Chris Lawrance, Managing Director at JBP, has more than 35 years’ experience in managing reputations in the corporate and public sectors. He was a former press officer for a number of Government Departments and in number 10 Downing Street during John Major’s tenure as Prime Minister before joining JBP. He has advised clients on many crises including workplace fatalities, company restructures, business administrations, cases of bullying and sexual abuse, mass redundancies and company fraud.
As the story of the sub postmasters caught up in the faulty accounting software scandal has unravelled before our eyes in the last few weeks during the Public Inquiry and in the TV drama, Mr Bates versus the Post Office, we’ve all been left utterly staggered by the goings on over the last two decades. Its left everyone scratching their heads as to how such a situation was allowed to get out of control and as far as it did without any remedial action being taken by the Post Office and Fujitsu, two highly respected and household name brands, who should have known better.
We’ll probably never know exactly what went on behind the scenes that led to one of the biggest PR disasters on record. During the Public Inquiry, the current chief executive of Fujitsu’s European operations was reported as saying he didn’t know why the company’s employees had not mentioned the bugs in the system in their witness statements. And then there is the big question which no one seems to know the answer to – where has the money gone that the sub-postmasters paid back? The gaps in details around the events just add to the nasty taste that this travesty of justice has left in the mouth.
But what we do know, is that there was a failure on every level when it came to managing the unfolding crisis. Every rule was broken in the reputation management playbook – see JBP’s Reputation Management Playbook – 6 golden rules to ensure you don’t wake up to a PR nightmare. This included a lack of strong leadership throughout by both the Post Office and Fujitsu, the telling of lies and not dealing with the situation swiftly, responsibly and empathetically from the off. There was a complete lack of acknowledgement of what the thousands of sub postmasters were saying about the accounting irregularities on their systems and instead wholesale blaming of others for what went wrong. Brand values were nowhere to be seen in the dealing of the crisis – where was the trust that the Post Office prides itself on and for which it has been recognised for centuries?
Whilst the current CEOs of both organisations have come out and apologised for what has happened and admitted their unforgiveable handling of the situation, this should have happened 20 years ago – consequently, they would not be in the reputational mess they are now which will cost them a whole lot more money than if they had nipped it in the bud when they first knew there was an issue with the system.
Unfortunately, despite what has gone on, mistakes are still being made. Whilst there is a section on the scandal on the Post Office’s website, the home page is devoid of any mention. Instead, it focuses on the economic and social value of the organisation, and what the post office means to its communities (which we probably know what it means today).
Furthermore, the website section dedicated to the scandal is still positioned coldly and impersonally with headings including “The Horizon IT scandal”; “Introduction from our CEO” and “Context”. There are no apologies or empathy shown in the headlines. When searching for the Post Office’s values (which I could not find), I came across version 10 (yes seemingly in draft form still) of their Business Code of Conduct, dated June 2023, in which present CEO Nick Read (let’s not forget he has been in this position for the last four years) finishes his preamble saying:
“I am proud to work for a company that has the highest standards of integrity and which passionately protects its people and reputation.”
Really?! Why on earth would you compose an opening gambit to a new business code in the wake of a scandal that will be hard to match in the future, with words that no one is going to believe right now. Rich coming from a business that has shown no integrity in recent times and gone against its own people on a scale that has never been seen before in British history. Fine to be saying that you’re doing everything possible to put things right and how you’re going about doing that, but to give the impression that the organisation is what it used to be, is laughable.
So, the big question is: will the Horizon IT scandal be the nail in the coffin for the Post Office – does it spell the last post for the organisation? By going from one of the most trusted brands to one of the least across the country, it does not auger well, even allowing for an organisation that commits to learning from its failures.