This was a column I started three years ago. It never saw the light of day because, at the time, I thought it sounded too sanctimonious, a malady from which I suffer from time to time when I take myself too seriously.
It would not appear today if it were not for – shall I use the term –“Ad Gate”, whereby WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO and founder of the communications behemoth, believes Italian top management might have bilked his company out of millions.
To his credit, he is aggressively pursuing the alleged villains. One major publication said Sir Martin has a “forensic knowledge” of his companies, meaning he has his hand on the pulse. He can sense a financial nosebleed anywhere in the WPP Empire.
This is good. He has an Empire that would make Peter the Great proud.
We, Sir Martin and I, have very little in common, with the possible exception we both call ourselves CEOs and have steep alimony payments, though mine, being relative to his, is peanuts. We are also both 60, which might suggest we are nearing the yellow leaf age.
Also, The Willard Group, headquartered in Kiev, is an affiliate of Young & Rubicam, one of the top advertising companies in the WPP portfolio of companies. We are also affiliated with Burson Marsteller, also owned by WPP.
This brings me back to the Italian “Ad Gate”. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
For years, The Willard Group has done something that was rather unusual in our business. Some would say even silly. We paid our taxes, the full-boat of our and our employees’ taxes, and we followed the letter and the intent of Ukrainian law – as well as U.S. law.
We’ve also walked away from business deals that would have made us a lot of money, if only we had given a kickback to the marketer working for the business we were hoping to win. While we were poorer because of it, I felt we were richer. I slept well at night, and still do.
We once took on a Ukrainian client who said his company had the same standards, as did we. It didn’t. We were on earth, and they were on Mars when it came to methods of doing business. We soon parted.
At the time I first put words to this column, I noted that it was called Random Notes, and by definition the space is occupied by someone who is self-indulgent and self-righteous from time to time When it comes to surviving and thriving in Ukraine, an exercise in self- interest can be forgiven, at least in my view.
I continued:
Now, admittedly, my morality isn't the next guy's, and I have certainly trampled on several of those Big 10 Biblical Commandments that have slight nuances. But evading taxes or bribery never came to mind.
You say tax evasion is not listed in the Ten Commandments? You say – other than the big multinationals – you couldn't find a legitimate taxpayer with the Hubble Telescope pointed directly at Ukraine.
I think you’re wrong, but I hear what you’re saying While a kinder, gentler Ukrainian tax code led many to the taxman a few years ago; the perception was that few businesses – even, my god, in the advertising and public relations business – paid all their taxes. There were others who utilize the Clinton-esque parsing of “it depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
We make the fact that we are a law-abiding company one of the several points of differentiation, along with staying away from most agency tenders. Chasing them is often the equivalent of visiting a crooked casino. We also believe in rebating all discounts to clients.
Does this make us better than others? No, our advertising and our PR departments do this. Our Financial Department, however, keeps us in the game by watching out for our money, the clients’ money and, yes, Caesar’s dough.
I realize this is being a little self-righteous, and no one likes a goody two-shoes, even one with two left feet, wearing white bucks from the 1950s. But that's us, The Wild Bunch, old fogies with an attitude.
I'm talking Mr. Willard and Mr. Willard, two brothers from the South, and Mr. Payne, an Englishman--The Willard Group. We are guys who have been around the block a time or two, and after nearly a decade in Ukraine, still believe strongly in Ukraine.
We realize that many but not all our competitors feel the way we do. Some think in terms of the next day, not the next decade. Even some multi-nationals – who wouldn’t think of violating Ukrainian law – have no trouble hooking up with organizations that do.
We don’t like it, but we have to live with that.
We're rather Faulknarian/ Yoknapatawpha County fatalists. We bought a one-way ticket to Ukraine, and we play by the rules, which, at times, allow for biting, scratching and gouging. But all legal.
The fact is, we believe in a better Ukraine. We planted a corporate flag in the black alluvial soil, and nothing short of famine, pestilence or dynamite will cause us to leave – though it would help if we could get Orville Redenbachers gourmet popcorn here
We’re not soppy about our feelings, and, we try not to be thathat judgmental about the folks who pay marketers and vendors under the table to kickback business. We just refuse to join that club.
Because of this, our business is not going to win every time on price. But, we will win on a client's return on investment. We will do it through ads that make the product star and killer PR that carries the day. And that's what counts.
Everything else makes business in Ukraine inefficient.
We're the Wild Bunch, middle-aged and mad dog mean. But, we do play fair, even if we wear signs on our backsides that say “kick me.”
We salute Sir Martin for his diligence, but at the same time suggest that the vast conglomerate called WPP has outposts in far-away places. Even the best of forensic financial people can miss skullduggery on occasion.
Sir Martin, keep those antennae tuned.
|
