(TheOrator.Press Qualtrics Conference 2024 Article 4 of 4; Articles 1-3 of 4 Are Outlined At The End of This Feature)
The Passing of An Old School Defamation Giant Marked The Beginning of The End of A Reputation Management Era
Previously The Established Method of Handling A Reputation Management Crisis or Defamatory Ding-Dong Involved A Dominate Small Set of Defamation Lawyers Working For The Privileged Few. Lords, Ladies, The Loaded And The Like. Namely A Few Elitist, Domineering, Prejudiced, Print Press Barons Were The Self-Appointed, Often Dishonest, News Makers And Career Breakers. The Celebrities, Old School Fat Cat Businessmen, MPs, And The Filthy Rich That They Offended From Time To Time, Would, If They Could, Take Them On In Court And Cause A Media Sensation. Alternatively There’d Be The Relatively Quiet Disappearance of An Awkward Situation In A Negotitated Settlement Involving A Retraction, A Lump Sum And Everyone Licking Their Wounds (Apart From The Lawyers).
George Carmen QC Was Legendary And Even Had His Own Known Seat In The Wine Bar Across The Street From The Royal Courts of Justice (Daley’s Wine Bar). At Just 5ft’ 3′ He Was Known As A Legal Giant. He’s Retirement (Due To Health Concerns) Marked The End of An Era. “On The Make And On The Take” Is One of Our Favourite Headlines Inspired By A Defamation Case Courtroom Exchange. Such Were Carmen’s Cross-Examination Powers That Some of His Courtroom Victims Even Complimented Him Upon His Passing.
The Ordinary Man or Woman In The Street Was Largely Absent From This Arena. And If They Were Upset With The Press They’d Have To Grin And Bear It Or Quietly Reach A Comparatively Meagre Settlement Compared To The Damage Already Done By Which Ever Particular Newspaper Publication Had Imposed Devastation On Their Life. Except Perhaps From Time To Time Those Who Were Fortunate Enough To Be Able To Instruct A Legal Aid Firm To Represent Them And Achieve A Better Outcome. Such Legal Aid Has Since Been Subsequently Cut Back By The Government And Various MPs (Who, Given What Many of Them Get Up To Had Every Motivation To Keep The Newspaper Barons Happy).
Some Law Firms Would Also Act As Reputation Management Teams For Their Celebrity Clients, Big Wigs And Companies, Guiding Them On How To Behave In Order To Avoid A Scandal. And If Scandal Was Looming They’d Exercise Damage Limitation Or Situation Management In Order To Control The PR Fallout. Sometimes It Worked. Sometimes It Didn’t. It Was A Matter of Varying Degrees Depending on The Level of Drama, Scandal or Sleeze.
Whilst It Remains True That Only The Limited Few Can Afford To Defend or Initiate Costly Defamation Cases And PR Executives (Wag’atha Christie Being One of The Latest And Most Old School Sensational) And The Printed Press With Their Political Agendas Still Do What They Largely Used To Do In Terms of Pushing Their Political And Social Agendas, Technology Has Changed The Landscape Enormously.
Everything Is Now Geared Towards Being Much More ‘Digital’ And Thus ‘Democratic’ Given The Ubiquitous Nature of ‘Digital Devices’. People Are Seemingly Much More Empowered. Independent. Immediate. But Beware Because Whilst Digital Discourse Is On One Hand Unregulated (As The Law Struggles To Update Itself) On The Other Hand – Defamation Laws Do Still Exist (As Former Popular Actor Turned Right-Wing Agitator Lawerence Fox – of The Fox Acting Dynasty – Recently Discovered).
Qualtrics Teaching New Generation New ‘Trics’
Omnipresent Computers, Laptops, Tablets, Smart Phones, Social Media Apps, And Dwindling Reverence For Those Traditionally In Authority – Mean That The Print Press Paper Barons Are No Longer The Sole Arbiters of News, Views, And Exposes. And Those In High Places Can No Longer Cover Up Their Wrongdoings In The Same Way They Once Did.
Now Reputation Management Is A Multi-Million-Come-Bilion Pound Business For Technology Companies Who Harvest And Aggregate Data, For Various Companies Who Want To Keep Customers, Clients, And Employees Happy. As Word Nerd Founder And Tech Expert Pete Daykin (@wordnerds.ai) Told Us “Brand Emphasis Has Shifted From Being Product Centric To Consumer Centric”. And That Involves Pro-Active High Level ‘Satisfaction Anticipation’ And ‘Disappointment Prevention’. One False Move By A Company Can, In A Matter of Hours, Lead To It, Its Executives or its ‘Talent’ Going Viral or Being Cancelled or Facing Very Public Protests.
