James Strong’s famous bow tie made its first appearance in the 1980s and he was still wearing it decades later, such as at the Qantas annual general meeting in 1998.
It was in the 1980s that business leader James Strong discovered the power of the bow tie – an idiosyncratic quirk that set him apart in a sea of power suits.
At the time, probably only the occasional lawyer and architect would pair the bow tie with a business suit, signalling to the world that they were not quite as colourless as their colleagues.
Strong was new to the job heading up airline TAA in around 1985 when he came into the office to prepare for a round of media interviews designed to position him in the public’s mind as the new “face” of the company.
“He came into the office and he was wearing a bow tie, and asked us if we thought it would be all right for the interviews,” says public relations doyen Phil Burford, who was head of TAA public relations at the time.
“I don’t know if he had worn one before, but we had never seen him do it,” says Burford, now chairman of the Icon Communications group of companies.
“The TV interview went very well and he started wearing a bow tie for all his media activity. And then he started wearing one all the time.”
TAA later went on to produce a bow tie in the company colours of blue and yellow as a corporate give-away.
The adoption of the bow tie made Strong instantly recognisable to the public, and he was rarely mentioned in the press without a reference to it.
In terms of personal branding, it was a winner – a little like Virgin founder Richard Branson’s beard (and penchant for throwing women into water), Microsoft founder Bill Gates’s cardigans, or the glasses Dick Smith used to wear when he owned the electronic chain of stores.
Burford says his next boss, the then CEO of Nissan Australia, Ivan Deveson, also “worked” his signature braces.
“We would get him to do an interview or presentation with his jacket off and in his braces because he was in manufacturing. It looked like he was an executive in a manufacturing business.
“Using those visual cues works well for senior executives,” Burford says.
James Strong was appointed to the Qantas board in 2006 as a non-executive director, after his time as CEO and managing director between 1993 and 2001.
He was previously appointed to the airline’s board in 1991.
From BRW by Fiona Smith