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.

  • When the fairy dust settles The word ‘social’ is being sprinkled on online communications tools and strategies as if it had magical powers, but it could cast a bad spell, David Bowen says.
  • Why the web needs thought leaders The internet may be as important as its evangelists suggest, or not, but companies will only realise its potential when senior management thinks about it, David Bowen says.
  • Where simple is the rule Rather than chase the next buzz-word concept, the key to successful online communication is plain old governance, David Bowen says.
  • How Twitter will corrupt contact As companies fearfully monitor social media to damp down the sparks of complaint, they are lighting a fire under sustainable customer service, David Bowen says.
  • How seeing aids believing Authenticity could be the key to a more effective approach to marketing on the corporate website, David Bowen says.
  • What’s wrong with the way we word Charting the use of the all-encompassing terms of the online era points to the way semantics can mask the full potential of its constituent concepts, David Bowen says.
  • Where to get the measure of value The search for numbers that can express the worth of a website is prone to distort rather than support efforts to improve it, David Bowen says.
  • What’s to fear about a new address Moving house is reputedly one life’s major traumatic experiences. In the corporate world, add another: acquiring a generic Top Level Domain, David Bowen says.
  • What’s of note about the British way Whether it’s running an effective corporate site or fighting their corner online, UK-based companies need not hide behind characteristic modesty, David Bowen says.
  • Why there’s no going wrong with mobile Corporate use of the mobile web is still in such an early stage of development that there are no norms with which to conform, David Bowen says.

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