CEOs have an unfortunate track record for making impulsive statements, which negatively affect the market standing of the businesses they oversee. Some are unfortunate off-the-cuff comments, whereas others are more considered, but equally damaging.
One the most infamous, crass and damaging statements came from Gerald Ratner back in 1991, when addressing the UK Institute of Directors. He joked that his Ratner’s UK High Street chain “sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks & Spencer, but probably wouldn’t last as long”. He followed this up with a further ‘quip’ when he remarked that a sherry decanter was so cheap because it was “total crap”. His comments were widely reported in the media leading to an estimated £500m reduction in value of company and the loss of most of the goodwill it had acquired over its years of operation. Customers objected to be taken advantage of and were greatly offended by Ratner’s comments, choosing to take their business elsewhere. The commercial decline was so dramatic that later examples of CEO’s acting in a similar ill-considered manner have come to be known, in business and media circles, as ‘doing a Ratner’.
