HR OLYMPICS SPECIAL


Will London 2012 be a PR fiasco like Beijing 2008? Probably not, says DAVID WOODS. But UK companies need to seize the day to build on the many opportunities the games offer


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n a balmy Beijing night in August four years ago, China passed the Olympic torch to the UK. But with all the opportunities the Olympics can provide to London – tourism, investment, a showcase – may come dangerous challenges to our businesses, our


infrastructure… and to our work- force. And in the Chinese Manda- rin dialect, our one word ‘crisis’ is made up of two: ‘danger plus op- portunity’. On Friday, 8 August 2008, the eyes of the world alight- ed on a rather large ‘bird’s nest’ in Beijing. Said bird’s nest was the Beijing National Stadium and the event was the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Not only was the 91,000-seat arena full to capacity, more


The city seamlessly marked the launch of the biggest


The UK is on a world stage and we have to


Jo Causon/Institute of Customer Service get behind the Olympics


than 100 heads of state were in the audience and 4.7 billion viewers tuned in to watch the stunning footprint-shaped fireworks make their way to the venue, as Beijing welcomed the world.


sporting event the world had ever seen. But the following morning, as a globe awoke, reeling from the spectacle, press reports emerged that, of the 29 footprint fireworks, 27 were computer-generated images; while Lin Miaoke, the child whose rendition of the Chinese national anthem stole the show, was revealed to have been chosen only for her appear- ance and had lip-synched the words of the song actually sung by another, less comely, young girl. The result: a perfectly choreo- graphed, flawlessly executed event came under worldwide scrutiny. But the controversy didn’t end


there. While international sports- people competed for gold in Beijing, the foreign press reported on a broad range of matters:


protests against the Chinese treatment of Darfur, civil unrest in Tibet, China’s questionable human rights record, its cen- sorship of press and media, as well as its urban air pollution. None of these reports made for breaking news, but while


the global press was in the country, they investigated, because China had become topical. Fast-forward to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and, thanks to Twitter, the


What steps are UK businesses taking to prepare for London 2012? 44%


Design a specific sales and marketing campaign for the Games


Improve flexible working facilities for existing staff Increase network capacity Hire extra temporary staff


Increase call centre capacity Expand their sales capacity


Improve technology security and resilience Re-train existing staff


Enhance their supply chain management Hire extra permanent staff


Increase mobilisation of field service engineers Enhance multilingual call centre facilities


Source: BT’s Race to the Line report 4 HR March 2012 hrmagazine.co.uk 19%


18% 18%


16% 28%


27% 27% 27%


38% 37% 33%


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