Conferences and exhibitions are an opportunity for a business sector to present their industry in the most complete way possible.
Whether it takes the form of a small meeting of directors or an elaborate large-scale conference, these industry gatherings are crucial and have a remarkable level of influence on the future of a company.
This is one of the reasons why choosing the right exhibition space is so vital; it is the stage upon which your industry can present to the wider business world, and what is said can therefore have a larger impact in a more prestigious environment.
One of the best examples of the true effect of a speech and its location can be found with one of the most impactful speeches in modern business history, which took place during the Annual Convention of the Institute of Directors in 1991 at the Royal Albert Hall.
How Two Words Changed A Business Empire
In the 1980s, the jewellery industry was transformed by the iconoclastic but wildly popular Ratners Group, as it both rapidly expanded and raced downmarket.
Whilst jewellery is typically associated with somewhat austere, demure showrooms of opulence, Ratners would feature gaudy, luminous bargain sale posters, and very cheap ranges of low-price costume jewellery. This would be so influential that it would eventually split the jewellery sector entirely.
This success, and the controversy that came with it both in and out of the industry, was why the Institute of Directors asked him to speak, but he would utter two words during his 25-minute speech that would prove to be his undoing.
The speech, which focused on demystifying a market which historically had significant profit margins, jokingly described one of the products as a rude synonym for “rubbish”, whilst a set of earrings was described as having a shorter lifespan than a prawn sandwich.
These words cost Ratners half a billion pounds in value.
Why Careless Talk Costs Money
Gerald Ratner’s speech was focused on the convention’s subject of “Prosperity, Choice and Quality”, with different parts of the jewellery conglomerate offering customers a part of this, and was specifically referring to how Ratners offered choice in a different way to other jewellers.
It was meant to be a reference to how and why Ratners is the most successful retailer in terms of revenue per square foot in Europe, by offering customers what they want at prices low enough to be bought on impulse, but the carelessness with which he said this implicitly called his customers cheap and with poor taste.
When reports surfaced surrounding the speech, focusing entirely on the prawn sandwich remarks, previously loyal customers were outraged and stopped shopping there, causing the value of the company to drop by £500m.
Mr Ratner left in disgrace, and the company changed its name to the Signet Group in 1993.
To this day, similar speeches where a company representative insults their own products and their customers are still known as “doing a Ratner”.
Signet rebounded under new management and is amongst the largest diamond jewellers in the world, but it highlights the power that just a few words have on the right stage and in the right circumstances.
