A funny here from Matt Chorley at The Times, who has just realised he loves PR people. Sort of.
Only now, goes his headline, “do I see that PR advisers were key workers in disguise”.
He opens: “It’s at times like this we come to value people we thought were low-skilled subhuman parasites but who actually perform a vital public service, saving the rest of us from the worst of humanity: PR advisers.”
We might not quite like the tone, but his point is well made. He gives examples of dim politicians, freed from the shackles their skilled communications chief might have put around them, saying things they quickly come to regret.
Such as telling voters to “get a life” or suggesting the Prime Minister “completely” deserved to get sick.
As Chorley puts it: “These key workers are stuck at home staring at their three mobile phones while politicians and celebrities expose their real selves on social media.”
This all must apply treble in the business world.
Politicians and celebrities come and go, and in most cases it hardly matters.
Businesses need to endure if they are to serve any purpose. Somewhere out there is a really brilliant company that is about to do or say something stupid that heralds its premature demise.
Unless it hires a clever flak, right quick, to save it from itself…