Crisis Management Can Help Avoid Public Relations Nightmares

When the phone rang at midnight, I knew something was wrong. The caller was a spokesperson for a large, public technology company based in Silicon Valley: “We’re filing for bankruptcy in the morning. I wanted to let you know. We’re announcing it at 7:00 AM EST. Get the word out.” I quickly wrote up a story for my web site and tipped off Reuters and the Associated Press that the announcement was coming. By the time the company announced its bankruptcy, the news was already on the wire, and something bigger was going down in the sector. A public relations nightmare had been averted, but how? (Read more…)

A Dated Controversy

The error was stunning. The results were more stunning.

On Monday morning shares of UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, plummeted more than 75% at one point. The company’s market capitalization, or the combined value of all its outstanding shares, fell by almost $1.2 billion in a period of just 15 minutes. (Read more…)

Does Visibility Equal a Good Reputation?

“I know I got a bad reputation/ And it isn’t just talk, talk, talk” — from “Bad Reputation” by Freedy Johnston

Leafing through The Wall Street Journal the other day, I came across a story entitled, “Ranking Corporate Reputations.” The article was related to Harris Interactive’s seventh annual RQ (reputation quotient) report, and I was curious to see what companies topped, and bottomed, the list. (Read more…)