We all live in glass houses. Reputation failure is no longer a threat that looms large for companies only in high-risk industries and activities. It has become an all-too-familiar scenario for all companies in all corners of the world. A Weber Shandwick proprietary analysis revealed that over three-quarters (79 percent) of the world’s number-one most admired companies lost their crowns over the past five years in their respective industries.Over three-quarters (79 percent) of the world’s number-one most admired companies lost their crowns over the past five years in their respective industries. The corporate reputation “stumble rate” continues to rise. Recent corporate crises have demonstrated that a company’s reputation can be destroyed in seconds. A mishandled response, inappropriate act, product tampering, or poorly timed financial disclosure all have the power to instantly tarnish a respected reputation. However, the well managed and reputation-conscious company does not need to stand defenseless when faced with a damaged reputation. This web conference will identifiy and describe the actions companies and their leaders can take to safeguard their corporate reputations, and rebuild their reputations and restore their good names after a crisis. Read Q&A with Dr. Gaines-Ross.
What You Will Learn:
- Why reputation is more fragile than ever,and why it matters to a company’s valuation, well-being, and permission to exist
- What triggers reputation loss and why are so many companies struggling with tarnished reputations?
- What can a company do to safeguard its reputation from loss?
- What are the most important steps in recovering reputation
- What role should leaders, communication, marketing and PR professionals play in reputation recovery and sustainability
Why you should purchase:
Media coverage of reputation alone has increased 108 percent over the past five years. Reputation management is now considered a legitimate body of knowledge, with a number of emerging new disciplines, including reputation recovery. Also, the sheer number and severity of corporate falls from grace in the last few years — coupled with the emergence of revolutionary ways of transmitting information, influential micro-constituencies and widespread mistrust of business — have magnified the need for a viable framework for the repair and recovery of damaged company reputations.
Presented by:
Dr. Gaines-Ross is one of the world’s most widely recognized experts on CEO reputation — how CEO reputations are built, enhanced and protected. She spearheaded the first comprehensive research on CEO reputation and its impact on corporate reputation and performance. She developed Weber Shandwick’s first global corporate reputation study — “Safeguarding Reputation™,” which identifies strategies for sustaining and recovering corporate reputation. Dr. Gaines-Ross is the author of CEO Capital: A Guide to Building CEO Reputation and Company Success (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation (www.corporatereputation12steps.com, John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Before joining Weber Shandwick, Dr. Gaines-Ross was Chief Knowledge & Research Officer Worldwide at Burson-Marsteller and Marketing & Communications Director at Fortune. At Fortune, she initiated several groundbreaking research programs including “Leveraging Corporate Equity” and “Brands at the Crossroads.” She is also widely recognized for her strategic insights into and analysis of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies Survey. Dr. Gaines-Ross was a 1995 winner of Time Inc.’s President’s Award. She is also the co-author of FORTUNE Cookies: Management Wit and Wisdom, which was published by Vintage Books.
Dr. Gaines-Ross’ work has been featured in the Financial Times, The Times (London), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Wired, Advertising Age, PRWeek, Forbes, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Chief Executive, Business 2.0, Across the Board and in many other publications around the world. She has also appeared on CNN and CNBC.
Dr. Gaines-Ross is a frequent public speaker on CEO and corporate reputation management. She has lectured at The Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, USC, Wharton School of Business, New York University and Columbia University. Dr. Gaines-Ross was also a speaker at the 2003 World Economic Forum Governor’s Meeting. She is a member of Ethical Corporation’s Advisory Board, serves on the Executive Advisory Panel of Corporate Reputation Review and was inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers of the YWCA of the City of New York. Dr. Gaines-Ross has been named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics for 2007” by Ethisphere Magazine.
Dr. Gaines-Ross created http://www.reputationRx.com, the Web site devoted exclusively to reputation news and information, and her blog can be found at http://www.reputationXchange.com.
