Senior executives are facing crisis of confidence
Only one in four business leaders are confident in managing their organisation’s reputation through a crisis, so should we be surprised then that corporate Australia drifts from one crisis to the next? Darren Behar, managing director at SenateSHJ explains.
Glass half-full types will tell you that the Chinese symbols for crisis are ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. But the CPA’s Alex Malley, Commonwealth Bank’s Ian Narev and Uber’s Travis Kalanick all recently demonstrated how readily C-suite executives have become far too busy untangling themselves from the dangers to realise any of the opportunities.
Comforting as it may be to reflect on the experiences of others with the benefit of both distance and hindsight, those whose jobs are to build, protect and enhance the reputations of businesses and organisations know all too well that none are immune.
It’s hard to fathom then why the leaders of many successful, mature organisations are prepared to accept that they are unable to manage their communications in the event of a crisis.
It is often said that a fish rots from the head.
Given that our political leadership place such heavy reliance on bare faced lies (weapons of mass detruction, anyone?) is it any wonder that our corporate leadership are finding it so hard to navigate an increasingly distrustful public and sell messages that are often just that tiny tad disingenuous.? Of Course Not!
The real problem here is best found by avoiding tha army of management and marketing consultants, gurus, experts, academics and assorted other rent seekers, and ask a very simple question.
Why are our politicians now so woefully bad even comedy is having a hard time keeping up?
I work as a dairy farm labourer so you can take my suggestions with a grain of salt, or a dollop of spring time bovine excrement, but here goes.
Our political leadership is failing because it is continually refreshing itself from a pool of people who either do not understand the problems wrought by conflicted interests, or do understand but are prepared to allow their interests to be conflicted, either out of fear or greed. Rinse and repeat over generations and the steady, inexorable and now exponential decline in the quality of democratic governance is writ large in the progression from Bush 1 through Clinton, Bush 2, Obama and now Trump. Likewise, Hawke, Keating Howard, Rudd/Gillard, Abbott/Turnball, and likewise elsewhere.
If we want things to improve we need to keep the best bits of democracy and ditch the party politics and the inbred dolts it will inevitably keep throwing up. Improve the quality of our political leadership and corporate leadership will improve. Fail and corruption and incompetence will surely be the price.
We need independent minds to form our governments, not tribla yes men whose first act of representation is to sell their constituents down the river for whatever the party whips want done.
That is where the real leadership starts.