If you’ve worked in a big corporate head office, you’ll be familiar with the decision-making process for something as major as a rebranding and change of name. Meetings about meetings, meetings with ad agencies, ad agencies presenting, meetings about their presentations over hours, weeks and months. The decision a few years ago in this case was to ditch the Standard Life name, and shorten that of its much lesser-known acquirer to ‘Abrdn’. Yes, I know, and they have finally seen sense and, to quote another headline, put the vowels back and will become Aberdeen once more. Had I been in any of those meetings, I would have been flying the flag for Standard Life, why buy and ditch the by-far better known and trusted brand? But I wasn’t. It was an expensive mistake, not just in the £ms probably paid to agencies and others, but in the loss of kudos and funds under management, some £150bn, suffered by the group since. Its CEO resigned last year, and the new broom has added back the eees; but perhaps too late.
“Trade war: Stock markets rally as Trump rows back on Fed and China threats”
Yet another reminder, should one be needed, of how quickly things can and will change. A nod and a wink in the right direction from himself and/ or an underling can provide the solace the money men crave and turn a plummet into, if not a soar at this stage, then certainly a bounce.
