(Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)
Amid shocking news about rising COVID-19 deaths and health systems collapsing across the world, especially India and Brazil, travel company Trafalgar Group chose to issue a perky email.
“We don’t know about you, but to us it feels like the world of travel is changing fairly quickly right now. As borders continue to open up and destinations continue to open their borders to vaccinated travellers, or those who can show evidence of being tested, it seems like the world we once knew is in sight once more.”
Really?? In response to a polite inquiry, Trafalgar told me that protected travellers can now visit countries such as Iceland, Spain and Croatia.
Facebook may be a 100-pound gorilla in the word of social media, but it’s just the latest company to learn about the crucial balance between size and reputation.
The global financial crisis popularised the term “too big to fail”; it was used when the US government stepped in to bail out Wall Street. That move saved a number of very large and very greedy investment houses but did nothing for their already questionable reputations.
With size often comes hubris and arrogance. Think no further than the devastating Australian banking royal commission in 2018, which shredded the reputation of our largest finance organisations.