Over the last year, I have increasingly felt the traditional PR and comms industry is dying – I believe our sector must recognise this and help practitioners to adapt. Ten years ago, we were at a similar cross-roads as social media invaded the PR space. Then, our industry lost out big time. Swathes of PR … Is the PR/comms industry dying while we still discuss press releases?
Over the years, I have trained communications teams and professionals in everything from internal and crisis comms to social media and presentation skills. I must have trained hundreds in the last few years – and gosh, what insights. My big conclusion? Business leaders don’t talk business to their teams. And this means the quality of … Leaders are failing their PR teams – agencies and corporates alike
A few weeks ago I attended a CBI round table on the economy. Inevitably these mostly large employers started talking about the nightmare their businesses/organisations are going to face without cheap EU labour. I have added the word ‘cheap’, but that was essentially the issue. I drove away fuming. These bosses are disconnected from their … Would your leader work for their own company?
What is the role of a communications professional?
Internal communications is growing up as a core business activity. Over the years I’ve done a lot of training on this topic and on the most recent course I noticed 90% of delegates had a dedicated internal comms title. A few years ago that would have been PR manager or similar. But I also noticed … Can your line managers communicate with staff?
Jon Dean is a strategic change specialist and works with major organisations to help them implement new programmes, leadership development systems and major corporate transformations. In this guest blog for Northern Lights, he explores the corporate communication challenges of change…
I have got two pet hates in design at the moment – white out (where the font is in white against a coloured background); and the colours of acid yellow and lime green. The colours themselves are favourites of mine – for clothes. But in my view, they just don’t work as corporate colours. I … What is good design? Yellow, green and white-out are not!
For too long, the issue of ethics in the boardroom has been seen as rather fluffy or for the CSR department and not about core business. But in the last few weeks we have seen just what the cost can be. Martin Winterkorn, chief executive of the world’s second-largest carmaker VW, has stepped down as … Could your boardroom ethics cost you £20bn?
I ran a training day for a group of consultants last week, as the first stage of building their profile. Their homework was to print out a blog they follow and then tell us all why they like it. It’s a great way to get people thinking about blogs and how to make them work. … What makes a good blog?
