Trick or Treat! Outrage Masquerades as Principles in Crisis Management
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 […]
Crisis Management: Faced With Trump’s Relentless Attacks, Ford (Finally) Has A Better Idea
By Thom Fladung Hennes Communications During Monday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump once again made Ford Motor Co. the poster child for corporate flight from America. “So Ford is leaving,” Trump said. “You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They’re all leaving. And we can’t allow it […]
Responding to Reports of Sexual Abuse of Students, Past and Present – The Convergence of Attitudes and Expectations
From our friend and colleague, David Wolowitz… Recently, the responses of independent schools to reports of past abuse of students by faculty have received intense scrutiny by the news media, social media, survivors, victim’s lawyers and alumni. Why is this happening now? I believe we are in a period of cultural change in which there […]
You’re Ready For Your Video Interview. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Don’t like being interviewed on video? Prefer an in-person meeting? Well, according to Chris Brown, Vice President of Human Resources at West Corporation, you are out of luck. Video interviewing is here to stay. Love it (most Millennials) or loathe it (many of the rest of us) we’ve all got to get better at it. […]
Even Hall of Famers Can Fumble Crisis Management
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] Imagine this: You’re running a meeting and you have information that will affect everyone else in that meeting negatively. You decide not to share any of that information during the meeting and prattle on as if nothing is about to change or happen. Except everybody in the conference room finds out […]
Ryan Lochte’s Apology is Clear: He Doesn’t Realize What He Has Done Wrong
Let’s say you’re a guest in someone’s home. You and your friends are invited to a dinner at which the hosts, though cash-strapped, do their level best to put out a nice spread and show you hospitality. You over-serve yourself on their liquor, stagger around drunk and tear a picture off the wall, then unzip […]
The (Epi)Pen is Mightier Than the Sword
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Is it something in the DNA of biopharma CEOs that lights up righteous indignation all over social media and focuses the media spotlight on their self-made crises? Not long ago, I wrote about Turing Pharmaceutical’s 5,000 percent price hike of the toxoplasmosis drug, Daraprim, and the clueless swagger of its […]
Crisis Communications: Too Important Not to Plan For
[by Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] As we try to hold on to the last days of summer, many organizations are well into planning for the year ahead. If your organization’s fiscal year begins on January 1, chances are you’re already hard at work on your budget for 2017. A former boss of mine used […]
Colleges Rarely Apologize for Mishandling Rape Cases, and Survivors are Sick of It
On Monday morning, activist Wagatwe Wanjuki lit a Tufts University sweatshirt on fire, and broadcast it on Facebook Live. She did so in protest, calling on schools like Tufts to apologize for mishandling sexual assault cases. “If they care about ending rape on campus, if they care about justice, then they should be able to do […]
6 Proven Methods of Persuasion
Presentations are a gamble; they’re risky. You invest valuable time and money, but you can’t predict the presentation climate that you will be dealt. You cannot calculate the exact mood of the audience or control all variables of the situation. To succeed, you must be bold, and come prepared with an ace up your sleeve. […]