LIVING THE BRAND: RESPONSIBILITY COMES WITH OWNERSHIP

Rupert Murdock...

Recently, UPI wrote, “eyes are riveted on Britain where American media mogul, Rupert Murdoch is up to his neck in a phone-hacking and police bribery scandal.  On this side of the Atlantic, the question is whether he or any of his crew violated U.S. law.  U.S. law covers all employees of U.S. corporations—even executives managing employees based overseas”.  Incidents such as the News Corporation scandal, can threaten the viability of organizations large or small.  Manipulating financials by hiding expenses or engaging in questionable behavior to  achieve superior  results, can produce short term benefit—but history suggests that ethical violations will eventually destroy people, relationships, communities, corporations, and governments.  Doing the “right thing” typically leads to; sustainable success, transferable wisdom, and the creation of wealth. 

 I was recruited by Peter Jarvis, then chairman of the iconic Whitbread Corporation—established in 1742 as Britain’s first mass-production brewery.  He sought my help in bringing a diverse conglomerate together.  After purchasing the European rights to well known American food franchises such as TGI Fridays, Pizza Hut, and several Pepsico businesses, Whitbread had morphed into a plethora of subsidiaries that served different markets, had separate management teams, and operated from completely unrelated business plans.  Whitbread ownership was the only thing these subsidiaries had in common.  Peter wisely recognized that responsibility came with ownership, and that the behavior of each subsidiary held the power to advance or diminish the Whitbread brand. 

I conducted a cultural-values clarification session with Peter and his London based management team.  They concluded that the Inspirational-leadership principles presented in my writings would provide the necessary glue to assure that Whitbread’s cultural-values and related ethics platform could be enforced—in spite operational diversity. Video produced by a subsequent Whitbread CEO expresses the company’s continued adherence to “doing the right thing”.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roHIXQJOwjo    

Unlike Rupert Murdock’s News Corporation, Whitbread’s senior team implemented pragmatic yet inspiring cultural-values, along with a related ethics platform and a process for holding people accountable.