BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Each week, Bulletproof Blog features exclusive interviews with thought leaders on issues of critical importance to companies and countries. This week, we interview Stratford Sherman, a partner with the corporate leadership advisory firm Accompli; co-author of the bestselling book Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will; and a former journalist who conducted high-stakes interviews with countless executives over two decades at Fortune magazine. During an interview with General Electric CEO Jack Welch in 1988, Mr. Sherman ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs' attorneys for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today we talk to Daniel S. Mason, a partner in the San Francisco office of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP, one of the nation's leading firms on both the plaintiffs' and defense sides of complex litigation. We asked Mr. Mason to address the trends affecting plaintiffs' antitrust actions, an area where ... READ MORE

Millions of Americans like to talk on the phone while they drive - and Congress apparently knows it. The New York Times reports that a National Highway Transportation Administration (NHTSA) study of the dangers posed by distracted drivers was suppressed, at least in part because of fears that the results would anger influential members of Congress. Now, two activist groups - the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen - have their hands on the information ... READ MORE

Fifteen years ago, companies could reasonably expect that confidential or sensitive information disclosed to internal audiences would remain within the cozy confines of the office walls. As a story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal makes abundantly clear, those days are now long gone. The speed and ease with which information travels in the digital age has signaled the extinction of purely "internal" audiences. When companies share messages meant for their employees' eyes only, the odds that ... READ MORE

As reports of The Washington Post's plan to sell access to reporters and government officials played out over the last few weeks, one thing became abundantly clear: While lesser publications can engage in similar behavior - as they have for decades - without their readers batting an eye, a founder and guardian of the Fourth Estate cannot. It's a question of fundamental branding: The Post is held to a higher standard if only because that ... READ MORE

There are many factors as to why JP Morgan Chase is widely recognized as a healthy, well-capitalized bank despite the pall that has been cast over the financial services industry as a whole - and one of the marquee reasons is the leadership of Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon. During the deepest economic crisis of our generation, Mr. Dimon has become the face of what's right in the financial services sector - and he's done so ... READ MORE

From the outset, companies that file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection fight an uphill battle. They must overcome the fact that bankruptcy proceedings highlight what the media loves most - bad news. They must build a compelling, forward-looking narrative while critics focus on past mistakes. They must evoke sympathy from a public while having little to offer except promises. And they must define angles of interest that enable the conversation to rise above procedural detail. Just ... READ MORE

While most companies have demonstrated a mastery of the blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, and myriad other social media platforms when it comes to marketing their products and brands, most remain a full Internet-generation behind when it comes to bringing these tools to bear in crisis. As United Airlines, Apple Computers, Amazon.com, Domino's Pizza, and countless others have learned in just the last year, the Internet has fundamentally changed crisis management. The days when companies could wait 24 ... READ MORE

For someone who's been such a vehemently outspoken critic of the media since first landing in the national spotlight nearly a year ago, Governor Sarah Palin sure has made it easy to fill those column inches and cable news segments. As she announced her resignation on Friday, she went a step further - providing a gift that keeps on giving in the form of countless opportunities to speculate about the reasons why she quit and where ... READ MORE

In this regular feature, Bulletproof interviews top plaintiffs' attorneys for their perspective on the crises likely to affect businesses in the near future. Today we talk to Frank P. DiPrima of the Law Office of Frank DiPrima in Morristown, NJ. Mr. DiPrima has been co-counsel in the derivative law suit against Richard Scrushy, founder of HealthSouth Corporation. In its June, 2009, decision in Wade Tucker v Richard Scrushy et al., an Alabama court awarded plaintiffs $2.876 ... READ MORE