Who should purchase:
- Corporate communications, marketing and public relations professionals Executives at all levels and areas of the company who need to understand the new “stumble-rate” of corporate reputations, and be prepared with a realistic roadmap to reputation recovery that can stabilize and regenerate a company’s most competitive asset.
No one has to tell you what a great speech is, right? You know one when you hear it.
Well you’re about to hear a bunch of them—and you’re going to learn from them, guaranteed.
Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray presents “Speechwriting Jam Session 2010,” 75 entertaining, inspirational and instructive minutes that will have the hair standing up on the same arm you’re scribbling notes with. We’ll discuss, even debate, what makes these great speeches great.
Through dramatic readings from winners of the 2010 Cicero Speechwriting Awards and highlight reels from the Vital Speeches YouTube site, Murray will help us reawaken the giants within us by sharing together excerpts from speeches contemporary and classic, famous and rare. (In the true spirit of an improvisational jam session, you’ll even have a chance to nominate some of your own YouTube favorites, so come prepared!)
You’ll come away from this session with:
• Concrete examples showing how leaders are addressing the issues of this particular moment in business, politics and society.
• A stockpile of examples—video and text—to show reticent speakers: rhetorical tactics that have passed the test and been pulled off by the best.
• Renewed enthusiasm and an expanded sense of what’s possible in leadership communication.
• And a goose bumps, guaranteed.
SESSION LEADER:
- David Murray writes and speaks about communication—business, political and personal. He’s editor of Vital Speeches of the Day, a monthly collection of the best speeches in the world. He writes about sports, people, politics and travel for magazines, newspapers and websites. publications and websites. And he discusses the communication life at his popular personal blog, Writing Boots.http://www.vsotd.comhttp://writingboots.typepad.com/writing_boots/profiles/http://writingboots.typepad.com/
Our Approach to Sustainability Reporting and Stakeholder Engagement
Cecily Joseph, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Symantec Corporation
Stop repeating these 10 proven mistakes when dealing with the media and managing your media relations program!
Ever since outlaw Jesse James wrote and issued the first news release, media relations practitioners have steadfastly refused to learn from the mistakes of their forebears.In James’s case, he didn’t take into account the suspicious and questioning nature of the reading populace, who viewed his bombastic news releases as early American “spin control.”
Learning Topics
Underestimating the intelligence of your audience is just one of the 10 major mistakes covered in this session. Others include:
- Not being a student of the media, keeping up with their changes needs and trends
- Confusing media output numbers with bottom-line outcome measures
- Annoying editors with misdirected and/or badly-prepared materials
- Not routinely evaluating your media relations programs and management
- Trying to substitute media relations for communication
Wilma answers real-world questions on:
- Holding the media accountable and keeping them from allowing bias or half-truths from creeping into news coverage, so that what is reported is straight, honest and fair
- How recent college graduates — with no contacts — can build relationships with the media
- The most effective ways to pitch
- Dealing with a less-than-objective journalist
- The best way to get to know a editor, writer or reporter
- The most important and effective tools in media relations
- The best day/time to pitch stories
- The least offensive way to bring a reporter’s error to his or her attention – and how to ask for a correction
- Pushing the envelope: How persistent you should be in making your pitch
- Teaching senior management the difference between a subjective, self-serving news item and a legitimate, content-rich press release
- Measures practitioners should routinely implement to measure results on the fly – especially during a crisis
- The biggest changes in media relations over the past 10 years
Presented by:
Wilma Mathews, ABC and IABC Fellow, works for Arizona State University as director of constituent relations. She also conducts media relations seminars, provides media training for corporate executives and is co-author of On Deadline: Managing Media Relations (4th edition, Spring 2006). Her background includes corporate communications and international public relations for AT&T/Lucent; nonprofit communication for two chambers of commerce and a medical center; and writing/editing for a newspaper and magazine. A national and international speaker, Wilma also contributes articles to trade publications and lectures on PR and media relations at ASU.
