The business sections of newspapers this month are filled with stories about PE firms and industry participants flush with cash and on the prowl. The U.S. dollar is strong and big deals are in the wind. But the front pages of the same papers are filled with stories about Brian Williams of NBC News. How can these two be related? Well, they are, in a peculiar way, at least to me.
Williams admittedly told a lie – he implied that it was a small lie. He really was in Iraq, he really did ride on helicopters, and there really were bad guys who would have liked to shoot down those helicopters. He just exaggerated his personal involvement. It turns out that in spite of his earlier war stories, he was not actually on a helicopter that was shot down. Same deal with Katrina; it is difficult to “watch a man float down the river face down” from your “hotel room window” when your hotel is not by the river. But Williams really was in New Orleans and I assume that there really were bodies in the river. Everyone lies, right? Everyone exaggerates, right?
Well, it is a big deal. In a world where people can get their news from thousands of sources, those who choose to get it from a network news show do so based solely on trust. If that audience loses its trust in one network news anchor, some portion of them will lose confidence in the rest. A few years ago, it was Dan Rather. It is no wonder that ratings are down for all the network news broadcasts and, as a result, misinformation is on the rise. See, the Internet is no worse – right? It taints the entire industry.
So why is this relevant to my business? Because poll after poll shows that some people are losing trust in Wall Street. There are too many well-publicized examples of Wall Street bankers telling small lies, exaggerating, engaging in system-gaming, dodging taxes (or helping others do so), taking advantage of the unsophisticated, and trampling on the rights of shareholders, bondholders and homeowners for those on Main Street to believe that all is well. True, it is a very small percentage of bankers who engage in these shenanigans, but, as with news anchors, when the public loses trust in them, it reflects on the rest of us.
Managers, executives, boards, and business owners hire us to help them make the right strategic and financial moves. Without trust we would not be hired. And I believe that without Wall Street our system would be much less efficient. We value that trust and do everything we can to earn it, every day. It’s too important to squander. I think Brian Williams would understand that – now.
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