BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

As part of a continuing series of Bulletproof Blog™ video interviews with thought leaders across multiple disciplines and industry sectors, I sat down with Donna Cryer, the CEO of Cryer Health, to discuss the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) and its role in helping its  more than 5,000 members better understand the  transformational issues facing the healthcare industry today. The HBA’s mission is to help women in the healthcare industry engage the key issues and individuals driving ... READ MORE

Last week, President Obama promised $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for the first two new nuclear power reactors to be constructed in the United States in more than 30 years. The announcement, spurred by a continuing turnaround in nuclear energy industry’s reputation, was cheered by supporters as a “good first step” that will allow the industry to expand more rapidly. But before the champions of an American nuclear renaissance pop the corks on all those ... READ MORE

In tough economic times, corporate social responsibility often takes a back seat to corporate survival. But, as The New York Times reported last week, that is definitely not the case at the global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. CEO Andrew Witty has made access to life-saving drugs in the poorest corners of the globe his company’s mission. In the process, he is changing the face of an industry once widely criticized for charging prohibitively high prices while millions ... READ MORE

A recent article in the New York Times makes the interesting point that Fox News makes more money than all its competitors combined. As if we needed further proof that this is no longer your parents’ media landscape, the commercial success of Fox demonstrates that the television news audience now gets most of what we used to understand as “hard news” from outlets other than traditional news organizations. These days, by the time we sit down ... READ MORE

As the dust settles on the Tiger Woods drama, all eyes are turning to the disgraced golfer’s long list of lucrative product endorsements. Some have dropped Tiger while others are staying the course. None appear to be willing to ignore his notorious fall from grace. It’s just the latest example of risks you take when you wrap your brand around a celebrity. When the going is good everyone wins. When something suddenly goes wrong, the brand ... READ MORE

With the so-called “climate-gate” controversy putting global warming back in the news, companies with big carbon footprints might be tempted to revive the argument that global warming simply isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. They should think twice. For those who still doubt that global warming is a man made phenomenon, those e-mail messages leaked by a hacker who broke into some climate researcher’s computers make for great reading. But for big business to try ... READ MORE

If hundreds of billions of barrels of new oil reserves were suddenly discovered in the Continental United States, the story would surely be front page news. Even with America’s energy concerns taking a back seat to the health care debate for the moment, a discovery of such far-reaching economic, environmental, and foreign policy implications simply could not be ignored. Now, replace the word “oil” with “natural gas.” Would the same dynamic hold true for a fossil fuel ... READ MORE

One of the first rules of strategic communications - especially when the stakes are high and the debate is heated - is "control the message." The healthcare reform debate now reaching fever pitch on Capitol Hill offers just the latest example of what can happen when that fundamental rule is ignored. After a nasty summer of negative media coverage, collapsing poll numbers, and angry town hall confrontations, the White House is dialing up its efforts to ... READ MORE

This spring, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent letters to 14 pharmaceutical companies warning them that failing to include risk information in Google adwords postings could lead to trouble. As anyone who's ever googled "acid reflux," "high cholesterol," or "hypertension" probably knows, there is simply no way to fit that kind of detailed information into the 70-character space that Google provides - even if the fine print could be made even finer. So, what is ... READ MORE

It took a week, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos finally did the right thing - and in the end, what Amazon did to create a controversy about its popular Kindle device, and how it handled the fallout, offer valuable lessons for companies on the cutting edge of the digital media economy. It all started with an old book, ironically George Orwell's 1984, which tells the story of a totalitarian dictatorship overseen by a mysterious tyrant called ... READ MORE