Difference between revisions of "Fleishman-Hillard"
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| + | *[[Fleishman-Hillard UK Staff and Clients 31.11.04 to 31.5.05]] | ||
Revision as of 09:27, 31 January 2006
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:
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are some people in very senior levels within the BBC who support an element of fee and who think the licence fee is out of date."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))
Rachel Roberston (see below) is on the Cross Party Group for Diabetes. 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.
Nuclear spin activity
Rachel Robertson used to be on the Cross Party Group on the Civil Nuclear Industry. She was listed as being from the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive, Nirex, and not as an employee from Fleishman-Hillard. Robertson has been replaced by Ian Price who is also listed as being from Nirex. Co-incidentally there also an Ian Price who works at Fleishman-Hillard's Edinburgh office.
