Valuable Information

Social media has become an integral part of the business world, and in its short life we've already created many rules for how it should be used. While many of them are debatable, this one, from a Social Media Examiner article, stands true for all:

Provide value. That’s it. In social media it’s all too easy to unfollow, unfriend or unsubscribe from someone who’s not providing value. Every tweet, status update, blog post, video, or check-in should provide value to your audience.

Value means different things to different people. Your value may be in creating thought leadership blog posts. It might be in always posting links to great resources. Or it might be creating irreverent, sarcastic or even off-color commentary on what’s going on in your audience’s lives. The key is to just keep providing that value to your audience.

By providing value, people will be more apt to follow and listen to what you say. The result of this is that when it comes time to use social media for PR, marketing, or crisis management your audience will be ready and waiting.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Reputation Management Is Like...

I've heard of reputation management being compared to many things, but this amusing metaphor from a Conversational Marketing article really takes the cake (or maybe cuts the cheese...):

Reputation management is like farting in an elevator: The more time you spend on an elevator, the more likely you are to make your neighbors' eyes water. And the more time your brand is online, the more likely it is that you'll find yourself in a reputation management pickle.

Successful reputation management is about being prepared to deal with this inevitable pickle. With a solid plan in place, stakeholders' concerns can be addressed quickly and efficiently in whatever arena they were voiced, hopefully not only solving that individuals issue but also garnering positive attention from others. While preventing their eyes from watering.

Irreverently Yours,

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Plan? What Plan?

Oil giant BP has been blasted from one corner of the Internet to the other, not to mention the thousands of traditional media reports covering their poor performance following the Gulf oil spill. In a recent BusinessInsurance.com article, several PR professionals were asked what went wrong with BP's plan (or lack thereof), including BCM President Jonathan Bernstein, who had this to say:

“BP is crisis planning on the fly,” Mr. Bernstein said. “It's clear that they didn't have a crisis response plan in place before this happened, even though this is something that is predictable in their line of work and that is inexcusable.”

Perhaps further compounding the problem is BP's failure to bring in outside help early on in the process, Mr. Bernstein said, adding that if the company had an adequate crisis plan in place, one of the steps would have been to bring in the top five experts in the field, get them on-site and then “brag” about the fact that they have the top people working on the job.

When trouble rears its ugly head, it quickly becomes clear whether an organization has prepared a crisis management plan or not. In BP's case, failing to plan for a tragic but predictable crisis has caused damage to its reputation and the environment that the company will be battling for years to come.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Don't Touch!

When ABC7's Dan Noyes headed out to cover a public Laguna Honda Hospital meeting as part of a controversial investigative report he may well have expected to encounter resistance. What he found, though, surprised even the experienced reporter.




In just over three minutes, Laguna Honda Chief of Community Relations Marc Slavin single-handedly created a crisis management nightmare. His actions, which were recorded by both television cameras and cellular phone, and swiftly published to YouTube, have not only sullied his organization's reputation but elevated the local-level story of Laguna Honda's alleged misuse of funds to national prominence.

The good news?  We'll be able to use this as a "what not to do" example in our media training sessions for years to come!

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

WikiLeaks Makes the Worst-Case Worse

Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best is a core philosophy of crisis preparedness.

Unfortunately, because of the Internet, the "worst" keeps getting...worse.

The latest example is the site WikiLeaks, which takes the notion of the I-Reporter to a whole new level. A quote from the Washington Post explains:

For an organization dedicated to exposing secrets, WikiLeaks keeps a close hold on its own affairs. Its Web site doesn't list a street address or phone number, or the names of key officers. Officially, it has no employees, headquarters or even a post office box.

Yet, about 30 times a day, someone submits a sensitive document to this cyber-whistleblower to be posted online for all to see. Politicians' private e-mails, secret CIA reports, corporate memos, surveillance video -- all have been fair game.

With the popularity of Web reporting continuing to grow and the stunning number of cameras and recording devices found on the average person, organizations absolutely must prepare crisis management plans that anticipate their darkest secrets being exposed to a worldwide audience.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Informing Employees

It's clear that organizations need a crisis management plan for dealing with the media and their stakeholders outside the company. The party that many overlook, though, is their own employees. Why is this so important, and how do you do it? This quote from a Communicate Magazine article explains:

The ire of the public can hit hard. So how does the internal communicator counteract the negative messages coming from outside the organisation? How hard is it to keep up employee morale when the employer is the media’s bête noire or the public’s whipping boy? How should internal communicators make sure their version of events gets heard, in the face of negative reporting?

