A New Boss At Brunswick. Perhaps

A shake-up at Brunswick, but one which seems to confirm the established direction of travel rather than signal anything radical, aside from, inevitably, the growing importance of AI.

Henry Timms becomes head of the business that looks after the PR of one third of the FTSE 100, but its expansion plans are plainly overseas, chiefly in America.

When Alan Parker, now Sir Alan of course, founded Brunswick in 1987, PR was a sideshow for big companies rather than central to everything they do.

He can take considerable credit, or blame, depending on your point of view, for this.

Timms’s predecessor Neil Wolin was well connected politically at least to the Clinton and Obama administrations, and he will still be around, which looks like a bet on Joe Biden winning the next election. 

Brunswick folk reckon the main advantage of Timms is that he  led the transformation of Lincoln Center, an iconic US cultural institution and has a reputation for seeing the next big thing.  His book New Power is a bestseller and he has written papers on AI that will be important as Brunswick evolves to address the next set of challenges clients face.

They might look light on folk close to Trump, but perhaps there’s an assumption that if the gingerbread man wins it’s the end of the world anyway and no amount of PR is going to save anyone.

The shake-up has Timms as new Chief Executive Officer, Neal Wolin to become Vice Chairman focusing on senior client relationships and Tom Burns to succeed Helen James as Chief Operating Officer.

All of which suggests the proper boss remains Sir Alan, who favours organic growth rather than deal making. “I still can’t find anything exciting to buy”, he tells the FT.

Erm, give me a call?

Rivals think the overhaul makes sense while not being overwhelmed.

One said of Timms: “He’s saying the right things about AI etc. It is not ground-breaking but it is the direction of travel.”

Another noted: “No manager lasts long at Brunswick as the Founding Partner still dominates.”

Brunswick takes issue with that, noting that Wolin did six years as CEO and is staying on. For how long, we shall see.

Another snipe – Brunswick’s heartland is big corporates and M&A, which is not Timms’s background — they do have other people for that in fairness.

You can read Brunswick’s own take on all of this here.

How does the firm describe itself? In ways that owe more to grandiosity than brevity, but perhaps the writer gets paid by the word. Which is an excellent policy.

“Brunswick is a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues and critical stakeholders. Our purpose is to help our clients play their role in the world successfully. We advise on critical issues and critical stakeholders at the center of business, politics and society, and help our clients – the leaders of large, complex organizations – understand and navigate these interconnected worlds. Brunswick is one firm globally, operating as a single profit center. This allows us to respond seamlessly and effectively to clients’ needs wherever they are in the world.”

That’s four “criticals” in about 80 words. We’ll get Mr Timms a thesaurus as a welcome.