LONDON — It’s been hard not to think about Korea this week.  But I have different things on my mind.  Not the loss of a dictator.  Not the worry that still has South Korean’s practicing evacuations like WWII Britain and Cold War America.

I am thinking about Korea’s fertile business culture and the country’s uncanny ability to reinvent itself, rebuild and refocus just in time for tremendous success.

See if you can read this bit without stopping in your tracks:

• in 1961 South Korea ranked 117th in the world for arable land per capita (behind Saudi Arabia and Somalia)
• in the last 50 years Korea’s per-capita GDP has grown at 23,000 percent
• today the tiny country (smaller than Iceland) has the world’s 12th largest economy by purchasing power
• unemployment is 3.2 percent
• one of the world’s lowest rates of public debt
• 80% of the 49 million people live in urban areas
• Koreans are four times as likely to have high-speed internet access as Americans and they pay very little for it

A series of seemingly prescient government decisions have constantly shoved the economy in the right direction.  Even through the tough economic times in the late 90s and mid 2000s the countries has seemed to make the right choices.

Today they are pushing — against their own traditions — for more entrepreneurship.  And I wouldn’t bet against them.

In fact, I’d like to be there now. If the chaebols’ would give us a call? Samsung, LG, SK… we’d like a word.

/df

EARL’S COURT — Not sure how I missed this one.  But The Independent has been running a investigative series on lobbyists.  And they’ve chosen one of the biggest and most respected firms to ‘expose’.

In summary, some journalists pretended to be wealthy potential clients from a large foreign country and they recorded the communications professionals bragging about things they shouldn’t have been bragging about.

It’s pretty white-knuckle stuff.  It doesn’t look good in print.

But…

You can easily see where it comes from on both sides.

NEWSPAPERS – Have been the centre of attention from politicians and communications professionals for months over phone hacking and other unsavoury practices.  They probably feel betrayed.  Some columnists are already revelling in the chance to someone else “dirty” and “seedy”.

LOBBYISTS – See themselves as great facilitators, bringing people and politicians together.  And helping the democratic process. They are well paid and unregulated. But perform and important service.

The impact that journalists and a story like this can have can be frightening.  (Although few would argue that journalists themselves can coordinate and wielded it with any precision.)

Furthermore, yes, the lobbyists in question look pretty silly, and their contacts are knocking each other over to get out of their way.  And even Buckingham Palace has launched a stinging (oh!) rebuke.  But what business conversation wouldn’t look silly on paper?  Would the Boardroom and kitchen discussions of any average Briton not be surprising and alarming to many people who read them?

It makes me think of the amateur sting operations in secondary school that caught Harris admitting he’s stolen someone’s can of Coke.

SELF IMOLATION
However the real sport in this story may be elsewhere.

It’s interesting to see some of the Dons of the communication agency businesses lining up to betray each other.

It’s mild at the moment, questioning the accuracy of the other CEO.  Filing toothless complaints with gummy bodies.  Or suggesting that exaggeration is not healthy.  But some of these fellows are pretty tough.  The backroom brawls of the past — though generally unreported — are legendary.  When communication bosses take each other on, it can get messy.

I recommend standing back.  And maybe getting some popcorn.

/df

BAHRAIN — This is my first time in Bahrain.  That leaves only really Oman in the area that I haven’t been to / worked in.

United Arab Emirates?
√ Check
Saudi Arabia?
√ Check
Kuwait?
√ Check
Qatar?
√ Check

It’s a part of the world that many people can’t (or choose not to) understand.

In the last three weeks I have flown over it 5 times.  Three of those times I have flown over Iraq.

Well, it’s on the way.

The other two times we diverted.  And flew over Syria instead.

But although areas of conflict may be the image and abiding sense that many people have of the Arab Gulf states, it’s not representative.  (No more than when I was a boy living in London and people always thought I’d be caught up in IRA bombs.)

‘The region’, as locals call it, is very diverse and very active in sport, culture and business.  The region is quietly taking on the world.

And that’s not a bad thing.

Change is good.  And planning and communicating change in this region is important.

The oil and natural gas revenues have allowed visionary leaders to invest heavily in construction and in businesses.  The foreign investment is well documented — both successes and failures.  What is less well documented is the local investment.  It’s immense.

