[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] The first of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to be prepared. Next: How to get involved. John Kroll has some advice about news story online comments for folks in charge of their organizations’ reputations: Know the water before you jump […]
Stereotypes are tough to challenge or break. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive director, school superintendent, hospital administrator, businessperson, consultant or one of a thousand other job titles, the usual, and unfortunate, model of gravitas and accomplishment is the 60-year-old, gray-haired male. Especially when it “hits the fan,” clients look for both the familiar, the trustworthy – […]
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Flint, and, in particular, the governor’s office in Michigan, don’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. Sure, they need to talk to their stakeholders, quickly, clearly and with honesty and transparency. A skilled crisis communications firm can help them with that, especially when it […]
When someone added cyanide to Tylenol capsules in the Chicago area in 1982, killing seven people, Johnson & Johnson, owner of Tylenol was faced with an unprecedented crisis. How they handled that situation is still the gold standard for corporate crisis management. Today, the “gold standard” for how to not handle a crisis continues to be Volkswagen. […]
The second of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to get involved and set the record straight. Previously: How to be prepared before the comments start. For years, as The Plain Dealer’s Online Editor, John Kroll spent time in the online comment boards attached to most news stories. He […]
From InsuranceJournal.com: Within hours of a deadly mining spill in November that would become Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie was in front of a camera offering his sympathies to those affected. Meanwhile, his counterpart at joint venture partner Vale SA, Murilo Ferreira, took nearly a week after the mine wastewater […]
From the Harvard Business Review: All of us, at some point or another, are asked to break the rules at work. It may be a small action, like rounding up or down in an accounts ledger, or a small inaction, like looking the other way while others do so. It may be a one-time request, […]
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Unless your organization was incredibly lucky this past year, either something bad happened to you, or you – or someone associated with you – did something bad to someone else. Even though we work with clients in crisis virtually every day, we are constantly amazed by the never-ending variety of […]
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications Spin back 20 years or so. Was anyone in your office talking about “active shooter” training? Were school closings because of anonymous threats a common occurrence? What was it like back then getting on your flight at the airport? Americans’ fears about an imminent terrorist attack haven’t changed much over […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] Saying “I’m sorry” can pay off – psychologically, because it’s the right thing to do, and literally, because it may get you or your business out of a tough spot while saving money and your reputation. Last month, I wrote about how an organization’s apologies also say a lot about […]