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As Cullen leaned back in his chair, regarding him contemplatively, Chris realised his own surprise arose as much from his own undeniable curiosity as from Cullen’s unexpected frankness. Not that he could really take the offer seriously. After a pause he responded thoughtfully, ‘Intriguing idea. But I like the polling side of my job too much. It’s not something I’d want to give up.’
‘We wouldn’t want you to.’ Cullen shook his head. ‘It would do our lobbying business no end of good if Lombard became an authority on voter intentions. Bring over your political team, lock, stock and barrel.’
Chris couldn’t suppress a grin at the audacity of the notion. He could picture the looks on the faces of the MIRA Board as he announced that, as of the next month, MIRA’s most profitable research unit would be decamping en masse to Lombard.
‘That would be fun,’ he admitted now, ‘but even so, most of the work here is financial – and I’ve never seen myself as a City man.’
Cullen fixed him with a droll expression. ‘You’re not a Lomboid, huh?’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘That regimentation stuff is all crap, you know. It’s true that everyone who works here is very bright and very articulate and very hard-working. But they’re not all the same. They don’t,’ he pulled a face, ‘all wear dark suits. Take a look round our consumer division, it’s like a fashion show down there. And the lobbying boys are pinker than the Sydney Mardi Gras. Our success is based on synergy. Horses for courses. We don’t need another City suit – we’ve plenty of those already. What we need is someone with your analytical skills to bring discipline to the way we carry out r
esearch for our clients – the kind of stuff that’s your bread and butter at MIRA.’
Chris’s expression was noncommittal. There was an undeniable logic to what Cullen was saying, but the whole notion of joining a PR agency was just too foreign for him to seriously consider. Nursing his gin and tonic, he asked, ‘So which clients, hypothetically, need planning work?’
‘All of them, at some point in their corporate life cycle. But there’s a few with more immediate needs. Starwear is one.’
Chris looked up sharply. A month earlier he’d done a company image survey for Starwear. The findings had been extraordinary, demanding further analysis, but the client had said no. Budget overrun. Chris had found that hard to believe. He doubted the results had ever found their way up the organisation to its ultimate boss, billionaire guru Nathan Strauss.
Now he told Cullen evenly, ‘I did a project for them, not so long ago.’
‘I know,’ Cullen nodded. ‘Nathan told me about it.’
‘Pleased he got to see it.’
‘He saw it all right. So did I. We were very impressed with your analysis.’
Chris raised his eyebrows. What else had these guys seen? ‘Didn’t you agree the issues I uncovered deserved further work?’
‘That’s why you’re here. It was Nathan who suggested we speak to you.’
This time, Chris didn’t even try to hide his surprise. The idea that a business leader as lofty as Nathan Strauss was taking a personal interest in him took him completely unawares.
‘Both Nathan and I think what’s called for is more than just another MIRA project or even two projects. It’s an ongoing process of refinement.
Nathan respects your judgement and would very much like you to work closely with him – as you know, the subjects you touched on are near and dear to his heart.’
Chris could no longer pretend that Cullen wasn’t pressing all the right buttons. Nathan Strauss was not only one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen, he had also achieved a unique status as a pioneer in the area of corporate ethics. Quite apart from having created Starwear, whose distinctive star icon was now instantly identifiable all over the world, he had also been one of the first, back in the mid-nineties, to pick up that public opinion was moving sharply against the ‘greed is good’ business maxim of the eighties. It was Strauss who realised that, for reasons of hard-nosed profitability, companies had to become more environmentally sensitive, more accountable to those who consumed their products, more transparent in the way they managed such things as directors’ salaries and share options. Despite the fact that vast wealth separated him from the hopes and fears of ordinary mortals, Strauss’s sensitivity to public opinion was acutely developed. It was he who had first coined the phrase ‘enlightened self-interest’.
While competitor PLCs were badly damaged by revelations about fat cat salaries, secret share deals, deforestation, ozone damage and a wide array of other green issues, Starwear moved ahead of the times. At Strauss’s instigation, the company had produced two reports, the first on why companies needed to be more transparent and accountable, and the second on why they needed to improve their environmental performance. Dubbed ‘Starwear I’ and ‘Starwear II’, the two reports had soon become touchstones for corporate governance, not only in Britain but throughout the world, and their titles quickly became shorthand, referred to by journalists and businessmen alike. Unlikely as it seemed for a hugely rich, untelegenic, middle-aged Jewish man with an American accent, Nathan Strauss became famous as a champion of consumer concerns.
The main reason for Chris’s frustration when he’d finished his project for Starwear was that he thought he’d uncovered a new wave of consumer concerns – this time about child labour in developing countries. Television documentaries about street urchins of Calcutta being sold to sweatshop factories to work away their childhoods in appalling squalor had inflamed public opinion. Were any of the garments retailed in Britain made this way? How did they know the origins of the branded sweatshirts and trainers and golf-peaks they wore? In the past, Starwear had been accused of buying from sub-contractors who used child labour – but Nathan Strauss had soon stamped out the allegations. Chris knew from his recent analysis, however, that public concern was becoming more widespread and deeper felt. And companies like Starwear, manufacturing huge quantities of their output in developing countries, were first in the firing line.
Without doing more in-depth research, it was impossible to decide how exactly to manage the issues. More work had to be done – and he had wanted to do it. He’d been unable to fathom the ‘budget overrun’ response, but now as he sat opposite Mike Cullen he began to see a much bigger picture. And as he thought about the prospect of working, in person, with Nathan Strauss, Cullen seemed able to read his mind.
‘You know, Chris, there aren’t many career opportunities of this kind that come your way. It’s not just another research job. It’s about doing something that really matters, something that will have a positive effect in the outside world. And we’re not talking only Starwear – this work could have a much broader impact on corporate policy in the UK and beyond.’
‘Starwear III?’
‘Exactly. Global employment policy. Community relations in developing countries.’
‘Ambitious.’
‘Nathan’s a radical thinker. You’ve seen what he’s done already.’ Cullen was expansive. ‘You’d enjoy working with him. Not only is he the most valuable client this firm has, he is also by far the most stimulating. And, you know, Nathan and I share the same basic philosophy.’ He paused significantly. ‘What goes around, comes around. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Enlightened self-interest. It’s very important to me that everyone here shares those values.’
Chris nodded.
‘With our help, Nathan and his brother Jacob have turned Starwear into the world’s most aspirational sportswear brand.’
‘Jacob’s the American brother?’