Have you ever watched your client on television and thought: “Oh, my! Look at how many chins he has, and what’s that terrible glare coming off his shirt and forehead? I never noticed in our meetings that he was that heavy. He also looks scared to death – and why does he keep licking his lips?” You tried to coach him on his message. In fact, you did all you could do to help him develop sound bites, and now you can hardly concentrate on the message with the way he looks, because he is doing so many distracting things.
This CD will teach you how to effectively coach your clients and colleagues for appearances on TV, both live and prerecorded. It will teach you when and how to offer praise and criticism without being offensive. And it covers how interviewees should dress, posture themselves and provide effective message delivery. Your purchase also includes a slew of extras – at no extra cost!
Learning Topics:
- The tricks of the trade to help people appear calm and confident on camera, even if they are not
- How to look natural — from make-up to body language and movements
- Tips and techniques to help prevent some of the unexpected distractions that can prohibit your true message from getting out to your audience
- How to motivate your clients and colleagues to improve their media performances
- How to tactfully and effectively learn to stress the need for “rehearsal”
TJ answers real-world questions on:
- Suggestions to get your boss to undergo some training
- How to convince your CEO to talk to the press
- Techniques to overcome annoying speech tics
- How to keep your answers concise and to the point
- How to provide constructive feedback in a jiffy
- How not to come off as though you’re dodging a question—even if you are
- What your executive should bring into a television or radio interview
- How to prepare an executive for the hard questions
Instructor:
TJ Walker, president of Media Training Worldwide, is one of the world’s leading authorities on media and presentation training. With more than 20 years of media training experience, TJ has trained thousands of CEOs, authors and experts, including Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading government officials in the United States, European prime ministers and African diplomats. He is producer and host of daily audio and video Speakcast broadcasts, covering media and presentation training tips and techniques. A leading corporate trainer, he has personally trained top executives at Unilever, Bank of America, Hess, Allstate Insurance, Charles Schwab, Akzo Nobel, US Trust, Dun and Bradstreet, The Hartford and EMC. He is also the official media trainer of the Miss Universe Organization.
TJ is the world’s most widely published and produced media trainer, with more than 50 books, training videos, CDs and software programs to his credit. He has also been a media columnist for Investor Relations Magazine. Additionally, Walker is known internationally for his many years as a political commentator for the Voice of America Radio Network. More than 65,000 readers subscribe to his weekly Media Training Tips Newsletter, including most of the Fortune 500 corporations. He is a frequent news commentator and has appeared often on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, Court TV and Bloomberg TV. He also has been a syndicated TV and talk show host, appearing on or hosting more than 2000 TV and radio shows. He has also hosted talk radio shows on seven different networks and has been featured in the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS radio and most major radio news outlets.
Walker was a merit scholar at Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He has lectured or conducted trainings at Yale University, Columbia University and Princeton University. He is also co-leader of the Communitelligence Media Training community and posts a daily video clip on the site.
Who should Purchase:
This practical, information-packed learning opportunity is ideal for public relations professionals, as well as professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Webcast Marketing
- Anyone who is associated with television broadcasts
- College/university libraries and bookstores
Think of any great presenter—Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos—and it won’t take you long to figure out that they are also master storytellers. Storytelling is increasingly becoming a “must-have” skill for business leaders, but you still won’t find it on any MBA curriculum.
This webinar will give you a deeper understanding why story is such a powerful strategic tool and how it can be used in the business setting. We will show you a specific “before and after” example of how a case study was transformed into powerful case story for pitching new business. We’ll also give you some key tips on how to craft and use stories to make an impact in your next big presentation or business meeting.
“As an ex-newspaper reporter, I have always recognized the value of storytelling. This webinar helped provide a great framework for bringing people into the important strategic and cultural stories I need to be communicating.”
