Civilised people abolished capital punishment long ago, so let’s put the black cap aside for the moment. Words themselves are not guilty. That opprobrium belongs to the perpetrators who misuse and abuse them to string together offences such as ‘going […]
Category: Business & Finance
What is corporate copy?
I didn’t get into writing to be a corporate hackette. I wanted to write for magazines – to edit and produce them. I wanted the freedom to be creative. To work with a like-minded team, cultivating leads, conducting interviews, and […]
A rose by any other name… would smell of consultants
Brand consulting is a rich field for the triumph of style over substance. Like their management counterparts, many practitioners seem incurably wedded to overblown language that sounds impressive but is nothing more than meaningless platitudes. Countless expensive hours are spent […]
Fake news or false precision?
I read this today (I won’t say where because I have no wish to embarrass the writer or the publication): In the heart of Africa, energy giant Total is about to build the biggest heated oil pipeline in the world. To […]
The sway, half-truths, and the rife
Awarding A-level school-leaving qualifications (or not) has been a hot topic of late, prompting memories of a favourite exam expression: ‘compare and contrast’. How would pupils react if asked to apply that to two newspaper reports? The first reads: “UK […]
Containing the waste line…
One of the best known quotations from the advertising and marketing business goes along the lines: “Half my expenditure is wasted. Trouble is, I don’t know which half.” Depending which side of the Atlantic you’re on, it’s attributed to US […]
Conquering Lockdown
Introduction Great numbers of us are suddenly facing the prospect either of working from home in our substantive positions or, in many cases, reinventing ourselves as wholly self-employed workers. Home working can bring great opportunities but there are also challenges, […]
How to Write a Business Case
What is a Business Case? A Business Case is a rigorous (and usually financial) advocacy of a preferred course of action, clearly presented for objective scrutiny. What is a Project? A Project is a programme of effort and capital expenditure […]