Shut them down

Early one morning. Breakfast time. A couple of clearly very senior managers from one of the global networks are sitting in one of the most popular meeting points of the upper echelons of the Marketing Services world. They are openly discussing what to do about one of their brands. It is a once prestigious agency that has fallen upon hard times. The options are:
1) Shut it down
2) Roll it into one of their other brands
3) Give it one last chance (which it appears from the outside, to be a decision that has been taken several times before.)
Some time later Campaign announced the arrival of a new CEO and so the agency seems to have been given one last chance one more time.
Whilst most of these entries are meant to be amusing, this one is a little more serious. Our world often moans about not being treated with the respect of the likes of McKinsey et al. But would they sit in a room that was more likely than not to be full of their competitors and have a discussion like that? No they wouldn't. And if people as senior as the ones we overheard were happy to be so indiscreet is there any chance of improvement?
But that's enough of that. Our world would be a much duller place if it weren't for it failings. We wouldn't be able to write this blog, for a start.