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 tools and gizmos can do Its interactive capabilities give the web a unique potential to help you do or learn about things – or attract visitors. Yet few businesses and public bodies really exploit the possibilities.
  • 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 private equity could do to invest in goodwill Record levels of fundraising and some big buyouts have propelled private equity funds into public consciousness. But their investment plans seem not to extend to websites that address the interest they are creating, says David Bowen.
  • How travellers can now get to information on time Real-time information for travellers delivered in easily-accessed form has been a long time moving into the public realm. But now it may have found its medium.
  • How mass media are critical to the web Reports of the death of old media had better be exaggerated. Websites need established forms of mass communication to feed off to get themselves noticed.
  • Why it’s time for a quick fix In 2007, website owners should resolve to get up to speed with the pace of broadband take up. One French carmaker is already well on the way.
  • How to un-supersize the big chains Will the web will destroy McDonald's, Starbucks and all the big chains? It won’t, but it might weaken their grip.
  • What’s to be gained from going public Wikis are a way of accumulating and refining content by committee, in this case a rather large one called the general public. Just the sort of thing private companies should be looking to float.
  • Why independent schools are worth the fees With classes underway again in schools around the world many still have a lot of learning to do about the web. Some tradition-steeped independents could teach them a thing or two.

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