Sandy Burgham: Long, hard road to find the perfect CEO, mate

Sometimes the good folk at the Herald say to me words to the effect of, "Oh, you can't talk about that, that's no longer a news story, that's so last week".

But I am hoping that the issue of John Davy, the Milli Vanilli of broadcasting, and Derek Fox, the defensive chairman who cried Maori-bashing, won't disappear into the ether as just another Maori television scandal, now that the whole thing is moving mysteriously into the realms of being just another police matter.

While Millennium People's dumbfounded declarations of extensive reference checks have been laughable, even entertaining, the accountability still does not rest with them alone.

I don't really understand how this board has the audacity to think that they should be absolved of responsibility for such an appointment, and for this waste of time and taxpayers' money, when it clearly lies with them.

It took a few days before the chairman even ventured to suggest that he might throw in the towel. Was this because by then he realised it was a safe assumption that there was no one else in this country who would want the position anyway?

And why is the New Zealand public not calling for heads to roll?

Sure, I hear whisperings under the breath of many Kiwis who are afraid of saying anything in case it comes across as Maori-bashing.

But, although New Zealand has not escaped its quota of rednecks, in this instance, the term "Maori-bashing" is as annoying and diversionary as when those irritating senior female executives claim the only reason they were fired was because of their gender, when they were clearly and simply incompetent.

To appoint a firm with the somewhat cheesy name of Millennium People is almost a crime for starters.

The typeface is enough to get one panicking ,as is the lack of substance on its website (which insists on using the word "people" in quotations, as if they are using the term loosely).

But more to the point, where was the "emotional intelligence" in all of this? These days, the softer factors, such as intuition, people's ability to judge character and be reasonable, can be seen as valid management skills.

So where was the board's gut feeling, let alone Millennium People's?

If John Davy is the type of character willing to appear on our most critical and beloved current affairs show only to announce he was on the Witness Protection Programme, one wonders what other warning signals had previously been sent out that something was seriously amiss with him.

Many people have been in situations where they've been taken for a ride by bogus CVs and over-enthusiastic recruitment consultants hungry for the next commission cheque.

I've employed some real doozies in my time. But one would expect a totally fabricated past of someone at CEO level to be easily flushed out.

So whatever Millennium People spent thousands of dollars on is a total mystery - one thing is for sure, it certainly wasn't the toll bill to Canada.

A start-up operation must be the most difficult in broadcasting, particularly in a small market, in which media are already fragmented and competitive.

She's a hard road to find the perfect CEO, mate. But one would have thought a good start would have been an appreciation of the country of operation and, failing that, broadcasting experience might have helped.

John Davy seems to have bungy-jumped through the gaping cracks of the Maori Television method of operation with no broadcasting experience. Neither did he have any real sensitivity to the nuances of Kiwi-ness, let alone Maori-ness. And he had no inkling that the rest of New Zealand is not as gullible as the people who appointed him to the job.

Which takes us right back to square one as to who made the call to get this character, this non-ethnic outsider to lead the vision for the most indigenous television channel in New Zealand.

Now that I have got that off my chest, I must accept the comment from Hone Harawira that the best defence to the criticism is to get the channel to air successfully. Good call.

But just one thing. What does this actually mean?

One does get the feeling that no matter how many more scandals the resilient board will endure, Maori Television will never fail since we don't really have any idea how one judges whether it is a success or not.

If it is ratings, exactly what ratings will be deemed lousy?

I guess, like the secret identity of John Davy, that's just something we will never know.