What Have We Learned from COVID-19?
As regular readers of this newsletter know, one of our regular correspondents is Peter M. Sandman, one of the world’s preeminent risk communications consultants. Another way we describe him to our clients is that he is our go-to guy when it comes to risk communications. Recently, Dr. Sandman was interviewed by Impact, a publication of […]
You Took a PPP Loan. Now Get Ready to Talk About It.
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications EDITOR’S NOTE: On the morning of Monday, July 6, the SBA released a database with the names and information for all entities that received a PPP loan of $150,000 or more. You can download that list here. At this time, it is unclear if and when the names of those […]
Crisis Comms: Saying Nothing is the Worst Strategy
From Greg Friese, writing for PoliceOne.com… t has been more than a week since mass protests and riots erupted in dozens of cities in the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd. In the days that followed, public safety leaders expressed their grief for Floyd, condemnation of the four former officers, and discussed their […]
Science vs. Politics
When the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine became available ten years ago, at first the scientists and other public health experts said that pregnant women should immediately get the vaccine. Then they said it should be administered to those over 65 years of age, then it was anyone who was immunocompromised, with changing death projections and […]
What Customers Need to Hear from You During the COVID Crisis
From Jill Avery and Richard Edelman, writing for the Harvard Business School… As the COVID-19 virus pandemic began to sweep across the world, Doug McMillon and his team at Walmart watched in horror. Suddenly, they realized, tomorrow would be nothing like “business as usual” and everything in the company’s marketing plan, from retail execution to […]
The Importance of Understanding and Fulfilling the Duty of Reasonable Care When Reopening School
From our good friend, David Wolowitz at McClane Middleton. While aimed primarily at independent schools, there are some good nuggets here for public schools. Independent schools planning to have students return to school before there is a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus are understandably concerned about potential liability if a returning student becomes severely ill […]
Crisis Communication: 5 Steps for Damage Control
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications, writing for The Wisconsin Lawyer: Attorney Andy Phillips, like many folks, looks back a bit wistfully at the “good old days.” “I wish it was back in the day where I could go home at 6 o’clock and sit down with the paper for a half hour,” says Phillips, whose […]
Making Customers, Clients, Patients & Diners Wear Face Masks
First, they said don’t wear masks. Then they said it was OK to wear masks. And now they’re telling us we must wear masks. In what felt like a matter of days, mask-wearing went from horribly selfish to ethically and in many cases legally obligatory. For many of our readers, there’s now a new problem […]
How Your COVID-19 Communications Can Prepare Your Company to Talk About Any Crisis
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications It may feel like ages ago now, but think back to when you first began to deal with how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect your business. You scrambled an internal team to communicate minute-by-minute changes about how the business would adapt. How your employees should work at home. How they […]
Board Leadership and Performance in a Crisis
From the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance: Every industry across the globe has faced a crisis at some point in time. While most large companies survive, many struggle for years following a period of severe adversity. Others prevail and become stronger than before. How companies address crises has changed over time, as has […]