The debt we all owe John Simmons (including you, dear readers)

Post #53

February 2, 2022

Claire Bodanis

On the occasion of the publication of the 21st anniversary edition of We, Me, Them & It: How to write powerfully for business, Claire reflects on what all of us in the corporate world owe its author, John Simmons.

Dear me, I’m selling again… but this time, the price tag is a mere £12.99. And it’s a tiny amount to pay for the value we’ve all had, most without knowing it, from this incredible book, We, Me, Them & It, and its even more incredible author, John Simmons. (And, as last time, no cash accrues to me – or to FW.)

You may not hear his name quoted as often as the likes of Paul Polman or Larry Fink, but John has arguably had just as much impact, and all for the good, on the corporate world. Ever used the words ‘tone of voice’ when describing the verbal aspect of your company’s brand? Or the latest flavour of the month, ‘corporate narrative’? Or perhaps, ‘telling our story’, so popular today that even the friendly folks at our favourite regulator, the UK’s Financial Reporting Council, or FRC, use it? The idea that companies have a voice as part of their brand, or should communicate by telling stories, can be traced to John’s work (even Wiki says so!). He founded the first verbal identity practice at brand agency Newell and Sorrell in the 80s, and developed it further when Interbrand took over the agency in 1997.

When branding grew out of the grand old days of advertising, it was all about the visuals. Logos, colours, shapes, graphics. ‘But what about the words?’ asked John. And John being John, instead of just asking, started doing. And in so doing, he created the then radical notion that a brand should have a verbal, as well as a visual identity. Or to put it another way, a tone of voice. Just about anyone who works in business today will have felt the positive impact of this focus on good writing in one way or another.

Sadly for us in the corporate world, John has had such a long and distinguished career that he now only scatters his fairy dust over a very select few companies these days. But all those who write for business can benefit from his wisdom, as I do, through the wonderful networks he co-founded for business writers: 26, of which I was an early member, and Dark Angels, of which I am an associate partner. And, of course, through reading We, Me, Them & It, first published in 2000, and just last week, republished in a 21st anniversary edition.

I would not be the writer that I am, nor the corporate reporting geek that I am, nor the leader of a business that I am, nor even the human being that I am, without this book. I feel you shifting a little nervously in your seats – isn’t that a bit extreme for a business book? Aren’t we getting just a tad new-agey here?

Let me take you back to the year 2000. I was in my first agency job, managing some amazing projects on behalf of the craziest pair of race-horse nuts ever to run a studio. Back then, corporate literature, as it was called, was all about design and production. The client wrote the copy, and most of the time it was so awful that I ended up rewriting it because I simply couldn’t bear to have our beautiful language mauled so badly – and published. As you can imagine, given that writing wasn’t within our budget, clients loved me, but said bosses didn’t. And I began to despair of ever finding anyone outside the world of literature or publishing who believed, as I did – and still do – that ALL words matter.

Then one day, an old college friend invited me to a book launch – she’d been invited because she was a mate of the book’s designer, oh the irony. But since it was a book about writing, she thought I’d enjoy it. (I owe her a huge debt too, come to think of it.)

To cut a long story short, I was so uplifted by John’s talk – and so relieved to find I wasn’t a lone voice crying in the wilderness – that I read almost half the book on the way home on the tube. And, since handily John’s email address was included on the inside back cover, the next morning I wrote him a fan letter, little expecting that a minnow like me could hope for more than an acknowledgement in reply. But I didn’t know John then – nor his abiding dedication to the development of junior or even wannabe writers. He replied straight away, with the happy news that Interbrand was that month moving to offices on the Strand, just round the corner from my own agency. And we met for a cup of tea. I hesitate to say ‘and the rest is history’ – after all, we’re supposed to avoid clichés where we can. But clichés do have the merit of stemming from truth, so I’ll allow myself this one.

Over the last two decades, I’ve re-read We, Me, Them & It whenever I’ve felt I’m fighting a fruitless battle for good writing in the corporate world – especially the world of corporate reporting, when ‘getting it over the line’ can overshadow all. Or when I’ve just felt like a good read. And because of the book, and John, I’ve been part of the Dark Angels ‘creative writing for business’ endeavour – which, as many of you know, has shaped my career and my life.

But back to you. If you’ve ever read good writing from brands and businesses, if you think verbal identity matters, and especially if your company has a strong corporate brand with a powerful voice – it’s John you have to thank.

And the best way to thank an author is to buy his or her book!

Buy We, Me, Them & It at your local bookshop if you can, or Waterstones if you can’t.

If you must go to Amazon, you can find it here.