And as a result the region is re-writing business laws.  Some of the smartest people working in business anywhere are working here.

It’s something to see.  Long may it last.

/df

SOUTH WEST LONDON — They say it’s broken.  But I am not convinced it ever really worked.  The company cascade is like the Lost City of Atlantis… or the missing Beach Boys album.  Many people think it’s out there, but disappointment is the most likely outcome.

Here’s how the theory goes:
• You start at the top with a message.
• You give it to a few people.
• They give it to a few people.
• And soon enough the whole business has heard.

Not only have they heard, but they’ve received a compelling, first-hand account of something important.

It can’t fail.  And what a compelling idea.  So simple, so… unlikely to deliver the results you are seeking.

The problem with cascades is that, in spite of some great theory and massive stores of ‘best practice’, they rarely do what people want them to do.

There are two problems: Expectations and implementation.

The expectations for cascades tend to assume that a message will make it through the business.  And that the message will arrive in one piece.  And that people will know what to do with it.  And — perhaps most wildly optimistic of all — that it will change people’s behaviour.

Those expectations are not bad things.  It would be great to have any system that could do that.  But they are simply unrealistic.

The same often happens with the implementation.  We tend to believe that a compelling bit of prose, or an arresting headline will ensure that a message arrives at its intended location.  An unfortunately that’s unrealistic too.  Cascades tend to focus on reporting facts, to avoid misinterpretation.  And facts, unfortunately, are not what drive people to change their behaviour.  Behaviour is driven by understanding and appreciation of information.

To get that you need to explain information, provide context and ensure understanding.  Few cascades can do that.

It’s a shame really.  Because an employee cascade is a very enticing prospect. 

Unfortunately what we want the cascade to do it simply more than it can.

/df

Two guys, a garage and a plan

LONDON — It’s been three fairly eventful years.  I suspect you’d be hard pressed to look at the last 25 years and come up with three more volatile years in which to be in business.

Able and How was born on 08 September 2008.  If you look here you can see the enthusiasm and excitement of that day. (We asked people to say hello and many, including our moms and kids, promptly did.)

A year later the situation was not as it had been.  The economy in that first year was… not good.  Many of our respected colleagues and friends were out of work.  We were still at it.  And asking for celebratory haikus.

Last year at this time we were coming out of a more settled summer and seeing signs of things picking up.  The optimism was palpable.

But some common themes were also starting to emerge.  Have you spotted them?

1. We’re lucky to be in a brilliant business where we can make a real difference.
2. We’re in it because we believe in what we do
3. We have an amazing team
4. We love doing it
5. We are still in it because we get to work with brilliant people

I am sure it sounds too obvious and too superficial to say that our clients make our business.  However for all of us who work at Able and How the good people who have put their trust in us have made it work.

Thank you. 

Take a bow.  Say hello below.

/df

LONDON — I am still a bit disturbed by an interview I read while on holiday. I have no idea why, while off the grid for a fortnight, I managed to read Lucy Kellaway’s interview with Roland Rudd. But I did.

Have a quick read of it and then come back.

Let me start by saying that I have no agenda with either. Lucy Kellaway will never report on my business.  I have seen her speak once, but never met her.  Rudd is in a parallel business to mine, and although I have met him once, I will never be invited to dinner at his, and for many reasons out companies are guaranteed never to work together.

There is no doubt in my mind that Public Relations (PR) is a dark art.  To many it seems like a job that isn’t really a job.  Even if the PRCA Training manual just landed on my desk and has 55 pages of courses.  Many people feel that PR people sell influence and that influence is hard to measure.

Again, I don’t want to argue that point.  What I am interested in is the way in which Mr Rudd is fairly ruthlessly dispatched.  He’s been “making a handsome living” advising CEOs.  It’s all about people “having their egos tickled”.

It’s not a wholly abusive article.  But it’s not exactly like other profiles in the FT either.  It’s gossipy, dismissive and not particularly fun in the process.  There is something about it that is quite dark.

And I wonder if the uncomfortable relationship between journalists and business has something to do with it?  Why is it for example that these two people in the story, who started their careers together, can have had such different lives as a result?

