Reputational risk

I heard Jeff Randall speak about reputational risk at lunch today. This is such a hot subject that Oxford and Manchester Universities are offering courses in it. He said he'd suffered from it himself when he'd been appointed Business Editor for the BBC news. He was giving his first live broadcast and had been told to report on interest rate policy from in front of the Bank of England on the News at 10. The studio was counting him in by the minute: "5 minutes to go.." etc when he heard a horrible noise coming from his right. He had strict instructions to face the camera at all times but couldn't resist a quick glance when he saw, to his horror, a huge dustcart approaching the traffic lights behind him, traffic lights between himself and the Bank. It came to a halt and, realising that the backdrop to his broadcast would be a dustcart with RUBBISH written on its side, he called the BBC urgently to cancel his time slot. They agreed to delay it by 10 minutes. However, the environment in the City at 10.20pm is not as businesslike as during the day and when it came to 10.20pm, a car with four tipsy female passengers drew up at the lights behind him. "So, Jeff, what do you think was in the Governor's mind today?" came the question from the studio. "Oy you!" shouted one of the women, "Take your trousers down!"