The Little Questions

How does a national newspaper group maintain its edge? On this edition of The Little Questions podcast, we're peeling back the curtain on the quiet power of your inbox, the evolution of business news, and why the era of the silent CEO is officially over. Guiding the conversation are the podcast's new hosts, Jenny Scott and James Kirkup, both partners at Apella Advisors. Jenny brings her...

We're proud to have provided 100 informative, humorous, and occasionally thrilling episodes of Little Questions - the podcast for all of us working with or working in Corporate Affairs, Communications and PR. To mark our 100th episode, we have gone back into the archives and pulled moments from the conversations that still resonate. In this special episode - the last to be hosted by Matt Young...

In a world that occasionally feels like it's teetering on the edge, the demand for "wise counsel" has never been higher. In this episode of the Little Questions Podcast, we turn the spotlight on advice, the good, the bad, and the confidently delivered but completely wrong. Because in Corporate Affairs and Communications, advice isn't just part of the job, it is the job. Whether it's guiding...

If your organisation's culture were described anonymously tomorrow, would it match what's written in your annual report? In this episode of The Little Questions, we explore how culture failures move from being internal concerns to full-scale reputational crises, often catching leadership by surprise, despite long-standing warning signs. We examine what happens when aspiration outruns operational...

Do you remember when we were told the world was heading inexorably towards globalisation? That technology would dissolve borders, that liberal stability was the model forevermore, and that everything was, more or less, under control? Yeah. About that. In this episode of The Little Questions, we're not here to solve geopolitics (there are people far better qualified doing that already). Instead,...

505 years ago, on this day in 1521, a German monk named Martin Luther stood before the Holy Roman Emperor, representatives of the Pope, and the assembled powers of church and state at the Diet of Worms. He was asked a simple question: Would he recant his writings? Luther had already nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door several years earlier. Those ideas had spread. They had caused...

Welcome to the fourth annual Little Questions PR Heroes and Villains. This is our excuse to look back over the year that was and consider who nailed their comms and who jumped straight into the proverbial pile of steaming. In previous years we've considered 'Shania Train', Elon Musk, Flaco the Eagle Owl, Bradford and even Ryan Gosling, well for pretty much just being Ryan Gosling! Joining Jenny...

In front of a live audience, Apella Advisors' Jenny Scott sits down with Nick Clegg - former Deputy Prime Minister and former President of Global Affairs at Meta - to cut through the noise surrounding Artificial Intelligence. Fresh from his time in Silicon Valley and the release of his new book, How to Save the Internet, Nick joins Jenny to dismantle the "bonkers" valuations of the current AI...

Normally, we spend our days advising big organisations on how to rebuild trust, explain themselves better, and stop setting fire to their reputations. But today we've taken on a new client. A tricky one. With the sort of knotty challenge we love at Apella Towers. Legacy brand. Huge heritage. Slightly confused about what it stands for. Name of the client: Britain. It's a high-maintenance account,...

It's topical time again. The last few weeks have seen a potential bubble emerging in the markets as tech valuations soar. This time round central bankers have jumped in to provide warnings ahead of this potential crash. In the UK, the Treasury has continued to fly taxation kites to see how the public and markets react - something that we discussed in episode 90. It has been impossible over the...