by Mark Gilman, Senior Vice President- Marketing
mgilman@mccicorp.com
I have to admit, I’m a recovering “contractaholic.” Yes, I used to be one of those ranters who always believed a contract was a contract was a contract. But I’ve seen the light and Carson Palmer has made my recovery’s point.
I’ve watched with great interest how Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown has held firm in making his quarterback retire rather than break a contract to play QB for the Bengals. In my contractaholic days I would have been irate that a selfish, egotistic, me-first professional athlete would join a long line of players who refused to honor the deal they previously signed willingly. Carson Palmer doesn’t think he’s a good fit with the Bengals anymore and wants out. His team is lousy and he wants a chance to win elsewhere. He’s also part of the problem as any fantasy football owner who drafted him in the past few years can tell you. Mike Brown is a real owner and a bully. Rather than trade Palmer and get something for him, he’d rather take a stand and make Palmer retire and get nothing in return. If he was the CEO of a big company the board would have thrown him out on his ear, but it’s HIS show and he’s going to do what he wants. He’s part of the old football guard like Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson and Detroit’s William Clay Ford who should all retire gracefully. But they won’t. Which brings me back to the contract.
MCCI has run a very successful business by fully understanding contract terms and changes that occur amidst those contracts. We realize it’s very hard to provide dedicated long term planning and results if the client isn’t invested for the long haul and we require one, two and three year contract commitments for obvious reasons. That said, we are also very aware of changing circumstances and contracts that just don’t work. When Carson Palmer signed his contract with the Bengals, he no doubt was assured by his owner that the team would do whatever it could to surround him with the best players on the market. After two winning seasons in the past 20 years or so, I’d say the Bengals have proven they’re not real adept at making this happen. Things have changed for Carson and the Bengals since he signed his deal. Mike Brown should come to an acceptance of that and let him go.
At MCCI we’ve also had to make decisions amidst our contract arrangements because things didn’t pan out as originally anticipated or circumstances changes. Whether it be a change in leadership, business models, the economy, just a bad cultural fit – we’ve reassessed contracts, changed the parameters or just decided we weren’t providing services that aligned with the changing needs of the company. On the client side, there have been rare occurrences where they have made the decision as well because of those evolving changes. What good would it have been for us to say – “hey you’ve got a contract, and we’re holding you to it” if the relationship wasn’t working? Why in the world would that be good for our relationship or more importantly from a business standpoint – our reputation? This is also one of the reasons why we reassess contracts at the 8 month period to make sure everyone is on the same page and we’re delivering what we’ve promised.
Bengals owner Mike Brown apparently cares little about his reputation. And yes, legally he’s within his right to do whatever he feels he needs to do to make his point. But it’s certainly not how a business (or in our case, an agency) should be operating. Circumstances change and businesses need to be more concerned about client satisfaction than holding them to “the letter of the law.” We can use Carson’s plight as a good example that sometimes the negative PR and ill-will drawn from holding someone to a contract is much more damaging than doing the right thing and changing the contract terms or walking away friends/partners. I’ve seen the light. Contractaholism is damaging to your business.
