Can Alex Malley, CPA Australia's disruptive CEO, brush off criticism? This is the question William Buck adviser Greg Travers asked Malley during a video interview, as yet unreported but first posted in October. Travers appears to harbour no shortage of admiration for the Naked CEO, given their fireside chat was in the guise of Travers' own e-persona, "The Real CFO". Seems websites for motivational platitudes and with cheesy names are becoming a cottage industry!
"Absolutely mate … what's the odd angry shot from a gossip writer going to do for you, seriously? If that takes your distraction or takes your interest, then clearly you're not the leader you were hoping to be." If he says so.
Because how forcefully CPA Australia is now cracking down on dissent, and how bitterly it is reacting to criticism. Malley's direct report, chief operating officer Jeff Hughes, issued a 16-page memo of line-by-line rebuttal, including baseless accusations against this columnist, to a select group of members (particularly those identified as "friendlies but need some reassurance") on March 16.
Malley has on multiple occasions threatened legal action against this newspaper. So too have CPAs now begun receiving disconcerting calls and correspondence from CPA head office regarding their legal exposure over any critical comments made on Twitter and/or LinkedIn! This follows an unscheduled Malley lecture at a recent members' meeting – all extraordinary tactics by a members' organisation towards its members. But as Malley said in the same interview, "It's OK to offend members if it's in the public interest to do so." We're not sure this qualifies…
What happened to this thick-skinned, broad-shouldered attitude: "We know we're getting traction when somebody bothers to write that sort of stuff," Malley was riffing just six months back. "So to me it's just what happens in leadership and if you're actually leading and no one has a view of you, I would debate you're even leading at all because no one's noticed, and leadership is ultimately about making enough noise for someone to notice something." We'd argue that leadership is ultimately about leading for more than the sake of noise creation.
Justifying why so much money was spent promoting Malley's book and website The Naked CEO, he suggested that "personalising the brand with effectively a teacher is where you sustain yourself in a youth market. I know as a teacher of 20 years…"
Malley further admitted that his large online following "aren't all going to become CPAs [but] they might go to one on the street." But how would anyone find a public practice CPA on the street now that Malley has disabled the "Find a CPA" function on the CPA website because, as Hughes wrote, "if this information is used incorrectly such as to build email distribution lists then we will take appropriate action"?
So many questions, and so much maturity in the face of negative feedback!
