Ex-Gowex chief Jenaro Garcia Martin turns to Kipling for staff apology
JFK once said “when power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations”. Could these words have been swirling around Let’s Gowex founder Jenaro Garcia Martin’s mind when he turned to Kipling to apologise to staff on Tuesday?
An email sent to staff of the insolvent Spanish Wi-Fi firm, to garner forgiveness for falsifying the company’s accounts, ended with a few lines from “If” by the English poet. The opening line, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” must have seemed pertinent.
He’s hardly the first boss to turn to poetry though. When Satya Nadella took the helm of Microsoft much fanfare was made of his love for poetry – which he likens to code in its ability to compress a description into a few lines (clever, eh?).
Then there’s City stalwart David Buik, who famously uses poetry in his financial commentary. Perhaps we should call for more poetry in the City? After all, TS Eliot was a banker.