This session will identify 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.
Jon HarmonJon Harmon is a communications consultant and author. He founded Force for Good Communications, a consultancy offering services ranging from brand-building media relations to crisis communications. His book on crisis communications, Feeding Frenzy: Inside the Ford-Firestone Crisis, was published in October, 2009. Previously, Jon was vice president – Communication and Reputation at Navistar, a global manufacturer of commercial trucks and military vehicles.
Jon’s career includes 23 years at Ford Motor Company in virtually every aspect of public relations, including media relations, employee and dealer communications, governmental affairs, issues management, product promotion, crisis communications and communications strategy.
The Force for Good blog is centered on the conviction that reputation is a company’s greatest asset, and that doing the right things in terms of corporate social responsibility can lead directly to success in the market. The most effective means of protecting and enhancing reputation is a consistent dedication to “aspirational public relations” built on transparency, honesty, integrity and social responsibility.
Social Media is replacing the 24 hour news cycle with the 140 character (Twitter) news cycle. Every crisis communications plan is now riddled with fatal flaws and due for a major rewrite.
- Secrets to speed in crisis communications
- Fatal flaws in most crisis communications plans
- Implications of Social Media, friend and foe
- Communications conundrums of Social Media
Gerard Braud (Jared Bro) has pioneered new ways to speed you through both crisis communications and the process of writing a crisis communications plan. Since 1994, Gerard has practiced his craft on four continents as an expert in crisis communications and media training. Prior to 1994, Gerard spend 15 years as an award winning frontline journalist with report seen around the world on NBC, CBS, CNN and the BBC.
Who Should Purchase
- Individuals responsible for corporate communications, public relations, corporate affairs, human resources, employee communications, media relations, and issues management.
Testimonials:
- “It has been awhile since I’ve left a seminar (webinar, teleseminar, in-person, etc.) feeling, ‘Wow, I’m walking away with some new nuggets of insight I can put in place to help me up my game – and impact my clients in a positive way.’ So kudos to Gerard Braud for a great teleseminar on ‘Writing Your Crisis Comm Plan for the New Social Media Reality‘ and bringing to bear new ways of tackling an age-old bastion of public relations – the Crisis Communication Plan.” Jessica Flynn, Principal, Red Sky Public Relations in PR Musings Weblog.
- “Timely information, clear presentation, nice slides.”
- “We want to pilot the use of social media in our crisis planning process and this was good information to have.”
Of course, the best way to manage a corporate crisis is to prevent it. But that’s another course.
In this class we are assuming, despite all the best crisis auditing and planning, something ugly has hit the fan, and all hell has broken loose, or so it may seem in those first few hours.
No matter how awful and mind-numbing the event, your job is to calmly slide into crisis mode and help your organization do and say the right things – promptly, compassionately and honestly. Those first 24 hours are critical because, now more than ever, your initial responses can sink or save your organization’s reputation and much more. Say the wrong things and your organization will be perceived as inept, at best, and criminally negligent, at worst. That’s why Communitelligence is producing this webinar with Jonathan Bernstein, noted crisis communication expert and author of the new book, Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management.
Attend and you’ll more fully grasp any situation that threatens your business, your career, and even lives. By mastering the most effective tactics, you’ll be able to lead through any crisis smoothly and with minimal ramifications.
What You Will Learn:
- The biggest mistakes in crises communications
- Preparing for the three types of crises
- When to initiate a crisis response and when to “Shut the hell up”
- What makes a good spokesperson
- The 5 tenets of crisis communications
- Messaging: the 3 C’s of crisis credibility
- The importance of holding statements
- How and when to speak directly to your stakeholders
- The forgotten stakeholders – internal communication
Presented by:
Jonathan L. Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience meeting clients’ needs in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations. Prior to launching his firm in January 1994, Bernstein created and served as the first director of the Crisis Communications Group for Ruder Finn, Inc., one of the world’s largest public relations agencies.
