Bang! Accenture goes and buys a design firm and suddenly there's Big Magma in the air. AdLand's cosy world has been seriously shaken this time. Boom! The venerable observer Ad Age warns AdLand: "Look Out: Accenture's Invading Your Turf in a Bigger Way Than Ever."

When a client sub-contracts a research project they have to make decisions about who they want to work with and who they think will get the job done. Imagine you could choose a university, or an agency with hundreds of staff, or a boutique firm with ten staff. These are my competitors. And then there's me, a sole trader.

Unless you have been living in a box over the last few weeks, you can't have failed to notice the recent scandal surrounding certain multinational companies.

I was carving a loaf of bread this weekend, with my new bread knife. For some reason, I didn't look at the knife and think to myself, 'Wow, that's some knife skills you have, maybe you could be a surgeon'.

It's Tuesday I think. Since I work most days, I seem to have moved out of the confines of the civilized time measurement system of 9-5 Monday to Friday. I drift in and out, only reminded that everyone else uses the Gregorian calendar by my many Skype meetings.