Let me start this post with an irony.
CEOs are not hired to be a gentleman if they can’t even show them the money. What good is a chief executive if he, being well-mannered, is unable to deliver the dough? Between a gentleman and a boor, with the latter being able to bring home the fatten calf, shareholders will choose the boor at a heartbeat.
For the only public good shareholders are interested in is the good that comes with growing their investment in the fastest time possible. That is the bottomline, the profit motive. And with enough to spare, the hand of public good will then get to enjoy the juicy crumbs falling from the banquet table. But first, money first, because money makes the world go round, right?
Don’t forget that you are hired because they don’t want to do your dirty work. And they pay you good money so that you, by whatever legal means, make even more money for them. That is the reason for the season. And it‘s always hunting season for a ceo who can drag in the kill. Have no illusion about it. Money talks, even if it is rude about it.
That is the pressure that SPH faced in the past five years when revenue as a whole has been cut by half. And that must also be one of the straws that broke the back of its ceo when he pointed his finger at a reporter and told her in no uncertain terms that he’s no gentleman.
He in fact told her that he takes offence to her insinuation that SPH under his commanding hand (since 2017) had sold her editorial and journalistic integrity to the highest advertising bidder.
At one point, ceo ng went gangsta with this warning: “...the fact that you dare to question an SPH title for, in your words, conceding to advertisers, I take umbrage at that comment. Because I don't believe that even where you come from, you do not concede to the needs of advertisers.”
Well, ceo ng was right about one thing. He was not going to be gentleman about it. He doesn’t mince his words. He gives it to you whole, umbrage and all. That why he concluded with a LKY-like bravado: “The purpose of doing this (restructuring) is to make sure that SPH Media will continue to do the job it has done so well for so long.” And he ended with a militant stiff upper lip.
Let me however slice it at the marrow for you and strive to be fair. I believe ceo ng has SPH interest at heart. He was anxious about the cost-cutting measures and retrenchment, especially during the pandemic, which risks compromising the quality of journalism that SPH Media has been providing since 1984. He said the restructuring exercise “is to make sure that we preserve the fine bowl of china.”
That china bowl metaphor was what LKY told SR Nathan in the 1980s when Mr Nathan was appointed its executive chairman. LKY said: “Nathan, I am giving you The Straits Times. It has 150 years of history. It has been a good paper. It is like a bowl of china. If you break it, I can piece it together. But it will never be the same. Try not to destroy it.”
That same china bowl was what ceo ng was defending at the press conference. And although observers and pundits have called this the right move to restructure and boot out the encumbrances that comes with shareholders’ intervention, the changing times and digital disruption was just one battlefield too many for even an ex-general. Mind you, during peacetime, war of a different kind can also cost jobs, hopes and lives too.
In this post, I don’t see the need to say anything more about his admitted ungentlemanly conduct at the press conference. It’s misguided bravado methinks, even though the intention is less brash in nature.
Anyway, the online public court has already taken him out to be hung and dried many times over and there is even a petition calling for his resignation. It’s the usual gaston’s chant - “kill the beast!” all over.
It is no doubt a difficult time, pandemic and all, and we are all reeling from its effect. At such time, the default position is to go hunting for a scapegoat and emotions boil over easily.
When you place a thermometer near collective steam, the mercury shoots up to the extreme. We forget that just as love unites, hate unites too. Yes, the public court can bring justice to the fore, but it can also steamroll its way taking justice with it. There is always a middle ground, one that a gentleman would stop, ponder and embark upon. It’s also called common ground. Yet, the boorish side of us exists on both sides, that is, the side of offender and the side of the offended.
Alas, this is not the kind of society that is kind, because at some point, we take things further than it deserves and we change the whole balance of what is right and what is wrong. We tilt it over and lose ourselves in the hate. We unknowingly become what we readily cast stone at. We may have taken up a good cause but somewhere in the dark woods, we take a wrong turn at great cost.
Let me end by saying that this is not a post defending ceo ng or the cna reporter. This is not a post calling for blood or a pound of flesh. It is one calling for a pause, maybe a ponder, and hopefully a good look at ourselves.
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