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.

  • Where priorities divide Few corporate websites strike a happy balance between structure and content. Regional biases play a big part in which side of the scale they come down on, says David Bowen.
  • How central banks cope with market demands The world’s central banks have a duty to serve two very different user groups – professionals and the public. Some manage it online with panache and some do not.
  • What fun to get away with As web managers begin to think of their sites more like publications, so the importance of attracting visitors with entertaining content grows. Some decent holiday reading would be a good start, says David Bowen.
  • How to ride out a publicity disaster When the publicity from T-Mobile’s sponsorship of professional cycling turned sour the German phone company chose to engage with the issue on its website.
  • Why big sites are less than brilliant The people who run large web presences know their sites could be a whole lot better. So what’s stopping them doing something about it? asks David Bowen.
  • What future for the online annual report? Printed annual reports may be on the way out in the UK. Where does that leave their web counterparts?
  • What to be thankful that someone else did Here are some turkeys for Christmas: things to be grateful other people did on their websites (even if they’ve since corrected them).
  • Where football clubs need to raise their game Whether of the North American or European variety, football clubs are employing over-conservative and uniform tactics on the web.
  • How companies are warming to spinning the web An extract from the recently published 'Spinning the Web' explains how, after their early traumas, companies and other large organisations have discovered they can develop a fruitful relationship with the web.
  • What central banks are doing to raise interest At their best the world’s central banks are showing how a website can be used to provide information for a range of audiences, from professional analysts to teachers and students, in inventive and even inspired ways.

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