Cultural Intelligence – Death of the Orientalist
I am writing this blog post from Abu Dhabi, where I have been attending the 2012 Abu Dhabi Media Summit Whenever I am in the Gulf region, or indeed in Istanbul, I always feel somehow more centred – literally at the historical epicentre of global trade, the silk routes of centuries past, touched by generations...
The Age of Engagement (Part Three)
Why PR firms will need to re-tool to take on the Ad guys It might yet become the agency equivalent of the Battle of Endor. A struggle is now underway for the shape and the soul of the communications firm of the future. In the third of three blog posts on the Age of Engagement,...
The Age of Engagement (Part Two)
We live in a world of constant tension. The obvious and increasing tensions are now imprinted on the minds of world leaders, in government and business alike. The water, energy, food nexus is disturbed by a population that continues to boom while natural resources tend towards bust. Polarities persist: global north versus global south; east...
Citizens / Communications / Digital Democracy / Leadership / Manifesto for Change / New Economics / Politics / Trust
Citizen Employees Rising Through The Hourglass
Bosses watch out: the Arab Spring and the Shareholder Spring may yet manifest themselves in the workplace, too. If 2006 was Time Magazine’s ‘Year of Me’, so 2012 could well turn out to be the Year of We. We, the people, have called for regime change from the boardrooms of Britain to the streets of...
How enterprise can flourish without growth-fixation
Following on from my previous blog a number of people have asked me what a flourishing enterprise might look like in practice, how they would incorporate change into their business and get shareholder backing. In this blog I will try to answer those questions. Within the flourishing enterprise model of strategic change there are three key...
The Big Society Can Bite Back: A Citizen Perspective
It is, admittedly, early days but opinion is divided as to whether David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is a genuine commitment to citizenship and civic responsibility or a clever ideological play to dramatically reduce the size of the state, delivering a Grantham fist within a Notting Hill glove.
The new, social, democracy of media and beyond
Marshall Mcluhan once famously proclaimed on both the message and the medium. Most of us have grown up with the accepted truth of the media as an imperious and unshakeable institution; the disseminator of news and views, fact and (occasional) fiction; the property of Barons and magnates, living in castles on the hill or fortresses...
Not quite PR but still worth the fight
So the people have spoken. They have told us that ‘none of the above’ had a strong enough narrative to deserve sole power. Have we lost the once in an era chance for real change and transition to grown-up co-operative democracy? The Tories shifted their position on PR considerably. But is it enough? It’s AV...
The Rat, the Squirrel and Chimes of Freedom Flashing
It has been something of an odd couple of weeks, with some of my professional peers either brazenly speaking of lying (PR Week, February 3rd), or offering somewhat antediluvian points of view about what PR really is and how we go about our everyday business. Having recorded the BBC’s The Bottom Line with the erudite...
