By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications Any business leader who’s been caught in a hailstorm of criticism after an internal matter went viral must have had a surge of schadenfreude watching the Google diversity memo controversy. Google leadership was immersed in a crisis over an internal memo in large part because, well, people could Google it. Beyond […]
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications The axe that hovered for weeks finally fell on Wednesday as 21st Century Fox announced that Bill O’Reilly would not be returning to Fox News Channel, the cable news outlet O’Reilly helped build, in the wake of a string of explosive sexual harassment claims, broken by the New York Times. […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Your reputation is at risk on Twitter and the risk may be triggered by the President of the United States of America. Of course you’ve heard that one. You’ve probably seen the tweets and the stories that followed about New Balance and Nordstrom and Toyota […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] The internet has democratized communications, allowing for a free flow of information unlike anything we’d ever imagined. The power once exclusive to big publishers and media moguls now is held by individuals, who can reach thousands of readers in an instant. And you can thank Section 230 of the Communications Decency […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] How fast is social media at reporting on events – including events that your organization might consider a crisis? Faster than you. Consider a situation involving a school in Westfield, N.Y., that we stumbled upon. Here’s the first paragraph of a story from the Westfield Republican: “Parents need to realize that […]
[By Stephanie York, Hennes Communications] Legal cases in the court of law take a long time to develop, file and litigate – years in many instances. Cases often move at an agonizingly slow pace … through written discovery, motions, depositions and court appearances. The Court of Law is intentionally methodical, governed by strict rules, and overseen […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] At Hennes Communications, we often tell clients that they have an attorney for the Court of Law. But they have us for the Court of Public Opinion. And those two courts often require different – and at times conflicting – strategies. Attorneys have persuasive arguments for tailoring a strategy completely around […]
By Thom Fladung Hennes Communications During Monday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump once again made Ford Motor Co. the poster child for corporate flight from America. “So Ford is leaving,” Trump said. “You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They’re all leaving. And we can’t allow it […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] Imagine this: You’re running a meeting and you have information that will affect everyone else in that meeting negatively. You decide not to share any of that information during the meeting and prattle on as if nothing is about to change or happen. Except everybody in the conference room finds out […]
By Thom Fladung Hennes Communications The 2016 Republican National Convention hadn’t yet ended in Cleveland when the questions started from old friends in St. Paul, Minnesota. The first I noticed was a tweet from Rachel Stassen-Berger, the St. Paul Pioneer Press Capitol bureau chief, on the morning of July 21, the RNC’s final day: “Has […]