reputation « Able and How

Goodwill toward men

LONDON — We’re crashing into Christmas. Like everyone else. Lurking in shop doorways on Dec 24th and thinking “I said I’d never do this again.”

It’s been an odd and uncomfortable week amongst men in the UK though. The dominant pagan religion of football has seen people talking about “goodwill toward men”, but in reverse.

What qualifies as “lacking goodwill” and what is “just part of a highly emotional, competitive game”?

The answers aren’t making anyone happy. Teams and players who have been found to have been racially abusing people have been met with police investigations and eight game suspensions. If you haven’t read about it, I wouldn’t recommend it.

The coverage and fan comments does no one proud.

And ill-prepared TV pundits have weighed in about how much they like ‘coloured people’. It’s just hard to watch.

None of the people involved have a history of covering themselves in glory.

So it comes back to a question of what we will tolerate in our society and what we won’t. And although I have heard lots of people say “it’s much better than it was 20 years ago” and “it’s just a bit of fun… you get used to it”, you don’t and you shouldn’t.

In the next few days football fans and football players, reporters, columnists, politicians and you and I have a chance to show some goodwill toward men. Let’s do it.

Peace on earth in 2012.

I’m in.

/df

When communicators attack

EARL’S COURT — Not sure how I missed this one. But The Independent has been running a investigative series on lobbyists. And they’ve chosen one of the biggest and most respected firms to ‘expose’.

In summary, some journalists pretended to be wealthy potential clients from a large foreign country and they recorded the communications professionals bragging about things they shouldn’t have been bragging about.

It’s pretty white-knuckle stuff. It doesn’t look good in print.

But…

You can easily see where it comes from on both sides.

NEWSPAPERS – Have been the centre of attention from politicians and communications professionals for months over phone hacking and other unsavoury practices. They probably feel betrayed. Some columnists are already revelling in the chance to someone else “dirty” and “seedy”.

LOBBYISTS – See themselves as great facilitators, bringing people and politicians together. And helping the democratic process. They are well paid and unregulated. But perform and important service.

The impact that journalists and a story like this can have can be frightening. (Although few would argue that journalists themselves can coordinate and wielded it with any precision.)

Furthermore, yes, the lobbyists in question look pretty silly, and their contacts are knocking each other over to get out of their way. And even Buckingham Palace has launched a stinging (oh!) rebuke. But what business conversation wouldn’t look silly on paper? Would the Boardroom and kitchen discussions of any average Briton not be surprising and alarming to many people who read them?

It makes me think of the amateur sting operations in secondary school that caught Harris admitting he’s stolen someone’s can of Coke.

SELF IMOLATION
However the real sport in this story may be elsewhere.

It’s interesting to see some of the Dons of the communication agency businesses lining up to betray each other.

It’s mild at the moment, questioning the accuracy of the other CEO. Filing toothless complaints with gummy bodies. Or suggesting that exaggeration is not healthy. But some of these fellows are pretty tough. The backroom brawls of the past — though generally unreported — are legendary. When communication bosses take each other on, it can get messy.

I recommend standing back. And maybe getting some popcorn.

/df

Who would want to be a leader?

HYDE PARK CORNER — I had a run of texts from a politically obsessed British friend last week. “Have you heard the latest joke about Chris Christie?”

I hadn’t. In fact I hadn’t even heard of Chris Christie. I was still catching up on the impossible rise and fall of Rick Perry (who I also hadn’t heard of a few months ago.)

So, yes, we’re talking about the US Presidential race. And Mr Christie, as I have just started to find out, is the current Governor of New Jersey. Furthermore, it seems that for a few hours last week he was also going to be “the next President of the United States.”

It’s not hard to see why he backed away, even after backing away before.

In many respects you could argue that business is much more forgiving than politics. Corporate leaders don’t have to submit themselves and their families to the kind of attention and ridicule that politicians do.

However, on the other hand, leaders in business have to appeal to more demographics than politicians. They have to be leaders of divisions, countries, hierarchies and Boards.

Being religious might be a requirement for the US Presidency. But it’s a detriment to a business career. Leaders of industry need to be able to appeal to people of every background, so long as they can hold a job.

Similarly Presidential candidates have to submit to comments and sniping about everything from their weight to their daughters. While business leaders may be able to keep their peccadilloes hidden, they also don’t have staff at their disposal to burnish their image.

As Chris Christie found out, leadership comes with it’s challenges that have little to do with the job.

Some days you have to wonder, who’d want to do it?

/df

Three years of change: It’s Able and How’s birthday

Two guys, a garage and a plan

LONDON — It’s been three fairly eventful years. I suspect you’d be hard pressed to look at the last 25 years and come up with three more volatile years in which to be in business.

Able and How was born on 08 September 2008. If you look here you can see [...]

Change management and Britain’s big banks

CHELSEA — The problem with change is that you cannot always foresee what might happen next. So you create an anticipated direction of travel and risks, issues, dependencies etc. along the way.

That’s how it’s done. In a nutshell.

The problem with Britain’s big banks though is not that they don’t know what might happen next. They do, but they’re determined to [...]

Auto Draft

LONDON — I am still a bit disturbed by an interview I read while on holiday. I have no idea why, while off the grid for a fortnight, I managed to read Lucy Kellaway’s interview with Roland Rudd. But I did.

Have a quick read of it and then come back.

Let me start by saying that I have no agenda [...]

On Britishness

SURREY (I think) — I know I still speak with a nasal, uncouth sounding accent. I know I will never pass too easily for Bob Hoskins or Anthony Hopkins. But I am increasingly growing into my second citizenship. I have a fondness for pastel coloured trousers. And curry.

An article on Britain in a recent Sunday Times brought me to tears. [...]

A business in transition: Must newspapers face extinction?

MY HOUSE — I come from a family of journalists. And I think that’s a great thing.

Naturally curious. Opinionated. Excellent at explaining complex things. Able to bring the world the news it needs.

My grand-uncle help set up the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. My dad won awards for his work as a foreign correspondent. There’s a story that one of my rellies [...]

Communications Directors in distress

LONDON — Last night’s black-tie film premiere was a great chance to catch up with some people in the business. There were too many people to talk to properly, unfortunately. But some conversations I’ve been mulling over in my sleep.

Quite a few senior people working in communications at the moment are in distress.

I’m not saying it’s a [...]

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