When Gerald Ratner took over his father’s business, he had 18 shops selling jewellery.
He worked night and day to build the business.
He forced suppliers to cut their costs to the bone.
He trimmed his profit margins as tight as possible.
He was excellent at running a cut-price jewellery chain.
So much so, he was able to acquire other jewellery chains.
Eventually he had over 2,000 shops.
Ratner was often invited to give speeches.
Usually these were to smallish groups of directors.
He liked to tell his audience about the diversity of products he sold.
From the most expensive to the cheapest.
He’d say “You can buy a watch from us for £50,000.
You can also buy a pair of earrings that cost less than an M&S prawn sandwich. (Mind you the prawn sandwich will probably last longer.)”
This always got a laugh amongst the other directors.
Eventually he was asked to give a talk at the Institute of Directors Annual Conference.
Around 4,000 people at The Albert Hall.
So he wrote a speech and showed it to some of his colleagues.
They said “It’s a bit dull. Can’t you put in the jokes that usually get a laugh.”
So that’s what he did.
He gave the speech about satisfying all sectors of the market.
He said “People ask me how I can sell a cut-glass decanter, six glasses, and a silver plated tray for £4.95.  I say “Because it’s total crap.”
And the audience laughed.
At least all the other directors in the audience laughed.
What Ratner didn’t know was there were tabloid journalists in the audience.
The next day The Sun had a single massive headline all over the front page.
‘CRAPNERS’
With the sub-head,
“FAT CAT BUSINESSMAN TAKES PUBLIC FOR MUGS.”
Every newspaper followed.
What he said could be twisted to make a good story.
“TYCOON MAKES MILLIONS FOISTING RUBBISH ON CUSTOMERS.”
And people stopped shopping at Ratners.
After all, how could you give anyone a present from there?
Almost immediately, half a billion pounds was wiped off the value of the company.
Gerald Ratner was forced to step down as CEO.
He was fired from the jewellery chain he (and his father) built.
And the name Ratners had to be taken off every store.
All because of a joke.
All because he took his eye off the ball.
Because he was thinking of execution before strategy.
He wasn’t thinking of the purpose of the speech.
If he had been, he wouldn’t have made jokes about selling shoddy jewellery.
That would have served no purpose.
The problem was he forgot the purpose of what he was doing.
He confused the purpose with the execution.
He wanted some laughs.
And his personal feelings took over from what he should have been thinking about.
Do you ever notice when that happens in our job?
When we forget the purpose of what we’re supposed to be doing.
When someone: client, planner, account man, creative let’s their own feelings take over.
When they try to change the advertising into something they personally like.
As if that was part of the job.
I think at that point we’re acting like Gerald Ratner.
We’ve forgotten the purpose of what we’re supposed to be doing.
We’ve confused the subjective with the objective.

We’ve taken our eye off the ball.