Category Thought Leadership

October 4, 2015,  data protection, EU General Data Protection Regulation, News, Thought Leadership  No comments

Each day more and more comment is emerging on the lack of preparedness of business to deal with the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the need to put education and training on the top of the business agenda – and you may find these two very recent news items of interest and helpful.

We’ve been briefing a Member of the Government’s Treasury Select Committee a few weeks’ ago when we highlighted the issue of GDPR is simply much bigger than a digital marketing issue under ICO’s remit reporting into the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Check out this recent news item

We strongly support the idea of a debate in the British Parliam...

September 24, 2015,  Council of Ministers, data protection, EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, European Parliament, Legal update, News, Thought Leadership  No comments

This week the blogosphere went into overdrive with the news that the non-binding legal opinion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice claims that EU user data transferred to the US by various technology companies is a violation of current EU data protection and privacy laws.

Even before this opinion, the European Commission was already attempting to re-negotiate the Safe Harbor Agreement with the US...

August 31, 2015,  EU General Data Protection Regulation, Thought Leadership  No comments

Yes, how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

Yes, how many times can a man turn his head

Pretending he just doesn’t see?

Yes, how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

The answer, according to Dylan is blowin in the wind.

Back in 1962, Blowin’ in the Wind became the anthem of the civil rights movement. In fact, Peter, Paul & Mary performed it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August of that year, a few hours before Dr Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech.

Years later, Dylan explained that the song can mean whatever you want it ...

February 23, 2015,  EU General Data Protection Regulation, Thought Leadership  No comments

City law firm Allen & Overy has just produced this Guide for HR Directors: “Data with Destiny” as part of its Big Think Programme.

What organisations need to start doing today

First, make sure they are ready to comply with a stricter and systematically different regime – and many are not yet anywhere near that position.

Second, and more importantly, they must not lose sight of the bigger prize that is on offer to them if they put data to use in innovative ways, in particular the huge potential of HR Big Data Analytics…

The firm sees Data Protection Officers (DPOs) as essential in leveraging this opportunity.

Companies should start recruiting DPOs NOW

DPOs must perform...

November 8, 2014,  Brand marketing, Consumer behaviour, Guru in a Bottle, Social marketing practice, Thought Leadership  No comments

Miracle Whip is a salad dressing similar to mayonnaise and is popular with American and Canadian consumers.

Not a subject that you think would stir strong emotions? Well, actually you’d be wrong!

When marketers at Kraft began researching consumer attitudes towards the product, they found surprisingly deep emotions.

It turns out that a substantial number of people love Miracle Whip. And many can’t stand the stuff!

Back in 2011, with this consumer insight, Kraft launched a high profile US ad campaign that made a virtue out of this schism, using celebrities like Paula D fromJersey Shore and the political pundit James Corville.

Some people in the ads praised Miracle Whip’s ...

October 13, 2014,  Thought Leadership  No comments

Actively valuing diversity and managing inclusion is the hallmark of a successful global organisation – irrespective of its size or whether it’s commercial, voluntary or part of Government.

Diversity matters because in order for such organisations to reach levels of world-class performance, they must embrace a wide range of attitudes, values, beliefs, perceptions and behaviours and not just of those that are employed by them but also those that are shared by the communities that they seek to serve.

Research on both sides of the Atlantic tends to show that social inclusion in the way described isn’t a libertarian ideal but actually makes good business sense.

I was remind...

September 11, 2014,  Thought Leadership  No comments

Accountants create budgets by aggregating multiple assumptions over levels of activity, headcount, costs, growth rates and similar factors.

Any budget review should initially focus on the underlying assumptions and policies before considering the numbers.

Given high levels of uncertainty over future demand, revenue forecasts are seldom more than inspired guesses by client-facing teams that are almost certainly wrong.

The challenge is to arrive at sensible assumptions over the headcount, productivity, salary and space requirements needed to support different levels of predicted demand.

In addition, given the usual inter-dependencies, it’s important to explore the people conseq...

September 10, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, Public Relations practice, Thought Leadership  One comment

In 1861 Abraham Lincoln faced the greatest test of his presidency when he tried to hold together the United States in the face of a highly divisive Civil War that eventually claimed the lives of over 700,000 combatants in the North and South of the country.

However, Lincoln was a lucky man. And he had at his disposal a new weapon. A weapon more powerful than a Smith & Weston.

It was the telegraph.

Before the invention of the telegraph it would take a dispatch rider the best part of a week to reach the battle front on horseback. Now Lincoln could now dispatch orders to his Army Generals by getting an operator to tap them instantly into the machine.

Although the telegram was re...

August 29, 2014,  Consumer behaviour, Guru in a Bottle, Thought Leadership  No comments

At its peak in 2007, the virtual world known as Second Life had in excess of 5m members.

Everything about this world could be customised – latest cat walk fashions, drinks in a bar or a luxury mansion could be bought for real money. IBM bought real estate, American Apparel opened a virtual shop and Reuters paid for journalist Adam Pasick to be an avatar who reported on virtual happenings. Countries even opened virtual embassies. Yes, really!

The news media thought this parallel universe would become the way in which millions around the world would find ‘self-actualisation’ to borrow the term from US psychologist Abraham Maslow.

In 2014, the number of members in Second Lif...

August 15, 2014,  Guru in a Bottle, Thought Leadership  No comments

There’s a view that companies are built to do only three things: make profits, pay taxes and obey the law.

The rest is window dressing.

Well, those managers who subscribed to that point of view are probably now retired as the business world is increasingly being expected to take a lead role by its customers, clients and employees in making a net contribution to society rather than simply taking as much as it can for the benefit of its shareholders.

Zoroastrian philosophy

This enlightened self-interest isn’t anything new.

I belong to a tiny ethnic group – the Parsees – whose most famous export is in fact one of the most successful organisations in the world...