Firstly, organisations need to reassure employees with strong leadership. “Getting buy-in from senior management, but also from your employees, is essential to efficiently align all channels of communication,” says Sheila Parry, founder and managing director of internal communications agency theblueballroom. “It’s important that your employees are engaged with the organisation behind a common goal, a shared vision. Explaining these goals in the context of the business world and the industry in which the organisation operates will create real meaning for your employees. If you’ve achieved that, you should be able to weather most crises and, in the end, it could actually be work out to be something positive for the organisation.”

Remember, employees not only help run the business, but each of them is a spokesperson for your brand. The more informed and engaged they are, the stronger your organization becomes.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

BP Ignoring Impostor

You would think that BP would be fretting over the hijacking of its brand on Twitter, because, in less than a week, the handle @bpglobalpr  has amassed a following double the size of BP's real feed. But part of the reason the impostor is still going strong is the company hasn't contacted Twitter to take it down, and it might not, BP told Ad Age today.

This quote from an AdAge article describes yet another major crisis management mistake being made by BP in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill. The false @bpglobalpr Twitter account, which is regularly updated with posts lampooning the oil giant, already has more than three times as many followers as the real BP feed and has drawn quite a few posts from furious readers who don't realize it isn't the real deal. If the folks at BP think that ill will created by the impostor on Twitter will stay there, they are sorely mistaken By allowing the account to continue BP is only inviting more reputation damage.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Zappos Markets its Mistake

A sister site of online retailer Zappos.com fumbled more than $1.6 million in the wee hours of Friday morning when a pricing-engine blip inadvertently made every product on that site available for no more than $49.95.

Aaron Magness, director of brand marketing and business development for Zappos Development, said in a blog post that 6pm.com would be honoring purchases made during the glitch, which, he said, took place between midnight and 6 a.m. PT that day.

Although this quote from a CNet.com article does describe a $1.6 million dollar mistake by the folks at Zappos, it also marks what may turn out to be one of the most savvy crisis management moves in recent history. By doing the opposite of what nearly any other business would have done and honoring the erroneous sales, Zappos has built an incredible amount of good will among their existing customers and seized upon the entire situation as an opportunity to further market themselves across both traditional and nontraditional media.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Global Crisis Management

2010 has seen a range of unforeseen events that have wreaked havoc, from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano, which closed down European airspace, to the financial crisis in Greece and the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

These incidents follow the financial crisis that unfolded as a result of a confluence of events that produced consequences few predicted, let alone prepared for. It seems the “unknown unknowns” observed by former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld are becoming more common and their potential consequences more serious.

“Globalization brings a much greater propensity for shocks in one part of the world to cascade through to other parts of the world,” says Rick Cudworth, head of the resilience and testing practice at Deloitte.

This quote from a Financial Times article highlights one of the factors that is constantly pushing crisis management to evolve. As globalization makes it not only possible, but also probable, for crises on one side of the world to affect others, crisis prevention and response planning must be expanded to reach across vast distances, differing languages, cultures and even incompatible technologies.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Manage the Media

There are many variables in crisis management, but one thing that remains consistent is that when things really heat up, the media gets involved. Why is learning to use all forms of media to your advantage a must? This quote from an HFMweek.com article demonstrates the answer:

...how well your company manages the media during a crisis could determine whether your company gets hurt, recovers, or even goes to the wall.  Many companies who do not handle these issues suffer the ultimate fate – the death or reorganization of the company.

The fact is that if you don't communicate to the press immediately, you lose your greatest opportunity to control events. This means that you need to get your message out quickly to prevent falsehoods becoming fact. In the recent insider trading allegations, one company took a week to verify that the accusations related to their employee’s personal trading account, and had nothing to do with his work for the firm. But by that time, the impression had taken root that the firm itself had been involved in dodgy dealings.

As soon as you allow others to control your story (or rather, their version of your story), things begin to spiral downward. Any space you leave will undoubtedly be filled quickly with damaging rumor and innuendo that causes unnecessary reputation damage. In the event of an unpredictable crisis, even a short holding statement will hold back the media onslaught long enough to put a basic plan of action together.  Except for in extremely rare cases, remaining silent will always do more harm than good.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Dear Richard Blumenthal: You're a Liar

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything (Mark Twain)

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar (Abraham Lincoln)

A half-truth is a whole lie (Yiddish Proverb)

Dear Richard Blumenthal,

You're a liar.

