Inside Arx Nova: Q&A with Simon Larkin
What motivated you to co-found Arx Nova? Across my 20-year career in marketing and communications, I’ve been on the frontline of more crises than I can remember. I’ve seen how leadership teams are tested in those moments, and I’ve also seen how fragmented advice can make the situation worse. Legal, operational, financial and communications advisors […]
Controlling the Crisis Narrative Within 24 Hours: A Board-Level Imperative
When a corporate crisis hits, time becomes your most precious and least forgiving asset. The way a business responds in the first 24 hours can define whether the crisis is contained or spirals into a long-term reputational, operational, and financial disaster. In that short period, the company either earns the trust of stakeholders and the […]
WHSmith to TGJones: A High Street Rebrand Without Reinvention
WHSmith’s decision to sell off its entire UK high street business is a significant moment in British retail. The WHSmith high street sale to private equity firm Modella Capital has ended a 233-year run of high street presence and introduced a new and unfamiliar brand: TGJones. For those of us who grew up with WHSmith […]
How the Stockdale Paradox Can Save Your Business in Crisis
A crisis strips away the comfortable illusions of leadership. It brings pressure, uncertainty, and hard decisions with no obvious right answer. The businesses that survive are rarely the ones with the best processes or the biggest teams. They are the ones with the clearest grip on reality and the confidence to act anyway. That tension […]
Why Simon Larkin co-founded Arx Nova
I’ve spent over two decades helping businesses protect and build their reputation, often in moments when everything is falling apart. Behind the headlines and the panic, there’s usually a boardroom trying to make sense of what’s just happened. When public outrage is growing, the media are circling, and legal pressure is mounting, you need people […]