Seven Hills co-founder Michael Hayman MBE joined presenters Charlie Stayt and Sian Lloyd as well as Buzzfeed’s UK Investigations Editor, Heidi Blake on BBC Breakfast to discuss the recent FIFA scandal.
Hayman discussed the impact the latest FIFA upset has had on its sponsors, namely McDonalds, VISA and Coca-Cola, three of the top ten most valuable brands in the world.
Michael said “being seen to be doing the right thing is a big thing for these firms and how they demonstrate their purpose to the public is really important.”
He highlighted how, in the wake of Blatter’s re-election, the tension will be turned up on sponsors as they are increasingly seen to be financially supporting a corrupt global organisation.
On the issue of sponsors withdrawing support, Michael said “times have changed for organisations and actually the role and purpose of business is that much more important. The new chief executive of McDonalds has called out for McDonalds to be a business of social purpose and to be progressive. So for them to be seen to prop up FIFA looks really bad. Others might come to fill their shoes should they choose to terminate their sponsorship but it will be a pretty toxic pair of shoes to fill.”
Michael Hayman and co-author Nick Giles further discuss the importance of brand purpose and mission in their new book from Penguin, ‘MISSION: How the Best in Business Break Through’ which will be published on 2nd July 2015.