My book, The Business of Influence, has just been reviewed in Communication Director.
The magazine is billed as the professional specialist magazine for Corporate Communications and Public Relations in Europe. It documents opinions on important strategic questions in communication, discovers transnational developments and discusses their relevance from a European perspective. The publication is associated with the European Association of Communication Directors.
The review
Page 90, Communication Director Magazine, September 2011
"If you're in business, you're in the business of influence". So begins a typically thought-provoking chapter from The Business of Influence that explores the concept of the Influence Scorecard and the non-tangible results of new communication tools.
Communicators looking to keep pace with the digitalisation of the industry and its consequences for business strategies would do well to pick up a copy of this book: modestly-proportioned, it nevertheless demands a high-level of concentration of the reader as strategies, theories, diagrams and a thorough selection of the latest in public relations and marketing thought pack the pages.
Philip Sheldrake takes a lively approach to the mass of material, arguing with, comparing and contrasting the ideas that crowd his writing - the book is all the better for the numerous interjections by the author.
This is no bloodless textbook, and Sheldrake makes a convincing case for the creation of a 'Chief Influence Officer' within the organisation, "charged with making the art and science of influencing and being influenced a core organisational discipline". According to Sheldrake's vision, marketing and public relations will "ultimately come under the CInflO's domain", a bold vision characteristic of this visionary book.
