What is it with these people?
Banks. Don't you wish you didn't need them? At the heart of some of our most spectacular corporate collapses, even some of our most famous frauds, you will find one or more banks hurriedly tucking the dollar bills into their pockets even as they tut-tut the miscreants. Money, as they say, makes the world go around. Financial management classes teach us that being totally cashed up without debt is poor use of capital. And with leverage, we can buy, do, be - so much more than our limited bucket of bucks allows. More often than not, we need credit simply - but ...
Shoot the Messenger; Bury the Evidence
The life of the whistleblower has proved to be an especially difficult one. Sadly, whilst their actions are essential to revealing and ultimately fixing a bad situation for stakeholders - all of whom are negatively impacted by the situation in question - they are pilloried. Even in a situation so damaging, so frightening, where people's lives are at risk, most organisations tend to maintain a "shoot the messenger" Modus Operandi. They do this in the interest of protecting the reputation of the organisation, often attacking that of the individual who dared to speak out against them. At what point, I wonder, ...
Just do it
In the hot seat we have David Liddy, CEO of the biggest of the second-tier banks in Australia, Bank of Queensland, and his head of Group Strategy, Tarryn McMullen. David Liddy is a refreshingly straight shooter. This is a rare but welcome trait. Not that he or the bank is perfect, but they are at least striving for a balance of integrity and corporate responsibility along with shareholder returns. I remember reading about a current lawsuit, where disgruntled branch owners under Bank of Queensland’s franchise model, are suing the bank for having too tight a credit criteria in customer evaluations, which ...
Lemon Cars
Ah, I love the smell of citrus. Just not in the late evening in the pitch dark on a country road in the middle of nowhere heading into an apocalypse. “Cars are driven by people, the guiding principle behind everything made at Volvo, therefore is, and must remain - safety. When you are behind the wheel of a Volvo you know that over 70 years of research & knowledge has been engineered to maximize you & your family's safety. Volvo for life.” Or so says the advertising for Volvo. I’m sure BMW, Chrysler, Ford and GM would all make similar claims. ...
Sin & Spin
Lemon CarsAh, I love the smell of citrus. Just not in the late evening in the pitch dark on...
Response MattersRemember the little boy standing at the counter of a corner shop? “What about...
What is it with these people?Banks. Don’t you wish you didn’t need them? At the heart of some of our...
Shoot the Messenger; Bury the EvidenceThe life of the whistleblower has proved to be an especially difficult one. Sadly,...
Public Image 1, Reality 0Merrill Lynch (now part of Bank of America) understood the value of reputation. As...
Read More Posts From This CategoryCSR & Sustainability
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Just do itIn the hot seat we have David Liddy, CEO of the biggest of the second-tier banks...
Read More Posts From This CategoryGeneration Communication
The Word-of-mouth FactorReferrals. They are the cornerstone of business. Even in this digital age where marketing is almost pure science and branding an art form, the old fashioned word-of-mouth referral remains extremely important. In fact, if you look at this in the context of social media and the speed of communication over the Internet, word-of-mouth referral has never... [Read more of this review]
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