What You Will Learn:
- The neuroscience and psychology that proves why stories work
- Tips for transforming run-of-the-mill presentation content into powerful stories that engage audiences
- How storytelling can be used as strategic tool to build chemistry and trust with others
- How even data-driven presentations can benefit from the art of storytelling
- The difference between conventional storytelling and strategic storytelling for business purposes. Please bring your ideas and questions!
Who Should Attend
This webinar is primarily aimed at those in the early stages of implementing or learning about strategic business storytelling, although it will also help more advanced practioners to focus their efforts. It is especially suitable for:
- Small and mid-sized business leaders
- Corporate executives who are new to storytelling
Presented by:
Jane Praeger is a former documentary filmmaker and faculty member in Columbia University’s M.S. program in Strategic Communications and Communications Practice where she teaches presentation design and delivery, communications strategy, strategic storytelling and writing. She founded Ovid Inc. in 1992 to help people find their public voices. Since then, she has provided speech, presentation, media training and customized workshops, to corporations such as Nickelodeon, Coach, Estee Lauder, McKinsey & Company, Euro RSCG Worldwide, as well as other technology, entertainment, and consulting firms. On the non-profit side, she has worked with Open Society Foundations, Doctors Without Borders, Atlantic Philanthropies, The Ms. Foundation, Harvard University, Columbia University Business School, and many others.
Heather Thomas is a business builder who has clocked countless hours performing “on stage” in the presentation spotlight. She earned her stripes in the agency world, working at Agency.com, Modem Media and the digital agency Critical Mass where she built their Business Development and Corporate Marketing practice from the ground up, ultimately tripling their revenue. After crafting hundreds of high-stakes presentations to win clients such as Procter & Gamble, NASA and Dell, Heather joined Ovid in 2010 to pass what she learned about persuasive presentations to others. In addition to her work with Ovid, Heather runs Winsome, a business development consulting boutique. She is also an adjunct instructor at Columbia University where she teaches Masters students the art of strategic storytelling. Heather is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University.
Connection is the force that inspires employees to give their best efforts and align their behavior with organizational goals. In this webinar, Michael Lee Stallard and Jason Pankau describe how Steve Jobs of Apple, Ed Catmull of
Pixar, A.G. Lafley of P&G, as well as other successful leaders, communicate to connect with employees.
Learn how you can help leaders by:
- Communicating an “Inspiring Identity” that makes employees feel proud of their organization,
- Communicating with “Human Value” that makes employees feel valued as human beings and not just as human doings,
- Communicating to increase “Knowledge Flow” that make employees feel informed and heard in ways that improve employee engagement, the quality of decisions made and stimulate innovation
Presented by:
Michael Lee Stallard is the co-founder and president of E Pluribus Partners, a consulting firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut Michael’s work has also been featured in the media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Human Resource Executive, The Economic Times (India), Developing HR Strategy Journal (UK), Rotman (Canada) and Fox Business Now.
Jason Pankau is a leading authority on leadership and teams as they relate to employee and customer engagement. Jason’s clients have included Johnson & Johnson, NorthwesternUniversity, UBS and several hedge funds.
Hailed a “Celebrity CMO” by Forbes Magazine, and famous for his outspoken appearances on numerous television networks, Jeffrey Hayzlett is widely recognized as one of the most influential marketers of our time. He’ll talk to us about what he calls “The Mirror Test, ” the title of his new book and a new way to look at your company’s marketing and sales strategy. Hayzlett will share with you some of the newest ways to win with social media, redefine your elevator pitch and help you to transform your business. He has just lead one of the biggest iconic turnarounds of Kodak and is here to share how you can do the same for your business. Will your business be positioned to fog the mirror and grow in today’s new economy?
