fash-biz-digest

As 2007 is coming to an end, the year  could be described as that of corporate governance due to the popularity and dimension of corporate governance in company investor relations. In short, there is no example that illustrates this better than one full page advertisement that appeared in the FT of october 17 captioned "Open letter to the shareholders of HSBC PL."  Which we can describe as a lacerating critic of the management of HSBC, by an institutional investor if we remember that, Knight Vinke Asset Management  sent a petition to prime minister dominique de villepin on the fusion of gdf-gdf.

The first campaign, globalisation, the web and thre race for the white house by Garrett Graff will for a long time be a material of reference to all those invloved in campaign planning and public relations.

The pressure group droit des non furmeurs inserted an advertisement in the 11 december issue of Direct Soir. The ad is illustrated with the photo of a boy smoking a stick of cigarette on the other end of the filter with this headline: non smokers are on the worst side of smoking. With this sign off message  there are 4000 chemical elements in a cigarette and 5o of these elements can cause the cancer. The advertisement is very simple and the message is penetrating.

 Burma : Britain and France in favor of jawboning

Not long ago, the world watched the the represseion of demonstrators against the government of Burma and the diplomatic visits of the UN represenative to government leaders and the the head of the opposition. Lacerating editorials were published in the press and specialists hinted on the importance of reinforcing international sanctions against Burma.  And one article captioned, Burma : Time for serious dialogue by two participants of EU presidential summits, in the IHT of 1-2 december 2007,  is an illustration that France and Britain won't brook further disrespect of the rule of law in Burma.

I follow with interest the annual FT  business book award. This year the award goes to the author of the last tycoons, that focused on the history of Lazard Freres, the investment bank, for a list of all the titles point your broswer to  www.ft.com