Many Contemporary Businesses Want To Be Ahead of The Game And Manage The Experience of Their Punters Who Pull No Punches In The Age of Technology And The Existence of Social Media Platforms Such As X Formerly Known As Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok And of Course Linkedin For The Professional Classes. The ‘Experience’ of Clients, Customers, Colleagues And Co.Workers Who ‘Engage’ With Their Products And Brands Matters A Great Deal To Them. ‘Experience Management’ (XM) Is Big Business Because It Can Seriously Affect Their Business In An Instant.
Recent Examples of Independent People Power Include For Instance The Church Sexual Abuse Scandal, The Water Companies Sewage Scandal, The Contaminated Blood Scandal, The Party Gate/Gather Gate Scandal, The Windrush Scandal, And More Recently The Post Office Scandal. And The Fact That The Outrage of The Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd During Lockdown Was Initiated By A 16 Year Old Child On An Errand To The Shops, Who Had The Bravery And Presence of Mind To Use Her Mobile Phone To Film What She Saw Happening In Front of Her And Instinctively Knew Was Wrong.
Her And Her Phone Effectively Changed The World. The Current World of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity And Accountability, Adopted By So Many Companies, Including City Businesses And Organisations, Is A Direct Result of The Calls For Social & Racial Justice Reform That Followed The Digital Upload of Her Video. It Ignited Protests Around The World. And She Has Won Community & Humantiy Awards As A Result.
Wrongdoing Going Viral Is A Reality of The Modern Technological World. Technology Has Given ‘The People’ People Power. In Particular For Gen Z And The Millennials Born Directly Into The Digital Age They Know No Different As Far As Standard Practice Goes When It Comes To Digital Communication.
No Company, Organisation, Leader, Individual or Group of People Wants To Be Trending or Going Viral On Social Media For The Wrong Reasons. Hence The Prolific Engagement of Technology Companies To Harvest And Capture Data About What Makes People Happy. For Brands This Includes Catering To Clients, Customers, Colleagues And Co.Workers. Amongst The Brands That Have Embraced This Approach Are The Car Companies Porsche And Nissan. Notwithstanding Their Different Positions In The Car Marketplace Both Want To Offer Their Clients The Best Customer Experience Possible In Order To Retain Them And Are Using AI And Experience Management (XM) Software To Help Them Do Just That.
Suffice To Say AMEX, Adidas, Bosch, Hilton Hotels, Samsung And Virgin O2 Were In The House, As Was James Timpson, The Shoemender, At The LDN X4 Experience Managment Conference, Thursday June 6th 2024, The Barbican, London. He Was A Keynote Speaker And Very Well Received. And Yet Timpson Remains Old School.
Ariana Enters The Fortnite Arena As Concerts And Gaming Make A Grand Crossover
Of Course, Like Most Things In Life, There Exists The Possibility of Mis-use And Abuse. Clients or Employees May Threaten Unfavourable Posts And Exposes Unless They Get Their Way On A Particular Matter. However Companies Can Try And Protect Themselves From Such Potential Abuse Mis-use And Blackmail, By Establishing And Maintaining High Standards And Genuinely Doing The Right Thing As Standard Practice.
That Makes It Less Likely That Any Such Bad-Faith Endeavour Can Succeed As There Will Be Little To No Substantial Evidence To Back Up Disingenous Claims And Conversely Lots of Evidence To Show Exactly How The Company Operates On A Day To Day Basis, Based On Its Ethos, Culture And Cultural Alignment. So As A Company, Establishing What It Is And What It Is Not, Based On Values, Principles And Practices Is Really Important From The Outset.
The Other Big Fear For Modern Digitized Businesses, Brands And Companies Aside From Human Beings Empowered By Digital Devices (Cyclically Made By Information Technology Companies) Is Rogue Technology Experts Nefariously Using Their Technology Expertise To Hack And Attack Business And Services Operating Systems. Online Cyber-Security Protection Is Essential. But That’s A Different Conference, For A Different Day.
There Is Also The Issue AI Bias. Wordnerds, An AI, Linguistics And Data Company @wordnerds.ai Are Doing Great Anti-Bias Work. It Was A Pleasure To Meet Them And Listen To What They Had To Say On The Subject.
In Terms of X4 LDN June 2024 Itself, Notably There Was Not Alot of Diversity In The House At This Qualtrics Conference. It Was A Great Conference, But That Was Possibly The Biggest Disappointment. There Was A Notable Derth of Afro-Caribbean People. That Was Our Experience. Maybe Management Need To Look At That And Ask Why That Was. We’d Love To Know, If They Have The Data Capability To Honestly And Factually Explain It To Our Magazine Education Team. It Would Make A Great Debate With So-Called ‘Black Twitter’!
Meantime, We Really Enjoyed The Excellent Talk By Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush @foushy rahafharfoush.com (Picture & Short Audio Below) And It Was Fun Discovering Her Tech Friend @bartunde On Her Insta Page. Check Him And His Insta Out @baratunde. And As Said, Wordnerds Were Great @wordnerds.ai
Right Here, Right Now, Arguably XM (Experience Management) Is About Technology Protecting Itself From Technological Correspondence, Feedback, And Comment, Coming From Contemporary Every Day People In The Form of Humans Equipped With Their Devices And Their Associate Ability To Provide Helpful or Harmful Insights And Inputs Which Can Ruin Reputations.
