Communication

Communication is at the heart of all my work, whether as a consultant, a coach, a writer or a speaker. Helping my clients to persuade an external audience is typically just as important as developing the analysis in the first place.

Consultant and Coach

Specific communications assignments have included the following (click on them for more details):

• Developing report writing skills for accountants and others
  A little over thirty years ago, I was drawn into teaching business writing skills. It started when I realised that I needed to develop a completely new way of explaining difficult concepts for the expert witness practice I was building at Ernst & Young. Then, when the head of the firm’s consultancy arm saw what we were doing, he asked me to develop a reporting style for his practice as well. This is something I have returned to over the years since with a range of different professions.
• Finding an effective means for a firm of risk management consultants to present their services to prospective clients
  This assignment was about helping a client to sell their services. Approaching it from the outside, I needed to understand what made the firm tick and how the service they delivered won the hearts and minds of their own clients. Then I had to explain it back to them! It’s intriguing how often a professional firm can generate huge success and yet be mistaken about what is has been built on.
• Heading-up external relations for the Actuarial Profession
  This was a time when pension scheme deficits and events at Equitable Life were seldom off the front pages. And none of it was good news for actuaries. We needed to change the story. At times, it seemed as though it might be easier to change the economic climate. But we got there – and the profession got its self-respect back. Now bankers are taking the flack!
• Training the next (and current) generation of actuaries
  In 2011, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries asked me to develop a Masterclass in communications. At almost exactly the same time, I was appointed by Imperial College to lead the Communications course for its Actuarial Finance MSc. As part of a business school degree, it required me to work with the students on spoken presentations, as well as written material. Some believe the skills needed to communicate actuarial concepts are not a natural fit with the high levels of numeracy required for actuaries to do their work. Others say the future of the profession depends on finding a way to make them fit. I believe we can do that.

Author: I learned to write

In 2020, I launched a new website called I learned to write. As the title suggests, it’s a story about learning to write. Not as a 5-year-old, forming letters and words. But as a 25-year-old business consultant, a 35-year-old writing in the Financial Times and a 55-year-old teaching in business school.

The site is a helpful practical tool for people who want advice on writing or on public speaking. I had immense fun creating it and so I did my level best to ensure that readers can have at least as much fun reading it and watching the pop-up videos on the site. Video content includes material from Jerry Seinfeld, Greta Thunberg, Rachel from Friends, Tony Blair and a dance coach who prised his way onto the site through sheer force of his personality.

Writer and Speaker

Writing and public speaking are a pastime and a passion for me and I enjoy exploring different audiences. I have written for a range of professional journals, including New Law Journal, Accountancy, The Actuary and The Expert. I also publish on this website a commentary on topical matters.

Someone stuck a knife in my neck last week. Fortunately for me …
Blog 19 October 2009

The Financial Times is a medium that I have returned to several times, having written for their legal page in the 1980s and 1990s and their accounting page in the current millennium. In between, I enjoyed a regular guest spot in the FT Weekend’s In the Pink column writing about a range of financial topics that piqued my interest (or the editor’s).

A recurring theme over the years has been exposing a lack of clarity in conventional thinking where I believe it exists. Subjects that have received this treatment include pension costs (not least Being Actuarial with the Truth), Microsoft’s anti-competitive behaviour and David Beckham’s first sending off in an England shirt!

I enjoy public speaking, addressing both lay and technical audiences on a range of topics (click for examples).