Comments on: Dumb Marketing Decision by NBC; We Suspect Lawyers Were Involved

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 16:27:00 +0000

My father (who was in a position to know) used to tell me that you can tell a company's position in its lifecycle by looking at who is calling the shots in the executive team.

1. birth - creatives such as inventors, engineers, scientists to create the company

2. growth - sales and marketing to generate new sales

3. maturity - accountants, et al for cost reduction and efficiency

4. death - lawyers to handle M&A, bankruptcy or to finesse how to sell products at a price no longer justified by their actual value.

I've worked for half a dozen companies over the last 30 years and I've seen the same pattern.

Makes you think about situations like this, doesn't it!

By: SB

SB — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:40:00 +0000

I’m pretty familiar with Greyhound PR as the company is based here in Dallas. From my lunches with former employees, I know that it’s pretty much one crisis communications situation after another. The nature of the beast. I feel sorry for the PR person who was put in the situation you reference.

By: Ike

Ike — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 05:36:00 +0000

Then there are the times when the lawyers do what they hell they want, with no regard to how it looks.

Remember the Greyhound incident?

By: SB

SB — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 04:48:00 +0000

True…it’s a balancing act.

By: Andrea Weckerle

Andrea Weckerle — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 03:40:00 +0000

I agree with your statement that a company’s business strategy should not be managed by attorneys. However, speaking in general terms, a major business mistake is to not give appropriate weight to the recommendations or warnings of attorneys – the idea being that any problem can be “cleaned up” or “taken care of” later. But some things are too messy to fix, and then it’s the legal team that gets blamed.