PARSONS GREEN — There’s a lady in a business suit sitting reading The Guardian.  The Media Guardian is tossed on the bench beside her.  Untouched.

It’s maybe symptomatic of a larger issue. And then again maybe I am just getting old. [Cue rant.] Why do the media need sections dedicated to… the media? 

I find myself hanging [...]]]>

PARSONS GREEN — There’s a lady in a business suit sitting reading The Guardian.  The Media Guardian is tossed on the bench beside her.  Untouched.

It’s maybe symptomatic of a larger issue. And then again maybe I am just getting old. [Cue rant.] Why do the media need sections dedicated to… the media? 

I find myself hanging around late in cinemas just to stare in awe at the screen. Why do we need to have “credits” for the caterers assistant?

Why do the arts and the softer sciences need to be so self-congratulatory?

It does none of us any good.

Can you imagine a great big banner being pulled behind an aircraft: “And the guy who polished the wing was called Gus…”?

/df

LONDON — There are a whole variety of reaction to the news of Kraft’s seemingly successful bid for Cadbury in today’s media.  Many reactions are about more than just the gut reaction to the “uneven narrative of corporate finance”.

We’ve put out press release that you can read by clicking on the link.

What do you think?

/df

MARBLE ARCH — I was visited by a charming man from Brussels yesterday called Hugh.  We had a nice chat about PR, communications and change management.  We talked about schools in Kenya and wine in Kuwait and real estate in Cirencester.

When it came to the subject at hand — work — Hugh blushed a bit [...]]]>

MARBLE ARCH — I was visited by a charming man from Brussels yesterday called Hugh.  We had a nice chat about PR, communications and change management.  We talked about schools in Kenya and wine in Kuwait and real estate in Cirencester.

When it came to the subject at hand — work — Hugh blushed a bit and said “I am here because, I am afraid to say, I googled ‘change management’ and your company came up.”

And I think that was the best thing I have heard so far in 2009.  (Granted it’s not been a such a great year.)

There was a day when businesses like ours would try to find the biggest shingle they could and hang it above the front door.  Or you might offer the “best deals” or some kind of AMAZING results or solutions.  I know companies that have gone to great lengths to get in the papers or appear on TV.  But today there’s one business directory that counts ahead of all others, and that’s Google.

When we started this business in September 2008 we had a lovely website that no one could see.  But we didn’t figure that out until earlier this year.  When we did, and our South African SEO (look it up!) guru tweeked a few things, everything changed.  We climbed the ratings literally over-night.

Part of this is about technology, but part is also about noise and focus.  We have tried hard to make our business offering both broad and specific.  We found some words that we wanted to own, and we set about owning them.

At the same time we made as much noise online as we could.  Blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn… We appeared at conferences and made sure the name was spelled right.

Has it been the making of us?  So far, not really.  But it can’t hurt.  And it’s better than trying to lift that big shingle.

/df

PICCADILLY — It’s our birthday today and we’d like you to help us celebrate.  (See our challenge below.)  

Able and How opened its doors on 8 September 2008.  And today seems a good time to explain where the name came from.

Yesterday someone wrote to us out of the blue and said how much they liked [...]]]>

PICCADILLY — It’s our birthday today and we’d like you to help us celebrate.  (See our challenge below.)  

Able and How opened its doors on 8 September 2008.  And today seems a good time to explain where the name came from.

Yesterday someone wrote to us out of the blue and said how much they liked our name.  And then this morning I read an article that referred, half sneeringly, to the “liberal ideal that the world can be made a better place…”  And those two things made me think it’s time to talk about why we set this business up.

We think that ‘work’ can be improved.

We think that the world can be made a better place.

We think that we can help make that happen.

So about a year ago, when we were trying to sum up that idealism in a way that was clean and optimistic, without being arch or arrogant, we happened on Able and How.

When it came time to think about putting all this together, I approached a branding guru and said we needed help on naming.

“We’ve got one, but we’re not sure it’s right.  However, we do have six reasons why we think it works.”

