Management lessons from Euro 2004 - Part 4

Okay - I have not much to say this time, but would like to refer to Totti and the spitting incidence. As far as I could make out from today's New Straits Times, he was caught because of the usage of technology - a thing called player-cam that allows viewers to follow a player of their choice for as long as they want. And the Danish broadcaster DR had their player-cam on Totti and Poulsen, the opponents in the game Italy-Denmark, to just keep the score, and realised the spitting incidence after the game.

Well, there is a comment in the article that Totti got caught because he is famous - and that viewers naturally focus more on him than on less famous players. Wrong - especially when you are famous, you need to behave ethically. No dirty tricks allowed. That is the same for the CEO or the Chairman in a company that is high performing as for a player on the ground - or even for the reader of this blog, even so they might be less famous - may be not - or President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky for that matter. When your company is on the upswing, beating the market, battling competitors, gaining share and customers, than the public eye is on you. The reputation is high, people know you, you are flooded with resumes of aspiring candidates, books and newspaper articles quote your every word - spit in public, curse and swear and the sword comes down, and you might become very alone. True?