Interesting debate this was as there was a business that essentially used certain employees as the face of their brand who were always in front of the media and various ad campaigns to the point where customers saw them as a celebrity of some sort. With that comes risk too because when people experience that much success in the public eye then most likely they will demand more for you to keep them there. Or many times too people would take their new found fame elsewhere in hopes to capitalize on the exposure. In some cases, opening a competitor to their original employer.
That then raises the question, should you always hold people back where you fear their fame can backfire on you? I know some companies actually rotate their talent frequently to avoid such a situation where ultimately they still get the job done that they needed and no one is overexposed to the point where they are reliant that one person.
I was just told recently of a story where a company invested heavily in a third party talent to promote their company’s products and unfortunately the person decided to say bad thing things consistently about it afterwards. You can imagine the damage that brings to a brand. Is that the best solution always then where you should never invest too much in anyone? The drawback I would imagine is the person could leave elsewhere anyways due to a lack of support and opportunity. Or because you aren’t investing in someone to become a superstar of sort then other companies that do have such a talent will constantly steal the spotlight.
No such easy answer huh? I think the only balance is have more than one talent that can do what you need encase one decides to part like any other business relationship ending.