Crisis Communication

Summary

There are a few different types of crisis situations. One is when the company is at fault, and the other is when the company becomes a victim. The book speaks about many different situations dealing with crisis situations but I will just mention a few. One example of a company being at fault was in June 2000 when the Panamanian tanker sunk. It spilled 400 tons of heavy oil into the ocean. This was a major crisis that ended up harming a lot of animals and people whom depended on catching certain seafood to make money.
The next type of crises is when a company becomes a victim such as when a bank becomes a victim of online theft. Many people are using "Trojans" that are created by hackers that when opened on someone's computer can steal all the information they use when doing online banking. There have been many cases of this over the past two years, and with the recession were are in, people are trying to do whatever it takes to get people’s money.
Some steps to help prepare for a crisis situation are highlighted in the book. The first step is to realize that at any time a company can be involved in a crises no matter what. The next step is to assess the risk for your organization. Know if your company is more at risk for a crisis to happen compared to other companies. The third step is to have a plan for crises. The person in charge of the corporate communication should brainstorm with all the head managers and come up with ideas about potential crises. These are the three major steps in the crises planning, and there are many more throughout the book though.

Experiences

I feel that having a good handle on the type of crisis situations your organization could possible be involved in is the major factor to being able to reduce the problem from happening, and if it does happen, it will make it much easier to maintain the problem and get it taken care of as soon as possible. More recently, we have seen many organizations go into one form or another of a crisis. One crisis I can recall that happened about a year ago was the crisis of the peanut butter recall by McKee foods. I did not think that the company had a good plan set up to handle a crisis. I personally thought that their situation could have been avoided if they did a better job screening the products before the left he company.

Related Material

http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/mckee01_09.html

This is an article about the McKee foods company recall on some of their peanut butter products.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-aig30-2009mar30,0,2898712,full.story

This is an article about AIG, and how their improper business within the company created a downward fall for the company.

By: Pat McDanel

Government Relations

It seems that the government and business in the United States have a very complex relationship. It seems that each year the Government wants to be more involved in what businesses are doing and influence the choices that they are making. While businesses wishes to find ways to decease the amount of involvement that the Government has within their company/companies.

Many Regulatory Agencies were developed over the years of the government trying to control business. The first ones were Act to Regulate Commerce and Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). About 3 years after that the Sherman Antitrust Act. All of these acts were developed by the government to aid in regulating many different areas of business. Many more Acts and commissions were developed over the years to influence and protect businesses. Many of the agencies have been converted into organizations.

Through the years government has became involved in virtually all stages of business development. Many new enterprises cannot begin operations until they receive a license from a regulatory agency such as the ICC listed above. Once a license is obtained the business must also pass inspection and their products must be approved. Another area that must be covered before the business starts its operation is developing safety standards. All of these steps must be accomplished before products reach the market.

Business finally with time realized that instead of fighting the regulations of the government they must focus on advocating their own business positions instead. They did this by becoming more involved in the political aspects of their companies. Businesses focused on lobbying, negotiating tactics, and community groups. An example of this is the company Philip Morris a controversial tobacco industry.

In my opinion the government has became more and more involved especially with the current economic situation. Many companies are asking for government money to help them from going bankrupt. By doing this the businesses are allowing the government to have more control over their company and what they are doing with their money. It seems that with the current economic situation comapies are more willing to allow the government to have some control over the affairs of their company.

Chapter 8: Investor Relations

Several resources are needed for companies to grow. One of the most important resources to fund growth is cash or access to capital. Most small to mid-sized companies rely on banks for funding short and long-term opportunities. However, as companies begin to take on larger projects, or feel the need to expand, companies can issue stock or equity in their company. When a private company chooses this option it is known as an initial public offering or IPO. Below is a link which will take you to a graph showing the number of IPOs over the last 35 years:

http://www.tradersnarrative.com/will-the-ipo-drought-end-in-february-2009-2248.html

Once a company becomes publicly traded it is extremely important that the company relays financial and non-financial information in a timely manner to its shareholders. This task is the job for representatives in investor relations.

In November of last year I was fortunate to work on a CFA society project analyzing the company Ansys. Ansys is headquartered in Pittsburgh and produces simulation software for companies who want a cheaper way to test products. Attending the meeting were the various competing groups from other local colleges, the CEO of Ansys, and the Director of Investor Relations. It was quite an opportunity to meet with these individuals and I learned a lot from their presentations.

During their presentation the CEO explained the company’s vision, strategy, and potential. The Director of Investor Relations discussed the company’s prospects, the industry outlook, and expectations of the economy. But what I thought was most intriguing about the presentation was what these two individuals could not comment or state due to regulations. There were a lot of questions regarding Ansys’s future stock valuation, and due to such regulations, both the CEO and Director of Investor Relations were unable to answer them.

Overall the experience was very worthwhile. It taught me that no matter how much research you do on a company, it is very important to hear directly from a company’s leaders. I feel that anyone who invests in a company, should try to attend a shareholder’s meeting to gain valuable firsthand insight.

