Tari's Patch

Two unrelated events in the past couple of weeks made me think about leaders who let go - or not. Steve Ballmer announced his departure from Microsoft, triggering speculation as to whether Bill Gates might or should step back to the company he founded in 1975. Tony Blair, widely condemned for taking the UK into Iraq has stepped back into the limelight, throwing himself into the debate about whether or not the UK should take military action in Syria. Bill Gates concentrated on his Foundation (a million miles in content from Microsoft) when he stepped down as CEO in 2000, since when he has resisted commenting about the company he left behind (and despite remaining on its Board). Microsoft's value halved in his absence. Doubtful though Gates' return might be, he is being talked about as Microsoft's latter day saviour. Steve Jobs, during his break from Apple between 1985 and 1996, went about building other successful entities (LucasFilm into Pixar and NeXT, whose platfor...

Edinburgh is gearing up for the Festival season . Twelve festivals (from the original 1947-founded International Festival to the Edinburgh Fringe, the biggest and most organically grown), five performing companies, numerous arts and cultural galleries and museums, hotels, B&Bs, guesthouses, restaurants are all getting into Festival mood. I have posted a few blogs over the past few months about the cities and the importance of the arts from a reputation point of view ( Arts and the City ,  Abdoun, New Torn and the new majlis  and  Cities - bragging or shaming ). Summer festivals make a major impact  on the economy of Edinburgh (over £250m/$385m over the summer) as well as its reputation. It's the leadership aspect which has fascinated me these past months. There has been a flurry of new CEOs' appointments of major cultural organisations. These appointments have been high profile, much speculated upon and created much debate. I will set aside, for the time b...

Brian Groom reported the launch of  OUTstanding in Business  in  today's FT , a senior network for CEO level corporate leaders aiming to encourage positive attitudes towards gay professionals. While there are plenty of gay network groups in almost every profession, such a senior level platform as this is a new and welcome initiative. The hope is that this will encourage more senior gay men and women in some of the more traditional sectors of the corporate world to come out and in turn, become role models for other young gay professionals. Women are treading the same path and have done so for a long time. Today, there are women networks aplenty but there are still relatively few networks for senior women at the top of their tree, who can use their public image as role models for young women. I have long argued that increasingly, young women look more to public role models than their mothers and women closer to home, as has traditionally been the case. Three years...

Graduation season is upon us and social media has been full of advice for fresh young graduates - what to do, what not to do, what to expect. Or to be precise, what not to expect. Unkindly, there's even been reminders of the number of highly successful and rich men in the world who dropped out of college - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg to mention three. Yes, wealth appears still to up there as an ambition, so I get to think about the game of chances. Billionaires seem to have become something of a role model but the odds of becoming one aren't that great. According to Forbes, there is one billionaire for every 5 million population of the world (one in 750,000 in America). Slightly better odds, granted, than putting money on the lottery. If you played the UK National Lottery, you have a one in 14 million chance of hitting the correct six numbers with a typical prize of £2m. In America, the odds of getting the first 5 numbers and the Power Ball is one in 120 million....

Recently I went to a concert at Edinburgh's Usher Hall where one of the soloists was an incredibly handsome and talented young Macedonian guitarist. I was introduced to him at the interval and told him enthusiastically how much I appreciated his playing. I also told him how gorgeous I thought he was. To be exact, I told him that I'd marry him and leave my husband (this was clearly banter, and my husband was standing beside me at the time). He took it warmly and charmingly and responded with matching repartee. So here's the question. Had I been a 61 year old man and he a gorgeous young female artist, would I be accused of sexism, of being patronising? Is it okay for a 61 year old woman to say these things because I believe my guitarist to be perfectly safe from any power play from me? Because I believe there is zero chance that anything I might say to him would be received with any real or threatening sexual connotation? Social norms of course change all the time, as we...

I seem to have been surrounded by the arts festivals these past few weeks. The Edinburgh International Festival 2013 programme was launched last week so the talk around town is which hot tickets we've all got. It is now supposedly spring but with all this snow, wind and rain, this is good cheerful and 'sunny' talk. Much is being speculated as to whether George Street will again be closed to allow for the Spiegeltent to be put up, and for the street to be transformed into an al fresco buzzing clinking street come July. This is Edinburgh getting ready to prove its place as the world's biggest arts and culture city, hosting a dozen or so Arts Festivals during July/August. The museums and galleries will be competing to put on exhibitions to showcase Scottish artists. While I was in the UAE last week I attended the opening of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival - the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra performed at the sumptuous Emirates Palace Hotel auditorium with much g...

I blogged about public apologies and public figures' secrets a couple of weeks back. Gratifyingly it seemed to strike a chord. Since then, more scandals have emerged. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland has had to step down from public life as past sexual misconducts with other priests came to light. Lord Rennard, the former LibDem's Chief Executive and senior activist stands accused of inappropriate behaviour and unwanted harassment of women in the past. First and foremost, the  hypocrisy is foolish. I'm still astounded at the number of public figures  who have a Big Secret yet publicly vilify others for doing exactly the same thing. Cardinal O'Brien didn't choose to espouse the cause of poverty, education, social violence or domestic violence as his main platform during his tenure - all of which are so important and a safe million miles from his secret life. No, he made strong attacks of gay marriage and gay adoptions, all of...