Learning Topics:
- How to give your business the mirror test and find out if it is really breathing
- Why and how you have to sharpen your elevator pitch
- How to win with social media
- How to really focus on your bottom line
Presented by:
Jeffrey Hayzlett is the bestselling author of the “The Mirror Test” on how you and your company must adapt or die. Speaking frequently around the world, his topics include business growth, communications, and marketing. Mr. Hayzlett also keynotes at events such as The Economist Marketing Summit, THE Conference on Marketing, the 140 Character Twitter Conference, CMO Summits, Mobile Marketing Forum, Digital Life Design Conference, Photo Marketing Association Conference, Direct Marketing Association Leadership Forum, and National Postal Forum. He is cited as a leading marketing expert in numerous books, magazines, and newspapers worldwide, and is a frequent television guest and commentator, having appeared on shows including CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, Fox Business News, and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump.
He has received numerous global marketing and business awards and honors, including the Frost & Sullivan Lifetime Achievement Award for marketing. He was named “Business to Business Marketer of the Year” by BtoB Magazine and “Direct Marketer of the Year” by the University of Akron Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing. In 2008, Mr. Hayzlett was inducted into the College of Business Administration Direct Marketers Hall of Fame. In June 2009, he was awarded the prestigious “G.D. Crain Jr. Award for Marketing Excellence” and inducted into the BMA Hall of Fame at the Business Marketing Association’s annual conference. Previously, the U.S. Small Business Association named him “Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Mr. Hayzlett currently sits on the Business Marketing Association (BMA) board of directors and is a past chairman of BMA. He is a member of the advisory board of the CMO Council, chairman of the Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) Foundation for Marketing Education, a permanent trustee of the SMEI Academy of Achievement Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame, and a two-term past chairman of SMEI. He serves on Sales & Marketing Management Magazine’s 2009 Editorial Advisory Board. Mr. Hayzlett remains a trustee of Pi Sigma Epsilon National Education Foundation, an international sales and marketing fraternity.
Mr. Hayzlett has nearly 25 years of international marketing, sales, and customer relations management experience. He joined Kodak in April 2006 as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of the Graphic Communications Group (GCG). In this role, he was responsible for leading all marketing activities for the business, including product positioning, segment marketing, branding, marketing communications, customer development, business research, marketing strategy, and business development activity. He became Chief Business Development Officer in September 2007 and was responsible for Brand Development and Management, Market Development, Corporate and Product Public Relations, Communications and Public Affairs, Corporate Sponsorships, Business Development, Corporate Relationships and Partnerships, and Marketing.
Webinar excerpt … Jeffrey Hayzlett on …
Business Transparency (3 min.)
Business Transparency (3 minutes)
Two areas of advice for professional marketers and communicators (1.5 minutes)
Jeffrey Hayzlett on Digital Life by Shelly Palmer
Too many companies – including some who should know better – still think that you have to choose between making money and making sense. You don’t.
Gil Friend, President & CEO, Natural Logic
A systems ecologist and business strategist with nearly 40 years experience in business, communications, and environmental innovation, Friend combines broad business experience with unique content experience spanning strategy, systems ecology, economic development, management cybernetics, and public policy. Tomorrow magazine called him “One of the country’s leading environmental management consultants—a real expert who combines theoretical sophistication with hands-on, in-the-trenches know-how.”
Friend is Adjunct Faculty at Presidio Graduate School, and guest faculty at California College of the Arts. He lectures widely on business strategy and sustainability issues and writes The New Bottom Line, offering strategic perspectives on business and environment. Friend is author of the acclaimed book The Truth About Green Business.
Activating Companies for Good: The Trojan Horse of Social Responsibility
How companies are innovating new ways to connect people, planet and engagement.
Judah Schiller, Co-founder and CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi S, North America
Presented at:
COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY 2010: Integrating Social Responsibility Into Your Organization’s DNA
How effective CEO presentations can help companies rebound during an economic downturn
When a company’s earnings and stock price are on the rise, it may not be critically important how well a CEO performs behind a lectern, in front of cameras and microphones, or at a hearing table. But as earnings and stock price head south, a CEO’s ability to inspire confidence through speeches and presentations can prove essential to a company’s ability to survive and recover. CEOs who communicate well can, at the very least, buy the time needed to put an effective turnaround strategy in place.
