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How the consulting market has changed

FULHAM ROAD — It’s official. For me anyway.  I have come to the conclusion that the market has changed.  I recognise that it may only be temporary, but it feels longer-term than that.

Where once businesses were interested in concepts and ideas… most now are being far more practical.  “I want you to do something that [...]

Mr Brightside: Copenhagen, Swine Flu, Recession and us

KITCHEN TABLE — We humans, and the organisations we work in, can be a miserable lot.

According to many people (me included, most days) 2009 was the year of fear.  From start to finish we pulled the duvet over our head each morning and said “oh, no”.

But let’s look a little closer.

Copenhagen

We set it up and [...]

Explain this: Pink diamond sales soar!

LONDON — The sun is out in London.  It’s an uncommon sight for us and people walk down Piccadilly pealing off their pea jackets like larvae.

It’s only one of the smaller contradictions that communicators face these days.  Nothing seems to be going to plan.

Are we in recession or coming out?  Is the current level of [...]

Employees pay today, but employers’ll pay tomorrow

PEARSON INTL AIRPORT – What’s remarkable about travel is the extent to which you see the same things in very different places.  People are not really all that different, and nor are organisations.  Wherever I go recently I hear about businesses that have lost the respect and support of people.  These people have dedicated most of [...]

Able and How: Help celebrate our birthday…

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 [...]

The phone didn’t ring

LONDON — Yesterday was not the day that I was expecting.  The phone didn’t ring.  The email didn’t ping.  The post bag was empty.

Yesterday was meant to be the first day of the recovery.  After a long, long summer of holidays and work avoidance, while the stock markets climbed and climbed, we were meant to [...]

Saving money on programme communications

PICCADILLY — I am starting to get a little exasperated with people saying that they cannot use consultants because they have been told to save money.

I know that statement only seems logical, but there are so many ways that it is not.  If you are running programmes inefficiently then you’re wasting money.  And let’s be honest, [...]

IHG: Outperforming when centralising and consolidating… through communications

DISTRICT LINE — In it’s statement to the market yesterday the InterContinental Hotels Group pointed out that it outperformed its peers and achieving substantial savings by centralising functions such as procurement.

This is the kind of story that does not often make the front pages of newspapers, but most of our clients are making some kind [...]

The future is organisational communications

BREWSTER, MASS — The one thing that the recession is teaching us is that nothing is sure.

Cars won’t sell… or will they?

Banks must be held to account… or maybe not?

The market will double dip, or W, or L… or maybe it won’t.

But amidst all of that uncertainty — and the more that will undoubtedly come [...]

What the bankers are saying…

PICCADILLY — I love summer weekends.  There’s so much going on that for a brief period it feels like there’s more to life than work.

I’ve been running from pillar to post for 10 days. It’s amazing I am still upright.  But Saturday I stood still long enough to soak up some chatter from some friends [...]