What I wonder is would a film producer, or a Royal Academician, or a computer company owner have received the same treatment…?

/df

WEST LONDON — There’s a hording around the big, refurbished church at Hammersmith flyover that says TRANSFORMATIONSPACE.  The hordings in the photo above are at the base of the new Shard of Glass building at London Bridge.

What are they on about?

The words ‘change’ and ‘transformation’ are starting to gain some currency in business circles these days.  Many, many large companies are going through Transformation programmes.  And ‘change management’ is a skill or capability that most industries are finding they need.

Transformation has perhaps just become a watch word for the speed and frequency with which big businesses have had to adapt.

Times change and businesses must too.

Today, of course, pressures are changing daily.  So you must as well.

What is amazing to watch about the business change programmes we are working on — and they include some of the biggest ones happening now — is that they are no less ambitious or transformative than London’s tallest skyscraper, or Hammersmith’s church under the highway.

That is: What was there before is totally transformed.

When you think about the complexities of business that’s an amazing thing: across divisions, functions, offices, regions, through the management line… affecting customers, suppliers, employees and plenty of other stakeholders.

Change can happen in big, complicated organisations.  they can be transformed.  But it is no easy task. 

And without proper change management and the engagement of key audiences it just won’t work.

That has been shown over and over again.

/df

SURREY (I think) — I know I still speak with a nasal, uncouth sounding accent.  I know I will never pass too easily for Bob Hoskins or Anthony Hopkins.  But I am increasingly growing into my second citizenship.  I have a fondness for pastel coloured trousers.  And curry.

An article on Britain in a recent Sunday Times brought me to tears.  Am I allowed to say that?  I think I am.  I wish you could read it, but it’s behind Mr Murdoch’s paywall and I don’t want you giving him any more cash. (Wo-ho maybe you can see it.  On my machine it is here.)

However, what it says is that:
- we have a political system that works
- an open, fair and increasingly multi-cultural society
- an interest in knowledge over ideology
- a dynamic and interesting set of traditions
- and so on

All good.

Does it sound smug to say all that?  Do you worry that I’ll go all soft and start singing?

Well that’s the bit that increasingly feels more and more comfortable.  It’s a lack of cod-nationalism.  No jingoism.  It’s almost guile-less

Two weeks ago when a Briton won the Formula 1 race in Germany — beating a reigning German champion – he did the strangest things…

Guess what he did?

…600 years of historic antipathy between the countries…

And he complained that the British anthem wasn’t long enough to really enjoy the moment.  And so a quiet debate ensued.

I like that.

Good communications doesn’t draw attention to itself.  It isn’t brash or boastful.  It just does what it needs to do.

And sometimes has a good time doing it.

/df

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13974474

Insight into how some CEO’s see their ‘weaknesses’ as ‘strengths’ – is this just positive thinking or a lack of self-knowledge?

LONDON — Last night’s black-tie film premiere was a great chance to catch up with some people in the business.  There were too many people to talk to properly, unfortunately.  But some conversations I’ve been mulling over in my sleep.

Quite a few senior people working in communications at the moment are in distress.

I’m not saying it’s a pandemic.  It might just be that I know quite a lot of people, and only a few are talking about it.  But some very senior people in big businesses are struggling.

Here are my top ten signs that your communication job is going horribly wrong.

1. You’re stopping more stuff than you’re starting.

2. People who bring you new ideas are irritating you.

3. You want to know about every decision that is being made on your watch.

4. You’re starting to believe that saying nothing is working.

5. Lunchtime is ideally spent with the guy from HR… or Sales.

6. You miss the days when people believed what you told them.

7. You’ve stopped hiring the best person for the job – they rarely work out.

8. You notice the CEO and Board are much busier than they used to be.

9. Your boss has said that your job is safe.

10. You’re a little worried about your boss’ job.

Hopefully no one looks at that list and thinks we’re making light of a bad situation.  It’s more a reality of modern business.

You could substitute HR / Marketing / Sales director for many of the above.

All is not lost though.  Many Communications professionals just need to get their mojo back.  Sometimes… just sometimes… that’s in a different role.

However, companies and people who let that happen break our hearts.  Because it doesn’t have to be that way.

/df