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

MY HOUSE — I am off for Christmas.  Great place to be.  Catching up on sleep.  Meeting my kids again.  Fighting a cold.

And still word comes this weekend that a great character from my childhood has passed away.

The Rev James Leo was the Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris when I was a teenager.  His son Jason was a great mate.  Jason and I went to French high school together, went skiing, and got in trouble.

People talk blithely in business about great leaders and use examples that people want to identify with.  And most often they’ve nothing to do with business.  He was one of those guys.  Business’ loss, but the world’s gain.

Although I remember the 70s and 80s well, they do seem like a distant country now.  And people like Dean Leo lived lives that seem braver and more worthy than ours.  He was a lovely, fun and funny man.  His book of memoires can show you that.  But he was also a tough guy who looked out for others more than most of us would ever dream of.

He was one of a great cast of characters that my own lovely dad managed to associate with.  And just as my dad interviewed kings and tyrants, Jim Leo hosted Presidents, famously gave the last rites to Wallis Simpson and sat patiently while Olivia de Havilland read the lesson.  He spoke in a way that was funny, intelligent and engaging.  A way I have always wanted to speak.

A strength of character and humility shone through.

His Cathedral was an open and inviting place. “That one’s a spy…” my dad would say, as another ‘commercial attaché’ wandered around the coffee room.  And the Dean presided firmly over it all.  Pedro the caretaker never let us get into the communion wine, but when Paris offered us its own poisons the Dean would come out and get us, wedging my head in the electric window so I didn’t spoil his upholstery.

Thank you Jim Leo.  I will miss you.  And the world will be a lesser place without you.

/df

LONDON — I talked to an M&A banker on the weekend.  Made me think of my time at high school dances.  Always standing on the wall, trying to look cool.  But never out on the actual dance floor.

The merger and acquisition market is a bit quiet at the moment.  And amen to that.  We’re busy enough without it.  Businesses are — rightly — taking advantage of the quiet and their own peaceful progress, to transform their operations.

We’re working on big “transformation” programmes on several continents and in a diversity of sectors.  Change management is in high demand.  And that’s good.

But M&A will be back.  My friend should be up frugging, ‘cutting some rug’ and doing The Hustle by Q2 at the latest.

Transformation is the powder room before the ball.

That’s my prediction.

Watch this space.

/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 and Beijing.  But in Rome and Athens.  In Geneva and Berlin and Paris.  And in Damascus and Doha. And…

Open the paper and have a look through.  There are an amazing amount of fundamental, big decisions being made by people in places all around the world.

Last Monday Chancellor Merkel said she thinks we’re in the biggest global crisis since 1945.

And she and a group of other diverse, independent leaders, are trying to make sense of the whole thing.  New leaders are being sworn in.  Senior financial gurus are being tapped up.

And big decisions are being made.

In recent years here in the UK a chorus goes up of people saying: easiest job in the world! Paid for nothing! Crooked! Useless!

And today they are doing more than any of us to save our collective backsides.  That’s what leadership is — and probably what we need.  It may even be more than we deserve.

/df

HYDE PARK CORNER — I had a run of texts from a politically obsessed British friend last week. “Have you heard the latest joke about Chris Christie?”

I hadn’t. In fact I hadn’t even heard of Chris Christie.  I was still catching up on the impossible rise and fall of Rick Perry (who I also hadn’t heard of a few months ago.)

So, yes, we’re talking about the US Presidential race.  And Mr Christie, as I have just started to find out, is the current Governor of New Jersey.  Furthermore, it seems that for a few hours last week he was also going to be “the next President of the United States.”

It’s not hard to see why he backed away, even after backing away before.

In many respects you could argue that business is much more forgiving than politics.  Corporate leaders don’t have to submit themselves and their families to the kind of attention and ridicule that politicians do.

However, on the other hand, leaders in business have to appeal to more demographics than politicians.  They have to be leaders of divisions, countries, hierarchies and Boards. 

Being religious might be a requirement for the US Presidency.  But it’s a detriment to a business career.  Leaders of industry need to be able to appeal to people of every background, so long as they can hold a job.

Similarly Presidential candidates have to submit to comments and sniping about everything from their weight to their daughters.  While business leaders may be able to keep their peccadilloes hidden, they also don’t have staff at their disposal to burnish their image.

As Chris Christie found out, leadership comes with it’s challenges that have little to do with the job.

Some days you have to wonder, who’d want to do it?

/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

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

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

GREAT PORTLAND STREET - Not far from our offices is the Chinese Embassy in the UK.  Across the street there’s a booth set up and someone practising Falun Gong 24 hours a day. Falun Gong (which just looks like aerobics to you and me) is illegal in China.

It’s undoubted that they are annoying the Embassy by doing this. And drawing attention to themselves in a peculiar way — though one that Jane Fonda would approve of.

This is a very subtle, but effective, way of drawing attention to yourself.  It’s probably not for us.

How to draw attention to yourself is a question we face in professional services. We want to share our ideas and expertise with people.  But we can’t take out ads, or stage protests or stunts.

And this week we have a film to promote. We think Social Media @ Work is a very interesting online event.  We like the idea of putting experts and interesting people infront of a camera to debate.  And then broadcasting that in a form that is engaging and interesting.

We want you to see it.

So how do we do that?

/df