The Quote that Broke the Swiss Bank

Did Saudi National Bank President, Ammar Al Khudairy, know what he was doing when he gave a confident, 5-word answer to a question on Bloomberg TV on March 15? I suspect not. His answer to the question of whether the Saudi bank would provide financial assistance to Switzerland’s largest bank, Credit Suisse, turned out to […]

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A Splash in the FT

A casual conversation with a Dutch contact, with whom I have no professional relationship, led to the publication of a Financial Times story a couple of days later that became the most read article on June 13, 2020. The story I heard was that of a major corporation, IKEA, giving back furlough payments it did […]

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Politicians who dodge questions: Too much media training or lack of common sense?

This past weekend I was invited to give my views on the media performance of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, on Dutch national radio’s Sunday programme Vier Zeven. Did I think Rutte had been media-trained? Did it show? What did I think of his performance? Mark Rutte is a very good communicator, I said, because […]

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Don’t risk your reputation

Corporate responsibility is, as it should be, high on the agenda these days.  Companies now realise that you ignore sustainability and ethical practice at your peril.  The recent Trust Barometer Survey by Edelman showed that in the U.S and Western Europe trust and transparency are as important to a company’s reputation as the quality of […]

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When PR goes too far…

An article in the Guardian last week and blog posted by Ethical Corporation Managing Director Toby Webb makes some very relevant points about the issue of supply chain responsibility for large multinationals who outsource communications services.  Webb writes:  “It will become untenable for big, sustainably-minded companies to continue to employ PR and lobbying firms, even […]

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