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As trust in politicians has speedily declined, public expectation on political issues has shifted to large companies and their brands. Child labour, chemical regulation, genetically modified food, global forestry and fishing, the ozone layer and, of course, climate change. Even where all the evidence suggests that public opinion is showing relatively low concern on an issue, major retailers throughout developed world markets are becoming "gatekeepers", issuing ever more complex requirements to their suppliers in order to address the new "disintermediated politics". Where politicians are no longer credible in defending or explaining the actions of the commercial world, companies are forced to develop sophisticated positions on a range of issues that were formerly "politics".
These issues are creating a new dynamic in efficient corporate management; not "public relations" and yet very different from dispassionate, evidence-based decision making. Understanding this area is now not only essential for a defence of brands but increasingly creates opportunities for competitive advantage. To understand "which way the wind blows" is, for good or ill, as important in planning for the future as understanding the more traditional elements of market analysis. Some companies have seized these issues and created "legislative markets" for themselves and put competitors out of business.
On leaving university Simon Bryceson became a full-time pressure group activist, working for the environmental group Friends of the Earth and going on to provide consultancy to over 40 different non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
He was Deputy General Secretary of the British Liberal Party where he was heavily involved in the daily work of party political strategy and campaigning.
Five years were spent as a full-time lobbyist, three running his own consultancy, working in both Westminster and with the European Parliament & Commission.
He has personally called on over a quarter of a million homes in Britain in 'opinion change' campaigns, appeared on all the main terrestrial news channels on British T.V. as an expert in the area, and has conducted such campaigns in over thirty countries, including South America, Asia and, on over fifty projects, in the United States.
Director of Public Affairs for the international public relations company Burson-Marsteller in London until 1998, for the last 10 years he has been running a small team of consultants specialising in the area of public opinion, media, politics and issues management.
It is a possibly unique combination of hands-on experience as a pressure group activist, a political organiser at a senior level and as a consultant on these matters to over 400 multinational corporations and institutions.
In 1993 he was made a Member of the order of the British Empire for political services in the United Kingdom.
He is a renowned public speaker ("probably the best public speaker of his generation" Sir Bernard Braine, former leader of the House of Commons) and is often asked to 'challenge' conferences and seminars on public opinion, regulation and politics.
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