Aberdeen, Abrdn – the devaluation of vowels?
It goes without saying that Outsider is an elderly gent who sometimes struggles to keep up with modern practices and idioms.
So, he knows that local Standard Life Aberdeen boss, Brett Jollie, will forgive the grey-haired Outsider for being absolutely, positively, eye-wateringly and abjectly confused about why anyone would want to turn Aberdeen into Abrdn.
Pondering the issue, Outsider wondered whether someone at Aberdeen Central had repeated one of Outsider’s greater misjudgements by employing a journalist who had trouble with both facts and spelling and had compromised by just accepting a total absence of vowels.
Aberdeen is in reasonable proximity to a number of good distilleries so perhaps the vowels got mislaid in the tasting room.
Then he read Standard Life Aberdeen had explained the new identity had been driven not by an over-indulgence in single malt but by a desire to have “a modern, agile and digitally-enabled brand” and wondered whether the undoubtedly high-priced consultants who inspired the exercise were actually numerate rather than literate as opposed to the former Money Management journalist who was neither.
Either way, Outsider takes the view that people who spend big money on a rebranding exercise rarely acknowledge that a mistake might have been made and so he is now keeping his old Aberdeen golf polos in the hope that they become collector’s items.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
Recommended for you
When it comes to a business merger, achieving the voting approval can be just the first step.
When it comes to human interest stories, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is keen to let the organisations it regulates know its staff are more than just faceless automatons.
Outsider is hopeful of the news from advice firm Invest Blue that it is trialling a move to a nine-day fortnight for its staff.
Like most of the financial advice industry, Outsider has spent the week reading through the final report of the Quality of Advice Review.