Despite the fact that you are Connecticut's leading law enforcer, apparently no one ever taught you the difference between the truth and a lie.

There are four ways to lie in the court of public opinion:

1. By commission -- e.g., saying you served in Vietnam when you haven't.
2. By omission -- e.g., by failing to note that you spent most of the Vietnam years assiduously trying to AVOID military service.
3. By understatement -- e.g., like saying "on a few occasions I have misspoken about my service."
4. By exaggeration -- e.g., “When we returned, we saw nothing like this’’ (when speaking about Vietnam veterans as if you were one of them).

You're four for four.

The only honest thing you could say now is, "I lied, because I wanted people to think more highly of me, and it was wrong then just as it's wrong now to try to put some kind of PR spin on my comments.  I pledge to learn from my mistakes and to never repeat them."

The harder thing to explain to those who have elected you and who you're asking to help you to higher office is why you thought you could get away with the lies in an age where everything is recorded in one form or another.  That, and your current attempts to portray your comments as anything but a lie, call your judgment into question.  Do the people really want to elect someone to any position of trust who both lies and has such obviously poor judgment?  Much less someone who engaged in such lies while serving as Attorney General, someone who should be a role model of honest behavior?

Your behavior also, of course, makes people wonder what else you have lied about.  This morning I read a report that you claimed to be captain of the Harvard Swim Team -- and Harvard says you weren't even on the team.  You must know that at least a dozen investigative reporters and political competitors are now sifting through claims you've made about yourself over the years, looking for inconsistencies.  You have two choices -- out yourself, or have them out you, one revelation at a time.  Tiger Woods learned that one the hard way.

Finally, I want to address you as a fellow Vietnam-era veteran  -- in my case from 1972-77, leaving the service as an NCO (E-5).  I have never found it necessary to claim I served in Vietnam.  I have never found it necessary to exaggerate what I did in the service.  And I did see how poorly both returning Vietnam vets and any of us who served during that period were treated by the American public, and am very proud of how much we revere our men and women in uniform today -- including my son, a graduate of the Navy's Nuclear Power School.

With your lies, Mr. Blumenthal, you dishonor us all.  If you had extended your lies to wearing Vietnam service ribbons or any medal you didn't earn at any point, I believe (and I am not an attorney) you would literally have violated the law -- I recall that being the findings in a California case recently.  If you are asking us to believe that you lied unintentionally, then you are also asking us to believe that you have so little grasp of what's coming out of your mouth that you don't know when you're lying.  You can't have it both ways.

So...dig deep, Mr. Blumenthal, and let's see if you really have a pair.  Stop lying about your lying.

Jonathan Bernstein


[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an industry leading crisis management consultancy, editor of the Crisis Manager newsletter, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay - Media Training.  In his more than two decades as a crisis management professional, he has represented many clients that have been unfairly targeted by Attorneys General whose motives may not have been entirely pure, including Richard Blumenthal.  None of those clients in any way asked him to write this blog post.]

Hayward's Haywire Crisis Management

More than any other time, in the midst of major crises CEO's are seen as the face and voice of their organizations. Because of this, it's important that they possess excellent crisis management and media relations skills. BP CEO Tony Hayward, unfortunately, has been shown to possess neither of those, as illustrated by this quote from a Slate.com article:

For CEOs in crisis, the playbook includes a proper appreciation of the gravity of the situation, a sense of calm urgency, and confidence-building rhetoric backed by confidence-building action. So far, Hayward is zero for three. From the outset, there's been a sense that Hayward wasn't quite prepared for this and didn't quite grasp what is at stake. The Wall Street Journal reported that Hayward "admitted that the oil giant had not the technology available to stop the leak. He also said in hindsight, it was 'probably true' that BP should have done more to prepare for such an emergency."

Through his efforts, Hayward has left a trail of sound bites and "on the record" quotes like the ones above that undoubtedly caused the reporters who captured them to squeal with glee. If there's one lesson you learn from Haywards mistakes, it should be that when the entire world is looking to you for answers it just might be worth hiring a media trainer.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

United Shines

A United Airlines flight from New York made an emergency landing outside Washington after a fire broke out in the plane's cockpit, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The fire aboard the Boeing 757 was extinguished before the plane landed Sunday night and no injuries were reported, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said.

United Airlines spokesman Mike Trevino said the plane took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for Los Angeles and was diverted to Dulles International Airport, where it landed at 9:36 p.m. (0136 GMT) All 105 passengers and seven crew members got off safely, Trevino said. He did not have any other details.

