You would have gotten fired just 10 years ago if you'd proposed to do what Blackstone just did!

It’s both surprising and—in some ways, at least--not surprising to learn about what a prominent firm did this week in the way of making a fancy maneuver to avoid a possible future bullet aimed at it.  Likely prompted by the rough political charges of Mitt Romney’s high-office rivals that he and Bain Capital used to work as bad guys in the world of commerce, the management of the Blackstone Group took preemptive measures to calm their own nerves: that for whatever reason, sometime, somehow, someone will decided to portray their firm as a shifty operation.

What they did was interesting:  They bought key internet domain names that precluded an easy “hit” on them as a social media target.  You know what they did?  They registered—obviously to themselves, so no one else could use them—the following sites:  blackstonesucks.com, blackstonegroupsucks.com, schwarzmansucks.com [protecting Blackstone’s chairman, Stephen Schwarzman], stephenschwarzmansucks.com, and stevenschwarzmansucks.com.  All of this was reported in the Doman Name Wire. 

Does the company suck or not?  I'm confused.

For the truly vigilant among us, this follows a similar strategy taken by Bank of America—a company that’s come under criticism in the press—which registered a bunch of domain names to protect its chief executive, Brian Moynihan.  The sites they “own”—and thus removed from others to use—include BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihansucks.com, BrianTMoyihanBlows.com, and BrianIMoynihanSucks.com. 

This reminds me of the fire-fighting strategy called controlled-burns, or backfiring, where a charred void, or gap, is created by setting combustible material to contain a spreading wildfire.  The problem with the analogy is this:  it’s only done with there’s, in fact, a real forest fire to contend with. 

Does this mean that Bank of America or Blackstone have a problem to cover up in the first place?  In other words, in some ways such a strategy could simply be a taunt to corporate detractors that there is indeed a fire—only, now, to be found.

Good luck at getting crazy people to think straight.

I don’t know how this strikes you, but I have two very different reactions to this kind of management chessman ship.  First, I think this strategic “move” could easily serve as a challenge to less-than-honorable people, to signal that there are issues which are dormant within a firm, now only yet to be discovered. 

If my friends and acquaintances were to learn that I’d taken measures to monopolize internet cites the likes of KeithMurraySteals.com, or KeithMurrayBeatsHisWife.com, or better yet, KeithMurrayIsAJerk.com—what would a reasonable person be invited to conclude? 

But you say, the world is not filled with reasonable people—and you’d be right.  However, if you make it a life’s mission to persuade the unreasonable and the irrational of something that simply isn’t true—well, you are likely on a fool’s mission. 

My years working in various psychiatric settings has made that amply evident to me.  The people who truly want to believe that Mother Teresa is despicable are not going to be deterred by preempting the site MotherTeresaSucks.com—it would be an insane strategy on its face. 

Tell me again about the power of social media.

The other reaction I have is in another—and more light-hearted--direction entirely.  I’ve often wondered what the reaction might be were possible to bring historical figures back to life and show them what life’s like now. 

The other reaction I have is in another—and more light-hearted--direction entirely.  I’ve often wondered what the reaction might be were possible to bring historical figures back to life and show them what life’s like now. 

For example, consider what it would be like to accompany the Wright brothers to LAX or Boston’s Logan Airport, show Louis Pasteur around a modern medical center, or take Henry Ford for a ride one of today’s horseless carriages!  Can you imagine the incomprehension, the astonishment they would have—and how little they would understand about what they saw or experienced! 

You've got to be kidding!

Similarly, consider this for a minute:  For a firm today to take deliberate measures to register a domain name like ThisCompanySucks.com would be such a foreign idea to executives as little as a decade ago—when social media was barely a hazy idea, much less a well-formed concept. 

In our professional life-times, if you’d gone into a corporate suite even ten years ago and said to the CEO, “I think we should register the domain site ThisCompanyIsNoGood.com,” I believe that he or she would have two things to say.  The first response would be, “Are you out of your mind?”  The second thing said would be even more direct:  “You’re fired!”

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Follow Keith's biz blog on Twitter for updates and see more of what he's reading about on his Facebook Page. If you are inclined, you can write him at kmurray@bryant.edu.