With the economy battered by the credit crisis, high fuel prices, and other maladies, growing numbers of corporate leaders face the challenge of finding ways to inspire key audiences who are both very worried and extremely important—employees, analysts, stockholders, regulators, and the press.
This webinar offers some very specific, hands-on advice how CEOs should communicate during tough times. The advice is based on the experience of key CEO’s who have been there and done that –Former CEOs Lee Iacocca of Chrysler and Champ Mitchell of Network Solutions, Jack Welch of GE, as well as current CEOs John Chambers of Cisco Systems and Brightpoint’s Robert Laikin. All used first-person communications effectively to turn companies around or dramatically boost their performance.
Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy once said, “Communication needs to be a core competency of any business. It starts with the CEO.”
You Will Learn How CEOs Can:
- Make communication a priority.
- Be proactive, not reactive
- Handle problems and mistakes.
- Develop and present a recovery plan.
- Match their presentations to their audience
- and much more
Presented by:
Dr. Jeff Porro, Ph.D. has written “first-person speeches” and provided communication strategies for the CEOs of Sodexo, Eastman Chemicals, the McGraw Hill Companies, Office Depot, the COO of General Mills, as well as for diplomats such as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and other government leaders, and presidents of some of the nation’s leading trade and professional associations. He helps corporate, government and nonprofit leaders take their visions to a new level, moving key audiences with speeches that engage minds, open eyes, touch hearts and awaken the spirit. In addition to offering his expertise to world and business leaders, he has extended his skills to the world of entertainment. Dr. Porro discovered and researched the true story of a Jim Crow-era African American college debate team, and helped turn it into the 2007 feature film The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington.
As head of Porro Associates, LLC, Dr. Porro draws on his background as a research scholar and a Washington policy analyst to weave persuasive arguments. At the same time, his creative writing has given him the skill and empathy to capture a speaker’s voice and evoke the speaker’s passion. Dr. Porro holds a Ph.D. in political science from U.C.L.A..
Robert Laikin, founder of Brightpoint, has served as a member of Brightpoint’s board of directors since its inception in August 1989. Mr. Laikin has been Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since January 1994. Mr. Laikin was President of Brightpoint from June 1992 until September 1996 and Vice President and Treasurer of Brightpoint from August 1989 until May 1992. From July 1986 to December 1987, Mr. Laikin was Vice President, and from January 1988 to February 1993, President of Century Cellular Network, Inc., a company engaged in the retail sale of cellular telephones and accessories. His honors and awards include:
- Recipient of the William L. Haeberle Entrepreneurial Legacy Award for 2008
- Inducted into the Central Indiana Business Hall of Fame in 2008
- Received a Stevie Award for Best Turnaround Executive in 2007
- Recipient of the Distinguished Entrepreneur Award by the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association (1999)
- Recipient of the Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year Award (1995)
- Received an honorable mention in 1995 Inc. Magazine National Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Kelly R. Lang is Director of Strategic Communications in the Corporate Communications department of Cisco Systems. Ms. Lang joined Cisco in 2001 as Marketing Communications Manager and in 2003 joined the Office of the President as John Chambers’ Executive Communications Manager. Today, Ms. Lang is responsible for the Executive Communications and Operations functions including the Office of the Chairman and CEO (OCC), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Chief Globalisation Officer (CGO). Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Lang was Program Manager for a Global Event Marketing Organization, Nth Degree, from 1998-2000. From 1996-1998, Ms Lang was Assistant Director of Administration with RCI Group, Inc. after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, where she was recognized with outstanding student achievements including Maryland’s Talent and Tutor Search Program.
