I had a great chat with Caspar Giles about recruitment within challenger brands. Recruitment is one of those annoying industries to be in – very much like creative agencies – in which the actual base level of quality is so low, but the claimed level of quality is high. That makes differentiation really hard. Everyone says “we’re not just a recruiter, we’re a partner”; everyone claims to be a consultant; everyone claims to have a relationship that’s more than just transactional. Again, just like creative agencies, the model itself is messed-up: who can blame recruiters for phoning it in when clients engage multiple recruiters at a time (like unpaid creative pitches!) and make payment contingent on success? We’ve been chatting about how to change those perceptions and how to evolve that model, and it’s super interesting. Caspar is a good egg; check him out if you’re a brand and need help shaping and hiring your teams.

The initial meeting with the single malt whisky people that I mentioned last week went very well.

I saw The Old Oak, Ken Loach’s new film. The trailer sold me an uplifting story about a community coming together. “Resolutely upbeat”, the Observer said. Don’t believe a word of it; that bastard Loach punched me firmly in the feels, just like he did with I, Daniel Blake, demonstrating that nothing is so straightforwardly cheery in real life.

It was my birthday this week, so I spent some time celebrating (and also going to the cinema to see not-very-celebratory films). One of those celebrations was at Manteca, and if you’re ever near Old St., you must go – and you must finish up with the espresso con zabaglione. It’s coffee with hot boozy custard, which hopefully provides its own explanation for why it’s necessary.