Michael Murphy & Ltd advises Westbourne Communications on its sale to Cicero

Westbourne Communications today announced its integration into Cicero Consulting to create the leading UK independent public affairs firm with a combined fee income of £7 million. The all-cash transaction, which will see Westbourne founder and CEO James Bethell remain with the business in a senior role, will have a total of around 55 staff with […]
The 5th Annual Interel Global Public Affairs Summit

5TH Annual Interel Global Public Affairs Summit: Advancing Interests in a New Era Interel Board Director Michael Murphy, who is attending the event, said: ‘ Never before have companies and organisations faced such huge regulatory challenges in what is a rapidly changing and uncertain political environment. ‘The 5th Annual Interel Global Public Affairs Summit brings together some of […]
Interel and AMG join forces
Interel, the global public affairs consultancy, today announced that Washington DC based firm AMG, has joined its Group. Together both companies will generate €25 million (EUR) ($27 million (USD)) in annual revenues and employ more than 200 consultants, staff and advisors. Adding to its own offices and partner firms in over 60 countries, Interel will […]
WE Communications Makes Senior International Hires

Philip Channon joins as international COO while Michael Murphy takes on non-executive director role. LONDON — WE Communications has hired Philip Channon to the newly-created role of international chief operating officer, and named Michael Murphy, who has served as a global advisor to the firm for the past couple of years, as non-executive director. Channon reunites […]
Interel

Michael Murphy and Patrick de Bellefroid join Interel Board We’re an independent business and value enormously the contribution that our independent Board members bring to our strategic planning and governance. We are very much looking forward to working with our two new members – meet them below. We are delighted to welcome two […]
Coverdale Barclay

Coverdale Barclay Appoints Michael Murphy as non- executive Chairman Michael has had a long career in public relations. This has included developing his own public relations businesses in the UK and working for major publicly-owned groups including positions with Weber Shandwick – based in Hong Kong and then London – and latterly at Grayling […]
Storming the C-suite!

Communications professionals like myself have long debated how they can become more effective at storming the C-suite, the subject for a panel I chaired this week at the independent PR firm forum, which is part of the global public relations summit in Miami.
Researching the pitch

The reality of pitching for new business is that any pitch that is all performance and no preparation will uniformly fail. To conduct a successful business pitch, meticulous and strategic research is just as, if not more, important than the content of the presentation itself and the way that it is delivered.
Do you really know what to pitch to your client?

In my last post, I discussed why it is occasionally beneficial to turn down opportunities to pitch for new clients. If you recall, I looked at the need for growing agencies to become more selective over which contracts they bid for, so that they can properly prioritise time resources to those deals that are likely […]
Should you say ‘no’ next time you are invited to pitch?

“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters” American Football coach, Paul Bryant, was most likely talking about getting up to train on a wet Saturday morning, but he makes a good business point too.