By: Ted Staruch

Chapter 6- Media Relations

Businesses and their relationship with the media are vital to the reputation a business will hold. Media relations departments want to make sure that they have good relationships with the right people in the media. It wasn’t until the 1950’s when media relationships started to form. The invention of the television in the 1940’s introduced media to the world, and with the take off of the Internet in the 1990’s media has become a major part of the business world. Businesses are going to have to deal with media whether they like it or not, because reporters get paid to be relentless. Many businesses do homework on reporters to help strengthen their relationship with the media, this tactic can really help a company gain a positive reputation in the public eye. Many businesses make the mistake of spending millions on advertising but little to none on media relations departments. This can cause the company to gain a bad reputation, if a reporter is treated wrongly by a business that reporter can write any kind of review they would like about the company. Media is everywhere so it is important to always make sure you are keeping a positive image no matter the situation, because you never know if a cameraman/reporter is lingering around.


Holding a relationship with the media can be a very irritating process. Whether it is a press conference or personal interview reporters can ask some very stupid and repetitive questions. I cannot speak from the business aspect of the media but I have seen personal interviews get very interesting from the questions reporters ask. Maintaining a good relationship with the local media can really help out a business, because regardless of how the business is if the media portrays them with a positive image they will always have consumers. In this day and age image is everything, many athletes have lost tons of money due to negative pictures, articles, comments they have made. Just recently the best swimmer in the history of Olympics was caught smoking an illegal substance and it was the media him lose a lot of endorsements.


http://www.makli.com/tiger-woods-interview-today-0026383/

This article is about Tiger Woods and his first public press conference since his situation that happened on Thanksgiving. Tiger Woods is one of the biggest names in media today. Whatever he does will find its way in the media in some form. I do not think he needed to even have a press conference apologizing for what he did because that is his own business and the only person he needs to apologize to is his wife. But I do realize how media portrays things and by him having a press conference, I think it saved him and his name a lot.

By: Pat McDanel

Chapter 4: Identity, Image and Reputation

With little work experience, I will use this blog to talk about my experience choosing a graduate business school. In particular, explaining my viewpoint of the identity, image, and reputation of the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology.

After graduating from Millersville University in the Spring of 2009, I became interested in attending a graduate business school. My list of schools were narrowed down to three: Penn State's Smeal College of Business, American University's Kogod School of Business, and IUP's Eberly College of Business and Information Technology.

Researching each school told me a lot about their individual identities, images, and reputations. Kogod and Smeal were both very prestigious and offered excellent programs in the field of Supply Chain Management. However, both were still out of my price range. When it came to Eberly, what intrigued me most was their reputation as being one of the best value schools in the U.S.

The identity of Eberly I believe is one of an affordable and high-quality instruction institution. For these reasons, and the fact that Eberly is accredited and offers a one year MBA program were the factors in my decision for choosing to attend IUP. I do however feel that Eberly's name could be enhanced to encompass the diversity of both the student body and faculty that student's are exposed to while attending.

The "Eberly College of Business and Information Technology" does little to address this notion of international acceptance. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be, "The Eberly International College of Business." Since we have partnerships with countries all over the world, and an available study abroad program, maybe this name change would convey its world-wide reach to prospective students. Therefore, I believe that although Eberly constitutes an identity of great value, its image could be improved.

Eberly does not currently have a logo for its school. Keeping with the idea of value and an international scope, maybe Eberly could create a logo with these ideals.

Eberly's reputation, therefore, could become more solid if both its identity and image were better aligned. Eberly does have a unique identity because it provides for a very good education at an affordable price, but fails to project its image of student body and faculty diversity to prospective students.

Chapter 2

When it comes to communication strategically, I can relate my current workplace to this very well. Our current manager believes communication is the key to success in any work environment. The first example is our monthly employee meetings. These meetings open with what is going on in the upcoming month and how to do a new task if there is any. After everyone is comfortable with that, the meeting is open for discussion to talk about any problems or if someone is not up-to-date on a current procedure. After all employees are properly educated, everyone is encouraged to participate in team building exercises. Another example of good communication that helped me in my workplace was when my manager would pull each individual aside during their shift and ask them about any problem they encountered during that shift. I think this was very helpful because if she did not do that, I would of forgot some of the problems or questions I faced that day and would not get answers to those situations. This also made communication more effective because it showed that the manager cared about her employees. It also made the employees feel comfortable approaching the manager about any problem or question.

Chapter 1

Many companies has faced with the issue of how to compete in a changing environment. The first step is to recognize that the environment is changing. Those in the management position need to realize that business environment is always changing and making improvements. Most managers are unable to see the big picture of how the environment is effecting the business. The example that is used is that of Coca-Cola and how it was effected when one campus suspended the purchase of their product. This action forced change in the company and the environment of the business. The next thing that businesses need to do is adapt to the changes that are taking place without compromising the principles of the company. Going along with the companies must never assume that problems will go away on their own. In most cases the problems does not go away but instead it gets bigger and becomes more a problem. The last thing that companies must do in this ever changing environment is keep the corporate communication open and connected to the visions and plans of the company. In the end it is essential for a company to change their behaviors and deal with issues by means of communication. For most businesses communication with be the key to their success.