From Tom Weidlich at PRCG | Haggerty… Former Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi has a piece in the Columbia Journalism Review this week highlighting the trend (he has numbers) of companies and others not even responding to reporters’ calls for comment. His examples concern crises. Farhi did Nexis searches and found that mentions of the phrase “did not […]
From our good friend in Australia, Tony Jaques, at Issues Outcome. Check out his website here. With universities tying themselves in knots over free speech and campus protests, and corporations struggling to decide what to say on high profile issues, it’s time to revisit whether management should speak up or shut up. Despite the headlines […]
Published by Tony Jaques for Managing Outcomes When responding to a crisis or a major issue, CEOs need to speak clearly, with authority and empathy. What then to make of the latest advice from consultants McKinsey, whose expert on “go-to-market and omnichannel strategy, agile sales and marketing transformation” proposes that Chief Executives should be their […]
Why ‘meaning-making’ matters In every crisis, it is essential that government and public sector leaders provide a compelling story. A good crisis narrative teaches the public about the realities of the predicament. It conveys what leaders know, do not know and cannot know, and what they are doing to figure out as much as possible. […]
By Constantinos C. Markides and Andrew MacLennan for Harvard Business Review A pilot once told us a story about an accident on an early morning flight in the 1950s. As the aircraft accelerated to take off, the captain noticed his flight engineer’s sullen expression and called out, “Cheer up, George.” But in his sleepy state, […]
By Nick Hansen for the American Bar Association “If you can see it coming, it’s not a crisis,” said Bruce Hennes, CEO of Hennes Communications, to audience members at his 2024 Bar Leadership Institute workshop “Speaking Out or Strategic Silence? Organizational Approaches to Issuing Public Statements.”Hennes, along with Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association (CMBA) CEO Becky […]
By Eric Rose writing for PR News… This recent headline would make any crisis communicator cringe: “Amazon’s plans to advance its interests in California laid bare in leaked memo.” The story, which unfolded through a leaked internal memo, shed light on Amazon’s growth strategy in the Southern California region and its 2024 internal community outreach plans. […]
From our colleague, Annie Searle… Like practitioners in other disciplines that continue to evolve in a complex technological world, the maturity of risk managers varies widely. In recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, we’ve seen corporate managers rebrand themselves into this field or get promoted into it without necessarily understanding risk frameworks or methodologies. There […]
Introduction by Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Founded in 1989, Hennes Communications initially served as a full-service public relations firm. The landscape shifted dramatically following the 9/11 attacks when we pivoted to crisis communications and crisis management, becoming one of the few North American firms dedicated exclusively to this niche. Whether introduced by a CEO […]
From Thomas Mustac, writing for PR News… A fascinating case study on crisis communications is currently unfolding in the cereal aisle. It involves Kellogg’s, the global brand that brings Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies and other cereal staples to supermarkets around the world. The crisis stems from a Kellogg’s marketing campaign, launched nearly two years ago, […]