I was sad to hear of the death of Ken Bates. There are heaps of obits out there on his life and career and ‘colourful’ is an adjective that often seems to crop up.
I have a contribution to the genre. In 1999 I was back in London, working at Burson and we got the call that Ken wanted to see us. He was engaged in interminable battles with local residents and the council over his redevelopment of Stamford Bridge, home of his beloved Chelsea Football. His preferred approach to dealing with stakeholders was full frontal attack, but this had ground to a halt and so his board had suggested he get some advice and maybe a different strategy.
He reluctantly agreed and so I led a brave team of planning, political and media heavyweights into his office. At some point during a ‘robust’ meeting he misheard one of my colleagues and thought he had suggested an off the record briefing to a journalist at which point he exploded with the observation that; “in this world young man, three types of people are never off the record and never off duty: prostitutes, policemen and journalists”.
RIP
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