Insights & Strategy
Crisis PR: Keeping Employees in the Know
When most companies think of crisis management, they think of handling the issue in the public sphere.
Tag
strategy
Public Relations
PR pitfalls when education and PC don’t mix
A Maryland high school student followed the instructions on his English assignment to the letter.
Crisis Communications
GM Made the Right Call on Recall
In April 2016, GM voluntarily recalled 1.1 million Silverado and Sierra pickups over a seatbelt defect before any crash. The textbook recall — and why operational discipline alone doesn't rebuild a brand after a 2014 cover-up.
Insights & Strategy
UC Davis's $175,000 ORM Bill: A Higher-Ed Reputation Case Study
In November 2011, the University of California, Davis' police handling of a student protest attracted an onslaught of bad publicity.
Insights & Strategy
Public Relations is as Important a tool in Politics as is Policy and Action
We reference a special edition Harris Publication aptly named American Presidents: The Greatest.
Insights & Strategy
First-Party Data in B2B Marketing: The 2026 Operating Model
First-party data in B2B for 2026. Five shifts since 2016. The five data categories that matter. The three-layer operating model (collection, intelligence, activation). The dark-funnel problem. What compounds versus what just produces activity.
Insights & Strategy
What’s Your Media Business Model?
Up until about 1440 when Guttenberg created his movable type printing press, people got information almost exclusively by word of mouth.
Corporate Communications
NASCAR Safety Communications: From Earnhardt to the Modern Sanctioning Era
NASCAR rebuilt its safety communications architecture from the 2001 Earnhardt response onward. Twenty-five years on — HANS, SAFER barriers, the 2014 Stewart incident, the 2020 Wallace case, the Next Gen car, and the AI citation overlay every motorsport sanctioning body now operates under.
PR News
CEO Political Speech Doctrine: From Chuck Robbins to the 2025 Corporate Retreat
The canonical EPR reference on CEO political speech doctrine — the 10-year arc from Chuck Robbins's March 2016 anti-Trump CNN statement through the 2017-2022 stakeholder capitalism era, the August 2019 Business Roundtable repudiation of shareholder primacy, the 2020 George Floyd corporate response, the 2023 Bud Light and Target Pride inflections, and the 2024-2025 retrenchment culminating in the DEI rollback wave. Five operating principles for 2026.
Insights & Strategy
Uber's Customer Relations Rebuild — From Kalanick Crisis to Khosrowshahi Trust
In 2017 Uber's customer relations collapsed. #DeleteUber, a viral video of CEO Travis Kalanick berating a driver, sexual-harassment allegations across the company. By 2024, Uber's brand health had recovered. The rebuild — leadership change, transparency reports, and the disciplines that worked.