David Bowen commentaries

In his regular columns for the Financial Times and ft.com, senior consultant David Bowen has pursued themes ranged from customer relationship management and career marketing to ‘ethical’ retailing and royal family sites. His collected Financial Times and ft.com columns from January 2001 onward are indexed by theme and available for viewing on this site.

You can access articles directly by selecting a link below.

  • How do you meet the website challenge? Web managers confront common issues on their own diverse turfs, but our research into their site traffic reveals much about the collective response, Dan Drury says.
  • What buttons to press for attention Winning over colleagues and the ear of top management requires perfecting the art of the nudge, David Bowen suggests.
  • Which six issues you should be talking about Web managers never face an empty in-tray, but beyond its day-to-day cares they are also confronted with an agenda of fundamental questions, David Bowen says.
  • What’s blossoming in the annual reports garden Like rose growers investor relations teams introduce new online varieties each annual reporting season, but which are this year’s sturdiest stock, Scott Payton asks.
  • How to resist the seven-year twitch The world’s affair with Twitter began seven years ago this month. The birds lost a word for the chatter they make, but how can other communicators gain, David Bowen asks.
  • When to intervene on Wikipedia The online encyclopedia is a universal reference tool that can colour reputations – but beware its Siren song of editable entries, Scott Payton says.
  • What to serve up in a crisis With Europe’s food supply chain caught in a horsemeat scandal, its major players need to beef up their use of the internet to address public concern, David Bowen says.
  • What if ExxonMobil decided to dance? In the internet jungle the sometime biggest corporate elephant of them all currently lies asleep, but if it ever wakes up to the medium, look out, says David Bowen.
  • How whitehouse.gov is changing with the times Barack Obama begins a second term as US president with an official website that has made noteworthy progress between inaugurations, Scott Payton says.
  • When the business web goes wrong Companies should resolve to give up the five cardinal sins of online corporate communications if they wish to be effective in the new year, David Bowen says.

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Comment: How do you meet the website challenge?

Web managers confront common issues on their own diverse turfs, but our research into their site traffic reveals much about the collective response, Dan Drury says. more...