Please, Sir

Is it only me...but we all make mistakes, even me!

I have recently read that steps are now underway by a bunch of Senior Apparatchiks and other Grand Panjandrums to restore Sir Fred Goodwin to Mr Fred Goodwin, formerly Head Honcho at Royal Bank of Scotland before it became owned by us. This unsettles me.

Now let me say at the outset that I am no fan of titles, baubles and other decorative awards not given or earned through the application of labour or intellect. Sadly as yet I have not been able to persuade the Great and Good to my point of view. Consequently a couple of times a year Her Maj organises some sort of prize giving ceremony and those recently elevated to the Great and Good priesthood or who have ‘bought’ their titles by corrupting our political system, their presence leavened by a few proles who have been lollipop people for centuries and have never missed a day’s work in 150 years, queue up to be doled out their bauble.

However I really don’t see why, having gone through this ceremony, we now seem to want to take back Fred’s bauble. What has he done wrong that we all want our revenge on him?

Admittedly Sir Fred did make a wee mistake a few years back with some quite dreadful consequences for him, his family, the nation and the global economic system but hey, we all make mistakes.

What happens to you when you make a mistake? Would you expect to be stripped of your pension? Would you consider it right if you lost your job? Are you hauled before the Court of Public Opinion? Would you hand back your Blue Peter Badge, Jim’ll Fix It Medal and Brownie Medals? No. Why not? And why do you expect different rules to apply to Sir Fred?

And it is important remember that everything Sir Fred did or try to do he did in the best interests of his shareholders. It was not about personal gain, it was not fraudulent, and it was not illegal. It might have been hubristic but it was not wrong. And we should also remember that he did a very good job for his shareholders, for his people and for the taxman up until the balloon burst. And you cannot blame Sir Fred entirely for that.

I once heard a tale of a man who lost £2m for his business. He immediately tendered his resignation to his CEO. And to his credit the CEO refused to accept the resignation pointing out to his man ‘that he had just paid for the most expensive business lesson ever and he was not going to throw away all that training and development’.

Maybe anyone crying for Sir Fred’s medal back should heed that advice.

Let’s leave the man alone.

Have a great week.

And if you are looking for some marketing enlightenment to get you through the week ahead, take a look at www.themarketingcomic.blogspot.com.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.