I was reading something in the news this morning and I realised it was another one of those stories that don’t explicitly say it, but they imply that I should be outraged. 
It was a piece online about the AJ Hackett company - the outfit that began here in New Zealand with a bungy jump in Queenstown and has since gone global with operations all over the show. 
One of the countries it operates in is Russia, and the gist of the story I saw this morning is that the company intends to keep operating there. 
The headline said: “AJ Hackett International plans to keep operations in Russia”. But what it was actually saying was: “AJ Hackett International not pulling out of Russia”. See what I mean? 
Now since Vladimir Putin began his appalling invasion of Ukraine - and it is appalling - we’ve seen company after company falling over themselves to show solidarity with Ukraine. And to do that, they’ve been shutting the doors on their operations in Russia. 
New Zealand company Mainfreight did it this week. Joining the likes of Coca-Cola, Apple, Netflix, Shell, Visa, Mastercard, KPMG…one list I saw had 124 companies on it. All the big names. All pulling out of Russia. 
Mainfreight didn’t get a mention on this list, by the way - not that I was expecting to see it. 
But back to the story I saw this morning about AJ Hackett Bungy, saying it had no plans to pull out of Russia, which got me thinking whether shutting up shop in Russia is just becoming the “done thing”, as opposed to being the “right thing”. 
I think companies are doing it largely because it’s become the “done thing”. But is it the right thing? 
The reason I say that is because how many of these companies have thought about the impact their decisions are having on the citizens of Russia? The people who work for them and who depend on them for a living. 
All of these people had nothing to do with the decision to invade Ukraine. Some of them will be supporting it, some of them will be opposed to it. 
But they’re not the villain here. But they’re the ones who stand to lose the most from these companies pulling out. 
And so that’s why I wasn’t appalled when I read that AJ Hackett plans to keep operating in Russia. Because, without wanting to sound too cynical, I think some of these outfits pulling out are doing it to protect their brand as much as anything. 
That’s how things work these days. Brands, companies, businesses - whatever you want to call them - are terrified of being associated with anything that could harm their reputations. 
And so you can see why they’re pulling out of Russia in their droves. 
That’s brand association. Just like sponsors pulling out of TV shows or radio shows if things get a bit controversial. Brand association. You don’t want to be associated with negative stuff, just the positive stuff. 
It has become just as important - if not more important - than brand awareness. 
And that’s why we need to ask: Are these companies pulling out of Russia doing it because they don’t see much of a market in Russia anymore? 
Or are they doing it because, down the track, they don’t want to be labelled ‘the outfit that stuck with Putin.’ 
Well, with 150-odd million people in Russia, there’s still a market there. So that’s not the reason. 
The reason they’re doing it, is that they don’t want to be seen to be supporting Putin by sticking around. They’re doing it for themselves. They’re certainly not doing it for the Russian people. 
This headline in the New York Times puts it brilliantly. “Putin’s getting sanctioned but Russia’s getting cancelled”. 
Another way of putting it is Putin’s getting punished, but the Russian people are paying the penalty.

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