Posted At : July 26, 2010 10:44 AM | Posted By : name
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Attempting to explain the disappointing results at Goldman Sachs during the second quarter, chief financial officer David Viniar made the extraordinary assertion that the company's performance is "not driven by management", but by customers and blamed "very, very largely reduced client activity" for the 83 percent fall in the bank's profits. If he's right, and management doesn't drive the company's performance, can we look forward to an explanation of why members of the management team are earning seven or eight figures? Don't hold your breath.
A brilliant FT feature looks at the response for current and former BP employees to the company's shattered reputation and says its interviews "reveal a company where many are fearful about jobs and savings, dismayed at their employer's part in another terrible accident, and furious at management's handling of the crisis." Says one interviewee: "The question [employees] are asking is: am I working for the company I thought I was working for, with the right values?" That's pretty much what the rest of us are asking too, and it seems as though BP has not provided the answers internally any better than it has externally.
I'm not sure I agree with the British government's austerity policy--at a time when the economy still seems to need stimulating--but I understand it. What I don't understand is the urge to cut health education initiatives like this one encouraging kids to drink more milk. It might save a few thousand pounds now, but it's the kind of campaign that pays for itself in the long term, because it results in healthier kids. Shutting it down looks like an ostentatious "we're-cutting-back" gesture rather than a well thought-out policy.
A Washington Post article makes the case that "a veritable deluge of crises since 2008 has shown that crisis PR is no longer up to the job," and concludes: "The lesson now for companies that screw up is that you really have no chance: The currents are against you from the get-go. The courts of Twitter and online video sites, along with Facebook groups that deplore the transgressions, will overwhelm even the most elaborate crisis battle plan." It's nonsense, of course: the principles of good crisis PR haven't changed: it's just that bad crisis PR is discovered much more swiftly and punished much more severely.
Automotive World has an interesting interview with Mary Henige, who directs social and digital communications for General Motors. "The social web is hungry for content. If we are excellent content providers, then we are adding value for our consumers."
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