Rupert Hoogewerf
Today we are signing up a few new speakers for our upcoming speakers bureau. Yes, we can now include Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of the China Rich List, on our list.
We already knew that we could not include any politicians that are still in office, and since Chinese politicians very seldom leave office, that pool will be rather small for the time being. But for our first "big name" assignment we had also listed some really famous business people (no, I cannot give names here), but they also seem to have a problem in earning money as a professional speaker. They cannot do that for ethical reasons.
While I see the logic here, I had never any misgivings as a journalist to take money for my speeches (although in those days I did sell my soul for fairly little money). University professors, TV-anchors, lawyers and other consultants do not have a problem to sign up. Maybe because in those occupations doing speaking assignments is anyway considered to be part of the business.
The only way out is perhaps that of Bill Clinton: he makes an average of US$200,000 per speech, but passes 80 percent on to his own charity foundation. The other 20 percent goes of course to his speaking bureau, we have to make a living too.
2 comments:
Not sure if it's an ethical dilemma why top business people cannot accept money for speeches. If they are employed by a multinational company they normally are not allowed to earn money from speeches (a gift is fine, however).
But I don't understand why consultants could accept the fee, are you talking about the big consulting companies (McKinsey, Roland Berger, BCG etc.) or the smaller ones? The smaller ones I could understand, but they are likely not the people that you want to have on your list.
You are right on the consultants, Marc. We were looking at the list of famous US speakers and wondered how that would apply in China. The consultants on that list do not represent the bigger firms, but basically themselves and have a career as professional speaker. Big names, though, but that might not yet be a category we can identify clearly in China, the independent big consultants. Although, a few names come to my mind.
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