Pic: 3news.co.nz

NZ Prime Minister John Key is in hot water and it’s not cooling off. The ‘Teapot Tape’ remains a hot topic of conversation, both in the media and amongst the public, given New Zealand is just one week away from a general election.

So why is it still dominating headlines? The apparently inadvertent recording of a supposedly private conversation between Prime Minister John Key and ACT candidate John Banks continues to be a hot topic because of doubts about whether voters are ‘being played‘.

Instead of fronting up and simply saying ‘we look forward to working with ACT as a coalition partner’ National again staged managed the so-called ‘Cup of Tea’ ritual to surreptitiously direct voters in Epsom to vote for Banks, as ACT’s candidate, rather than their own man. (more…)

Emerson cartoon: The new adidas logo published in the New Zealand Herald 9 Aug 11

Less than a month out from the opening game of the Rugby World Cup major sponsor Adidas continues to have a public relations nightmare on its hands following the public outcry in New Zealand over its official All Blacks jerseys.

Trying to ring-fence New Zealanders and block them from purchasing the same product more cheaply from overseas websites did nothing but enrage Kiwi All Blacks fans with many promising to boycott not only the official jersey itself, but all Adidas products as a result.

Now the story has spun out into how much the NZ$220 jerseys cost to manufacturer (approximately $9) and whether Adidas is acting ethically given the wages paid to those that make them is estimated at as little as $1 a day.

Their ‘we won’t drop the price under any circumstances’ stance has, and will continue, to cost them dearly. Already events celebrating their support of the tournament have had to be cancelled in the wake of the public outcry that’s occurred. (more…)

There is a line in the sand for all of us, as individuals and organisations, and crossing it can make us a pariah.

News International’s News of the World became an outcast as soon as it became clear the phone-hacking scandal it’s caught up in wasn’t limited to a very small number of individual journalists and celebrity victims but extensive and widespread in terms of those involved and those they intruded upon.

The News of the World held itself up as being a moral evangelist in many instances yet the way information was gathered was highly unethical. The disclosure of the extent of the phone taps and other highly questionable practices demonstrated that the line in the sand had clearly been crossed to the point of being obliterated altogether. (more…)

What’s ethics and what’s ethical? At an intellectual level ethics often comes down to a judgement call about what we perceive as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in any given situation even though we may be using instinct rather than education to make that call.

At a more practical level ethics tend to be rules that have been prescribed, most usually by way of a code of conduct or code of ethics, that we can refer to when we need to to check our own, and other people’s, behaviours, and pass judgement accordingly.

In essence ethics is about how we relate to each other and are used to influence the choices and decisions we make.

The emphasis, in ethical decision-making, is often about what the ‘best’ decision to make might be, so it was refreshing to hear Prof Donna Ladkin, Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University in the UK define it another way last week.

Alongside her definition that ethics is ‘a way of regulating social interactions’, she also suggested that a very pragmatic definition of ethics is ‘what’s the least worse alternative?’ (more…)

The very public back-lash against former ACT party member and New Zealand MP David Garrett, who stole a dead infant’s identity in 1984, may have taken him by surprise given that he said he had done it ‘as a prank’. However, many New Zealander’s felt that far from being a ‘youthful indiscretion’ it was both unethical and immoral, and was also at complete odds with Garrett’s public persona and reputation as a ‘get tough on crime and criminals’ hard-liner.

Although we’re becoming more aware of the negative impact comments and pictures on social media sites can have on our reputation we’re not necessarily worrying about how our off-line actions and decisions may be perceived, especially years later. Everything we do and say, online and off, leaves a reputational legacy that we are judged on whether we like it or not.

All over the world, people deemed to be ‘of good character’ are generally looked-up to and respected whilst those considered hypocritical or deceitful are mistrusted. So it’s worth regularly ‘check-in’ with our conscience to pre-test how we and others may feel about an action before we carry it out. Conscience is the awareness we have of the moral or ethical aspects of our conduct and is what feels bad when everything else feels good!

It’s the voice, thought or feeling that pulls us up, if we’re willing to listen, and makes us consider whether the choice we are about to make will enhance and support our prospects and reputation or damage them.

(more…)

So BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, is to be sent to Russia. Hardly a career highlight after almost 30 years with the company.

Whilst in no way minimising the loss of lives, livelihoods, environmental and economic consequences, the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion provides a near-perfect case-study of how being ‘out of touch’ with public opinion, and assuming an air of arrogance, can kill reputations, careers and trust.

In spite of the magnitide of the disaster across all fronts, it was essentially small, throw-away comments from Hayward (“I’d like my life back“) and Chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg (caring about ‘the small people’) that put the nail in the coffin of Hayward’s career. The comments demonstrated how out-of-touch Hayward, and therefore BP, was from those affected by the disaster. Taking part in a regatta didn’t help.

