More service provider humility
High-profile PR disasters, such as the victory gesture by top banker Joe Ackermann, suggest a loss of touch with reality in the executive suites. And they jeopardize companies’ (brand) value.
Column PR disasters such as top banker Joe Ackermann's victory gesture point to a loss of reality in the boardroom. And jeopardize the (brand) value of companies.
During his first appearance before the Düsseldorf court, which is accusing him of "breach of trust" because he approved high severance payments and bonuses as a former member of the Mannesmann Supervisory Board, Josef "Joe" Ackermann spread his fingers in a victory sign. The powerful head of Deutsche Bank thus used - as a defendant - the same gesture that Winston Churchill used in his fight against Hitler or John Wayne in his fight against cancer. With disastrous consequences: The professionally brilliant and personally likeable Swiss investment banker lost his battle for public opinion with a single casual hand gesture.Perhaps it was wrong for the ex-Mannesmann boss to receive a fat compensation after the (lost) defensive battle against Vodafone. The bonus for the then Chairman of the Supervisory Board may have been even more questionable. But "disloyalty"? That is an extremely elastic term and paragraph. Should the salaries and bonuses of German board members be determined by the courts in future? Is three million a year okay, but five million is disloyalty?
Ackermann had and still has a good chance of being acquitted. If he had remained calm and objective and trusted the rule of law, many liberals would be on his side today. Now, however, even Bernd Michael, head of the Grey advertising agency, speaks of a "confirmation of old prejudices". He is of course referring to the arrogance of power.
What is the truth of this accusation? Ackermann's predecessor, Hilmar Kopper, openly called the 50 million marks that his bank had to replace due to a bankruptcy "peanuts". And Rolf Breuer, from whom Ackermann took over as CEO in mid-2002, gave an interview that gave the impression that he doubted the creditworthiness of his major client Leo Kirch. As a result, an American court recently sentenced Deutsche Bank to pay damages. Does the management of Germany's largest financial institution only engage in "specialist communication" for investors and forget that it operates in a cultural and communication space in which millions of people decide on the reputation and thus the "brand value" of Deutsche Bank?
It may be that the people who run corporate communications at Deutsche Bank are not good enough. According to press reports, one of Ackermann's lawyers explained his Victory sign as a (self-)ironic allusion to Michael Jackson - who, incidentally, is accused of abusing children. But it may also be that the bosses are simply not listening to their communicators. Could it be that managers of the "global class" (Ralf Dahrendorf), who decide on investments or loans worth billions, live and operate in gated communities? That they can no longer imagine what people (must) think of their public actions and statements, for whom a million euros or francs is an insane amount of money?
Grey boss Michael has invoked the "humility of a service provider". Perhaps the Christian connotation of the term "humility" is too moralistic. Let's just replace it with good old customer orientation. In the Internet age, customers are constantly and inexorably becoming more powerful due to increasing price transparency and falling transaction costs. Even if a major bank wanted to say goodbye to SMEs and small private customers, it would not remain unaffected by Blick and Bild headlines and a "Glotze" that cannot get enough of embarrassing mishaps such as Ackermann's victory gesture. In short: top managers not only have to control their language, but also their body language.
> Peter Glotz is Professor for
Media and Communication Management at the University of St. Gallen.
During his first appearance before the Düsseldorf court, which is accusing him of "breach of trust" because he approved high severance payments and bonuses as a former member of the Mannesmann Supervisory Board, Josef "Joe" Ackermann spread his fingers in a victory sign. The powerful head of Deutsche Bank thus used - as a defendant - the same gesture that Winston Churchill used in his fight against Hitler or John Wayne in his fight against cancer. With disastrous consequences: The professionally brilliant and personally likeable Swiss investment banker lost his battle for public opinion with a single casual hand gesture.Perhaps it was wrong for the ex-Mannesmann boss to receive a fat compensation after the (lost) defensive battle against Vodafone. The bonus for the then Chairman of the Supervisory Board may have been even more questionable. But "disloyalty"? That is an extremely elastic term and paragraph. Should the salaries and bonuses of German board members be determined by the courts in future? Is three million a year okay, but five million is disloyalty?
Ackermann had and still has a good chance of being acquitted. If he had remained calm and objective and trusted the rule of law, many liberals would be on his side today. Now, however, even Bernd Michael, head of the Grey advertising agency, speaks of a "confirmation of old prejudices". He is of course referring to the arrogance of power.
What is the truth of this accusation? Ackermann's predecessor, Hilmar Kopper, openly called the 50 million marks that his bank had to replace due to a bankruptcy "peanuts". And Rolf Breuer, from whom Ackermann took over as CEO in mid-2002, gave an interview that gave the impression that he doubted the creditworthiness of his major client Leo Kirch. As a result, an American court recently sentenced Deutsche Bank to pay damages. Does the management of Germany's largest financial institution only engage in "specialist communication" for investors and forget that it operates in a cultural and communication space in which millions of people decide on the reputation and thus the "brand value" of Deutsche Bank?
It may be that the people who run corporate communications at Deutsche Bank are not good enough. According to press reports, one of Ackermann's lawyers explained his Victory sign as a (self-)ironic allusion to Michael Jackson - who, incidentally, is accused of abusing children. But it may also be that the bosses are simply not listening to their communicators. Could it be that managers of the "global class" (Ralf Dahrendorf), who decide on investments or loans worth billions, live and operate in gated communities? That they can no longer imagine what people (must) think of their public actions and statements, for whom a million euros or francs is an insane amount of money?
Grey boss Michael has invoked the "humility of a service provider". Perhaps the Christian connotation of the term "humility" is too moralistic. Let's just replace it with good old customer orientation. In the Internet age, customers are constantly and inexorably becoming more powerful due to increasing price transparency and falling transaction costs. Even if a major bank wanted to say goodbye to SMEs and small private customers, it would not remain unaffected by Blick and Bild headlines and a "Glotze" that cannot get enough of embarrassing mishaps such as Ackermann's victory gesture. In short: top managers not only have to control their language, but also their body language.
> Peter Glotz is Professor for
Media and Communication Management at the University of St. Gallen.
