Fleishman-Hillard
Fleishman-Hillard ((http://www.fleishmaneurope.com/Cities/Edinburgh.html)) is one of the biggest PR companies in the world with over 80 offices worldwide. Its parent company is the Omnicom group Inc [1], which is a huge conglomerate that describes itself as a "global leader in Marketing and Global Communications". It has absorbed the group of firms formerly trading under the name GPC International
Contents
Global operation
Fleishman-Hillard operates around the globe through a variety of networks:
History: GPC International
Involved in the Drapergate / Cronygate 'Cash - for-Access scandal. Now seen as a minor blip in the growth and expansion of this lobbying outfit.
Cash-for-access: Promised access to key ministers, as well as a seat on a government task force – allows for political networking and direct influence on government policy
‘Then there is the case of British Gas. Derek Draper, the disgraced lobbyist and former aide to Peter Mandelson, claimed his firm GPC got British Gas chief executive David Varney on to the welfare-to-work task force. Draper called this one of his 'biggest' achievements. British Gas insists that Varney wanted only to contribute to the debate about getting young people off the dole and into work. However, a GPC client brochure carries an interview with Varney in which he admits the appointment gives him 'the opportunity to communicate your assessments of a particular situation clear and undiluted to senior Ministers. The insights into government . . . are valuable in a wider business context.' (Observer 1998)
CLOSE WATCHERS of the lobbying saga will recall that Draper told The Observer's man that he had passed on remarkably accurate predictions of public spending plans to Salomon Smith Barney. Salomon has consistently refused to comment on the story. But we can give a couple of further insights. Draper and other GPC colleagues held regular meetings with Salomon managing director Costas Kaplanis.
Outcome: APPC inquiry found that Draper was a "rogue elephant" and that his conduct "was to be attributed not to defects in management systems or procedures but to human failure", it said. The firm had tightened procedures and the APPC said they were being readmitted to the association. They had withdrawn while their management systems were "audited".
Roger Liddle and his associates paid £1 for Prima Euope only months before last year's election transformed its prospects. But by May this year, with Labour having been in power for a year, Prima was valued at up to £1.8 million when it was sold to rivals GPC Market Access. Liddle, Draper and three associates invested £200 in Prima shares after the business was acquired in January last year from its American former owners. The deal was a management buy-out for a nominal £1; on top of this, they agreed to pay up to £250,000 dependent on future profits.
Liddle, through a 'blind trust', received pounds 260,000 cash. Downing Street has been eager to emphasise that Liddle did not participate in the 'earn-out' arrangements: these mean that ex-Prima owners can boost the amount they receive by up to £1m, bringing to £1.8m the total they receive for the takeover. The£1m is dependent on profits over the next three years.
Liddle founded Prima with former Labour Minister Lord Dick Taverne in 1987. It was later sold to US advertising agency Young & Rubicam. Prima continued to be run by Liddle, Taverne, former Labour MP turned Lib-Dem Sir Ian Wrigglesworth and John Dickie. They bought the Prima business back in January last year. With Draper on board and Labour in power, business boomed. In 1997, the company's revenues rose to £1m and profits to £173,000. The directors paid themselves £300,000 plus dividends of £104,000.
GPC is a very Pro-EU lobbying outfit. Links across the political spectrum, many from SDP, Lib Dems. New Labour complement boosted by acquisition of Prima Europe in 1997 (though this precipitated the exit of many senior staff - including many to APCO and Mike Craven, who went on gardening leave and then on to set up Lexington Communications)
UK activities
In April 2005 Kevin Maguire wrote of F-H distributing a glossy brochure to their clients sketching the likely changes that could be expected under a Labour government led by Gordon Brown. "Warning multinational bosses that the next Labour premier's philosophy is built on - wait for it - equity, the booklet predicts Brown will centralise power around himself," Maguire wrote. [2]
In June 2005, Kevin Bell from the UK arm of Fleishman-Hillard spoke at a one-day conference in London called ID Cards: Towards Procurement and Implementation. The title of his talk was "Achieving public acceptance". [3]
BBC
GREG DYKE, former BBC Director-General hired outside consultants for strategic advice on how to thwart any government plan to partially privatise the BBC or abolish the licence fee. The contract with GPC, one of Westminster's leading political lobbyists, is worth about £175,000 and covers every aspect of the corporation's activities.The BBC has hired GPC not least because its managing director, Kevin Bell, is a Tory party supporter with close connections to the leadership. Mr Bell was trained by Lord Tim Bell, who masterminded the three Thatcher election victories.
