Rewriting history

I saw an article in a national newspaper recently about someone I had met when I was doing a cost-reduction exercise at a computer game company. There is no question that he was a big personality and people in the organisation deferred to him. My first impression was that he was difficult and my subsequent dealings with him confirmed that he was destructive to the team around him and a significant drain on the company. If you add in the impact of his salary, benefits, expenses and bonus then he was a HUGE drain.

The article said that he had always been successful and had taken a major part in the revival of my client. I read it twice - surely some mistake? This may not have been hagiography, but it was certainly close to the Hello school of journalism.

I hope that articles about other business personalities are more accurate. I don't want to know that some of the people I admire from a distance have feet of clay.

Tags

• Business