Tiger Wood’s fall from grace has also revealed an oxymoronic weakness in technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture, which just dropped Woods as both its primary endorser and brand symbol. A current Ad Age article explains: If only the $23 billion consulting giant could have brought in outside help to …
Tiger’s Mistakes
Tiger Wood’s crisis management, or lack thereof, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism since his car accident early November 27. Since then he has mostly allowed others to control his story, and, as we often tell our readers, that is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can …
Preparing for the Unpredictable
Regardless of whether your organization is a small business or a multi-national corporation, planning how to prevent and respond to crises can greatly reduce their impact. An article from the O&P Business News which prominently quotes Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein, has more to say on the subject: Preparing …
Major Bimbos
Merrie Spaeth’s Bimbo Awards are always good for a look at what not to do when you find yourself in need of some crisis management, and this month she found some real doozies in the media, including this one, which she (very appropriately) placed in her “Wrong Things to Say” …
Tunnel Vision
While the onset of a crisis can be devastating, it will only hurt your business further if you develop tunnel vision and put a halt to everything in order to handle the issue. This quote from part three of a five-part blog series by The Wordmonger, a professional PR group, …
Moms vs Target
Recently, Mary Martinez was told that it was illegal to breastfeed her baby by security guards inside of a Michigan Target store. When she refused to leave, store security called the local police, who confirmed that what the woman was doing was 100% legal. While both of these acts were …
Technology in Crisis Management
Technology has an ever-growing presence in crisis management, making it possible to take control of situations in ways never before imagined. The cell phone has been key in greatly enhancing communications, but if you are not properly prepared then the expectation that anyone, anywhere can be contacted at a moments …
Crisis at the White House – Party Crashers
[Here’s a guest commentary from Andrew Gilman, President & CEO, CommCore Consulting] The nearly-famous (will they soon become infamous?) Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia reality-TV aspiring couple who crashed the White House state dinner last week, present crisis communications challenges for a number of parties (sic). Start with, but …
Brand Disasters
One important lesson for crisis managers is that the news media demand a “shorthand” way of identifying any story, and a company brand is a very convenient option, especially in a crisis. Witness the “BP Texas Fire”, the “Tylenol disaster”, the “Intel Pentium chip” failure, and the “Firestone tyre” scandal. …
The H1N1 Effect
In the first two years after the term “Swine Flu” was used to describe the illness that mutated and jumped to humans from pigs, the U.S. Pork Industry suffered losses estimated to be in excess of $5 billion. This despite the reality that what came to be known more frequently …
New Crisis Manager Newsletter
We’ve just uploaded a brand new Crisis Manager newsletter to our website! This issue features an article by BCM President Jonathan Bernstein, which uses the negative effects swine flu has had on businesses as a launching point to discuss ways to prevent consumers making decisions about your product based on …
My Take on Tiger Reported Accurately in Toronto Star
Toronto Star sports columnist Dave Feechuk did a nice job of getting a cross-section of perspectives on Tiger Woods’ driving mishap in a piece today called “Tiger Hurt by Bunker Mentality.” Quoted me accurately, too (thanks Dave, always appreciated!). One of my comments that didn’t make the cut for the …
KeepVault — Impressive and Low-Cost Online Backup Service
I’ve long advocated the use of online backup systems for personal and business purposes. Your location may burn to the ground or be rendered inaccessible by disaster, but you’ll still be able to retrieve your files. Such systems have become increasingly low-cost and user-friendly, and the best one we’ve found …
Tiger’s Drive
When handling a crisis, it is always in your best interest to control your own story. If one declines to do this, then it’s guaranteed that someone else will do it for you. The torrent of rumors and speculation surrounding Tiger Wood’s recent car accident is a perfect example of …
Technology Making it Harder for Wrongdoers to Hide
The best tools are always created out of necessity, and the technology era has done nothing but speed up that process. A new mesh of technologies called Ushahidi, which means witness in Swahili, is bettering lives by allowing users to map evidence of human rights abuses, violent happenings, spread of …