Saturday 27 June 2009

Once upon a time ....


In a galaxy not so very far away, there has been yet another name change to confuse the innocent and empower the few.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen the name of the Government Department once known as the DTI (The Department for Trade and Industry) changed to BIS (The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills). Not so bad but in between these was BERR (The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) but all offering the same (or remarkably similar) support services to the business community.

Now I recognised that Government may not be as fixated on Brand Value as we are in business but for goodness sake too much change does little other than confuse users and make a massive workload for sign makers, printers and office relocation companies.

I wonder just how much this constant change really costs the poor old tax payer.

Gareth

2 comments:

Nikki Gerrard, PML said...

I didn't know the DTI didn't still exist!! Could someone explain the reason for changing names so many times in such a short period; it beats me.

We reduced our brand from the full name to the abbreviation, PML, a couple of years ago and the impact was massive (and definitely costly). You can't start to imagine what it must cost a whole Government Department.

One for the Daily Telegraph I think!

Gareth, APA said...

Hi Nikki,

The usual public sector response will be that 'It is felt that the new name better reflects the duties of the Department and incorporates additional responsbilities transferred to it as a result of the recent reorganisation (reshuffle)' or something like that!

In reality, it does appear to be a better grouping of responsibilities (Business, Innovation and Skills) but I have to say the abbreviation does lend itself to a whole host of jokes.