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Bravo Delta
I am 1,000,000 mile flyer on Delta Airlines and soon will be one on United once they complete their mergers. But last night, December 7, 2011, I saw something happen in an airport that is absolutely new and amazing. It was a typical flying day,New Yorkwas all messed up, lots of cancellations and holds, and [...]
Cyber Criminals Outsourcing Money-Collecting to Mobile Operators
From Gail Reese, Security Intelligence Analyst at Cox Enterprises through ASIS International: Cybercrime has come a long way since it was mostly a digital form of vandalism. It has developed into a criminal business operated for financial gain and is now worth billions. In its Community Powered Threat Report for Q3 2011, AVG focuses on [...]
Obama’s Own Words Diminish His Leadership
He may have the most negative leadership style since Jimmy Carter. Here’s how he talks (From his speech to the 93rd Annual Convention, American Legion, Minneapolis, August 30, 2011. “Don’t give up! We Americans have been through tough times before, much tougher times than these. And we didn’t just get through them, we emerged stronger [...]
Customer Service is Dying in America, But It Can Be Revived
When you hear companies mindlessly bloviate about their customer service, you really sense the fix is in and you’re interests, needs, concerns and problems are out . . . way out. The relentless and continuing degradation of “customer service” began accelerating about 10 years ago. There seems to be more talk about customers i.e. delighting [...]
Netflix to Customers: Up Yours – Why Phony Corporate Apologies Backfire
As I read Reid Hastings’ letter to customers, in what appeared to be an apology for the price increase mess, my expectations were met immediately with disappointment, then disbelief. Here’s a smart guy who shot a huge torpedo into the guts of his company, watched it blow up, and is still assessing the damages. So, [...]
Chief Integrity Officer is Tailor Made for PR
The PR profession suffers from schizophrenia. On the one hand, PR people want to be at the table making decisions and guiding strategy with the boss in good times and bad. On the other hand, many want to serve as the guiding conscience of their organizations. So far, the record for the profession in either [...]
Overcoming the Five Counterintuitive Effects of Explosive Visibility and Their Corollaries
Whenever a business interest, product, or person is suddenly forced into the limelight, a predictable set of counter-intuitive effects occurs. These effects can be prepared for, often pre-empted or mitigated. The limelight or public visibility can be caused by positive or negative events. Managing sensational visibility depends on anticipation, planning, and preemptive, sensible counteraction: Effect [...]
First Response Strategy: The Golden Hour: A Metaphor for a Successful Response
Most responses in crisis situations fail in the first hour or two. That’s because the most challenging aspect of readiness for urgent situations is the strategy for first response; literally, what you do first, second, third, etc. Problems become emergencies, crises, or disasters due to the hesitation, timidity, and confusion that occurs as the threatening [...]
Murdoch “Apology” Will Only Expand His Crisis Management Problems
Mr. Murdoch is learning the most crucial axiom of crisis management: Bad news ripens badly. This decay continues with the so-called apology statement published and signed by Rupert Murdoch in British newspapers over the weekend, just in time to soften up members of Parliament, before whom he is testifying and being grilled, today.– It is [...]
Tomorrow Is Dying for Rupert Murdoch
James Bond would be extremely proud as he surveys the damage Rupert Murdoch has created for himself. You may recall the Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” featuring actor Jonathan Pryce as the malevolent media mogul, Elliott Carver. The story is loosely based on the actions and companies formed by Robert Maxwell and Mr. Murdoch, whose [...]