Welcome to the third annual Little Questions PR heroes and villains. This is our excuse to look back over the year that almost was and consider who nailed their comms and who jumped straight into the proverbial pile of steaming.

In previous years we’ve considered caterpillar shaped cakes, Union leaders, ferries taking on German auto giants, some famous pieces of stone, the odd city, a book shop and a veritable confusion of politicians. Indeed, I’m sure you’re already wondering – will Matt Hancock make it three years in a row?! 

Joining me to consider and cogitate are Father and Mrs Christmas of Apella, Matt Young and Jenny Scott. 

This podcast was hosted by:

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Jenny Scott; Former Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England and co-lead for Bank wide strategy. Advisor to the Governor, sat on the Bank’s executive committee and risk committee. Formerly economics and politics correspondent for the BBC and presenter of the Daily Politics. Trustee of Pro Bono Economics. 

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Well into our fourth year of podcasting here at The Little Questions, we’ve been fortunate to have some excellent guests visit our virtual broom cupboard and share with us a little of their wisdom. From FTSE100 CEOs to Climate Campaigners, neuroscientists and actors, it's been an extensive and eclectic group. Deliberately so, for ours is nothing if not an eclectic trade. Or is it a profession? Scroll way back to our first ever episode to hear our debate on that little question. 

What it does give us of course is a licence to get involved in everything, everywhere. 

And yet, while our guests have been as different as different can be, when it comes to our chosen specialist subject – comms – we’re beginning to notice some strong themes that connect them. 

So, this episode is an attempt to highlight some of those themes for you. Or is it just an excuse for Matt and Andrew to reuse some of those brilliant interviews? You decide. If you're enjoying this episode please consider leaving us a review to help other like minded individuals find us.

This edition of The Little Questions is hosted by Apella partners Andrew Brown and Matt Young. 

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

In this episode we consider why it’s so difficult to define a working person (as our government is finding out) and we consider if the days of PRs doing ‘dodgy’ desk research is over.

We'll discuss the praise Macdonald’s has been enjoying in the way it handled the visit of one Donald Trump and how Airbnb has been going into Comms battle with the residents of Primrose Hill, or as it’s better known ‘the place where Paddington Bear lives'.

And of course, it would be remiss of us not to tackle this Autumnal topical episode without mentioning the Budget. Has this Budget been a process that has been more heavily trailed, discussed, dissected, and fought over than any before?

This edition of The Little Questions is hosted by Apella partners Andrew Brown and Matt Young. 

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

It would seem that many of the ills which today befall the UK are apparently linked to how productive or otherwise we are at work, individually, and collectively as a nation. Apparently we're just not as good as we used to be.

With this in mind, we've devoted this episode of The Little Questions to how we as corporate communicators and corporate affairs professionals can ensure we attain and remain at peak productivity. We discuss some of the best tools and sources of information available to us and of course we will touch on artificial intelligence, although this is not an episode specifically about AI.  

We talk about the clunky world of PR in the 80s and 90s – including using couriers to deliver press releases! We reminisce about journalist databases, news feeds and go to news sources, some old school productivity hacks, and the best one of all... meeting for a coffee.

This edition of The Little Questions is hosted by Apella partners Andrew Brown and Matt Young. 

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

It’s that time of year again. The sunshine grows weaker, birds and non-Doms fly south for warmer climes and the political parties gather in seaside towns to moan about the state of the nation and each other. However, there is a shaft of light that cuts through the gloom. Little Questions is back up and running after our summer break. We’re here to cast our critical PR eyes over the issues of the day.

In these topical episodes we look at what’s been happening in the world and get to play the best game of all – how we would have done things differently. Communications hindsight or as perhaps as our brand colleagues would call it ‘lessons learnt’ is a fun and practical exercise for all the family.

This time we talk about the age-old battle of employees vs employers. How should organisations ensure they achieve what they need to without seeming dictatorial? And can PR actually help those needing the biggest 'reset'. We're thinking about HMRC, the Post Office, John Lewis and the Premier League.

We'll also discuss the announcements made by two of the biggest car manufacturers wrestling with decarbonisation. We'll ponder how we might have advised Lee Carsley in tackling the National Anthem and we'll look back in disbelief at the Oasis ticket debacle.

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. You can find out more at apellaadvisors.com

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach

About 15 years ago, frustrated by his inability to persuade his leaders at the time to use real language when communicating financial results, Apella's Andrew Brown tried to find other firms that offered inspiration.

