A Sharp-Tongued CEO, An Asset Or A Ticking Time-bomb?

“If this is such a Siberian salt mine and I am such an ogre, then why are they still working for the airline? If any of our fellas aren't happy with the current arrangement then they're free to go….”

"We use our own biros and I tell the staff not to buy them, just pick them up from hotels, legal offices, wherever..”

“Boeing had their chance. Eventually you lose interest, dealing with a bunch of idiots who can’t make a decision…”

The above-mentioned three quotes are not from a disgruntled manager at an organization, nor are they from someone who’s had a little too much to drink the night before. These ‘pearls of wisdom’ or ‘shotgun blasts of nastiness’ are from the CEO of one of Europe’s most profitable airline. Yes, Michael O’Leary built up a business that is wildly successful, but at the same time, ratcheted up his nastiness with each Ryanair flight that took off.

Source - corporate.ryanair.com

Now, you wouldn’t expect a well-heeled CEO heading a game-changer of an organization in the transportation industry to mouth such inanity, would you? But then you wouldn’t expect him to also register a Mercedes Benz S500 as a taxi just so that he could speed up by using Dublin’s bus lanes in order to get past pesky traffic! Michael O’Leary is a fascinating character. An ace businessman, a financial wizard, but is he also the CEO who’s actually detrimental to the health of his own organization? My colleague Vivenne Raaijmaker asked whether O’Leary’s verbal bazookas had hurt Ryanair’s image and whether any apology from the Irishman would simply do nothing to heal the Airline’s battered reputation? I take this further, shedding light on how being perceived as offensive or arrogant, especially when a CEO is seen to be adopting that stance, can hurt corporate reputation. 

Source - campaignlive.co.uk

Humility goes a long way

According to Denner, Heitzler, and Koch (2018), a CEO’s image is closely linked to that of his organization. Thus, purely by association, it is not a stretch to imagine that Ryanair is cavalier, irresponsible, and arrogant, just like it’s top boss. Zhang, Ou, Tsui, and Wang (2017) argue that humility on part of the CEO can actually be beneficial to the organization’s image, helping it to project itself as being ‘innovative’ and ‘productive’. It also allows stakeholders and the general public to evaluate the organization in complimentary light. Now, there are a lot of people who consider a humble CEO to be a myth. But even a veneer of humility is at times enough to help project a positive image. Take the case of Delta Airlines’ CEO Ed Bastian who recently directed all executives of the Organization to fly economy class for flights under three hours. Bastian, himself ‘squeezes’ into an economy class seat when he travels on business and this has been well-publicized by the Airline. Delta’s current reputation seems to firmly lie in the ‘favourable’ camp and the CEO’s image of being ‘just another passenger who flies coach’ is definitely helping.

Source - The Washington Post

Losing the arrogance doesn't hurt

Henderson (1997) submits that it is essential that CEOs drop arrogance in favour of a more approachable style especially when dealing with stakeholders during and in the aftermath of a crisis (in this case most of Ryanair’s pilots being forced to go on leave due to a rostering error) in order for their organization and its activities to be perceived positively.  O’Leary’s rather limp apology, his subsequent scramble to construct weak alibis (blaming the weather), and his bizarre utterances in the media, have all led to Ryanair being caught in an almost-unending spiral of bad publicity and a battered reputation.

Source - The Guardian

Being CEO is tough, O'Leary makes it tougher

Airline CEO's are supposed to have one of the toughest jobs in the world. Making a success of an airline is no mean feat, but is financial success the only indicator of favourable reputation for an organization? Creating a likeable persona, a reassuring environment where customers/stakeholders/publics feel like they are being listened to is a key driver of organizational reputation. Ryanair and Mr. O'Leary seem to have gotten it horribly wrong. The Airline was one of the last to establish a social media presence, doing so only in 2013. To top it, they put the famously offensive O'Leary on Twitter for a chat session. What ensued were more pyrotechnics, a lot of swearing, and another deep cut to the Organization's reputation stunningly by the Man who is entrusted with safeguarding it!

About the author - Chinmay is a Master's student at the University of Amsterdam. Having served as a journalist with one of India's leading English dailies, he has also driven communications for two of India's leading conglomerates' sports divisions. He is passionate about sports, cinema, and communication. 

References

Denner, N., Heitzler, N., & Koch, T. (2018). Presentation of CEOs in the media: A framing analysis. European Journal of Communication, 33(3), 271-289.

HENDERSON, K. (1997). CEOs on the stand: How to help your company's exec get beyond arrogance. Business Law Today,7(2), 20-23. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23290657

Zhang, H., Ou, A., Tsui, A., & Wang, H. (2017). CEO humility, narcissism and firm innovation: A paradox perspective on CEO traits. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(5), 585-604. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.01.003

About Elon Musk and breaching the bro level.

By now, we are the kings of social media, ready to snipe hashtags and ride bandwagons,
perfecting timing throughout our holistic communication strategies. Nothing we are not
prepared for, everything meticulously listed in excel spreadsheets and evolving power
points. Social media can be so easy. We almost got it figured out, right?

But what is your communication plan, your rhetoric fidelity and your one-hit-wonder-esque
witty comment to shoot you into some currently trending social-responsibility discourse really
worth, when your CEO decides to sh*t all over it and get high on television?
I’m looking at you Elon, the ‘Edgelord’, Musk.

After a line of controversies, Musk is now officially considered a ‘bro’ by internet memelords,
as his smoke session with comedian Joe Rogan seems to be the next logical controversy
after announcing to set Tesla stock at 420$ back in August. However, his shareholders
apparently didn’t think as highly of this little smoke session in the Rogan podcast and made
Tesla drop by 10% the same day on Wall Street. 

The case of Musk is not only interesting for the LULZ, but certainly tells us a lot about the
current state of PR, and specifically about the implications of CEO communications as an
increasingly impactful subfield, that ultimately requires the same level of professionalisation
we have hopefully managed to establish in our daily doings. 
 

Can you feel the Bern yet?

After Edward Bernays pulled the first trick of public relations by relabeling and extending
propaganda techniques, we are currently seeing the PR evolve even further towards a
conception of ‘Public Engagement’. The fundamental changes to media landscape, media
logic and to how discourse works in our society have irrevocably changed the sphere of
corporate communications. In times of social CEOs and leaders, social media is seen as a way to
humanize, and thus personalize, formerly monolithic and faceless organizations (Tsai & Men, 2017). In fact, research finds that responsive and assertive communication by CEOs
leads their followers to perceive them as ‘amicable role models and caring friends’, which in
turn increases trust, advocacy and satisfaction - and ultimately munney!
Linking this with the changes of media logic it seems like a requirement for modern CEOs to
engage in positive and ethical manners with the public, as they are the walking public image
and reputation of their organization, as well as a commonly searched source for
content-starved journalists.

What we have seen in the case of Elon Musk is him breaching the line of an ‘amicable’ friend
into the ‘bro’-sphere, which caused backlash not only in immediate economic reactions, but
may cause even further reputational damages through concerns of Musk breaking the
ethical role-model expectations public figures (and especially CEOs) are subjected to.

In this sense, I believe, that we as professionals need to understand the importance of social
CEOs and be clear and strategic about the approach, seeing it as an integral part of a
strategic communication framework, rather than a personal side activity the CEO interferes
with at free will.
The lines between untrustful ‘bro’ and amicable friend are apparently very fine, and small
missteps might snowball in their effects.
Probably we need to take our CEOs in hand for a while, extend our communicationplan.xls
by another sheet (I know you love it somehow) and walk the long ways of the social
together, making more amicable friends for our CEOs.