This quote from a News 1130 article describes the frightening ordeal that passengers on a United Airlines flight experienced this past Sunday. According to the article, the flight crew did all the right things to respond to the fire, nobody was harmed, and the plane landed safely. In an industry not always known for its effective  crisis management, United really shined on this one.  Not only were statements made available to the press almost instantly, but passengers reported receiving an email directly from the airline just one hour after the plane landed apologizing for the incident. In the process, United undoubtedly build goodwill not only among those directly affected but also the millions who will hear of their actions.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Tracking Twitter

As a crisis management tool, Twitter has an incredible number of uses, but if your organization wants to make the most of it when trouble comes knocking it needs to be ready. A recent post on the Collective Cloud Consulting blog provides some excellent tips for anyone looking to harness the power of Twitter, including this frequently overlooked step:

Lists. Create separate lists based on the following categories: return customers, occasional customers, prospects, competitors, detractors/critics, and employees. These lists will come in handy when a crisis hits because it allows you to divide your time with most important followers and watch your foes. Also, lists could be used determine the social tones of various followers during your company emergency. The tweets on these same lists can be reviewed after your incident conclusion to improve your preemptive crisis management strategies.

The ability to track and sort stakeholders with ease is one of Twitter's most powerful assets. Take advantage of this and stay in control of your crises.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

BP Says No To Grassroots

The crisis management team at BP is working around the clock, but the oil giant is drawing ire from the public by focusing more on redirecting blame and trivializing the amount of oil actually spilled into the Gulf than ways to clean up the mess. Citizens have been reaching out to BP with offers of grassroots help and new ideas but, as this quote from an AlterNet blog illustrates, the company has paid them little mind:

Heaping on the insults, BP run deepwaterhorizonresponse.org is publishing messages like this to citizen groups trying to lend a hand.

    We are not using hair booms at this time but are using commercially available sorbent boom when possible. In a February 2010 NOAA field test, commercial sorbent boom absorbed more oil and much less water than hair boom. Widespread deployment of hair boom could exacerbate the debris problem. There is adequate supply of sorbent boom for now, but we do encourage ideas of alternative solutions by calling (281) 366-5511.

So far all alternative solutions have been rejected, but that won’t stop groups like Oiled Wildlife Rescue Volunteers, a facebook group started by Amanda Richardson Bacon of Alabama, who are collecting hairbooms and bails of hay to save their local marshes, beaches, and fishing grounds from contamination. BP’s refusal to work with community groups such as these shows they are open only to commercially available resources.

The power of grassroots efforts has been proven many times - refusing this help can only be detrimental to both BP's reputation and the health of our oceans.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Seven Signs

Thanks to the Internet, any crank with access can write something that spreads. If you're managing the reputation of a brand, the factor working in your favor is there is so much material being published that it is the rare message that cuts through the clutter.

But how do you recognize it before it starts doing its damage?

The above quote is from Ike Pigott's article in the most recent Crisis Manager, "Seven Signs and the Jena Six." In the article, Ike, an experienced communications consultant and crisis coach, investigates what exactly causes a topic to "go viral" and began spreading rapidly via non-traditional media. To support his points, he uses the events surrounding the Red Cross' interaction with "Jena Six" protesters to prove his findings apply to real world crisis management. With the use of social media, email and blogs still skyrocketing, having a deep understanding of how and why this phenomenon happens is crucial.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

10 Questions to Ask Your Media Trainer

In a major crisis, stakeholders want to hear what's going on not from a lawyer or hired spokesperson, but straight from the CEO or other appropriate senior organizational exec. Because of this, proper media training is an absolute must-have for organizations who wish to deliver effective messages. Not all media trainers are created equal though, so to help you out Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein has created his"10 Questions to Ask Your Media Trainer." Published in the latest Crisis Manager newsletter, his article should provide insight and instill confidence in anyone seeking help with improving their media skills.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

New Crisis Manager

This week in the Crisis Manager newsletter, now posted on the Bernstein Crisis Management website, BCM President Jonathan Bernstein offers advice on how to choose an experienced and effective media trainer. After that, communications consultant and crisis coach Ike Pigott uses the real life case of the "Jena Six" to demonstrate exactly how and why a topic goes "viral" via social media and the Web.

