In 1973 Stanford Professor Mark Granovetter’s “the strength of weak ties” argued that weak links, between people with different opinions, help new and unfamiliar ideas spread.
Strong ties bind friends and families. They encourage group think and build echo chambers. They deter people from thinking broadly, or seeing other perspectives. Strong ties lock you in.
Read More “Weak Links #2: brands, holocaust, art, apologies”
We talk to Zoe Fenn, director at Flamingo, the global insight and brand consultancy, about how brands need to adapt to stay ahead.
Q: Zoe, there’s been a lot of talk around the death of the brand, do you think this holds water?
Zoe Fenn: Not at all. Of course, some of the really big brands that have been around for a long time will fade. So will many of the new ones.
It’s always been that way. The brand graveyard always gets bigger. But that’s different to the death of the brand.
Read More “Consistency is the key for brands to meet the test of time”
By Victoria Tate, director of Arterial
Art appreciation is often dismissed as a leisure activity rather than something which has a wider value to society and commerce. It is an activity that ladies who lunch, debutantes and retired people get up to. Art is seen as relaxing, something that goes hand in hand with travel, lunching and bucket-list museum visiting. Art has been denied the status and role it could achieve in the sphere of non-leisure pursuits, in the world of work.
In 1973 Stanford Professor Mark Granovetter’s “the strength of weak ties” argued that weak links, between people with different opinions help new and unfamiliar ideas spread.
By Funke Abimbola MBE, general counsel and head of financial compliance for Roche UK
Immigration was one of the thorniest issues of the EU referendum campaign. Highly political and emotionally charged, it is also dominating conversation as we negotiate our exit. And rightly so. Brexit, if mishandled, has the potential to severely damage both diversity and inclusion within the workforce. This would have a detrimental impact on UK PLC’s abilities to compete on the global stage.
Read More “Brexit and impact on diversity and inclusion within the workforce”
By Joy Frascinella, head of PR at the Principles of Responsible Investment
Responsible investment has steadily moved from the periphery to the mainstream over the last decade. This is because an increasing number of companies and investors acknowledge that looking at environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues translates into myriad advantages, from improved staff performance to better returns.
By Patrick Spencer, Head of Work and Welfare Unit at the Centre for Social Justice
In his Budget, the chancellor Philip Hammond announced forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that the British economy will grow by 1.4 per cent in 2018, below previous forecasts of a 1.6 per cent expansion.
The reason? “Regrettably, our productivity performance continues to disappoint,” said Philip Hammond.
Read More “We can solve the productivity puzzle by investing in people”
The printing press dates back to 1440. Before that hand-written manuscripts were only for the privileged few.
The press did more than make mass communications possible. It was one of the foundations of modern democracy. The press enabled people to share what they knew and discovered, to build on each other’s work. They didn’t have to start from scratch each time.
Capitalism is under threat and companies now face a more hostile environment in which to do business than at any time in the last 40 years.
A study by the Legatum Institute, a think tank, and Populus, the market research company, found that there is widespread support for Labour’s nationalisation agenda and much less support for free enterprise. For advocates of free enterprise, anyone who runs a business, and, as should be the case, is merely employed by private enterprise, the report makes sober reading.
Populism is on the rise, tensions are high and the case for business is not being made.
Companies now face a more hostile environment in which to do business than at any time in the last 40 years.
The past decade has traced a decline in trust in formal institutions. Recent studies show across almost every issue – whether regulation or ownership – that the public is losing patience with private business. Even travel agents do not escape the wrath, with a quarter of people wanting them nationalised.
Businesses are under threat, some terminally so.
But companies are the UK’s principal wealth and job creators. They support 82% of all employment in this country. They provide the taxes that essential public services depend on.
It has never been more difficult, nor more important, to make the argument for business. Correctly, responsibly and with conviction.
But for too long communications has failed to keep pace with the changing pressures businesses face. Business communication has lost touch with the need to be human and understand how humans behave.
Rather than shrink from the argument, business must communicate with conviction throughout conflict. We must now understand and influence behaviours, networks, echo chambers, activists and even propagandists.
Businesses must win the argument by having better, more compelling stories. Told in more human ways.
This is why we’ve launched Fourteen Forty.
We believe it’s time to reset the relationship between business and the public.
We believe it’s time people recognise once again all that businesses contribute to society and the economy.
It is time to make the case for business.