Depressingly, he could only really find one. But what a one!

This CEO of a rising star of the FTSE250 (which would eventually become a FTSE50) had that year opened his CEO statement by saying that "it had been a difficult year which would require explanation and context, but he recognised that too many readers don’t get beyond para three so here is a helpful list of six things you really need to know."

It was so refreshing. 

A couple of years later he described the previous 12 months as “the year of the chameleon: quite useful in that they eat insects, but challenging and a bit fickle”.

One year he said that high on his list of worries was the firm not achieving specific financial ratios but second was having a garage full of stuffed toys if a marketing campaign failed. Third, was his wife getting pregnant. He’s also compared results to baked potatoes, pavlovas and seedless watermelons. He also liked quoting Dickens every now and again.

That CEO was Henry Engelhardt. He co-founded Admiral Insurance Group and now joins us on The Little Questions podcast alongside Apella Advisors partners Andrew Brown and Jenny Scott. 

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

Andrew Brown, formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc. Email: [email protected]

Jenny Scott, former Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England and co-lead for Bank wide strategy. Advisor to the Governor, sat on the Bank’s executive committee and risk committee. Formerly economics and politics correspondent for the BBC and presenter of the Daily Politics. Trustee of Pro Bono Economics. Email: [email protected]

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

‘Content is king’ has been our clarion call on many a podcast. What we often leave out is the equally important point of how you say something, as well as when you say it and where.

As Corporate Affairs and Comms professionals we are often the director of the presentations our spokespeople give to key audiences. The ‘stage’ could be a physical stage at a conference, or a virtual results presentation. It could be sitting in a TV or radio studio. Or even just a speech to employees at a town hall. 

In many ways, Corporate Affairs practitioners need to be a Trevor Nunn, an Arlene Phillips and a Stephen Spielberg rolled into one with the occasional need to be a Tom Hanks as well.

This episode is about the power of performance. How to make your content come alive, to stay memorable and even repeatable. 

This is often where Comms professionals realise they need specialist advice. If only they could get access to someone who has been an actor, has been classically trained at somewhere prestigious like RADA, and has worked with CEOs and business leaders to extract the best of performances. Luckily at Little Questions we have just such an expert who is happy to give away some that valuable performance-related stardust on this episode.

David Solomon is our guest for this podcast. He originally worked in the City, but left to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and spent the next ten years as a professional actor working at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. 

This episode is hosted by Matt Young.

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review. Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

David Solomon, Executive Coach - Sun & Moon Training

David's professional journey is a testament to versatility and excellence. He began with a BSc in Maths and Statistics from the University of Exeter, followed by a year in the finance sector in the City. His passion for the arts then led him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he trained and subsequently spent a decade performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. David's career evolved significantly as he became a Business Development Director in Corporate Video for prominent clients such as BP, Goldman Sachs, Heinz, HSBC and UBS Warburg. In 2003, David combined his corporate expertise and professional acting experience to become a Facilitator and Coach. Over the years, he has conducted skills training courses for organisations within the private and public sector, including London Business School, Cisco and the NHS. David is an accredited Executive Coach and a certified practitioner of MBTI and DiSC. 

Elizabeth Mobed, Senior Associate - Apella Advisors

Elizabeth joined Apella as a Senior Associate in November 2023. She has extensive capital markets communications experience, advising on financial calendar communications, international M&A transactions and IPOs with FTSE 100 and leading private equity firms. She has also advised clients on reputation management, advocacy campaigns and crisis communications. Before Apella, Elizabeth worked in the Financial Communications team at Teneo. She previously worked at FTI Consulting's Strategic Communications team, joining as a Graduate. She holds an BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Matt Young, Partner - Apella Advisors

Matt has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

We’ve talked about the many great things that Comms and Corporate Affairs professionals bring to an organisation – clarity of message, bringing the outside in, creativity and so on. However, one area that still seems to defeat all our Comms and Corporate Affairs colleagues – inhouse or in the agency world – is to get actionable insight from data.

For some it’s a case of swimming in the stuff and trying to make sense of what it’s telling you. For others, it’s lack of data and where to procure something that adds value to an organisation.

So, this Podcast is all about getting meaningful data that provides insight to inform decision making. Do we have all the answers? Of course we do. This is The Little Questions - probably the best podcast focused on the needs of communications professionals in the world!

