Having said yes to heading the new HC&B European office in London, I’ve been wondering if calling ourselves a “Global healthcare communications agency” is a genuine statement of intent or just another trite ad-phrase coined to make us feel good and to encourage our clients to believe in often-searched-for-and -rarely-found global solutions. And here’s what I’ve decided: it is just another trite ad-phrase! Well, it will be if we don’t make an effort to turn it into something real.

Like many in healthcare advertising, I’ve worked in several organisations that claim to be in the business of “global healthcare communications.” Yet I’ve never seen people from different regional bases forming a single, coherent, united global team. There are good reasons for this. Each office is often its own profit centre: the incentive is to maximise local revenue and profitability, not to pass the time assisting colleagues overseas. Each creative team is usually a network of relationships and skills honed by working closely together with the guys and gals at neighbouring desks. Sector and product knowledge is usually closely guarded and protected by planners with capacious local market knowledge and a wariness of letting their brands be over-influenced by all those pesky, small, growing, ill-understood markets out there.

Into all these difficulties steps HC&B Healthcare Communications. This occasional blog will let you know if we can swim against the tide: I’ll celebrate when our heads appear above the waves but I just might also reveal when our heads are under the surface and its getting hard to breathe!