Years ago, Robert C. Townsend, once Chairman and President of Avis, wrote a book called Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits.

There were probably lots of memorable lines in the book, but one has stuck in my mind for several decades. He said that the way to deal with lawyers was to keep them out of the decision process until a plan had been formed. Then say, “here is what we are going to do, who pays the fines and who goes to jail?”

Much has changed since then, and publicists have horned in on the traditional lawyer turf. This does not seem like a pathway to better decision-making.

Frazer Rice and I discuss decision making by publicist in our latest podcast.

We begin with Greta Thunberg and Naomi Seibt, dueling European teenage girls, as the spokespeople for the two sides of the climate debate, and go on from there.

Here is the link to Frazer’s “Wealth, Actually” website that will take you directly to the podcast.