Trevail may have to eat his owns words at FutureBrand

Charles Trevail’s opening article in the Design Week Top 100 survey was fairly instructive. But it reminded me of Tony Blair’s search for weapons of mass destruction – a lot of what he is looking for is not there.

I am sure Trevail is mightily relieved that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act meant that he did not have to report FutureBrand’s figures this year. Quite literally, it is half the company it used to be – in both size and profitability.

You reported that FutureBrand had consolidated its corporate and consumer divisions this year. In reality, this is in name only – they remain separate businesses with different accounting structures because the former Coleman Planet is still part-owned by its former directors.

The consumer division [of which Wallsgrove was a creative director until last year] has created profits that are significantly down on last year’s.

Trevail might well have a future world vision. However, he needs to get his own house in order to deliver shareholder value before advising the rest of the industry of client needs and consultancy innovation.

Bill Wallsgrove

Creative Director

Big Idea

London WC2