Reputation Gurus

We’ve been following Lucy Kellaway’s diatribe in the FT about Deloitte’s employee communications with amused interest, and even blogged about it a few weeks ago.  Last Monday, she devoted an entire column to the fact that she had been invited to Deloitte that very morning (9 July) to get a “state-of-the-art corporate bollocking.”  She then proceeded to complain that corporate bollocking today is not what it used to be, since the “PR people have taken over and emotion has been outlawed.”  The FT even recorded her column for a podcast, which can be accessed from their website.

Since, then, we’ve waited to hear how the “corporate bollocking” went for poor Lucy.  Today, she makes a short mention of it at the end of her column about a completely different topic.  She states that the meeting with Deloitte “went very well indeed” and she seems to have been impressed by John Connelly, Deloitte’s global chairman.  In fact, she complimented him for keeping his emotions in check and for asking her what it is that Deloitte has to do in order to get her to write a positive column about the company.  She even admits that “Global chief of Deloitte sends perfectly okay e-mail” doesn’t make for a compelling headline.

And, that … as far as we can tell … is the point.  Although she complained about PR people getting involved, they clearly made a difference here, helping the chairman prepare for the meeting, and ameliorating the situation with her sarcastic (and oh-so-fun-to-read) pen.  And, like any journalist, Lucy is looking for compelling headlines.  It will be interesting to see how long she waits before writing about Deloitte again in the future.