He started out with MFI Furniture, spent five years in ad agencies
and then moved to Sony PlayStation as head of marketing. Now Geoff
Glendinning is a partner in Third Planet International, a marketing
agency whose recent assignments range from creating a logo for the
Ministry of Sound to pan-European ad campaigns.
Geoff meets a lot of people and admits: ’It is an unfortunate part of
human nature that we form an initial opinion of people based on our
first impressions. I say unfortunate because in business we want to work
with good people but it is often difficult to tell whether a person is
genuine or just looks good at what they do.
’My old managing director at Sony used to say ’perception is reality’
and, although the statement used to annoy me a bit, it is absolutely
true.
My personal translation is that there are a lot of people who appear to
be good at what they do but are not. But it is difficult to tell the
good from the bad and it takes time for an accurate opinion to be
formed.
’So how can you tell if someone is genuine? There is no simple answer.
It takes time. But the best advice I was ever given is that eye contact
is essential when talking and listening to people. So if you are at a
function and you are in conversation with someone who is continuously
looking over your shoulder, then add them to your git list.’
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