An unexpected by-election will take place in Eastleigh on Feb 28. Yet again, a politician set for a glittering career - possibly to the top leadership position of his party - fell from grace through misdemeanours and reputation mismanagement. Chris Huhne may have lost everything - his political career, family, reputation. Although he eventually pleaded guilty in court for perverting the course of justice, to date, he has not actually made a public apology for what he did. He joins a long list of disgraced politicians (Liam Fox, David Laws, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitken, Jeremy Thorpe and of course the daddy of them all, Bill Clinton) who have with varying degrees of success, sought public forgiveness and return to normality. Two things always strike me when I read about yet another fall from grace (and mostly they're about money or sex - or both - and yes, they're almost inevitably men).  One , like it or not, responsibility comes with being a public figure. Like it or not...

I went to a fabulous birthday lunch last week at the Michel Roux restaurant in Westminster hosted by Claire Enders, a dear friend who is a powerful networker, mentor and successful businesswoman. There were thirty of us there - only women - from all walks of life; publishers, media, philanthropy, education, banking, the arts. This made me think about women-only worlds and how they have evolved in the past four decades or so, even before Peggy Seeger sang I Wanna be an Engineer in the early 70s. The women's movement in the 60s, 70s and 80s brought women together to share books they have read, to discuss the 'new politics' of power and sexuality, to build each other's confidence when competing with men in the workplace. Germaine Greer, Marilyn French and Betty Friedan were our coffee table books. These days I receive many invitations to women-only events or events organised by women or international conferences on women's leadership. This despite the fact that a...

Three weeks in the Gulf - mostly work with some downtime thrown in. There's been a lot going on in the region and at home. Elections took place in Jordan and Israel, the situation in Syria and Egypt ever worsens, World Economic Forum in Davos, the Australian open tennis championships, floods in Indonesia, Algerian hostage situation, David Cameron and That Slightly Delayed Euro Speech, Lance Armstrong's Oprah confession. Lots of voices to listen to, so how to get the right information with just the right amount of opinion thrown in, and learn more? Needs must, I get to discover new bloggers and tweeters and journalists who tell it the way it is - more importantly who explain the complex interactions in this region.  Al Monitor  has been a great new find. Daily lists pop into my inbox with just enough information on top news to give me a sense of what I want to read.  Sultan Al Qassemi  is my favourite new tweeter-find to supplement my staple diet of  Fareed Za...

Dan Edelman, a giant character and patriarch of the PR world, founder of Edelman Public Relations died yesterday. He and his family - especially his son Richard who took over as CEO in 1996, grew the company to the global size and scale it is today. Founded in 1952, it now operates in 66 countries employing over 4500 people with revenues of $637m. Although regularly courted by potential suitors and buyers, they remain fiercely independent. Dan stayed involved in the company right to the end of his life; the legacy he left behind is kept alive not just by the family, it is also embedded in the institutional memory of the firm. No Edelman employee, however junior, would not know the history and the journey the firm has travelled in its 60-year history. I have long been fascinated by family firms, since observing the difference between the seven years I worked for Edelman running its UK operations and the seven years before that, when I worked for a publicly owned corporation. Like i...

I'm often intrigued as to how best to ascribe 'social' and 'commercial' entrepreneurship to organisations. Mostly, a big gulf which separates 'profit driven' and 'social value driven' so the differentials are plain to see. However, sometimes the dividing line is very fine, making it harder for people working inside such organisations (and stakeholders engaging with them from the outside) to distinguish between the two. As individuals join social entrepreneurial organisations to 'do good' and to 'contribute', this can be a little disconcerting. I found Bright Simons' blog What makes Social Entrepreneurs Different  therefore, very interesting and relevant. 

The Wall Street Journal published a thought provoking piece a couple of days ago by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan  In Defence of the CEO  which rang many bells for me, after my recent blog  CEOs - Jekyll or Hyde? Two things particularly caught my eye. On my comments and distinction between celebrity and celebrated CEOs, Ulrike Melmendier of the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA's Geoff Tate 2009 study found that companies performed poorly after their leaders were voted 'CEO of the Year', because of the distractions that came with the fame, like writing a book and hobnobbing at Davos. A truly great CEO cannot be distracted, she must remain a great intelligence gatherer, a great communicator and ultimately a great decider, and meetings are one of her most important tools.  Second, the article points to Harvard's Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria's view of Style 1 and Style 2 distinctions of CEO behaviours.  In their time-use study of 354 Ind...

I met someone recently who I'd only known through Twitter. His personality was nothing like the personality I'd met online or had expected in real life. Not better, not worse, just different - but very different. This made me think about what profilers call the professional mask . We are used to public figures presenting themselves in an image of their own, or their publicists', making. We expect authenticity and integrity from our public figures - so what if they're more gregarious, talkative, smiley, excitable in public than their normal thoughtful, surly selves? So what if they're more offensive, disrespectful, demanding in public then their usual caring and gentle selves? It is a matter of record that mafiosi patriarchs are family loving men who hug and love their children while carrying out violent acts away from home. Politicians need to win over large swathes of the general public - they are after all, voted into office and not appointed by a small number...

Happy New Year! It's been a few years since I've seen in the New Year in Edinburgh. Traditionally we go to the warmth of South East Asia for Christmas so it's been a delight to discover that Edinburgh (and Fife, come to that) is the place for parties around this time. The Scots are known to get pretty excited about seeing in a New Year. They do torchlight processions, fireworks, they walk the cold but beautifully lit streets sharing swigs from their whisky with each other. The first time I came across this more than 15 years ago, I thought it rather cute if a tad unhygienic... The city council is busy bragging that 100,000 visitors will come to Edinburgh for the New Year, boosting the City coffers by £25m over the weekend. Friends around the world are also bragging that their city - Berlin, Dubai, Sydney, London - has the biggest fireworks or the biggest party in all the world. The amount of fun to be had at times like this obviously drives home the pride in one's...