While the company may not agree with its employee, but the company should not be be a busy-body as to what its employee do outside of work.
Some hold high appointment in churches. What is the difference between holding high appointment in church and in AWARE or for that matter, in any non-profit organization???
DBS is so full of shit.
If Josie was truly a marketing and branding person, and have the best interests of DBS at heart, she would have volunteered personally to remove herself from the position after all the fiasco.
Let's look at the cardinal
sins she has committed from a marketing and branding standpoint:
- Aligned herself, and by public association with her career, that the DBS brand is affiliated with Christianity.
A brand position is one of the most important and powerful tool any company can have. This is why HSBC sponsors and affiliates with golfing events - the brand position is that they cater to the needs of the posh, golfers' clubs, high-networth individuals. Money and religion does not mix, and banks know that. If she was the VP of Accounting, it would not be so bad... but she was the bluddy VP of MARKETING for chrissakes - she should know better than to take on affiliations (such as FotF) outside of agreed branding positions.
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- Use her DBS credentials as justification for her to lead AWARE, and making a mess of it.
That implies severe problems with the credibility, professionalism, and efficacy of DBS's management, and their employee promotion mechanics. Obviously she was incompetent, as her management of the AWARE issue has shown, and because she quoted her main qualification as a VP of DBS, she associated incompetency with DBS's staff as well.
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- She made a PR mess, appearing guarded, secretive, and insidious, by her words, actions, and associations.
Banks have always tried their best to appear as open and transparent as possible. They are arguably the leading experts on how to hide their dirty linen - and Josie in one fell swoop appear to associate DBS bank with the above connotations. For everyone understands the culture of a company, and hence the character of a company, is set by its employees. DBS would never want to be seen as a bank managed by guarded, secretive, and insidious staff.
As a result of all these, the DBS brand was threatened on these fronts :
- Affiliation with religion (which was not a position they wanted to be in)
- Incompetency of management (which gives a bad light to the bank, especially in these times)
- Character connotations associated with DBS as a company that is contrary to how they want to portray themselves.
On hindsight, Josie would have been able to salvage the situation much better if she were to use this PR position right at the start :
"My experience with leading partly comes from having many years of experience in DBS, but however, that is secondary. My primary qualification to lead AWARE is the fact that I am a woman, and that I care, and most importantly, I have strong convictions in my beliefs."
She adds the DBS credentials, but disassociate herself from her work experience, and focuses on the leadership qualities that matters in an NGO - relevance, passion, and persistence.