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.

  • What’s to like about a star performer Just as the US space programme is credited with innovative technologies and materials, so the agency responsible for it is a showcase for website developments, says David Bowen.
  • When heads of state go head to head Buckingham Palace and The White House have relaunched their websites recently, but who has got greater command of the medium, Queen or President? David Bowen adjudicates.
  • When to give yourself a tweet Hardly a day passes without a Twitter-related story in the news, but how much should web managers read into the buzz about ‘microblogging’? asks David Bowen
  • Where continents divide Two financial systems, a common crisis – but customers on one side of the Atlantic get friendlier treatment online. Enthusiasm for social media may be part of the reason, says David Bowen.
  • What’s more or less important about social media Their evangelists over-exult the importance of social media to large organisations, but while such as blogs and Twitter are peripheral players on the corporate communications field they still hit above themselves, says David Bowen.
  • What’s your website worth? It’s a question on many a finance director’s lips right now – and there are ways of answering it in a language they will understand, says David Bowen.
  • What the Obama factor means for websites The uses made of the online medium during the recent US presidential election campaign confirm some things we knew about the web but change our understanding of others, says David Bowen.
  • How to think out of the 2.0 box A basic two-by-two matrix can be the key to quantifying the risks and opportunities that are bundled together under the banner of web 2.0, says David Bowen.
  • How to protect your budget Governments may be riding to the rescue of the banks, but what arguments will persuade company leaders to keep up support for their websites? Here are seven to make the case, says David Bowen.
  • Where crisis management has got better As the international financial system totters to the brink there is some silver lining in the way the public is being kept informed online, says David Bowen.

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