He's managed to keep his counsel on the issue so far, but Seven Group Holdings chief executive Ryan Stokes has finally weighed into the sex scandal plaguing the Seven network insisting there is no culture problem in the company.
Speaking to The Australian Financial Review after the announcement of Seven Group Holdings half-yearly results (in which he announced a swing into the red for the company with a $41.8 million first-half loss from a year-earlier profit of $7 million as it wrote down the value of its big asset, Seven West Media), Stokes The Younger said everything was tickety-boo in the media section of the family empire.
"I think our culture is a strong culture," said Stokes, who sits on the board of Seven West Media. "I think the culture that has enabled that team to continue to deliver the results that it has, [demonstrates] things are going well, things are going right."
His comments follow our report on Monday that an internal report into culture at SWM's WA operations found a "boys club" mentality prevailed.
As he spoke, a battle royale was playing out in the NSW Supreme Court in the latest messy instalment of the Tim Worner v Amber Harrison sex-scandal-saga-melodrama and the Seven West Media stock price fell again Tuesday. But you know, details can be so messy and inconvenient.
"I think Tim [Worner] is the first to admit within Seven West he is keen to see cultural enhancement within the group but again the performance is a sign that things are inherently OK, but there is opportunity to grow and improve," he said. Ya think?
