I often think it comical How nature often does contrive That every boy and every gal That’s born into this world alive Is either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative. I thought it best to leave out the fal-lal-la’s from WSGilbert’s lyrics, but it’s just that party conference season always has me singing Private...
Read MoreWith the Olympics just around the corner, many London-based organisations are encouraging their staff to work from home rather than increasing the pressure on the already over-stretched transport infrastructure. For many people this will be their first chance to work from home and will give them the opportunity to define their existence as something other than the binary alternatives of “I’m ...
Read MoreThe other day I was talking to someone going through the process of moving into an open plan office. He worked for a very traditional organisation (he is a lawyer) and the transition for him and his team was clearly proving difficult. It made me wonder whether open-plan offices, like outsourcing, was a business idea that will soon start to become unfashionable. Outsourcing is a classic case of...
Read MoreIt is extraordinary the effect that having to make an acceptance speech has on the world’s most polished performers. For people who make a living from promoting an image it is interesting how so many seem to miss the mark. From Morgan Freeman’s 32 second speech to Halle Berry’s 4 minute 30second epic, Oscar acceptance speeches run the whole gamut from the good and the bad to the ugly. To ...
Read MoreThere has been much debate recently about the lack of women on the boards of big companies. Senior politicians seem very keen on the subject, hosting various seminars and debates and generally giving off encouraging signals. They all seem to agree that having so few women on boards is a bad thing and that having more would be a good thing. Other than that there seems to be little consensus. ...
Read MoreThe thorny subject of executive pay has once more returned to the political centre stage. Many politicians have accurately defined the problem but no-one seems to have a sensible solution. Most seem agreed that there is little wrong with high rewards for good performance. This, of course, does nothing to reduce the excesses of high pay and certainly doesn’t address the definition of what good...
Read MoreThe furore over phone hacking in UK has produced much righteous indignation, much of it from journalists. Watching some of them pontificate with faux anger reminded me of Captain Renault as he closed down Rick’s bar in Casablanca: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.” The truth, as one wag put it, is that it’s 95% of journalists who give the profession a ba...
Read MoreI’ve been a PR man longer than I’ve been a PR. Electoral reform is in my blood: my Great-Grandfather probably knew Lloyd George. I learnt my alternative systems at the knees of the masters, having been part of the King Crewe at Essex University in the early 80’s. I may be a Reformer (indeed, I’m a member of the Reform Club), but I am also a classic Liberal. And that means that I nail...
Read MoreLast night my eldest daughter, home from University, persuaded me to watch the latest Harry Potter movie that's just out on DVD. Having never read the books and only seen one of the previous movies I was, of course, hopelessly lost. For those of us for whom the little wizard is not an essential part of our lives, it is impossible to understand the hold it has over some people. For others, lik...
Read More‘Where is the life we have lost in living’, asked TSElliot in The Rock. It is extraordinary how the frenetic pace of life seems to leave so little room for thinking. Leadership, both at work and as a parent, can seem an endless cycle of tasks to be completed and things to be done. Doing has become synonymous with living; and doing - being seen to be busy - is often more important than achie...
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