But Who’s Going To Protect The Humans When AI Develops A Mind of Its Own And The ‘Management’ of AI & The Ever Advancing Online World With Its Weaknesses Becomes Too Unwelding And Overwhelming Out of Control – Even For Its Creators?
It Was A 12 Minute, 6 Track, Three Day Weekend Concert With 5 Scheduled Broadcasts Between Fri Aug 6th – Sun Aug 8 2021. It Incorporated 5 Different World Regions; The Americas (Twice), The Globe, Europe & The Middle East, Asia & Oceania. Made In Association With @epicgames.
On TikTok: What’s The Worst Thing A Boss Has Ever Said To You?
In The Physical Sphere: Beware of Living In A World That No Longer Exists?
With Fortnite It’s No Longer Just Gamers & Gaming Consoles But Now This Digital Platform Also Stages Concerts Too, Incorporating Avatars With Fancy Moves In Funky Universes, Such As Those Within The Virtual World of Pop Princess Arianna Grande During Her Virtual ‘Rift Tour‘. Hosted By Fortnite Battle Royale And Created By Epic Games The Platform Was Still Selling Merch’ From The 2021 Virtual Concert In April This Year, Even Though The Original Collaboration, Attended By Millions of Music And Gaming Fans, Was Three Years Ago. It Included The Tracks ‘Be Alright’ ‘R.E.M’ And ‘Positions’.
Well Now There’s An Interesting, Successful, Commerical Combination; Rose Tinted Glasses, Augmented Reality, AI And A Paralell Universe. Things May Never Be The Same Again! @arianagrande Reportedly Made An Initial $20m From This Digital Delivery @fortnite
qualtrics.com Are Committed To Computers & AI Whereas Father & Son Businessmen ‘John & James Timpson’ Are Committed To Humans.
In The Podcast ‘The Customer Catalyst’ Sir John Timpson CBE Explains The ‘Human’ Journey of His Business Life: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PXXwipPa0QoKrychHvfQ4
(Opposite) In The Business Book ‘Upside Down Management’ John Timpson’s Son James Timpson OBE Explains The ‘Cobblers’ Alternative Company Management Style.
Qualtrics Is The International, American Based, Data Aggregation Company Offering Brands Data Management Suites To Help With Data Collection For Consumer Analysis, The Understanding of Customer & Colleague Behaviors And In Turn The Provision of A Better Experiences All Round. It Also Offers A Research And Develpment Suite.
A Prevailing Industry And Cosumer Fear Is That The Ability To Feed Virtually Anything Into The Computer As A Competent Coder (Armed With Harvested Data) May Cause AI To Run Away With Itself As Its Devoured So Much Data It Can Create Its Own Algorithms. And Based On How Coding And Algorithms Work, That May Lead To Disasterous Consequences And Even Make The Need For The Humans That Fed The Beast – Obsolete.
Notwithstanding It Is Aware of These Technological Advancements The Family Run Company Timpson Continues To Take A More Traditional Approach And Puts Its Faith In Traditional Sources of Communication Such As Humans And Word of Mouth. With A Touch of Good Old-Fashioned Kindness And Humanity At A Time When The World Really Needs It. It Calls This Approach ‘The Timpson Algorithm’.
The Two World’s Collided At The Qualtrics’ X4 LDN XM Conference Last Month.
See Our Other 3 Previous Qualtrics ‘XM’ Articles In Our June 2024 Issue:
TheOrator.Press (TO.P) (Business Page) Article 1 of 4 On This Annual Business Tech Summit. June 2024
TheOrator.Press Business Page. X4 LDN. The Leaders Experience Management Summit, Barbican, London. James Timpson OBE. The Prison Reform Shoemender With Big Boots To Fill
TheOrator.Press (TO.P) (Tech Page) Article 2 of 4 On This Annual Business Tech Summit. June 2024
TheOrator.Press Education Page: Qualtrics X4 LDN Leaders XM Summit. Barbican, City of London. Wordnerd. The Data Aggregate & Linguistics Giants of Anti-Bias AI Work
TheOrator.Press (TO.P) (Comedy Page) Article 3 of 4 On This Annual Business Tech Summit. June 2024 (…And As The Late Metal Rocker ‘Meatloaf’ Famously Powerfully Said – ‘Two’ Out of ‘Three’ Ain’t Bad)
TheOrator.Press Comedy Page: Qualtrics X4 LDN Leaders XM Summit. Barbican, City of London. Katherine Ryan’s Routine On Beyonce And Black Women ? It’s Not Funny. And That’s No Joke!
TheOrator.Press (TO.P) (Tech Page) Article 4 of 4 On The Annual Qualtrics Business Tech Summit. July 2024
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