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 comms people gather The first Web Effectiveness Conference for online communicators scored highly with delegates and contributors. A round up of highlights, by David Bowen.
  • 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.
  • Why Siemens gets top marks for its home work It doesn’t push the envelope of web 2.0 or the boundaries of design. But there are five solid reasons why Siemens’ re-invention of its home page could be a trailblazer for corporate sites, 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.
  • Why the Establishment dominates Google Forget loaded requests from dictatorial regimes. In their invisibility to Google searches, anti-governmental dissenters are betrayed by an ignorance of web basics, says David Bowen.
  • 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 the Index also rans are getting wrong The FT Bowen Craggs Index celebrates all that is best in corporate websites. But at least as interesting – isn’t it? – is to look for patterns among the sites that fail to make the grade.
  • 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 high tech companies' innovation fails them IT giants provide a strong service for customers, despite sometimes getting their countries muddled. But why do their sites all look the same?
  • 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.

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