The reply was simple and categorical. “If you have six reasons, then I don’t even need to hear it.  You should go with it.”

Nonetheless, the name Able and How was influenced by a number of conversations.

1. A branding expert from Landor in the USA told me that professional services companies do better when they have people’s names in them.  And I certainly didn’t want my name in the firm’s moniker.

2. The URL was available.  And you just never seem to recover from having a .tv or .biz web address.

3. It’s short and easy to remember.  Although our colleague Nick Band still insists on calling us Willing and Able.

4. It’s at the very top of any alphabetical list.  (We did look at Aardvark…)

5. It vaguely describes what we do.

6. The American radio show “Car Talk” on National Public Radio is a wry and yet broad comedy show about cars.  The two fast talking hosts always thank their lawyers at the end of each show.  They thank the firm by name: Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.  And there’s no joke better than an old joke.

Most of the people we talk to have only registered one or two of these concepts.  Some ask who is Able and who is How.  (Although historic photos of our founders Mabel Able and Hugo How now hang in our offices).

We opened our doors one year ago today.  Today is our birthday.  And (so far) we have survived one of the worst recessions in living memory.  We’re quite proud of that.  But we know it couldn’t have happened without our friends and supporter, like you.

Therefore, how would you like to help us celebrate?

Please take no more than 5 minutes and write us a limerick or a haiku poem using the words ‘How’ and ‘Able’.  If we get enough submissions we’ll think of some appropriate prizes.

Oh, and, thank you!  Thank you very much for your support.

/df

LONDON — I am delighted to see that people are still talking about last month’s CommsFlashMob.

Liam and his buddy Paul have both written about it recently. 

It seems like maybe the CommsFlashMob should keep on rolling.

Ideas?

/df

LAKE DISTRICT — I really like David MacLeod.  And I am very pleased that the Prime Minister is excited about the idea of employee engagement.  I like that he sees it as a possible source of competitive advantage for Britain.

(I am a bit disappointed that with so many delays they only issued it this week, deep [...]]]>

LAKE DISTRICT — I really like David MacLeod.  And I am very pleased that the Prime Minister is excited about the idea of employee engagement.  I like that he sees it as a possible source of competitive advantage for Britain.

(I am a bit disappointed that with so many delays they only issued it this week, deep in the heart of summer holidays.  And long after school has broken.)

And, because I think that engagement is something that we can and should spend more time, I am very reluctant to ask for more… but…

here I go…

Couldn’t we do this a bit faster?

If ever there was a time to galvanise industry into thinking and acting on engagement it is in this economy, in this time of change, in this moment.  Now.

We do know a lot about engagement.  There has been a lot of academic research.  It is all pointing in roughly the same direction.  But Mr MacLeod also sees the controversy over ‘what is engagement?’, and I think he has deferred the decision of trying to nail it down. 

My view is that there are a lot of people selling events, surveys, programmes, picnics and other things that they say will ‘drive engagement’.  And basically won’t.  And that audience is a scary one.

But we know what does drive engagement.  It’s things like perceptions of fairness at work.  (How have the last eight months fared on that level?!)  It’s line management leadership skills and an organisation’s ability to create some level of decisions participation.

But this stuff is harder than picnics and company values posters.

Unfortunately, all that the MacLeod Report has chosen to do now is kick the issue forward into the future.  “More study”, from my time in politics, was always code for “extra time to bury it.”  I know MacLeod is not like that.  But what about BIS (BERR) and maybe Number 10?

Engagement in UK industry and the public sector is a potential boon to us.  It even impacts on people’s quality of life.

Why wait?

I can’t see it.

/df

TCR — Here’s a brave soul.  Through a network of former Towers Perrin employees on LinkedIn I have just been forwarded a note from Robert Cornet on his blog.  I don’t know him.  But I admire his willingness to go into dangerous waters.

