What would you - or your company - do for a superstar with decisional hiccups?

Okay, so you have Michael Phelps in your recruiting sights or on your team and he's involved in situations - whether you personally agree with them or not isn't important - that others question.

Keep the superstar or move on? What do you do and why?

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Permalink Reply by Dan Nuroo on February 7, 2009 at 8:39pm

Great question Steve. Lots of layers on this. It is getting beaten to death in the media here, a couple of footballers and cricketers having a few too many beers and being in public, unfortunately one guy gave an interview. This guy has been dumped by the national team.

You have to think about the ages and maturity of some of these individuals, whilst balancing against the holier than though rhetoric from the media. I can understand if it really stuffs up with a sponsorship. ie a footballer here got busted for drink driving, whilst you cannot condone this, as it really is a stupid and dangerous thing to do. Luckily enough he didn't hurt himself or anyone else in the process. Unfortunately for him the main sponsor of his club was the TAC (Traffic Accident Commission) and as he was a representative of his brand.. the club.. they pulled the sponsorship, a million dollars. What do you do to this kid? Hang him out to dry.

Can you have different rules for superstars than others? I'd like to think not, but is that reality? Bottom line is, I think.. what affect will the behaviour/decision making have on your brand and organisation as a whole. If by a superstar smoking pot will look like your company encourages such a thing, (and that's not what you want as you market is young people) then act on it. However, I know a country whose commander in chief was busted actively encouraging adultery and whilst not inhaling, didn't discourage pot smoking, yet was still THE figure head of a country, for quite a while afterwards.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on February 8, 2009 at 4:33pm

With your footy example I'll bet in the end the million dollars lost will be gained back many times over with goodwill...

But while superstars will most typically always have different rules, another factor is culture. Our former President had a tryst with an intern, debated definitions of sex, and was vilified yet France's Francois Mitterrand was known to have had many extramaritial affairs which many in France thought to be charming.

I've blogged about character for years and recognize that this is a layer of the issue but these days when you have someone on board who generates an otherworldly bulk of revenue, what do you do when they fall from grace?

What are some of the other layers here that Dan is referring to?

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Permalink Reply by Martin H.Snyder on February 8, 2009 at 8:22pm

Every situation has its own facts- for one example, IOKIYAR (its OK if you are Republican) has been a refrain on the lefty blogs for the past few years...

Phelps may come out ahead on this one too- he is back in the news as if there were another Olympics, without all that hard swimming, plus his Q rating may have gone up among the youth of America....meaning more $$ for endorsments down the road...

One never knows...