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Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Corporations are people too, according to the US Supreme Court. Like people, they don't deserve to become characters of fun, according to the asset manager formerly known as Aberdeen Standard Life.
From financial news, focusing on FTAV below:
Abrdn is facing “corporate bullying” from the media after its rebranding, according to Peter Branner, chief investment officer at the asset manager.
The £495bn fund group announced a major brand overhaul in April 2021, changing its name from Standard Life Aberdeen to Abrdn.
CEO Stephen Baird said at the time that the company's new badge would “create unity across the company.” It replaced five different brands that had previously operated independently.
The change to Abrdn has been widely ridiculed. An online survey in 2021 described this as an act of “corporate madness”, while others continue to cite the rebranding when discussing Abrdn's investment performance. Baird defended the new brand at the time, claiming customers had “fully embraced it”.
Now Branner has joined him. “I realize that corporate bullying is to some extent part of the game with the press, although it is a bit childish to keep hitting up missing vowels in our name,” he said.
“Would you do that to an individual? How do you look at someone who makes fun of your name day after day? Maybe it's not ethical to do that. But it seems to be different for companies.”
Branner makes the mistake of noting that silly names rarely append themselves. Dong Energy was provoked into becoming Orsted, just as schoolyard taunts prompted Ralph Lifshitz to change his surname to Lauren. This is bullying, while the Aberdeen company has been inviting ridicule by recasting the brand in the ridiculous tradition of Consignia, Monday and X. The unnecessary elimination of some vowels has contributed to a loss of up to £3 billion in market value. This is the joke.
All of this could have been avoided if Abrdn had just adopted its unofficial combined moniker and officially renamed itself Staberdeen. Nobody dunks on someone named Stubberdine.
In-depth reading:
– “Abandoning the standard life and dropping the three E's, it's actually a commendable idea” (FT)
