Selling The Drama; AAR Boss Michael Rose Expects ‘Flat’ Market

When you’ve got a Firm Spy Downlow Medal swinging around your neck, you need to quickly make comments in the media to allay employee fears of a partnership rip off.

And so, it is no surprise that we read comments from Allens Arthur Robinson chief executive partner Michael Rose in ALB which very much sells the drama of the GFC, necessitating the excrutiatingly tight partnership antics already witnessed:

It is our sense that activity across the market as a whole is down. We would expect that things will stay relatively flat or decline further over the next 12 months.

So Mike, does this mean the pay freeze is here to stay? This expectation that things will “stay relatively flat” is difficult to stomach given that AAR is widely rumoured to have out-performed rivals since the GFC began.

Surely it must be difficult to resist the temptation to talk about figures if Allens is outperforming its rivals? ‘I’m resisting it now’, Rose says firmly.

When Rose is asked to put a figure on revenue, his normally amiable face becomes stern … “that’s the private information of the partners who own the business and we don’t think it’s something … to talk about. Our clients don’t want to read about how much money we’re making.’

Well, certainly the employees working their fingers to the bone yet presently subject to a pay freeze and subject to ‘cheap shots down low’ are eager to know.  But of course, Mike can relate to their pain:

His very first job was working as a cleaner in a swimming centre, for the princely consideration of $3.50 an hour. ‘It was a rip-off, even back then,’ he laughs.

Are you being ripped off?

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