar and Nepal

2001

The year the UN launched a dedicated website to rekindle interest in IWD, while providing tools and resources. This year’s theme is Invest in Women

On the upswing

While the UK economy is flatlining, one business has been enjoying an extraordinary period of post-pandemic growth. A recent report from the Revenue Club, surveying some 200 golf clubs in the UK and Ireland, found they generated an average of £163,952 in casual green fee income in 2023 – an increase of 8% on 2022, the previous record year.

This was achieved despite an unusually wet summer and the cost of living crisis. The pandemic helped to fuel the recent boom, with golfers rediscovering their love of the sport once courses reopened. Indeed, the number of rounds processed by BRS Golf in 2023 stood at 25.6 million, an astonishing 90% rise on 2019, the last full year before Covid put the sport in deep freeze.

The challenge of attracting new people to golf remains ever-present. But it is an impressive revival – back in 2010 a report published by KPMG revealed that, of 300 clubs surveyed, 50% had made staff redundant in the wake of the financial crash.

Under the influencers

Older readers may recall the TV presenter Roger Cook, whose show, The Cook Report, featured him doorstepping people suspected of conning others out of their money. His modern equivalent could be Coffeezilla, aka Stephen Findeisen, who lacks a prime-time TV show, but does have some 3.4 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

Which is where you can watch his investigations of financial scams – some possible, some proven. Often they are little more than Ponzi schemes dressed up as “get rich quick” investments. Most, you may not be shocked to learn, relate to cryptocurrency, forex trading and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Unlike Cook, whose targets were obscure, the “bad guys” in Coffeezilla’s stories tend to be well-known influencers who have promoted their projects to millions of online followers, promising they are "in this for the long term”. Some are engaged in a “pump and dump”, where they hype an investment, ramping up the price, then selling immediately. (Elon Musk is currently the subject of a lawsuit which accuses him of doing just that with the cryptocurrency dogecoin – Musk denies the allegation.)

Coffeezilla recently made headlines when YouTuber Logan Paul offered a partial refund to investors in NFTs for his CryptoZoo game, which he trailed in 2021 but recently admitted had been abandoned. Coffeezilla replied that estimated losses in the NFT and the cryptocoin amounted to around $18m (£14m), while Paul’s refunds – made on condition that claimants drop any legal action against him – could reach a maximum of just $2.3m.

Perhaps Coffeezilla’s most telling investigation was into another YouTube influencer, Paul Denino, aka Ice Poseidon, in 2022. Denino did a “rug pull” – allegedly hyping up his CX coin, while simultaneously withdrawing the money his followers had invested, leaving them with a worthless asset. The pseudonyms some of these people adopt may be silly, but the money lost on “meme coins” such as CX, CryptoZoo, Save The Kids and SafeMoon, each of them promoted by online influencers, is deeply serious.

Denino’s defence of his scam, which made him around $500,000, was that no one was forced to invest, which is of course true. But the success of a meme coin relies on manipulating your followers by generating Fomo (fear of missing out).

If there is a crumb of comfort from this tale, although Denino continues to operate on the platform Kick, his audience has turned on him. It remains to be seen if Coffeezilla’s latest work will have the same impact on Paul.

RYAN HERMAN

THE ACCOUNT