The Little Questions

Apella Advisors Parter, Andrew Brown: "Early on in my comms career I was taught that conflict, strife, disagreement – that's fundamentally what people are interested in and what helps our journalist friends sell newspapers." It is hard to get genuine cut through, where everyone knows and has heard of who you are and what you do, especially if you are a small firm trying to make it big. But, one ta...

Do companies and organisations really get value from attending the party conference?   As Corporate Affairs Director, one of Matt Young's tasks every year was to set the departmental budget. That would include the annual discussion about whether to attend the political party conferences. Would it prove good value, in both time and money? Will the cost be worth it for the hotel, the travel, that ex...

Recorded at the Royal Society of Arts in London, in front of a live audience, Little Questions Live 2 asks 'How do you communicate through times of uncertainty and change?'.   To tackle this not so little question, Apella Advisors Partner Jenny Scott is joined by a panel of industry experts:   - Steve Hawkes - Reputation and External Affairs at Flutter UK, former journalist at the Times, The Mirro...

On this episode of The Little Questions, we are joined by one of our industry's most respected practitioners, Basil Towers. Basil has been advising organisations on how to be trusted for 40 years. He's researched it, he's taught it at Oxford Saïd Business School, he's advised FTSE 100 CEOs on it and one thing he has found in that time is that not all trust is of equal value.  Join Jenny Scott and...

Admin. Forms. Process. Dull, dull, dull.   It's what gets in the way of doing the actual job that we all love, right?   Talking to journalists, coming up with that clever policy idea, pulling together a brilliant new social campaign or perfectly nailing the messaging in a complicated sequence of regulated announcements. The bureaucracy, be it functional or corporate, just slows us down. Or does it...

This week, Andrew and Matt chew the fat about the lessons learned after four years of creating the comms agency, Apella Advisors. And it's after those four years, with a few clients under our belt, a slightly larger team, and perhaps most unexpectedly of all a podcast that people actually listen to! We must be doing something right.  People occasionally ask us if creating this consultancy has chan...

As Comms professionals who aim to provide clarity and understanding in everything, are we failing in that aim with certain generations? Is it time to learn the languages of different generations? Should we be smarter in thinking about the way different generations receive and respond to communications? Matt Young and Andrew Brown from Apella Advisors discuss this little (big) question this week. H...

Every now and again in the world of comms, the firewall you've thrown up around your organisation fails, and something you'd rather wasn't "out there" gets through. Perhaps the CEO has said something she shouldn't have in that profile interview that took months to set up. Or a sensitive email has ended up in the hands of a colleague in the media.  If you're in this game and you've not been there,...

The term 'doyen' is overused, but in the case of our guest today, it feels appropriate. For the last 25 years Danny Rogers has been a leading commentator and speaker on the comings and goings of the public relations industry. Now the editor-in-chief of PR Week, Danny started as a journalist with the FT's Creative Business and the Guardian's media section, and then he moved to Haymarket group as ed...

Much of the work done by the corporate communications function goes unnoticed. But there is one piece of activity you can be sure will grab people's attention… the set piece leader profile. Get a full page spread in a Sunday paper with a cracking photo and you can be sure everyone in the organisation, and beyond, will read it. Get it right and you can have your CEO come across as a visionary, yet...

The climate crisis  'is a communication problem' , says academic and environmentalist Roc Sandford. Involved with Extinction Rebellion before it started, including a chaining or two, Roc's thinking has featured in pretty much every major media outlet. From the UN to Davos and ministers and boards, Roc delivers an uncompromising message of emergency and the need for rapid climate and biodiversity r...

We are big fans of words, they have real, genuine power. But, in the form of a speech, in rhetoric, do they soar to their greatest heights? Are speeches our most powerful form of verbal communication? Do we put as much effort into them as we should, or did? And how can we write better speeches? When one blends masterful, rich language, with the oratorical techniques of rhythm repetition and silenc...

