Ryan Bridge: David Brent strikes again
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Did you see the news Prime Minister's pep talk to business leaders on Friday?
The business chamber boss said Rotorua's had its sharpest fall in business confidence in a decade, and business are wondering how long they can actually stay in business.
Luxon's reply is what got people talking.
A friend sent it to me and said, 'David Brent strikes again'.
He said the following:
"I think that's a negative view, to be honest. Like we're entrepreneurs and businesspeople, and I get it.
You know, if you're not retooling and radically disrupting your business, you aren't doing the job.
"You know, you have to disrupt yourself aggressively before you get disrupted by global events...
He then goes on to talk about his time running Unilever Canada.
"I sat in Illinois for six years in Chicago, and the last person I wanted to ever talk to as a CEO was the government.... Can I get some grant money to do something? No, no, I'm a businessperson....
"I'm building a kick-ass company that actually has commercially superior returns, great customer experience, and awesome internal culture. That is the job of what makes a great company, not a good one, a great one....
Now the problem here is not what he's saying. What he's saying has a lot of truth to it.
It's the way he's saying it. His tone. It's a bit off and bit off-putting.
Trump does these sorts of bits well because he's funny. He's so outrageous, it's entertaining.
This is like some sort of David Brent/Tony Robbins mash up.
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