How do you handle the culture of an organisation that employs 4,600 people of 140 nationalities, who speak 70 languages and work in 220 countries? Oh and there’s no national base and so no ‘parent’ culture underpinning everything.

This is the challenge that an outfit called SITA has faced since it was founded in 1949. [...]

Over the years, I’ve handled a great deal of work with British Telecom, as have many writers and designers. We were governed for a while by a set of guidelines on how the BT brand should be communicated. They had this to say about words…
“Oddly enough, the world is not waiting with bated breath for [...]

Remember the HP way? It was the style of running a business perfected by David Packard and Bill Hewlett of HP fame. Back in 2004, Business Week’s Peter Burrows reminded his readers of a plaque to be found outside a two-family house at 367 Addison St. in Palo Alto, California. It identifies the dusty one-car [...]

It all started in about 1990. The new breed of service agents, instead of responding to customers who are tendering thanks for a service provided with something along the lines of “It’s a pleasure” started saying “No problem”. This is the ultimate example of the change in society for the “me” generation. What “No problem” [...]

I’ve just finished updating and editing a style book for a client, a major company in air transport and IT. What makes this project particularly intriguing is that their 4,000 staff are based in more than 200 countries and, between them, they speak over 70 languages. So providing them with guidance over the use of [...]