The UK doesn’t look good as it pursues Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy

I missed Julian Assange’s statement on the day (catching up on work after being out) but who would have thought we would see a situation where Ecuador would be seen to be upholding a foreign national’s press freedoms (never mind what it does at home) and the Vienna Convention, while Britain would be making diplomatic […]

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A farewell to Sir Paul Callaghan, and the next step for our innovators

When I attended Sir Paul Callaghan’s talk at the Wellington Town Hall last September, I felt vindicated. Here was a man who was much better qualified than me to talk about economic development, effectively endorsing the policies I ran on in 2010. But not being political, he was a great deal more persuasive. Since then, […]

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Stefan Engeseth’s next book, Sharkonomics: in business, what can we learn from sharks and their survival?

When I talked about Nicholas Ind’s book, Meaning at Work, a few weeks ago, I said there were two titles that I wanted to mention.    The second is by my friend Stefan Engeseth, who has followed up some very innovative titles—Detective Marketing, One and The Fall of PR and the Rise of Advertising—with Sharkonomics. […]

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Endgame: Saab files for bankruptcy

If you’re a car nut, then you won’t be mourning, too much, the passing of former Czech president Vaclev Hável. Or, for that matter, Kim Jong Il. It’s Saab that has finally died as it files for bankruptcy after GM, which still licenses key technologies to the Swedish firm, vetoed its sale to Zhejiang Youngman […]

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Panos Emporio: dare to be human

We weren’t responsible for the layout or photography, but our contribution here is in the tagline, ‘Dare to be human’.    In my 12-year friendship with Panos Papadopoulos, the designer behind Swedish swimwear (and now clothing) label Panos Emporio, we’ve often worked on marketing tasks. The most recent one: come up with a tagline that […]

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Saab to get €245 million if Pang Da and Youngman deal approved

Today, from Saab: Swedish Automobile N.V. (SWAN) and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) today announced the signing of final agreements with Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. (Pang Da) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. (Youngman), thereby converting the non-binding memorandum of understanding relating to the equity investment of Pang Da and Youngman … […]

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Why do the major parties insist on holding us back?

  In 2002, I did something really stupid. I bought a brand-new, 750 Mbyte Zip drive.    After all, I had had three years of use out of my 100 Mbyte one, and since 750s looked like the way of the future, I had one installed.    I can still count the number of times […]

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Stefan Engeseth hits 1,000 posts on Detective Marketing blog

Martin Lindeskog Congratulations to my good friend Stefan Engeseth on reaching 1,000 posts on his blog today!    It’s even more of a milestone when you realize Stefan is not blogging in his native tongue. Add to that the fact that he suffers from dyslexia.    But we follow his blog because we admire several […]

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Volvo unveils its China strategy

Volvo has announced that it will build a plant in China, and seeks approval for a second, in what it calls its second home market.    It was inevitable, though for the long-term survival of the brand, it’s not a bad idea.    Through Geely’s acquisition, it can potentially leapfrog other foreign car brands inside […]

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Johnny Foreigner might be better at running a car company in Shanghai

As I made links for the last post, I noticed there were a lot of comments on AROnline about the replacement for the Roewe 750, the Chinese car that is based on the old Rover 75.    The replacement will be on the Opel Insignia platform, owned by GM. It’s been followed by a lot […]

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