One of the biggest reputation-damagers there is is failing to listen, and track trends. Keeping your finger ‘on the pulse’ of public opinion is critical when trying to influence and maintain a positive reputation. BP, and Hayward,  failed miserably.

Thinking we can control our reputation is a myth. We can’t control it because we can’t control what other people think of us, and what others think of us is our reputation.

In terms of reputation-branding perception is reality. No matter how much BP might have wanted to keep him as CEO, public opinion meant it wasn’t possible if it wants any chance of jettisoning the adverse reputational-baggage now attached to Hayward.

If he considers himself the ‘fall-guy’ within BP he may be right. However, as Winston Churchill once said “The price of greatness is responsiblity”, and responsiblity cannot be abdicated.

Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters at www.guardian.co.uk

Leadership expert Jasbindar Singh hit the nail on the head when she blogged about the six leadership lessons we can learn from BP CEO Tony Hayward’s behaviour to disaster still occuring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hayward has attracted much criticism for his apparent inability to demonstrate any kind of genuine empathy for the people, wildlife and general environment affected by BP’s catastrophic oil spill.

Over a million gallons of oil a day are spewing into the ocean and yet Haywood seemed more concerned about himself, openly stating ‘… I’d like my life back …’ before heading away to attend a sailing regatta.

BP Chairman’s remark ‘we care about the small people’ also infuriated peole worldwide, and left BP’s senior executives looking like self-absorbed, spoilt brats concerned solely about the oil and profits being lost to BP, rather than the economic and environmental impacts their rig explosion caused.

CE’s get paid big bucks to handle crises – preferably with integrity. Making excuses and blaming others is behaviour unbecoming of any CEO, especially one whose company was responsible for the level of damage caused. No matter what happens now, BP’s reputation will always be tarnished by the comments Tony Hayward and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg made, and the way they responded. (more…)

When a company decides to have an official presence on Facebook, or other online social media network, they open themselves up to two huge opportunities:

• They can connect and communicate with potential and existing clients and customers keen to engage in a dialogue with that company and build trust in the process.

• They also run the risk of getting offside with ‘fans’, friends’ and ‘followers’ big-time if they fail to understand the ‘rules of engagement’ and try and use what are perceived as ‘big-brother’ tactics in the process.

The fall-out that’s occurred, which is neatly summarised in Bernard Warner’s blog post at SocialMediaToday.com, demonstrates how the internet can become a bitter battlefield where wars are won or lost based not on words, but on behaviour.

No matter how much a company or organisation may want to control their image and reputation online, it’s almost impossible to do – especially via Social Networking sites such as Facebook.

Attacking its commentators is unlikely to have endeared Nestle to the 90,000 or so ‘friends’ it has (had?) on Facebook as Rick Broida points out at bnet.com.

I’d hazard a guess it would have earned more respect, and perhaps even enhanced its reputation, if it had responded in a way that said ‘we hear you, we welcome your feedback, and we’re actually quite pleased you’re taking the time to let us know how you feel’.

(more…)

Over-promising and under-delivering is one of the biggest reputation-damagers there is.

If the breach of promise is relatively minor, most of us will forgive an organisation and give it a second, or even third, chance to deliver and meet our expectations.

However, when promises continue to be broken, and serious doubts are raised about a company’s ability to deliver – in any way – our willingness to trust that company plummets.

New Zealand’s largest telco company, Telecom, is in serious trouble in terms of reputation branding.

Its much-vaunted ‘available (almost) anywhere’ television ads used to launch the XT Network has come back to haunt them with significant network outages that have affected hundreds of thousands of customers.

This isn’t a minor blip. The fourth major outage this week has resulted in the resignation of Telecom’s most senior executive responsible for the network’s design and implementation. (more…)

Did you finalise your New Year resolutions? Got your targets and action plans in place for a stellar year in 2010? Are you lining things up to give yourself the best chance possible of achieving everything you want this year?

Great! You’re amongst a small percentage of people committed to making things happen. People who are willing to be held accountable for their actions, and accept full responsibility for their achievement.

Setting high targets and challenging ourselves is a worthy pursuit. Congratulate yourself as you tick them off your ‘to-do’ list and enjoy the sense of satisfaction that will surely come from achieving your goals.

And as you enjoy the journey, remember that in our rush to acquire more, achieve more and experience more, we sometimes forget that what we have, and do, is less important than who we are and how we contribute.

The words of Michael Josephson, of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, are very timely at the start of a new year and new decade. We are, after all, human ‘beings’, not human ‘doings’ or human ‘havings’.  What will matter?

(more…)