48 . Glasgow Business July/August 2013
BIG TALKS Brian Welsh Account Director at The BIG Partnership
Make sure you’ve got your facts right
» Misinformation is a big risk to your business’ reputation, says Brian Welsh N
ow, at what stage of a debate with one of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen do you admit to yourself that he might know more
about his career than you do? Or rather, at what stage of a debate with one
of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen, do you admit to yourself that he might know more about his career than you do – according to Wikipedia? Tereby lay the crucial, schoolboy and
momentarily reputation-destroying factor – I had commited a cardinal sin by taking a nugget of info I had read once and once only to
“At what stage of a debate with one of the greatest footballers do you admit that he might know more about his career than you do?”
being fact, gospel, the truth. Tat my next words to him could have been “BUT THE INTERNET SAYS SO” just about says it all. Tankfully, the incident was the best part of
ten years ago. Te footballer in question – a Mr Cruyff – will have long forgoten about the night a Weegie tried to re-write his career and I have pledged to never repeat such a basic error of judgment since. So how did I come to engage so wrongly
with the legend who played and managed Ajax and Barcelona as well as being the Netherlands’ most iconic player of all time? Te process is prety simple, much like I
was back on that fateful night: »B Welsh is invited to a charity’s sports-themed dinner where J Cruyff is guest speaker »Minutes before leaving the office, B Welsh
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googles J Cruyff to do his ‘homework’ – and finds mention on his Wikipedia page that the Dutchman once turned out for Airdrie, in a friendly v Ajax at Broomfield, because the home team were short on numbers »B Welsh hears the taxi beep outside, quickly leaves for the event, impresses fellow guests with said fact, and revels in the glory of sharing such a widely unknown diamond of information » During a window of opportunity to speak to the great man, B Welsh chooses to use his 30 seconds with a true football legend by quizzing him on his 90 minutes in North Lanarkshire »
J.Cruyff calls for “shecurity”... So what is the point of all this reminiscing?
Quite simply, it underlines the importance of quality of research, authority of sources, strength of corroboration. My basic boo-boo was not undertaking
consequent searches to help confirm or deny the original online claim. Aside from that, it was a spectacular own-goal to even believe Wikipedia in the first place. Harsh lesson learned. Tis was nearly ten years ago. Since then
the ever-growing volume of information available to us and the increasing speed at which it arrives means we are even more vulnerable to being served up red herrings. With regard to Twiter and other social
media platforms in particular, the temptation to prioritise speed of response over 100 per cent establishment of facts is massive. Don’t reply to a query immediately?
Someone else can beat you to it and an opportunity to illustrate you or your company’s expertise is lost. However, that’s a small price to pay when compared to the alternative: replying as quick as you can, without researching via numerous sources, and geting it wrong. Suddenly you’ve gone from first to respond to worst to respond.
Brian Welsh, Account Director, The BIG Partnership
Te above story still haunts me as I pride
myself on atention to detail and accuracy of facts. I’m a football stato yet due to a deadly combination of rushing to leave and an uncharacteristic episode of laziness, I was shown up in front of one of my favourite sport’s greatest. I can laugh about it now, in fact, I laughed
about it on the night too. However, from that very morning aſter I have checked every fact, stat and figure as comprehensively as Archie Gemmill outwited the Dutch defence in 1978. It’s all thanks to you, Johan, you
Airdrie legend.
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