As always, the bi-weekly Crisis Manager newsletter is available for delivery straight to your Inbox, just click here.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Social Media Stops the Flood

With nearly 100 of its roads closed due to storms and flooding last month, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation couldn't get information out fast enough. To help struggling motorists keep up with the changing conditions, the RIDOT started pumping out updates on Twitter and Facebook on a regular basis. This quote from Ragan.com describes how they did it, along with the results:

“The staff was able to use social media from home, sending links about the RIDOT home page as it was updated,” Nolfe said.

RIDOT got involved with social media in January 2009, but they’ve never seen it put to the test until recently. Nolfe’s happy to report it passed with flying colors.

The flooding has resulted in triple the number of fans for the department’s Facebook page and its Twitter account, @RIDOTNews, has nearly 1,000 followers.

Nolfe said that by consistently using the same Bit.ly-shortened URL for the link to its updates, RIDOT tracked more than 8,000 hits to its home page in a week via social media links alone. The RIDOT home page normally picks up about 2,100 hits per day, but because of the flood of both water and information, it recently peaked at more than 83,000 hits per day.

By already having an established presence on the Web, the RIDOT made their crisis management infinitely more effective. In addition, the department gave itself a fantastic reputation boost by going above and beyond to help the public in their time of need.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Overcoming Crisis

Whether it is a business or individual, how one reacts to crisis can make or break a reputation. MyMidwest Magazine recently interviewed several experts on ways to overcome a disaster, including Bernstein Crisis Management Jonathan Bernstein, who offered this thought:

Jonathan Bernstein, author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay, adds that when crisis response is slow, it can create further damage. “Toyota did a terrible job at handling the recall,” he says. “They waited too long and were not prepared to communicate.”

Except in rare cases, the faster a response can be passed on to your stakeholders, the more effective it will be. Because of that, preparing to do crisis management before you're actually in trouble is one of the best steps anyone can take to protect themselves or their business.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Social Media and Oil Spills

According to a document on its website, as part of the ongoing crisis management measures for the Gulf oil spill the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is monitoring social media platforms where users are posting about the incident. The Eurasia Review reports:

The NOC is only monitoring publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites, and message boards to collect information used in providing situational awareness and to establish a common operating picture," reads the document, adding that the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) will not set up user accounts to access any information.

Although some are worried that this program will make personal data public as well, the organization has pledged to take every effort to remove it immediately. Once compiled, this data should help the Department of Homeland Security put together an overall picture of the feelings and action occurring as a result of the spill.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Protecting Photocopiers

We store sensitive information on nearly every electronic device we own. Computers, cell phones, and PDA's are all common sources of data loss. One device that many do not recognize as a serious risk, though, is your standard issue photocopier. CBS News explains why copiers, found in offices and public locations worldwide, can create the need for crisis management:

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it's turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you're in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

I certainly don't envy the person who has to explain why their organization had refused to spend a few hundred dollars to wipe the hard drives of old copiers and protect customer's data, or that copies of confidential contracts were stolen because an employee used a public machine.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

SEC Caught With Their Pants Down

It was late 2008 that the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed to Congress that some employees, including 17 senior officers collecting salaries ranging from $100,000 to $222,000 per year, were caught watching pornography on the job during the then-unfolding financial crisis. Until recently the story had not caught on in the media, but late last month it took off and is now drawing massive amounts of public criticism. In an article for HuntingtonNews.net, Rene A. Henry offers some advice to the SEC:

In order to avoid any appearance of hypocrisy, SEC Commissioner Mary Shapiro needs to bring her own agency into compliance and clean house before pursuing fraud charges against Goldman Sachs, or any organization for that matter.

It is a disgrace that senior level employees at a regulatory agency, earning salaries as much as $222,418, whose mission was to “protect investors and maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets” not only did not do their jobs, but misused federal resources. Every month new evidence is made public of malfeasance at the SEC. Time and again whistle blowers and others took solid evidence of illegal activities to the agency which did nothing.

The SEC, already battered regarding its potential contribution to the financial crisis, will now also have to focus some of it crisis management efforts on convincing the public that it can police internally as well as externally.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

J&J is No Longer the Crisis Management "Gold Standard"

Johnson & Johnson's most recent recall, their third in less than a year, could be a serious blow to the company. Still conducting crisis management to cope with the effects of their last recall, the lackluster effort the company has made to cope with this new case appears to be the last straw for many customers. Ad Age reports:

Recall-weary parents are taking to Facebook and Twitter to complain that Johnson & Johnson -- a company that three decades ago was considered the gold standard of crisis communications -- isn't reacting sufficiently to their concerns, with some vowing to make the switch to generic brands.

