Case studies

Corporate communications are based on a standard set of basic skills: writing and presentation; listening and collaborating; curiosity, analysis and building credibility. But every situation is different. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned along the way.

Behind the market boilerplate are real people

The acquisition of HomeServe plc by Brookfield structure looked pretty smooth from the outside. Our corporate brokerage team managed shareholder communications really well. For the first time in my career, I let go and let them take the strain with the merger arbitrage community. It was a good decision, to be recommended.

Internal comms was another matter.

Richard Harpin in HomeServe video conference

Comms in a time of COVID

I’m sure many of us started our lockdown comms in the same way. WhatsApp groups to replace water cooler chat; shaky videos recorded on mobile phones; Teams / Zoom / Whereby (remember that?) beaming us into our colleagues’ makeshift workspaces.

What will stick?

First steps into the Boardroom

I took a year out after I’d finished my job at Man Group in 2012 to rest up and broaden my horizons. I trained as a volunteer guide at St Albans Abbey and, with one eye to the future, took the FT Non Executive Director Certificate, which brought me into contact with some fascinating people. I took a historic tour through corporate governance to put into context where we are today and passed my first ever finance exam.

My first step into the Boardroom was pretty conventional.

Are communications skills portable?

When I left Reuters after 20 years in 2008, I was terrified. Was I irredeemably institutionalised? Would anything I’d learned be relevant anywhere else?

Let’s start with what’s unique to any company: its culture.

Case studies

Behind the market boilerplate are real people

Comms in a time of COVID

First steps into the Boardroom

Are communications skills portable?

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