Bernstein is publisher and editor of Crisis Manager, a first-of-its-kind email newsletter written for “those who are crisis managers whether they want to be or not,” currently read in 75 countries, and author of the most popular crisis management blog online. His commercially published Keeping the Wolves at Bay: Media Training has been as “an outstanding foundation for preparing individuals and organizations for effective crisis management.” His newest book, Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management (McGraw-Hill) was published in November 2011. Bernstein is frequently interviewed by national and international media outlets about various “crises du jour.” A PR Week feature story entitled “The Crunch-Time Counselors” identified Bernstein as one of 22 “people who should be on the speed dial in a crisis” and Business Week featured his perspectives in an article entitled “Masters of Disaster.”
Who Should Attend
- Crisis managers in corporate communications, public relations, corporate affairs, human resources, employee communications, media relations, and issues management.
Learn the necessary components of a crisis preparedness plan and how to effectively communicate it.
Terrorism, natural disasters and human errors observe few rules, and your company may be hit without any warning whatsoever. How badly your business is disrupted — and how much public trust and confidence remain with the company — will depend on how prepared you and your senior managers are when it comes to crisis communications.
Is your company prepared for a crisis? Does your company’s existing crisis policies allow for the smooth running of operations and communications in the event that something goes wrong? This session explores what communicators must do to help their companies survive the worst.
What You Will Learn:
- Crisis assessment or audit
- Writing the crisis plan and key messages
- The elements of a sound crisis communication plan
- Case study: Hurricane Katrina
- Crisis drill
- Emergency preparedness and response
- Crisis communications leadership
- Steps you should take
- Selling the need for crisis communications planning
- Crisis planning for operations abroad
After reviewing this webinar, you will have:
- A better understanding of the necessary dynamics of a crisis preparedness plan and how it can help your business survive the most difficult of times
- The necessary components of a crisis preparedness plan and how to it can be communicated effectively across the company
- the know how to execute your communication program if the power goes out
- The know how to write key messages that will withstand a crisis
- Understanding how the news media will respond to a crisis situation
- What it takes to take control of the situation and avoid unnecessary escalation by the media
- What you, as a communicator, can do to help the organization resume normal operations – ASAP!
Instructor:
Gerard Braud cut his teeth in the crisis arena as a front-line journalist for 15 years, covering events that included one of the nation’s deadliest train derailments, one of the worst federal prison riots and some of the country’s worst industrial accidents and natural disasters. As the head of Braud Communications, he has created proven methods to help organizations communicate with the media, employees and other stakeholders during a crisis. After the events of September 11, 2001, Gerard was commissioned to write the crisis communications plan for the Internal Revenue Service and its 800 offices across the U.S. A native of Louisiana, Gerard prepared a crisis communication plan for the City of New Orleans in 2002 that was rejected due to lack of funding.
Brenda Siler has 30 years of experience in leading communication programs in a variety of U.S.-based nonprofits and associations, including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Red Cross, United Way and AARP. She is a past chairwoman of IABC. While serving as the director of external communications at the American Red Cross, Brenda developed a crisis communications plan for the its Metro Atlanta Chapter, which was used for a threatened nurses strike, local/regional disasters and queries about HIV and the safety of the blood supply. She also coordinated communications efforts for United Way’s role in the Atlanta “Missing and Murdered Children” crisis, including managing pro bono services of local advertising and PR agencies. Based in Silver Spring, Md., Brenda is certified by the American Red Cross in disaster public relations management.
Joseph Honick is president of GMA International Ltd. Since 1975, his consulting firm has assisted organizations, nonprofit associations and major educational institutions with crisis management and communication efforts. His firm also works to broaden business opportunities abroad for major U.S. corporations. His firm is based Tucson, Ariz.
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.
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.
Potentially, executive communications is the most powerful PR tool your organization has. In reality, lots of effort is wasted and you’re hard-pressed to figure out what the bottom-line results your C-suite communications’ activities are yielding. Fret about this no more. We’ve assembled the world’s three leading experts on how to create a disciplined executive communication program. Moderated by Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray, this all-star panel includes the founder, the manager, and the chief evangelist of the original strategic executive comms program.
You Will Learn:
- How to match executives with messages and messages with audiences: matrices and message-mapping.
- How to evaluate speaking and interview opportunities so you take only the ones truly worthy of your executives’ time.
- How to get executives on board and keep them on board by showing them real results.
- How to use social media to magnify the power of your program.
- How to introduce strategic executive communications to organizations that have been running the function ad hoc.
