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 [...]
It was Christmas Jumpers Day today at Able and How. Few looked like they were new. Clearly the back of the closet is not as far away as it would appear.
Earlier this week, festive elves hung socks around our staircase with every employees’ names on them. So far no surprises.
Happy holiday season.
/df
PICADILLY CIRCUS — Looks like the sun might actually come up in London today. That’s a relief. And one of my biggest concerns. Yesterday was dark and I can’t handle that.
So, how lucky am I? That trivial issues like that concern me?
Yesterday umpteen decisions were made that affect all of our lives and futures. Not just in London, New York [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
SW LONDON — “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
That used to be my stock answer to things I didn’t understand. I thought of it as a knowing wink to the way that old people talk. But as my own age has been rising faster recently than East Coast temperatures, it has become less funny and more [...]
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 [...]
LONDON — Last night there was an interesting recounting of a discussion in a television interview. It went roughly like this:
“I asked him about his son and started to imply differences and he stopped me and he said…
‘Ah, yes, but he is a romantic. And I am a pragmatist.
Sometimes romantics think that pragmatists are unfeeling.’ “
The exchange [...]
FITZROVIA – Batman Syndrome* is when you have achieved all sorts of fame and fortune, and regular life holds no challenges, so you start to do anti-social, dangerous things.
In the case of Bruce Wayne it’s putting you knickers outside you tights and fighting crime.
In the cases of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dominique Strauss-Kahn [...]