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 the European Constitution debate says about the web as a public forum With opinion polls indicating a French ‘non’ to ratification of the European Constitution the battle between pros and antis is hotting up across the continent. Nowhere more so than on the web, where it is revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the
  • How effectiveness depends on knowing when to be hard and when soft The uses organisations make of their websites fall into two categories – hard and soft. Distinguishing between them and finding the right level of interplay can attract more visitors and achieve multiple goals.
  • How evolution is adding extra points to sport Live coverage of major sports events is no longer confined to radio and tv broadcasts. But the most interesting dimension that the web brings to the games defies the logic of its evolution.
  • How the web helps everyone form a view of events Protagonists in the various conflicts in the Middle East carry their arguments into the online arena. But as well as giving the actors on the ground an unmatchable medium for advancing their point of view, the web gives users three different ways to gain
  • How the web can play a big part in contingency planning While the web has its disadvantages as a communications medium in times of crisis – not least that it normally requires a computer and electricity – recent events have shown that it should – and could – be given a big part in any response to an em
  • Why it's worth cracking the Da Vinci code Until recently few people seemed to have registered that the web is the obvious medium with which to defend your reputation. Now some are, and any company, government or organisation with a reputational problem can learn a lot from Opus Dei’s current ef
  • Where the best-laid travel plans are taking us In the course of pioneering new ways to use the web, clever journey planners are treading paths that all sorts of site owners will be able to follow in the future.
  • What Remembrance sites tell about the reality of the web The growth of publicly-accessible and highly structured databases is one of the largely unreported stories of the web. Last week’s Remembrance/Veterans’ Day ceremonies were a reminder that vast, specialist repositories are quietly being built and laun
  • Why recruiters need to think of themselves as job sellers Although human resources people were quick to see the potential of the web a lot of company recruitment sites and careers sections are still no more than notice boards aimed at graduates. The best treat jobs as products to be ‘sold’ and marketed onlin
  • When large helpings of information can be good for your image Two years ago, snack food companies were in denial about any connection between their products and the general fattening of the population. Now some well-known names are toning up their online features to get their reputations back in shape.

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