Whiteboard is the Blog for our marketing sister company Pendry White. Every month we give As It Happens readers the chance to access its postings directly through our pages.

Pendry White has been promoting its products and services shamelessly. The most recent posting is a good basic summary of its overall approach to post-credit crunch marketing.

Earlier, it produced a more specific posting on what is now its YouTube & You product (designed to manage small video inputs not just into YouTube but across the internet).

On 22 October, the first guest writer, Rob Eastaway, a consultant on cricket and author, castigated the English Cricket Board for its short-termism - going for the fast buck on sponsorship and undermining the very base of its 'business' by denying wide public access to the game through terrestrial TV.

Most of our policy-related writings have otherwise remained on As It Happens but we published a challenging critique of the a-moral promotion of credit that was written by one of our younger mid-management team. This resulted in further comments on Linked-In.

Some took a hard line on personal responsibility over debt but most shared our position that an exploitative system had been put in place that was based on short-termism and greed. It had seriously disadvantaged the younger generation and Government had taken its eye off the ball.

As a matter of policy, Pendry White (and TPPR) have decided to take a moral stand and not take on clients that promote cheap credit to vulnerable groups. Meanwhile, Whiteboard decided to concentrate much more on giving practical advice to its readers. 

One theme has been that of getting down to basics and sweeping away verbal obfuscation. In Pendry White's view, the days of jargon are over. Functionality is now key, with business cards being given as a practical example.

For further discussion of these and other marketing issues, go to Whiteboard for a chance to comment directly or contact Roger White, Managing Director of Pendry White, on +44 (0) 20 7549 1672 or via rwhite@pendrywhite.com

TPPR does reputation management but our sister company Pendry White is into reputation marketing, largely in the international professional and business services sector. Its Whiteboard blog covers current issues in business and As It Happens readers might like access to the last month's links.

On September 1st, Pendry White looked at the uncertainties surrounding economic recovery and then, as a follow up, detailed the alphabet soup of types of recovery or non-recovery that we might have in the next six months. General conclusion - uncertainty for some time to come.

Whiteboard also picked up on one regular As It Happens theme, the clash between authority and liberty as the technology of communications changes - in this case, it worried about how the new cognitive and behavioural sciences might be used inappropriately by both politicians and marketeers.

Pendry White is, however, cautious about the hype surrounding the new social media. It sees major changes ahead but that the process of adjustment may take longer than the enthusiasts think and it regularly warns against 'snake oil salesmen' over-selling what it can do for business.

Google Wave (now in Beta), on the other hand, does look as if it will be useful for organisations, providing a useful tool between the traditional e-mail and social network spaces. Pendry White gave it a cautious thumbs-up as 'one to watch'.

There was also a review of the increased role of risk management as a positive element in developing long-range marketing plans (based on a reading of an important Ernst & Young survey) and a vigorous complaint about the treatment of core customers by a soya milk producer.

Finally, there was a fairly long critical analysis of the recessionary pressure on fees in the UK legal profession. This suggested that lawyers were almost certainly going to have to shape up and develop improved management techniques and accountability to justify their high fees.

For further information on these or any issues affecting the market for professional, business and financial services, contact Roger White, Managing Director, at Pendry White directly or through TPPR.

For some time we have been considering how to reposition our businesses for the next three to five years. We have finally got it!

Analysis

We have all seen some tough times in the last two years. Our assessment of the next three to five years remains fairly grim.

The British Government in particular got things badly wrong in 2007 because it made some wrong calls as a political party long before it attained power. It believed that a massive welfare operation could be funded forever through allowing a market-driven financial services sector its full head of steam.

It also believed that political power was far more important than considering why power should be held at all. It constructed an electoral coalition of special interests that have diverted funds into projects that were mostly about maintaining those interests instead of investing directly in national infrastructure.

Challenges

But this crisis is not restricted to the UK. The entire global economic system forgot that capitalism requires bouts of creative destruction in order to permit innovation. The sheer scale of the new global economy means a matching level of often intolerable pain and suffering.

We are between worlds - we do not have a global Government along Roman lines to maintain order and yet we have lost the buffers and safeguards of nation states that retained boundaries against the free movement of capital and labour.

We are also between technologies - vast tracts of productive enterprise, especially those related to administration and information exchange, including sales and marketing, are under ferocious pressure from the still unknown effects of new media communications.

Our Approach

Our work originally started in a war on terror context (TPPR) within an assumption of continued internationalisation of business (Pendry White). We were handling sensitive matters related to the West and Islamism as early as 1998 and we have often handled important international network business.

Our assessment now is that we are moving into an entirely new world of multipolar blocs and populism. Regional markets will start to fill the gap between the nation state and a global market that is no longer entirely fit for purpose.

If the key trading bloc of interest to us must now be Eurasia, what are the key sectors that we must watch most carefully with our limited resources? We cannot cover everything but two broad sectors spring to mind.

Our Key Interests - The Services Sector & New Media

The first is the very area of our greatest expertise at Pendry White - business and professional services. This sector is no longer going to be merely the out-rider of capitalism, applying global standards to rote. It will become a key partner in the management of social demands in times of scarcity.

Business and professional services will increasingly straddle community and business as the latter deals with social needs less competently handled by bureaucrats. The community demands something for its money laid out in taxes.

On top of this, the new communications and information revolution, with all the serious uncertainties remaining about political effects and business models, represents a challenge to everything we have assumed to be normal - the victims still haven't heard the sound of the axe coming down on their heads.

Strategy

TPPR will retain its core expertise in Western-Muslim relations but it is clear that our relationships seem to be far more interested in Russia and Russian energy than in what happens in the Middle East. International trade relations across a far wider canvas will be our primary focus from now on.

Pendry White will match that interest by building on its undoubted strengths to offer new marketing solutions that deal with new media/network marketing, international trade relations and the interface with the wider community (not always to be confused with Government).

Together (with new initiatives being explored for launch later this year in the media and in support for small businesses), the two associated companies will be concentrating on their own use of new media marketing and in being expert on integrated communications for their clients.

The Blogs

Our strategy is to build alliances that help us become the first point of call for problem-solving not to deal with a crisis that has happened but to adjust to the long term effects of that crisis - because, no matter what certain politicians say, things ain't going to be what they used to be.

As It Happens will change style over the summer. More focus on our key areas of interest - Eurasian politics, international trade and the new media. We will continue to analyse British politics as the current Government attempts to hold on to power as the social situation worsens.

To keep up to date with As It Happens, use the RSS Feed or subscribe to http://twitter.com/TPPRNews

TPPR/Pendry White - Two Sides Of One Coin

There will be more integration with Pendry White and increasing cross-linkage with like-minded analysts and businesses across the web. We have received a major lead at TPPR from Facebook and instant solutions to problems from Linked-In. Working this system will make us practical leaders in its use.

Pendry White will also be opening its own website-based blog dedicated to marketing issues in the business and professional services sector later in the summer. To keep abreast of events at Pendry White, subscribe to http://twitter.com/PendryWhite

We also hope to cover more conferences, seminars and meetings in our areas of interest and to give out more direct news - including insider material on the general drift of affairs that affect business decision making. We have often called things right and we think it is time to share those insights!

We look forward to welcoming you to the new look As It Happens in the coming weeks and months. We hope to increase the interactivity between us. We welcome direct contact at any time and we are pleased to take information for publication if it suits our editorial strategy.

www.tppr.co.uk

www.pendrywhite.com