The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson 58: Critical Moments: The New Mindset of Reputation Management with special guest Bill Coletti
According to this week's guest, a company owns its brand; the public owns its reputation. Crisis communications expert Bill Coletti reveals how to build reputational excellence by meeting the needs and expectations of the public.
We discuss his various strategies for companies to work their way through a crisis. Bonus -- Bill offers a phenomenal crisis preparation tip you can put into place within your organization immediately.
- [3:05] Kith’s focus looking forward to 2020. The firm is transitioning from a focus on disrupting the disruption, to transforming organizations to reputation resilience.
- [5:00] The Zuckerberg vs. Buffett models. We talk about exploring the “move fast and break things” motto of organizations like Facebook lead by Mark Zuckerberg vs. Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s way of doing things. We discuss how disruption has its place, but it’s really more about overall transformation.
- [7:56] Is there a formula for managing a crisis? We both agree that the answer to this one is “yes.” Bill talks about the importance of increasing speed when it comes to responding to a crisis, and how organizations can get better and faster at it. Things like having strong core values, a clear chain of command, and truly understanding your mission and values before your faced with controversy are all key elements.
- [12:12] Bill’s four A’s of reputation management. You might want to take some notes here - there are some really good points you can use in this part of the interview. What came out of a “well that sucked, let’s never do that again,” situation, lead to Bill creating a framework of how to work through a crisis in a smart, strategic, and proven manner.
- [29:21] Here’s a great place to start. Before you decide to hire someone like myself or Bill, try this at your next team meeting. Pull out the Wall Street Journal or New York Times and simulate a current issue or controversy to figure out how you would respond. If that happened to you, how would you react? Exercise the muscles that will increase the speed in which you can react and keep your reputation where you want it to be.
You can purchase Bill’s book o
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