A senior BBC figure said: "This is not just about giving us advice on how to acquire the ammunition to fight off a privatisation of all or parts of the BBC or how to retain the licence fee at all costs."There are some people in very senior levels within the BBC who support an element of fee and who think the licence fee is out of date."
Mr Bell, who declined to comment on the details of the contract, is working with a number of senior figures within the BBC, including Carolyn Fairbairn, the strategy director. Both Ms Fairbairn and Mr Bell are trustees of the Institute of Economic Affairs, the free market think-tank that enthusiastically supported the privatisations of the Thatcher years.
Devolution has provided plenty of work for GPC Scotland, the Edinburgh arm of GPC, the lobbying group, which has seen sales rise by 422% in 2001/02 Business a.m. (Scotland) April 26, 2002
Links with John Elkington and Sustainability
- The customer is king. The customer is always right, even when wrong! Such market mantras are ubiquitous these days. All are true, up to a point, but it depends on what business you are in. Furthermore, many of us have little idea of what we will need, want or demand a year or two hence. Things we turn our noses up at today often turn into tomorrow's must-haves. So any company relying solely on its customer base to dictate future market trends potentially runs huge risks.
- At least, that's how I comfort myself when weighing early business reactions to a new initiative focusing on corporate political influence. Working with government policy experts GPC, and with groups as diverse as the CBI and the European Commission, we are looking at how leading companies shape government thinking and action. (Guardian 120501)
Scottish operation
The Fleishman-Hillard office in Edinburgh was originally set up as GPC in 1996 ahead of the establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999.
They boast that "Within Scotland, we are unrivalled in the depth and breadth of our knowledge on the detail of devolution and how the Scottish Parliament really operates in practice". They go on to say:
- "We pride ourselves on our understanding of how the Scottish political, policy, and media agendas impacts the rest of the United Kingdom and companies and organisations and their businesses. We can make a difference to our clients' business objectives by combining the right resources, people, and skills with a clear perspective and an innovative approach to any communications challenge".
They conclude by stating:
- "Our team is drawn from a range of career backgrounds, bringing together political experience, policy development insight, strategic communications, event management, and research skills. The common factors among the team are our commitment to our clients and assurance that we will keep their needs at the top of our agenda".
And finally: "To make ourselves as valuable to our clients as they are to us."® [4]
One way that they may make themselves valuable to their clients, in Scotland, and keep their needs at the top of their agenda, is by attending Scottish parliament cross-party group meetings that may affect their clients. For example, the cross-party food group was attended by two employees, Jenni Wilkie and Ben Bosely Walker, in February of 2005. This may have something to do with Tesco being a client of theirs.
See ((http://www.appc.org.uk/registers/APPC_register_Dec04-May05.pdf))
They also have a presence on the Civil Nuclear Group, in the form of Rachael Robertson. She has joined though saying that she is from the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive, Nirex, and not as an employee from Fleishman-Hillard. She is also on the cross party group for Diabetes. This time she is listed as working for GPC, rather than Fleishman-Hillard. Their involvement in this group is unsurprising given them having Pfizer as a client. Who, according to them, are now, amongst MSPs, "the most favoured pharmaceutical company operating in Scotland today", due in no small part to the efforts of Fleishman-Hillard of course. An employee of GPC, Ben Collins is also listed as being a member of the Oil group, with still no update ackowledging the change of name and ownership to Fleishman-Hillard. While finally Jenni Wilkie is listed as being a member of the Tackling Debt group, but yet again as being an employee of GPC and not of Fleishman Hillard.
As can be seen therefore it is clear that Fleishman-Hillard are busy gleaning valuable information and building important contacts in areas of strategic importance to their clients. Though they have not updated the change in company name from GPC TO Fleishman-Hillard, while their involvement in the Civil Nuclear group is declared as them being the client themselves (Nirex) rather than a representative of the client
