DON’T ASSUME THE PUBLIC THINKS AS YOU DO
CHAPTER 13 - Write Your Own Case History
RUDY GIULIANI: CRISIS MANAGER IN CHIEF
CHAPTER 14 - Know When to Fold Them
AVOIDING BATTIES THAT AREN’T WORTH FIGHTING
CHAPTER 15 - The Best Case Studies Are the Ones You’ll Never Hear About
PLAYING THE INSIDE GAME AT TYCO
BETTING THE INDUSTRY: HOW WIRELESS WAS SAVED FROM ATTACK
CHAPTER 16 - In Crisis, Personality Trumps Planning
“MR. CLEAN” CONFRONTS THE ULTIMATE MARKETPLACE ASSAULT
CHAPTER 17 - Know Whose Side Your Team Is On
CHAPTER 18 - The Crisis in Your Future
CHAPTER 19 - Fighting Back in the Age of YouTube: The Duke Lacrosse ...
THE DUKE LACROSSE CASE: NAILING THE PROSECUTOR
RICHARD JEWELL’S DAMAGE CONTROL LEGACY
CHAPTER 20 - Our Permanent Ieakocracy
IS THERE AN ANTIDOTE TO WIKILEAKS?
DAMAGE CONTROL
Eric Dezenhall is the CEO of Dezenhall Resources in Washington, D.C. He began his career in the White House Office of Communications during the Reagan presidency. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked at an international public relations agency and a political consulting firm. He is also the author of Nail ’Em: Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses. His forthcoming novel The Devil Himself will be published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s in the summer of 2011
John Weber is the president of Dezenhall Resources and the firm’s second partner. He oversees client services and is the primary liaison with its affiliate agencies in the United States and Europe. Weber previously served as a senior manager at three of the world’s largest public relations firms. He began his career in marketing and advertising.
Visit their Website at www.DezenhallResources.com
To Donna and Stephanie
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank the following people for their behindthe-scenes assistance with Damage Control: Bernadette Malone, Adrian Zackheim, Will Weisser, Kris Dahl, Bob Stein, Susan Haralson, Stuart Dezenhall, and Malinda Waughtal.
AUTHORS’ NOTE
This book includes numerous case histories and examples of both well and poorly managed crises. While some of these are based on our direct involvement, many are not. Where an example is based on our experiences, we have obscured the facts to protect the identities of clients we did not want to reveal. It has always been, and will continue to be, the corporate policy of Dezenhall Resources not to reveal our clients or to discuss, without their permission, our work on their behalf.
INTRODUCTION
You’re gonna need a bigger boat.
—CHIEF BRODY, JAWS
We knew we weren’t going to take the case within thirty seconds of walking into the boardroom. This prospective client—a large consumer health products concern under attack by the news media, government regulators, activist groups, trial lawyers, and shareholders—was going to get slaughtered, but not because its crisis was so bad. It wasn’t as if its best-selling product was alleged to be killing people.
The prospective client—let’s call the company Socrates—called us in to meet its crisis management team. We had been under the impression that the objective of the meeting was to listen to Socrates tell us its side of the story—why its best-selling product was under attack. Then, presumably, we’d give Socrates our initial ideas on how to defuse the attack.
One look at the dynamics of the room, however, and we knew we had landed smack dab in the middle of what we sarcastically call a “beauty contest.” Beauty contests are presentations that are held ostensibly to hear out the ideas and credentials of the potential consultants available for hire. Sounds legitimate, right? The real purpose, however, of a beauty contest in many high-stakes PR assignments is to identify the consultant who is least likely to get anyone sitting at the table fired.
A company in crisis is often no longer a company at all: It’s a collection of individuals, each of whom is looking for personal cover. Truth be told, the company’s welfare was low on the priority list of the individuals in this room.
This probably seems like a cynical assessment.
Welcome to the blunt talk of contemporary damage control, which requires a sober appreciation of both human nature and the tides