Who Should Attend
- C-level and senior executives from Fortune 1000, mid- and small-sized companies
- Speechwriters and Executive Communication Managers
- Directors of corporate communications, PR, marketing, community relations, public affairs, finance and HR
- Executive directors, leaders and managers of non-profits, NGOs, churches, educational institutions and philanthropic foundations
- Leaders of federal, state, county and municipal government departments and agencies
- Members of the national media including bloggers
Presented by:
Steve Soltis directs the Leadership Communications function at The Coca-Cola Company. In this role he is responsible for executive communication and positioning for the company’s chairman and CEO and is also the architect of the company’s senior executive speakers bureau. Soltis joined Coca-Cola in September of 2006, after spending 10 years directing executive communications for UPS, and two years as a speechwriter for MCI. Prior to his corporate communications career, Soltis worked in a variety of editorial positions for The Global Network, Harte Hanks, Ackerley Communications and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. In 2006, Soltis was a recipient of the PRSA Silver Anvil Award for B2B Marketing for the work he led in developing UPS’s global customer conference, Longitudes. A graduate of the University of North Texas and Mary Washington College, Soltis also serves on the Advisory Board of the College of Science and Technology at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of two travel guide books and lives in suburban Atlanta with his wife, Stacy, and two children, Annie and Christopher.
Bruce Danielson is a thought leadership consultant who designs and implements strategic communications programs to help companies achieve their next level of growth. He recently completed an 11-year career as Executive Communications Manager at UPS, where he was responsible for message platform development, forum placement, speech writing and message repackaging to support the company’s senior executive communications strategy. Prior to joining UPS, he served as a speechwriter and event manager at MCI. Danielson began his corporate communications career at Harland, serving as Director of Corporate Communications. Away from the world of thought leadership, Bruce plays old-time fiddle and is an avid whitewater canoeist and hiker. He lives in Atlanta with his musical wife.
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.
This webinar by James E. Lukaszewski, one of America’s most thoughtful and visible crisis advisors, will take participants through a high level strategic discussion of the crucial elements of crisis readiness. Lukaszewski defines a crisis as, “a people-stopping, show-stopping, product-stopping, reputation-redefining and trust-busting event that creates victims and/or explosive visibility.”
While his initial response strategy discussion will focus around his five crucial steps to take during the golden hour of crisis, he’ll also talk extensively about readiness and avoiding the most predictable gaffs and problems that can torpedo even a well-designed and practiced response process.
Lukaszewski will talk about the readiness process, what leaders should be doing when crises occur, as well as how to prevent crisis; the crucial missing ingredients of most crisis plans; victim management; response triggers; what you do first; the ideal grand response strategy; how to forecast your greatest vulnerabilities; and how managers can recover their leadership and the organization’s reputation as they respond appropriately during these powerful events.
Crisis situations present extraordinary threats to organization leadership and reputation. Much crisis readiness activity is geared toward managing the explosive media coverage that often occurs when crises erupt.
What you will learn:
- The five crucial steps to take during the golden hour after crisis erupts
- The seven crucial tests any readiness plan must pass to effectively manage crisis and recover your reputation
- The seven crisis response failure profiles and how to avoid them
- The four crucial things leaders need to do when crisis occurs
- The seven mistakes and gaffs leaders need to avoid
- A perfect response communicated poorly will always be remembered as a poor response
James E. Lukaszewski is the author of a dozen books and manuals on crisis management, being a trusted advisor, and overcoming various crisis situations. He’s a member of the Crisis Management and Business Continuation Council (CMBCC) of ASIS, and has served on several ASIS standard setting task forces, including Workplace Violence. Corporate Legal Times described Jim as, “one of 28 crisis experts who should be on your speed dial when all hell breaks loose.” PR Week describes him as, “one of 24 crunch-time counselors who needs to be at your fingertips when crises occur.” In 2013, Trust Across America listed him as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior.” Jim’s clients will tell you that his strategy of doing things quickly, that are simple, sensible, constructive and positive is a powerful formula for success and reputation protection.
His latest book, Lukaszewski on Crisis Communication, What Your CEO Needs to Know About Reputation Risk and Crisis Management, released in March 2013, is now available at Amazon.com. You can follow James on Twitter and read hisCrisis Guru blog.