Our client, Sir Fred Goodwin, faces the Treasury Select Committee today and in the absence of more information, the business writers have been writing about our role in his PR. Here is a cutting from the Guardian yesterday. Our role primarily is to give professional advice to Sir Fred and particularly to his family on how to handle the enormous media interest in his story and to handle the many press enquiries coming in for him. His family should be free if press harassment and surely therefore are entitled to this much at least:

Coached and ready: bosses prepare for grilling by MPs

• Julia Finch, City editor
• The Guardian, Monday 9 February 2009
• Article history

It is likely to be fractious and an opportunity for political point-scoring. What it will be is theatre, live on a TV near you.

This week the bank bosses who have almost broken Britain will be hauled before the Treasury select committee and asked to account for their actions.

First up, tomorrow, will be the men who delivered vast multibillion-pound financial enterprises into the arms of the taxpayer: Andy Hornby and Lord Stevenson of HBOSand Sir Fred Goodwin and his chairman Sir Tom McKillop of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

On Wednesday, it will be the turn of Barclays‘ boss John Varley and Lloyds’ American chief executive Eric Daniels together with Antonio Horta-Osorio and Paul Thurston, of Abbey and HSBC respectively, plus Stephen Hester, the man called in to sort out the chaos left by Goodwin and McKillop.

For the bosses concerned there was never going to be a good time to be hauled before a committee which specialises in the sort of impertinent questions which most of these men would never normally tolerate.

But the avalanche of reports about bankers taking huge bonuses, despite the financial mess they have created, makes the timing of their appearance in Westminster particularly difficult.

While ministers may be used to the roughshod style of select committees, few senior businessmen are used to being asked tricky questions. They tend to avoid surrounding themselves with people who question their authority.

At times like these, businessmen usually reach for the professionals - highly paid advisers who can coach them on what to expect. They will be told what to wear, how to sit - and what they must, and must never, say.

No one appearing before the committee, chaired by the combative and media-aware John McFall, will ever admit to being coached. But the four would be foolhardy not to have spent hours reviewing recordings of previous hearings.

Among those said to provide this sort of service are former transport minister Steve Norris and former Sun editor David Yelland, who is now a boss at financial PR agency Brunswick, which works for Barclays Bank. Another financial PR agency, Bell Pottinger, also provides special expertise for such high-profile grillings.

But the MPs will see the bank bosses as their chance for glory. They will want grovelling apologies. They will want to know whether they intend to repay any of their vast bonuses. They will want them to admit they made mistakes. If they can squeeze out some sort of bad-tempered response, all the better. For the MPs, victory is eliciting a soundbite that makes headlines - and proves they are on the case, even if Brown, Darling et al are not.

Goodwin has hired the former News of the World editor Phil Hall to help him. Working alongside RBS lawyers, Goodwin and McKillop will also have participated in mock interrogations by the bank’s public affairs professionals.

The HBOS duo have also been coached by bank staff, who believe it is far too important a task to outsource.

Hall probably has the toughest job. “I wouldn’t want to be advising Goodwin,” said one adviser. “He has never taken instruction from anybody.”

Advising Stevenson, he believes, would be an equally tough task. “He is so self-confident I can’t imagine he would believe he needs anyone else’s help,” he said.

If there is one thing that PHA Media is good at it is getting talked about which is what we do best for our clients too. Perhaps it is because we are always involved in the stories and situations of the moment. We’re not afraid to shout about it.  Check out what is being written…. 

 The Scotsman, Sunday 1st February 2009:

The secret of taking the drama out of a crisis

Sir Fred Goodwin has hired a PR guru to ‘manage his privacy’ Picture: Neil Hanna

Published Date: 31 January 2009

By Emily Pykett

HOW do you put a positive spin on the situation when your client has been branded “the world’s worst banker”?

Today, Sir Fred Goodwin’s contract with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) officially ends. He stepped down as chief executive on 21 November following a government bailout, and there are many watching to see what he does next.

Rumours are rife that, having shouldered the blame for the bank’s financial woes after pushing through the acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro, and presiding over a £28 billion slide, he is now being lined up to replace Max Mosley as the head of Formula 1’s governing body.

