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Who is this buffoon?
Here’s a bit of fun for you. A couple of years ago a large financial organisation which shall be nameless asked me to go and do a talk, which I agreed to do for a modest sum. Then they said …
Read More“Follow the crowd” … But which crowd?
I’m getting senile so I may have mentioned this before. My favourite pub is The Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. I love it because Dr. Johnson used to drink there 250 years ago, and I love Dr. Johnson. Also, the …
Read MoreOn sundry stabbings – and why occasionally someone makes me feel I’m not wasting my time
You can safely say that doing business my way is not quite how they do it in those agencies with receptions that look like restaurants. I just had a comic exchange with an old acquaintance (and new client if we …
Read MoreA voice from the past: Mother Teresa, David Ogilvy – and me
I am the most disorganised, forgetful, dozy person you could ever fear to meet – as a shocked glance at my desk would reveal. But I always take comfort from a sign Bill Phillips, one of my old bosses, had …
Read More“Make money while you sleep” – and other half-truths
If you can’t steal from your relatives, who can you steal from? “Originality is the most dangerous sin in the advertiser’s lexicon,” said Rosser Reeves, and – taking him at his word his brother in law David Ogilvy happily quoted …
Read MorePublic profligacy: an address reveals so much about the Blair-Brown project
If you want to know why Britain is the last major economy to crawl ever so slightly out of recession (and don’t hold your breath), just stroll down London’s Piccadilly past some of the most expensive real estate on earth. …
Read MoreWhere my money goes: dental agony and a little journey into Promiseland
Some spend their money on fine wines. Others go cruising or skiing. Still yet others invest in rare motor cars, paintings and antiques. But what money I have left after my last divorce (score: Wife 34; Bird 0) tends to …
Read MoreHow to destroy enterprise – a little tale from Rome about how good intentions have evil consequences
“That government is best which governs the least,” said Thoreau. Forget the Bliar’s greed and mendacity and the low machinations of the Bullying Toad: that is the chief reason why I hate the current and last British administrations, which have …
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