On JnJBTW, a blog managed by one of Johnson & Johnson's senior media-relations executives, Marc Monseau, for example, a parent named Evan D. Owen wrote: "I would highly recommend that J&J and McNeil Consumer Healthcare take a serious look at how you've handled this situation thus far. To be specific: Your recall announcement at 9:15 p.m. on a Friday night was deliberate to minimize media exposure. You know very well that consumers watch very little news during the weekend compared to a weekday."

It is critical to J&J's business that their customers can trust both the people running the organization and its products. With a myriad of generic and competing brands freely available on the market, its name and the reputation that stands with it are the only things keeping J&J on top.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Arguments in the Workplace - Crises Waiting to Happen

Playing referee among feuding employees is no easy task for small-business owners. Unlike their large-company counterparts, entrepreneurs typically don't have the option of separating quarrelsome workers by relocating one to another office or department.

But human-resources experts say reaching a resolution is critical, as frequent arguments between employees can result in increased turnover, a slowdown in productivity and even violence.

This quote from a Wall Street Journal article highlights a problem that can quickly spark trouble in the workplace and cost your organization invaluable employees. Even if they are not directly involved, a working environment full of conflict will drive away your best and brightest. Crisis management for these issues should begin long before employees erupt; use conflict resolution training and open channels of communication to encourage problem solving rather than argument.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Goldman Sachs in the Hot Seat

Accused of duping investors in a civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs has suddenly found itself in the proverbial hot seat, and this weekend Bloomberg News interviewed Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein to get an idea of how well Goldman is doing and just what type of crisis management strategy the organization may be following. This is a fascinating crisis management case history "in the making." How GS handles itslef, and of course what actual wrongdoing took place (if any), will determine the future of a company.



The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Rothlisberger's Apology Ineffective

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Rothlisberger can't keep himself out of trouble. Accused of, but not charged with, his second case of sexual misconduct in less than a year, it's clear the man is making some bad decisions. Rothlisberger's crisis management throughout both cases has been sub-par, and the statement he issued following the NFL's decision to suspend him for several games did little to change that impression. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has more details:

Roethlisberger, suspended 4 to 6 games by the National Football League last week for violating its personal conduct policy, said Monday he will not appeal the penalty and promised to "comply with what is asked of me — and more."

He took accountability for the "consequences" of his actions. He apologized again to his teammates and Steelers fans, and pledged to "not put myself in this situation again."

By releasing a statement instead of immediately addressing his situation in person, Roethlisberger emulated Tiger Woods and other celebrities publicly tangled in unseemly circumstances. But the statement will likely do little to restore the two-time Super Bowl winner's tarnished image, according to those in the tarnished image-restoring business.

The article, which features reactions from PR pros, including BCM President Jonathan Bernstein, rips Rothlisberger for his blatantly impersonal and scripted approach. In this day and age it's just not enough to simply read the words on the card, people have to believe you mean it.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Tough Questions for Ripoff Report

The Ripoff Report. The very mention of the name is enough to make business owners and crisis management experts cringe. The popular site is often a source of controversy because postings, which can be 100% anonymous, can never be removed for any reason, even if refuted by the parties involved. Combine this with the fact that reports have a tendency to show up on page one of a Google search and you can see the reason many have questions about exactly how the Ripoff Report operates. Luckily for them, the Crisis Manager is on the case. In an extensive interview for the latest newsletter, Jonathan Bernstein asks some tough questions of the Ripoff Report's founder and director, ED Magedson.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/

Oil Spill's Impact Spreads

The impact of crises are never felt only by those directly involved. For proof of this, look no further than the BP oil spill, which is now causing problems for seafood restaurants and vendors in Louisiana and other states surrounding the Gulf. WWLTV.com, has more information:

The head of Louisiana's Seafood Marketing Board says convincing customers that fish and shell fish from the Gulf are safe to eat won't be easy in light of the news about the major oil spill and its threat to the fishing industry.

"This is crisis management mode for us, without question," said Smith.

New Orleans seafood restaurants are packed this week and visitors in town for the Jazz Fest, worry about what the oil spill will do the supply of Louisiana seafood and whether their favorite dishes will be safe to eat in the weeks to come.

Local seafood-related businesses, many of whom rely on customers drawn in by special events to stay afloat, are racing to do crisis management of their own. Their continued success during this time of crisis lies with their ability to ensure the public knows that the vast majority of their harvest comes from areas that, for now, remain unaffected by the spills.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/