Maintain your business reputation at all costs, HTA conference told

Randall last night (22 October) told the HTA Garden Industry Leaders' Conference: “Reputation matters. The investor Warren Buffett said ‘if you lose money for my company by bad decisions I’ll be understanding. If you lose reputation, I’ll be ruthless.”

He added that companies such as BP and AIG had lost reputation by not coming clean when they hit difficulties.

Randall told delegates to “get the boss out front” to explain any crisis your business is involved in, to apologise for mistakes, and to “take the hit for what’s gone wrong”.

Randall concluded: “Honesty is at the core of all good reputations. You can be sure the truth will out, especially the bad truth.”