A few weeks ago - Jim and I received an invitation to have dinner with The UK Chancellor Alistair Darling and his wife Maggie. We had a great evening. Very informal, friendly and warm.

They mentioned coming back for tea sometime soon. This week we did just that with our four kids in tow!

Can you imagine the questioning the kids have had to endure from their teachers - when the obligatory  - 'what are you doing in your summer holidays?' question was asked. Our middle daughter was told that she must be mistaken about going for tea o..View Complete Post

Been doing alot of thinking  - some things have become very clear - it seems to me that the days when people respected large institutions because of their name and brand are nearly over. The days when these brands demanded respect just because they were who they were is over.

These brands need to change their behaviours - they now need people to love and respect them.  To do this their language has to change, their behaviours have to change and in some cases their soul!

Some organisations have achieved this - in Satchi and Satchi (Marketing gu..View Complete Post

Just thought i would tell all of my lovely weekend.

What happened? Nothing. What did i do? nothing special. What did i watch on tv? nothing.

All my 4 kids have finished school for the holidays - and for one precious weekend I spotted that my diary did not have any fixed appointments - there were no lunches, school sportsdays, weddings, mates having a drink, no taxi rides needed to get the kids to parties - nothing. 

It was a weekend without plans.

It was wonderful - jim, i and our gang of four spent time together. Just us. We had lazy lunches and teas. ..View Complete Post