Prudential CEO Tidjane Thiam has just learnt the hard way that he is accountable first and foremost to his shareholders. His climb down over the £24.6 billion proposed bid for AIA now looks set to cost his company £450 million and might yet cost him his job. We care partly because the Pru has for decades been the watchword of, well, prudence. Read on ›

Note: This piece needs to be treated with care. I was the victim of a sophisticated hoax. I apologize to anybody who was mislead. But I’m leaving the post here as a spoof of a spoof. It shows how even if the anti-Shell campaigning trickesters got their way, it would not address the problems in Nigeria in a sensible or realistic manner but would actually make things worse.

Yesterday “Shell” (go to hoax press release) said it was going to clean up the Niger Delta, compensate local communities for past injuries, and institute a local stakeholders’ program that will help lift the region out of poverty. That sounds like good news. But what if the real victim is the truth? Read on ›

This essay exposes a few misconceptions and speculates that 50 years of living with nuclear power may be producing a greater respect for it, and less awe. Read on ›

I had thought that Facebook would go the way of Friends Reunited, Bebo and MySpace: hyped today, sidelined tomorrow. But what if Facebook became the new Google? That’s now the company’s objective and it is backed by some substance. Read on ›

Here’s a PR manifesto offering a post-credit crunch reality check that sticks up for maintaining the primacy of shareholder value in business. Read on ›

In 1994 Tony Blair promised to turn the UK into a “stakeholder society” when he declared New Labour, New Britain. It was the cornerstone of his “Third Way” politics. But nobody’s talking about either term in the current UK General Election. Maybe the wheels will come off the “stakeholder” rhetoric in business too.   Read on ›

The HolySee has apologised, rightly, for the Catholic’s Church’s cover up of the abuse of children in their care. But there are aspects of this case which should make us hesitate to single out the Catholic Church’s reputation for special attention. Read on ›

Here’s a critique of the tyranny of apologies and the hypocrisy of sponsors and the general public. It’s a call to all to stop faking it. It is a cry for the return of commonsense, reserve and a mind-your-own-business attitude. Read on ›

Warning: this post is counter-revolutionary. A recent BBC’s Culture Show celebrated how WikiLeaks exposes anything which comes its way with no chance of legal comeback. Supposedly this will usher in a revolution in openness. Here’s the case against transparency in defence of trust. Read on ›

Unaccountably, neither WEF nor Richard Edelman invited me to Davos (I’m just down the road, chaps) to discuss the latest Edelman 2010 trust study findings. So, I’ve decided to interrogate the findings anyway from my Zurich lakeside villa. Read on ›