Some of today's little questions include; has progress been made in the use of data and insights in Corporate Affairs? What are the challenges CADs face Why do these challenges persist and what can be done about it? To answer these and more are Little Questions regulars and Apella Advisors Partners Matt Young and Andrew Brown and fellow Apella Partner, Mike Granleese formerly of IPSOS.

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review.

Matt Young has 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

Andrew Brown; formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

Mike Granleese; formerly the Deputy Managing Director of Ipsos Corporate Reputation, Mike has over 20 years’ experience across roles in insights, consultancy and academia. He specialises in helping clients understand insights within the context of their organisation and advising on the actions needed to drive reputation growth and protect license to operate. Previous clients in financial services include Aviva, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and MasterCard. He has also worked closely with Coca-Cola, Heineken, EY, PwC and The World Bank. Mike holds a PhD in economics. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.  

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Like us at Little Questions you’re probably keeping, at the very least, a partial eye on how the election is playing out. So, this time, we’re going to focus this episode on said general election. 

We’ll look at messaging, how to deal with unexpected events, how grids are planned and unplanned. We’ll ask whatever happened to the daily press conference? Is this the first ever Tik Tok election? And, outside the big beasts in each party consider those who are having a good and a bad election, and who we may be hearing a lot more from in the coming months and years.  

Of course we’ll talk about debates – do they matter, is the prep for them the same as for a CEO special event – and, as they head into round two, what advice we have for the principles based on their first performance.

Finally, we trawl our fading memory banks and consider what in house comms and corporate affairs teams should be doing now to prepare for July 5th and the days and weeks that follow.

To discuss these and other little questions Andrew Brown is joined by Apella colleagues Matt Young and, not quite fresh from the political lobby, but once a hack always a hack, James Kirkup.

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review.

Andrew Brown, formerly Director of Communications and Public affairs at Ageas Insurance, Andrew has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global, listed, multifaceted firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors. He has considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management as well as reputation sentiment analysis and insight. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc.

James Kirkup has over 20 years in high-profile Westminster roles including Political Editor of the Daily Telegraph and Director of the Social Market Foundation. Extensive experience of thought leadership and advocacy work, with a particular focus on the relationship between business, politics and public policy.  Continues to contribute regularly to national media outlets as a columnist at the Times and Spectator.  

Matt Young has over 25 years of experience across media relations, public affairs, regulatory development, employee engagement, brand development, competition and CSR. Group corporate affairs director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA.

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Penny James has a 30 year career at, and leading, some of the world’s largest financial institutions. 

A Chartered Accountant by training, from Chief Risk Officer at the Pru she joined Direct Line in 2017 first as CFO, becoming CEO in 2019. Penny now holds a suite of board positions: Senior Independent Director at Hargreaves Lansdown, Non-Executive Director at QBE Insurance Group and Mitie Group plc. She is also co-chair of the FTSE Women Leaders Review.

Given her long tenure on Boards and range of current Non-Exec roles, this wide ranging interview focuses on how best Corporate Affairs can serve and support the Board, while also ensuring strong relationships with the CEO and Exco. We examine how reputation and stakeholders are discussed at the top table – and yes, we do consider Section 172 for the Companies Act geeks among you. Also, if reputation is so important for the Board, why aren't there more former CADs in NED roles?

Along the way we also chat: 

• War and peace – corporately, not the book
• Why for the CEO engaging with the media is now firmly more risk than reward
• What she looks for in a corporate affairs leader; and,
• Why she loves a bit of media training.

We do hope you enjoy this special edition of the Little Questions podcast. Check out our back catalogue for other similar interviews with Alison Brittain, current Chair of the Premier League, Amanda Blanc, CEO of Aviva, Joe Garner, former CEO of Nationwide Building Society, Paul Drexler, the former President of the CBI and, last but not least, our good friend Mark Kleinman of Sky News.

You can get in touch by emailing [email protected] and please consider leaving us a review.

Matt Young is an Apella Advisors partner with 25 years of experience in corporate affairs. He was Corporate Affairs Director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. Experienced in corporate communications; public affairs and policy; regulatory affairs and risk; industrial relations; crisis and complex issues management; reputation turnarounds; campaigns, competition; and ESG. Former Head of Public Affairs and Public Policy at TSB Bank. Previously a Partner at a global communications agency and has worked in the media and politics.

Andrew Brown is an Apella Advisors partner, a former Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Ageas Insurance. He has more than ten years’ experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors, developing considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc. 

Find out more at apellaadvisors.com.

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.