Three learning points for managers from “On Grand Strategy”

You wouldn’t think that an academic book on grand strategy would have many lessons for managers.  But John Lewis Gaddis’ On Grand Strategy does.  He is a Pulitzer prize winning academic at Yale.  He weaves a strong story with history and analysis.  There are many points of interest but I want to focus on three Read More

You transmit over 4,000 messages every day.

Every day, you send out 4,000 messages, without once opening your mouth or tapping your keyboard. ‘Micro-messages’ are how humans actually communicate face-to-face, most of the time. Small actions or gestures, eye movements or glances, shifts in posture or body language; they all give a lot away – and much more than we think. We rely on them Read More

Fun and frolicks from The Times

Make your communications humorous, visual and to the point, many gurus of communications would rightly say.  And here is an excellent example: The Times advertising video on politics.  Using animals in their many forms for politicians is witty and yet informative.  The whole video has a narrative line to it which links directly to the Read More

3 for and 3 against centralised content generation

Centralised content generation – or creating a hub for many publications to generate content – is on top of the agenda for many content generators. It’s been in operation for many years in some publishers for other functions and it’s time to take hard look at why it works and does not work. Functional or Read More

Publishing jobs on the up

The publishing sector in the UK economy is creating jobs, according to the government’s latest statistics.  Employment in the publishing sector was up 7.5% to 223,000 jobs in 2012 compared with 2011. Publishing is the 4th largest employment sector in the creative industries which is divided into 9 sectors.  The figures are revealed in Creative Read More

I can see the light, but the tunnel keeps getting longer…

I read only last week that a venerable Scandinavian research institute had deduced (after a mega bout of data crunching and munching that I can only imagine) that: “90% of ALL the data ever produced by humanity has been created in the last two years.” Wow, I thought. That’s what I call exponential… We all Read More

Precious little for the precious creative industries in budget

There is only one mention of the creative industries in the Red Book accompanying this week’s Budget. Only one, for an industry which generates £70,000 a minute for the UK economy. Only one, for an industry which employs 1.5 million people. Only one, for an industry which accounts for 10% of UK exports. Only one. Read More

World music sales up for first time since 1999

The record industry has turned around after 13 years of decline.  Global record sales grew 0.3% in 2012 by value, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). A small growth but at least growth.  Sales of digital products are up 9% on 2011. Strategy The global industry has adopted the strategy of: Attacking Read More

The BBC: Dinosaurs can dance

BBC Worldwide is close to the sale of its magazines to private equity group Exponent. This will satisfy those critics in the magazine industry who have always wondered why the BBC is in magazines, not just spin offs from its own programmes. No supporter or enemy of the BBC should see this as a retreat. Read More