Sitting at the heart of their industry, trade associations are the 'official voice' looking to put forward the collective view and position of its members. Not only do they speak on behalf of their members to government, agencies, regulators, the media and other opinion formers, but they self-regulate and police, deliver training and development, conduct research and organise conferences and event...

An interview with Paul Drechsler, International Chamber of Commerce UK Chairman. For this episode we are joined by Paul Drechsler, the Renaissance man of business. Paul has been at the centre of the interface between business, politics and society for many years. To say he's done a lot in his time would be a gross understatement: 24 years with ICI; Chair and Chief Executive of the family owned con...

There's no right or wrong way to define success - it looks different for everyone. What matters is that you're able to define it for yourself. So, what does it take to get on and succeed in corporate affairs? What should you look to define and focus on, and what (and who) should you avoid? Do professional qualifications help or is it all about learning at the knee of a master?  When we started thi...

The joys of the annual financial reporting season are upon us. This is something that most of us in Comms get involved with at some point – whether that's setting up media calls, fretting over internal messages, or just working out which picture of the CFO to use. For many of us, financial reporting is the equivalent of the PR hamster wheel. You never really get off. Once the ink is dry on the ana...

Podcasts are arguably the stand out media phenomenon of the recent years, with the most popular pulling in millions of followers, outstripping mainstream broadcasters in terms of reach and impact.   But, how do you actually start something with no one there to listen? How do you avoid screaming into the void? What to talk about? Should you have guests? Can you really go 100% DIY or do you need som...

New Year's Resolutions are an exercise in hope, where aspiration meets reality. As Oscar Wilde said: 'Resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.'   In the interests of trying to make 2023 just a tiny bit better, The Little Questions Podcast decided that we would try to help all our friends in the industry, by coming up with some New Year's resolutions for bu...

Christmas and the New Year are nearly upon us and it's the season of TV repeats and compilations. Our chance to laugh again at the things we laughed at just a few months ago. We're no different at Apella Advisors. With our world leading sustainability commitments, reuse and recycle is our mantra, so we've produced our very own Little Questions Podcast Xmas highlights. This is all our best bits fro...

For every Atticus Finch and Han Solo, there's a Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vader. Who doesn't love a great hero or a terrifying villain? They are the protagonists that sit at the heart of every great story, of how we demonstrate the values that matter, define our morals and learn valuable lessons. Arguably you can only become a great hero if you have a compelling villain against which you can striv...

Business has always had an urge to share some of its largess with those less fortunate. With clear roots in the ancient mediterranean civilisations, a line runs through renaissance traders, victorian industrialists to today's billionaires racing to give away their fortunes.    Aside from the warm fuzzy feeling they hopefully get, there is a clear strategic outcome. When companies connect effective...

On this episode of The Little Questions, we are talking about team structure and resources. In previous editions we've spoken about starting out in a new role, and what needs to be your priority? More often than not, structure is right up there. Getting it right early on will set up any leader for long-term success. But what is the right structure for the resource you have? Is there a 'one size ap...

Why are people in the world of comms so misrepresented in popular culture?  Why do the PRs in TV, movies and books come across as either evil manipulators of the truth or champagne guzzling airheads?  This really is a first world problem of a third order magnitude and yet, PR does have a PR problem doesn't it? If for no other reason than we want to continue to attract smart, thoughtful and talente...

This week, we welcome Deborah Hulme from Minerva Engagement to the Little Questions Podcast to discuss organisational and cultural change in business. Communicators are often asked to play a prominent role in supporting organisational change programmes but, as many of us know, they can be complex and fiendishly difficult to get right. Two thirds of transformation projects fail, taking longer and c...

This week, we discuss the horrifying world of the cyber breach. Trust and loyalty are fragile at the best of times, but the risks of causing serious damage to your brand, reputation and business are massively heightened should you face a cyber-attack. There were 2.8 billion malware attacks in the first half of this year, so sadly it is often a question of when you will be hit, not if! A breach rea...