Consider This...

Branded for Life?

Posted by WATATAWA on March 21, 2010

In case you thought that Michael Jackson is simply holed up with Elvis in the panic room at Graceland, well he’s not. He’s dead. He has ceased to be. But he is not an ex-pop star.

He’s proof – albeit not of the living kind — that there are brands which can not only survive crises [scandals and bad albums in his case] but can even be resurrected. That’s clearly the view of Sony Entertainment who last week signed a $250m record deal with his estate.  Jackson’s career was arguably dead and buried until, like many artists over the centuries, he exited this world and sent his brand value soaring.

Tiger Woods is also on the comeback trail. He’s a brand himself but also the flagship for Nike golf. His brand promise has always been a simple one – to win golf tournaments – and if he starts doing that again then he will emerge, not untarnished, but just perceived differently.

What did you do in the war, HR?

Posted by WATATAWA on March 13, 2010

 

There’s a new war for talent in Asia. Actually, it’s the same old war – just that hostilities have resumed after the ceasefire of the financial crisis.

In China, apparently, there’s not only a shortage of bright well-educated executive minds to drive companies forward (1), but also too few dexterous fingers to piece the widgets together (2).

Of course there’s truth to all this – but what’s also a fact is that talk of war is often convenient propaganda to provide covering fire for poor company management and, in particular, underperformance by those fawning individuals who habitually clutch appraisal forms like security blankets (yes, HR folks we’re talking about you…).

What’s to Celebrate for Asian Women?

Posted by WATATAWA on March 8, 2010

In a week beginning with International Women’s Day (March 8th), we thought it would be interesting to look at some recent coverage highlighting the contrasting roles and opportunities for women in business in the region.  We were going to talk about how some “developed” countries are being outpaced in this area by “developing” ones.

Last week the New York Times (1) ran a piece about Korean women in government. The article opened on a positive note; how so many more women these days are passing the exam to enter government — and landing jobs to boot. In fact, to the extent that Korean men now can avail themselves of the same job quota system once created to give women more jobs in the national bureaucracy. But the NYT was by no means telling us that suddenly everything’s resolved for women in the workplace in Korea. The “delayed drop” in the story was that all this is happening because there’s still barely any room upstairs in Korea’s private sector.