Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (9/23):
Arthur, your last sentence summed it up well. However, we do know that some subjects become the "stories du jour" and are cooked up into non-stop food for public consumption. Excuse the mixing of metaphors, but that is precisely what a lot of media have done All the concentrated mix of talking heads from BP cannot alter the sad facts of what has occurred, though we have had a good run of claims and counterclaims...but, most of all, so many have become the wise counsellors here and elsewher. As usual, astute commentary. Identity:
Wes Pedersen (9/27):
Excellent points. I thought, years ago, that the CEO had to be the point man and spokesman during any crisis. Only he or she would have the authority right now to answer media and a howling mad public. At this point I believe that major companies need a crisis-ready team, each member able to take on questions when the media and public were demanding answers. It is silly, in hindsight, to expect a CEO to be capable of disarming all questions.
Ron Levy (9/28):
There's no "natural course" for a crisis. It often lasts until the company is punished, often far too severely because of PR failure, or until company allies is the media and in public life point out all the good things the public has been doing for the public--and that ALL companies have accidents but not all companies do such good deeds.
Also that corrective steps have already begun 24/7. The public is unwilling to judge a company too harshly if the public knows--because of PR done before trouble--that the company (a) protects human life with its products and research grants, (b) creates jobs, (c) pays large sums in taxes that our government uses to help the public, (d) has a speakers bureau that helps guide high school students, (e) has a recycling programs that helps protect our environment, and (f) much more. The public judges companies not only by what they do wrong but also by what they do RIGHT and importantly for the public, at least after the trouble. So companies that do Preventive PR --and prompt Remedial PR--suffer less, and their crises are shorter, than companies that don't. Art is right that the CEO is not a good choice to be the spokesperson. CEOs can try to do this, or to write their own ads or do their own legal work and accounting but it's not crazy to use specialists in PR, advertising, law and accounting.
Art is also right that it's a mistake to have the CEO keep apologizing. Every apology is an admission of guilt but it will cheer the public more, and do more for the company, if the CEO and others does a series of not apologies but announcements of measures to make the public safer and happier. BP like most copanies is most assuredly not guilty of a "self-inflicted crisis situation."
If the crisis is an accident, ALL companies have accidents and they are accidental, not self-inflicted. If the CEO is accused of seeking romance outside of marriage, which divorce lawyers and judges say tens of MILLIONS of Americans have done, that's an individual's choice, not "self- inflicted" by the company, just as a football star's driving while impaired is not a fault of his team and a journalist who drinks too much is not a living condemnation of journalism.
The proof of PR effectiveness, even when there is terrible fault, is that makers of cigarettes, which murder another 400,000 Americans every year, are not in jail but on lovely estates and in our most lavish hotels and restaurants.
Many tip well, serve on community boards ad are highly regarded by the public. PR power can do this if a management retains top PR talent to tell the company's good points--hopefuly now before the grave accusations that come to nearly all. I have urged backing medical research.
Companies that do this--millions a year for reserarch centers like Stanford, Cleveland Clinic and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center--are a whole lot safer than companies that don't. The public wants donor companies not to be injured so that the "good deed" money doesn't stop. The corporate hero is safer than the company not known for much except the charges.
The danger in the saying, "all possible dollars to the stockholders," is that it may become a corporate epitaph. It's better to be generous, to live and let live. Although extremist activists are numerous, no one throws rocks at the ice cream truck.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (9/28):
Ron, we have spent more than a billion dollars selling two winless wars in the Middle East, and thatis money not well spent. PR effectiveness cannot cover up the truth forever. As to the cigarette makers, like the drug kings, they did not kill anhone who did not like what and use what they had and have to offer. Their lies were in putting white coats on people as if the medical profession endorsed that stuff. But you do have a point about PR effectiveness, including the kind of treasonous activities carried on before and even during WWII by Henry Ford, the duPonts and media types like Pegler, Cougholin and Fulton Lewis Jr...all of whom got "cleansed" by PR.
Ron Levy (9/28):
Joe, trying to win against people who want to kill us is like trying to save a patient who seems likely to die. You try, and with God's help you may be successful. What's the alternative? Let the patient die? Let would-be killers of American civilians try more things to kill us? In war and in fighting would-be killers, there's no guarantee of victory but common sense guarantees that if you're smart you'll make one hell of a good effort--and perhaps triumph. Some might have estimated that Israel couldn't possibly stop the suicide bombers who were killing busloads of schoolchildren but those bus bombers have been largely stopped. You try. If you're religious, you also pray. You may be successful. It's like finding a new job in a tough market. If you try, you may achieve success as many do but if you don't try, you can't chieve success.
[email protected] (9/28):
Thanks Ron & Joe -- History shows that all the PR crises specialists in the world can not cover up or repair the damage or misleading statements done by some industries. Joe -- The names you mention are still tarnished, as they should be, thanks to people like you who are not afraid to remind others. Ron--Those selling "smokes" have never recovered when their lies were exposed, despite the millions they have given to charities. Doing good does not erase the evil. Even changing the name of a company doesn't help.
Also, U.S. auto makers have never recovered from making faulty and unsafe cars. The sad fact is that it took government action to make these companies fess up. Even today, there was a major story about the polluted waters the govt is cleaning up, caused by "profits at all cost" companies.
There are many "good" companies; unfortunately the evil done by the few bad apples tarnish the good done by others. Many years ago, when I had my first PR job, I contacted a Business Week reporter and suggested a story on a client. The client was the shinning example in a "bad" industry. The reporter's answer taught me a lesson. He said: "You want me to do a story because your client didn't break any law? No comapny should break a law."
[email protected] (10/27):
P.S. One Lesson Not Learned is having the CEO --in this case of BP --blame others for overstating the BP problem that resulted in the largest U.S. environmental disaster, as he did today in London. He must be correct because CEOs are never wrong, as we all know. This is a good --very good example --of how to keep the BP PR crisis on the front pages of the media, if your object is to keep on getting negative publicity. |