Ms. Lang is passionate about business and how communication helps drive business strategy to become a change agent for the organization. Her focus on process, operational excellence and hiring the right talent to support highly visible executives helps drive a more integrated, cross-functional communication effort that highlights the increasingly complex and important role of the communications professional.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is primarily aimed at communicators and executives trying to cope with a slowing economy, including external communications, internal communications, and shareholder communications.
The reality is that everything you do and say communicates something. The most successful leaders know that communication is the competency most critical to moving businesses forward, is the best defense in managing change and difficult situations, and is the driving force in engaging others. Since you are always communicating – you might as well be great at it. This luncheon is a unique opportunity to learn winning strategies you can use every day and engage in thought-provoking discussion so you can differentiate yourself, elevate your leadership impact, and accelerate business results. David Grossman will share practical insights, best practices, and proven tools to help top leaders differentiate themselves, including:
- The three fundamental truisms every leader must understand
- Three myths leaders believe, and that every communicator must address head-on
- The most common traps leaders face
- The Great Eight communication basics; What great leaders do
- David Grossman ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, President & Principal thoughtpartner™ of the Grossman Group
I’m president and founder of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications. With a roster of Fortune 500 clients including Cisco Systems, Heinz, Intel, Lilly, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, WellPoint and Virgin Atlantic, we work at the highest levels within organizations to utilize communications as a strategic business tool to help engage employees and drive performance. I’ve spent my entire career helping leaders use communications to be more successful and after working with leaders for more than 20 years, I’ve seen a lot. Many of my clients have been telling me that that I should write a book that encapsulates the insights, lessons and strategies I’ve gained over the years so that other leaders — from seasoned veterans to first-time managers — could benefit. This is finally coming to fruition and my book, “You Can’t Not Communicate: Leadership Solutions that Power the Fortune 100” was published in late 2009. Prior to founding The Grossman Group in 2000, I was director of communications for McDonald’s, where I helped to evolve what was the Publications Department into a world-class internal communications function and pioneered the “agency model,” building a leadership communications support function for the company’s senior executives. I also teach the only graduate-level course in internal communications in the U.S. at Columbia University. I’m thrilled to a part of the Communitelligence community and look forward to sharing ideas and learning from all the great minds that are gathered here.
Social media is a two-edged sword. We tend to only talk about the positive side — how social channels creatively deployed can greatly expand your organization’s marketing reach. Not much attention is paid to the dark, destructive side of social media — how a single customer complaint ignite a firestorm sweeping the Web and causing the most hardened organizations to panic. What to do? What to say?
This webinar explains the dynamics of customer activism in today’s democratized media world. It offers practical, actionable avoidance and response strategies for business executives and professional communicators. It also outlines processes to building an attack-proof culture that centers on customer satisfaction.
The good news is that bad buzz can be countered by earnest and savvy customer engagement. You can actually turn the angriest customers into raving fans.
“Great information that I can share with others who handle social media. Very informative and loved hearing the case studies.”
What You Will Learn:
- Why common business responses to customer complaints often make matters worse;
- Why complaining customers can be some of an organization’s most valuable assets;
- How vocal critics can be turned into raving fans with an active response strategy;
- How to manage and respond to comments on customer review sites;
- Customer support strategies for Facebook and Twitter;
- How to organize a team to identify and respond to attacks in minutes; and
- How to create a culture that puts customers first.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is designed for everyone who would like to help their organizations react to any online crisis that might erupt. It is especially suitable for:
- Brand managers, marketers, PR pros, social media managers, communications department staffers, public affairs, security, employee communications, media relations and issues management professionals.
Presented by:
Paul Gillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is a popular speaker who is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts using plain talk, anecdotes and humor.
Paul is a prolific writer who has written five books and more than 200 published articles since 2007, in addition to two blogs. His award-winning 2007 book, The New Influencers, chronicled the changes in markets being driven by the new breed of bloggers and podcasters. His most recent book is Attack of the Customers. It documents the increasing incidence of online customer negativity and tells of businesses can avoid being victimized.