In his blog on 10 March (which I can’t get a clean link to) he publishes [...]]]>

TCR — Here’s a brave soul.  Through a network of former Towers Perrin employees on LinkedIn I have just been forwarded a note from Robert Cornet on his blog.  I don’t know him.  But I admire his willingness to go into dangerous waters.

In his blog on 10 March (which I can’t get a clean link to) he publishes research findings that say that very few people think that PR professionals “know anything useful.”

So, let me be clear, I do not want to disparage PR people!  I am interested in an even larger question: ‘Do communication professionals know anything useful for the business?’ 

The answer, I fear might not be far different from the poll that Robert has published.

And why is that?

I am not sure I am feeling brave enough to offer an answer.

What I can say though is that businesses at the moment are focused operationally.  That’s why we see so many “One” programmes, and initiatives that promote keeping people, but reducing costs.  And operational communications is not always a strong suit of communicators.  We are seeing a lot of interest in ‘transformational’ communications.  And not a lot of people who can do it.  Not McKinsey, Bain or BCG.  Not the big ‘communication’ firms.

Similarly, there’s a shocking piece in HR Magazine today saying:

Most HR Directors are not involved in making HR outsourcing decisions

That’s another ‘operational’ decision that isn’t happening where it should.  Why is that?  Do functions know as much about operations as they should?

/df

P.S. Two events coming up: 23 March a Change course (info in blog below) and March 26th a Able Round Table event.  Please ask and come!

LONDON — What I really like about the research that Able and How are publishing tomorrow morning is that it defies logic… but reinforces our sense of the world.

We have found that a lot of people have no idea about the future of their jobs.  They don’t have communication about the future of the company, [...]]]>

LONDON — What I really like about the research that Able and How are publishing tomorrow morning is that it defies logic… but reinforces our sense of the world.

We have found that a lot of people have no idea about the future of their jobs.  They don’t have communication about the future of the company, but they are essentially happy.

Regular followers will know that I am not a fan of ‘happy’ at work.  I don’t really support employee satisfaction surveys.  I even think that the idea of ‘employee engagement’ can go horribly wrong. 

We come to work to work.  And happiness is not what it’s all about.  Success is more like it… but even that is often misconstrued.  So I am surprised at how happy (sic) I am with these survey results.  People are happy!

We even had one respondent write to us after competing the survey and say: “thanks for asking.  It wasn’t until I actually had to think about it that I realised that I AM happy!”

I like that.

The press release can be found here.

The excellent analysis and report is here.  (Well done Able and How consultants!)

Smile.  It can’t hurt.

/df

LONDON — We were in Twitter two years ago.  Yea, I am sure they all say that.  But we are back.  The Able and How tweets start today.

Sign-up to follow us at www.twitter.com/ableandhow

We’re not sure how we’ll run it.  But the blog posts will be dumped there and we’ll also probably have a Twit of [...]]]>

LONDON — We were in Twitter two years ago.  Yea, I am sure they all say that.  But we are back.  The Able and How tweets start today.

Sign-up to follow us at www.twitter.com/ableandhow

We’re not sure how we’ll run it.  But the blog posts will be dumped there and we’ll also probably have a Twit of the Week in the office, who’s job it will be to keep you posted of what we are worrying about.  And if Paul has made tea.

/df

LONDON — Attached is a release we put out at 7 am this morning.  The calculations are ours.  they are based on published numbers and conservative estimates.

For the press release, please click here.

At the same time we prepared more background information in what we called a discusion paper.  That probably makes it sound more exciting [...]]]>

LONDON — Attached is a release we put out at 7 am this morning.  The calculations are ours.  they are based on published numbers and conservative estimates.

For the press release, please click here.

At the same time we prepared more background information in what we called a discusion paper.  That probably makes it sound more exciting than it is.  It is essentially an explanation of some of the thinking.

To see the discussion paper, please click here.

If you are a journalist of academic interested in looking at the actual model and seeing what else it can do.  Get in contact with us.  Our man-with-the-macros would probably like to talk to you.

Thanks

/df