Kerry Packer and the intern
Dr Mumbo is a big fan of “tell all” memoirs and Bauer Media exec Marina Go’s definitely delivered a number of juicy anecdotes.
And while his colleagues have focus on Go’s past relationship with her new boss Nick Chan, Dr Mumbo’s favourite tale from ‘Break Through: 20 Success Strategies for Female Leaders’ was one involving Kerry Packer, a work experience student called Jo and a tray of coffees.
Go tells the story:
“At around 9am, Jo headed across the road to buy the morning coffees for the office – we each took turns, and today was Jo’s. As she was concentrating on struggling the tray of cappuccinos in the foyer in front of the lifts, she momentarily forgot the golden rule I’d tried to drum into the entire team: if you’re at the ground floor lifts and lift number four comes up from the basement and opens, DO NOT GET IN!
By way of balance. Packer called up a mate switiching for sky and ordered him to rerun the last race because they’d missed it at the Packer mansion.
Mate calmly told Packer it could be done, but would trash the whole afternoon schedule and he wasn’t going to let that happen. Packer swore at him and hung up.
Next day mate received a massive pay bonus and a message that he’d done the right thing.
Packer might have been a bully, but not 100 per cent of the time.