As he mulls over a new job, Sir Fred, 50, is clearly feeling the heat - not only from furious shareholders, who have seen the value of their investments plummet, but also from the media, who are baying for blood in the face of his stony silence.

Sir Fred’s silence even drove a journalist to shout questions over a megaphone outside his family’s home in Glasgow. The police were called and although no-one was arrested or charged, Sir Fred decided that things were so bad that he needed to appoint a troubleshooter to help protect his privacy and reputation. And so he called in Phil Hall, former editor of the News of the World and Hello!, now turned PR guru. Since quitting the editor’s chair in 2000, Mr Hall has listed celebrity clients Heather Mills McCartney, chef Antonio Carluccio, chat show queen Trisha Goddard and Dragons’ Den star Duncan Bannatyne on his books.

The media consultant also offered advice to the McCann family when their daughter Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz in 2007, but it is thought he turned down the chance to be the family’s official spokesman.

As well as looking after well-known brands such as Innocent Smoothies and Manchester City FC, the Phil Hall Associates (PHA) media agency is keen to be seen as a player in crisis and reputation management. Of his NOTW days, Mr Hall says he was always prepared to work with PRs, though his aim was that the story should appear. It would, therefore, seem ironic that his latest mission - which he has chosen to accept for an undisclosed fee - is helping Sir Fred Goodwin “manage his privacy better”.

Sir Fred got in touch with him on 22 January, Mr Hall told The Scotsman. “It was after a reporter turned up at a family member’s home, shouting at the door through a megaphone. His daughter was terrified out of her mind.

“His wife and children are being followed on their way to school, harassed at home - this is not their issue, it is his issue, and it is all turning into an attack on his integrity and personal life.”

Mr Hall added: “I am only advising Sir Fred on privacy matters at the moment, I am not arranging interviews for him. Contractually, he can’t speak - he is completely obliged to keep all confidences about his time at RBS.”

However, already on-message, Mr Hall insisted that Sir Fred is a good guy, and it wasn’t all his fault. “He can’t put across his side of the story. But if he could, people would be very sympathetic to him.

“He has been inundated with interview requests from all over the world, but what he is really concerned about is his family. The decisions taken by people running a company are never a one-person decision, he would have been acting on the advice of a lot of other people and heads of organisations who should also be taking responsibility.”

The media are also to blame, according to Phil Hall’s crisis management blog posted on the PHA website. “An individual (is] being blamed for the company’s failings and there is a ripple effect because the media will then look at the person’s family background, past record or mistakes, leading to their reputation being destroyed.”

So is there anything Sir Fred can do to rescue his integrity? Where does he go from here? Is this the end, or can Phil Hall save him?

Earlier this week Danny Rogers, editor of PR Week, ran a short article on Phil Hall hooking his latest big client.

He said: “There are two sides to PR - telling the good news and promoting your clients, and keeping bad stuff out of the news. So it all depends what Sir Fred’s strategy is. If he just wants to minimise the damage and take the heat off himself then Phil Hall can probably help him with that.

“What I don’t know is if he’s briefed Phil Hall to rebrand his image. I imagine at the moment he just wants to keep a low profile before he starts thinking in terms of a comeback.

“A really good PR can convince clients to do the right thing. If Sir Fred was to set up a massive charitable foundation and do years and years of work for free, he would be able to convince the world he is a reformed character. Look at Kate Moss and Bill Gates, they have been able to overcome negative publicity because they are thinking in the long term.

“The right PR will be able to persuade Sir Fred to eat quite a lot of humble pie, and do a lot of hand-wringing.”

Perhaps Phil Hall is right, though, and we should be feeling more sorry for Fred the Shred (so-called for his ruthless approach to cost and staff cutting), now that his own reputation has been cut to ribbons.

Diana Dawson, an occupational psychologist and career counsellor at an Edinburgh firm, Working Career, says: “Some people, who are really defined by their job, lose a lot of their confidence when they are derailed from a job for whatever reason. It can be quite traumatic in some cases to have your picture of who you are and what your career is become muddled.

