After the preceding year’s series of corporate-caused crises caused worldwide shakeups, organizations can expect to face extremely heavy government scrutiny in 2010. In a featured article from our latest Crisis Manager newsletter, Mike Kerwin of Levick Strategic Communications discusses this topic: Global financial crisis, high-profile recalls, and climate concerns were …
The very first Crisis Manager of 2010 is up now on our main website, and to start the year off right we’ve got two feature articles from guest professionals along with one from Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein. A great read for anyone who finds themselves knee-deep in crisis …
In crisis management, as in business, it pays to expect the unexpected and be ready when it happens. In the following quote, taken from a recent UK Financial Times article on preparing for crises, PR expert Colin Byrne hits the nail right on the head: The challenge to business leaders …
Presidents get about 210 days to get their vision launched, their dreams in wide circulation, and to marshal their forces to achieve what they set out to accomplish. Then the postmortems begin, coupled with midterm elections. Following the midterms, comes to 24-month effort at reelection. This president has effectively missed …
What you say and how you say it is crucial to crisis management because the way the public and your stockholders perceive your statements holds far more weight than whatever you actually meant to say. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is experiencing this first hand as her department faces major …
The Tylenol brand is no stranger so recall crisis management – their handling of the so called “Tylenol Murders,” in 1982, wherein an unknown person inserted poisoned capsules into store bottles, is still upheld as an example of how to handle a crisis response and product recall successfully – and …
In today’s tech-fueled world, service outages can cause a crisis faster than you can possibly imagine as disgruntled users turn to social media and other highly visible outlets to voice their frustrations. The makers of the BlackBerry, RIM, are no strangers to this issue, having suffered through several high profile …
Crises can strike quickly and vary widely in both scope and type, but there are some general rules that hold fast for nearly every case. An article, posted today on suite101.com, a marketing and PR site, discusses some of these steps, including one which I consider to be vital to …
HP computers are racist? Who knew? In a humorous video that went viral on YouTube over the weekend, two sales associates point out a flaw in HP’s facial recognition software, which apparently fails to recognize black people. While the video’s creators, Wanda Zamen and Desi Cryer, say they originally made …
Last summer, the American branch of Mensa faced one of the biggest crises in their history when news organizations latched onto the fact that the man responsible for a Washington, D.C. shooting had briefly been a member. An article was recently posted on the The Center for Association Leadership website …
Prevention is the most effective form of crisis management because, if executed well, it can stop a situation from becoming a crisis at all. Social media can be very useful in this role, as this quote from the FreshNetworks blog demonstrates: I have a client who once said to me: …
The Internet is invaluable for crisis management because of the sheer number of communications channels which it provides. These channels do, however, require some planning to use effectively, as this quote from a Digital Stuffing post explains: Crisis planning is not something that should be left to a crisis. It …
There have been at least two major structural changes in how and why the media cover companies: the first is related to the rise of shareholder coalitions, and the second is the continued advance of Internet-based communications. These two trends are catching many in top management by surprise. Organized labor, …
Often, it appears that the media has a double standard when it comes to what is deemed newsworthy. When the person involved is a celebrity, athlete, or some other polarizing figure, what would normally not even be a blip on the radar suddenly becomes the target of a media blitz. …
This past week saw American Airlines suffering through a slew of bad press as a result of a stewardess, who clearly needed a mental health day, berating a passenger for asserting that he was indeed allowed to have orange juice as a part of his first class package. This quote …
