Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

He’s a ‘quant guy’ but when it comes to communication, he goes with his gut

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Henkel Consumer Goods' CEO Brad Casper put the lie to the tiresome truism that the only language executives understand is numbers.

During his appearance at the Building and Protecting Reputation 2010 conference last week, a communicator asked him how he measures the success of his strenuous communications efforts.

The question made him look weary.

"I know what gets measured gets done, and all that," he said. "But we're fast-moving. … for the most part, it's qualitative. I'm a quant guy, but qualitative gives me a better feel."

Communicators: I know some executives want numbers. If you like numbers, go to work for those execs. But if you don't, then look for a guy like Casper. They're out there, in larger numbers than Katie Paine would have you think.

HR jargon: chilly but refreshing

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Heard a new term at a conference session last week by Henkel Consumer Goods CEO Brad Casper. He was talking about strides the company has made in employee retention and he used a term I've never heard before.

He said Henkel had significantly reduced its rate of "regretted turnover."

Of course it makes perfect sense to delineate between overall turnover, some of which is a healthy exodus of malcontents and mopes, and only a percentage of which is truly damaging.

The term is probably old hat in HR circles, but it was a new one on me.