“I would explore their perception of what happened to them, if they feel it was down to something they did or out of their control, and help them to understand their strengths, and consider their achievements in a new light.

“Very often, people who have worked for a company for a while forget what they have done. That will build their confidence back up so they can look for another job.”

However, others think Sir Fred would do well to keep out of the limelight for a little while longer. Sue Carpenter, a personal life coach, offers the following guidance: “I would say, in Sir Fred’s case, what he needs to do is take a step back and have a look at his life.

“This will give him some breathing space to figure out where he goes from here.”

Phil Hall is keeping mum about the precise nature of the actual advice he is offering to Sir Fred. He told PR Week: “We’re not looking to turn the PR tide, but we are trying to calm things down. We will be trying to manage the media intrusion.”

His blog on the PHA website - with the PR Week clipping prominently displayed - is more enlightening, explaining that he “always” advocates the proactive approach, realising that a journalist has pages to fill, and would rather fill them up with spin.

Or so the theory goes. When The Scotsman calls Phil Hall with some follow-up questions, all of a sudden it’s a bit more difficult to get answers.

PR Week has put the cat among the pigeons, it seems, and he’s not playing ball any more. “Sir Fred is already annoyed with me and reckons I am trying to boost my own profile in PR Week. You told me it would only be a little article, and now I’m told I have to have my photograph taken,” he complained.

OK, Phil, sorry, but we thought you’d be pleased we are raising the profile of PHA. Can we just clarify a couple of things?

THE EXPERT’S INSIGHT:

Allyson Stewart-Allen director, International Marketing Partners

NICKNAMES in business can be very damaging because as soon as you acquire one, it can stay with you for the whole of your career, whether you like it or not.

So Sir Fred’s challenge is getting away from “Fred the Shred”, and the perception he was a hatchet man in RBS.

In a crisis, the best response is demonstrating openness - if you remember when the Virgin train crash happened, Richard Branson showed up in white mechanics’ overalls saying “I am here, I will do what I can.”

Despite his confidentiality agreements, I am sure Sir Fred can be interviewed in newspapers and appear on television and say: “I have signed an agreement and I am not allowed to go into any details, but this is a terrible thing to happen.”

This would alter the perception he doesn’t have much empathy. From a marketing point of view, if the Goodwin brand is to be sustained and, more importantly, repositioned, the message needs to be put out there by him personally.

I am sure there are people already knocking on his door and coming offering him jobs because he led a very successful organisation for many years.

But I doubt he will be going back into banking.

I wonder if it would be worth his while to do a few shifts at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, offering advice to people on how to cope with the economic crisis.

THE INSIDER’S VIEW:

Eric Milligan Edinburgh city councillor and former Lord Provost

I HAVE known Fred for some time: it goes back to the Oyster Club, a kind of friendship club that gathers to enjoy oysters and a glass of Guinness in the Edinburgh area, and of course Fred was one of the original members. I have not seen him since that fateful day the shares of RBS went through the floor, and have hesitated to make contact, because I know he is under siege.

He has gone from being regarded as perhaps the greatest banker in the world to being this vilified figure. I personally have a very warm regard for Fred Goodwin - I think it is tragic what’s happened, not only to RBS, but the Bank of Scotland and the damage that has been done to Edinburgh’s status and prestige as a financial centre.

The view that many people have about Fred Goodwin is he is a very able and very talented individual. People are saying that he - along with others - took the bank from being a fairly medium-sized bank to becoming a big global player.

I think it is a tragedy for the shareholders - it’s been a financial tsunami that has swept the world. People are saying that it’s easy to be wise with hindsight - they say Fred might have made the wrong call when he maybe overstretched the bank’s resources with the Dutch merger.

I am not a banker, and I am not in a position to make that judgment. I consider him to be a friend and I hope he will continue to be a friend of mine. I wish him and his family well.

“No,” he said crossly, and hung up. So much for crisis management.

The full article contains 1897 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

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The Times, Wednesday 4th February 2009 and The Times Online:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5654960.ece