Recently Emma and  I attended the opening night of a local country pub close to the TAP UK Office. Nothing extraordinary in that. However 2 years ago this business/site was bought by a property developer who was hell bent on levelling the pub and building 4 houses, permanently destroying the only meeting place left for this small rural community. 

Such a loss for the community but such profit potential for the developer. Suffice to say that this scenario pulled the community together triggering a legal battle, extensive fund raising and the end result was the local community buying back the pub, restoring it and re-opening the The Crown in South Moreton.

This small community was quite brilliant and I am proud to say that TAP is one of the investors. Although we are a global agency, the strength of rural communities is at the very heart of what we do.

Technology and the way in which we interact is changing frighteningly quickly. However human contact and feedback is still important - which is not such a problem in a busy town or city but for a rural community, meeting places are essential. We know that in business, meeting someone as opposed to email or phone can tell us so much more about that individual or a situation.

In fact the philosophy of making things personal in this virtual world can really give us an advantage.  And now that we are all drowning in emails, picking up the phone and speaking to someone makes us stand out. Very retro…

So back to The Crown in South Moreton. Community is everything whether it is your office community, home or wider business contacts. Protect it and don’t let anyone ruin it for profit.