From The Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance Journal and Deloitte: At what point does business-as-usual turn into a corporate crisis? It’s not always clear, and executives might treat the first signs of a crisis—not realizing the magnitude—with complacency. Confounded by stress responses and human behavioral factors, an organization can lose precious time if executives […]
By Fiona Parker & Alec Peck: Data breaches are now so common that it’s hard to keep up. In any given week there are reports of attacks across all sectors and geographies. At the time of writing the Yahoo! data breach could potentially involve up to a mind boggling 1 billion users. By the time […]
[By Stephanie York, J.D., Hennes Communications] Companies and other organizations limit liability by insuring most, if not all, of their assets: buildings, furniture, vehicles, the health of employees, the health of visitors and more. And while some insurance policies now offer “crisis communications coverage,” allowing the insured to engage the services of a specialized firm like […]
From The National Association of Corporate Directors and The Wall Street Journal: As a host of threats continue to mount against organizations, more boards are weighing a broader, more proactive approach to crisis management. This is a positive development: in doing so, these boards are opening the door to adding significant value and stability to the organizations they oversee. Boards are uniquely […]
From The Atlantic CityLab: In October, the ACLU released emails showing that a social media monitoring company called Geofeedia had tracked the accounts of Black Lives Matter protesters for law enforcement clients. The revelations of social media spying made headlines and led Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to cut off Geofeedia’s access to bulk user data (which in […]
[By Bruce Hennes, Managing Partner, Hennes Communications, and Keynote Speaker, American Public Power Association Legal & Regulatory Conference, 2016] It’s not just terrorist attacks, explosions, active shooters, and environmental disasters. More often than not, it’s going to be sexual misconduct, data theft, unfair labor practices, OSHA complaints, mergers & acquisitions, layoffs, accusations, or employee fraud […]
We’ve said it time and time again: Volkswagen doesn’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. The latest news from Germany compounds that. http://www.nytimes.com/…/inquiry-in-emissions-scandal-widen…
In the last issue of Crisis Management Today, we offered “The Basics of Saying ‘I’m Sorry’” with reference to Peter Sandman. You can find those basics below. But in this issue, we introduce another way of looking at apology, this time from Rabbi Richard Block, who writes: Genuine repentance has 3 basic components: recognizing and […]
From Poynter: Open microphones have often left politicians and other powerful people red-faced and apologetic. But The Washington Post’s decision Friday to publish a video of Donald Trump explaining how he kissed and groped women pushed some newsrooms to dance around the graphic language while others took it public unedited. Because Trump’s attitude toward women […]
Why are organizations punished in the Court of Public Opinion for violating ethical principles when they have not broken any law? Dr. Peter Sandman, a preeminent risk communications expert, says when an issue sparks outrage (and we see plenty of organizations pilloried in social media by outraged trolls every day), society becomes desperate to blame […]