Tim Maltin comments in Spear’s on how to manage communications following a liquidity event

A liquidity event can take many forms, such as selling a business or inheriting a fortune. The one constant is that someone now has lots of liquid capital. But it is not all smooth sailing from here. Sudden acquisition of such wealth creates a tidal wave of issues that require a team of experts to help steer you through.

Spear’s Magazine recently assembled a council of top advisors to billionaires to shed some light on how best to handle new found wealth following a liquidity event.

Discussing communications best practice, our Managing Partner Tim Maltin stressed that “it’s always best to prepare a communication strategy as far in advance as possible. The strategy might be to actually keep it quiet – keep a lid on it and be reactive – in which case what we would do is monitor the press around the deal and prepare statements in advance. Now, if the client wanted to be proactive, we could look at two routes.

“One would be a press release where it goes to news desks and trade press in their sector. But another might be a sit-down interview where they talk about their career history and what their plans are for the future. If an entrepreneur has been part of building their brand, they’ll already have a reputation in the market, and then we’re picking up the narrative where it left off, shaping it according to the way the entrepreneur wants to be presented in the future. Internal communications are just as important in a deal like this as external communications, so it’s very important to have a sort of ‘town hall’ in your company to explain why the deal is happening, and how it will actually make employees better off in the future.

“One of the issues with having great wealth is people get interested in your lifestyle. For example, they may be tracking your jet. They might have telephoto lenses on your yacht. One has to be careful that your image can’t be taken out of context and particularly can’t be used by any enemies as a way to attack you.

“As you become a more influential person and a more powerful individual, you will have enemies. If you do find yourself caught in a reputational crisis, be careful about what you say and don’t rush it. Clients are often more in control of the story than they think. Sometimes people make a story worse by thinking they’re good with the press and saying something that later comes back to bite them. Don’t be pushed into saying something before you’ve properly considered it. Don’t answer calls from journalists; get that to go through your PR. Think before you speak, and get professional advice about how it will be perceived both in the echo chamber of social media and, of course, in the global media. Sometimes the best strategy is to say nothing.”

Read the full article here.