Monthly Archives: March 2011

Reputation Management by Cash, Check or Money Order

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Sir David Tang with Queen ElizabethRecently I posted on reputation management in an article concerning Gen. William Caldwell and his friends at Rolling Stone Magazine.  It appears that one of the keys to helping Gen Caldwell is the later and more disconcerting news about the “killer Teams” in Afghanistan that took his news off the page…for now.  As they say, timing is everything.

Now for the elite crowd, Sir David Tang, founder of Shanghai Tang, a very successful department store chain, we have a new answer to bad news.  Write a check and we’ll make it go away.  Wow, who would have thought?  I don’t think many will write the check when their American Express card will suffice.

The service ICorrect went live this month and has approximately 35 ‘founding members’ as they are called.  Many came from Sir David’s discrete ‘little black book’ and represent some well knowns like Stephen Fry, Cherie Blair, Sienna Miller, and Tommy Hilfiger.  The fee to become a ‘member’ is just $1,000 per year – a bargain for a dry cleaned reputation.

IConnect will post a ‘rebuttal’ on their site from one of their ‘members’ in correction of some gossip or other sad news the members wants to refute.  From some initial numbers the site is drawing page views – Stephen Fry had over 250,000 hits for his missive about not actually hating Catholics.  Tommy Hilfiger also refuted the fact that he never said that he didn’t want black people to wear his clothes.

Since this has launched in England, there should be no surprise that the British media has shown a great deal of skepticism about Sir David’s program.  Guffaws are more like it.  Stephen Pritchard of The Observer of London, one of the few news outlets that actually has an actual correction column thought ICorrect could cause more harm than good by calling attention to the news that they hoped would go away.  Ouch.

What does this mean to the digital world – perhaps absolutely nothing, which would be fine.  What’s life without a little scandal, especially for the celebrities and horse and hound set in Britain.  As with General Caldwell, perhaps all we need is a little time and it will pass over.  I’ll take it more seriously myself when Sir David talks SEO and shows me the analytics on the campaigns.  Until then, Cheerio mate.

 

 

 

To Become the Change We Are Looking For

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I have to admit I have a love hate relationship with David Brooks from the New York Times.  I don’t think we have much common ground, and I either love what he has to say on a given day, or I hate it.  Today David and I are simpatico.  His article “Tools for Thinking” caught my attention and lead me to an organization I will follow in the future – Edge.org.

David, I take the liberty of using only his first name since I also take the liberty of crumbling up and tossing his editorials that I disagree with.  David highlights the recent Edge symposium and over 164 contributions were made by leading thinkers, both high and low, about how to handle the posited question – “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody’s Cognitive Toolkit.”  I would have made my own contribution, but, alas, I was not invited on the frontend of this discussion.  I encourage you all the see the list at Edge.org.

What sparked my attention to this post and this event.  It is the same thing that is driving 90% of my consulting work today.  After 20 years of leading start-ups and turnarounds my practice has been shaped by this subject matter – essentially, “…what the h*ll should I do next.”  These are people looking for ‘tools for thinking’ as well as some critical insights on where the business economy is heading.

The dialog, as presented by David, covers a very broad range, as was its’ goal.  I zeroed in on how to understand the change to a digital world – an emergent system, as he describes it.  Since our culture is an emergent system we are adapting to how it is being described by the thought leaders who are driving digital tools and social media which are driving more than 80% of the overall change we are experiencing today…and this is what scares the h*ll out of my clients.

For my clients, my job has become to be their guide to this understanding of this change and what it means to them and to their busineses – and thus the ‘Analog Sherpa’ was born.  I’ve lead change and turnaround for years, but now the change is from the macro environment and we are all looking for tools to better understand what is happening and where it is going.  To get ‘there’ I now see that we have to ‘ become the tools we are looking for.’  Then we’ll understand what our future really looks like.

My Personal Do Not Call List

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Early Phone

My Lonely Phone

They say ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’   I’ve always loved that old saw, until today.  Now I find I’m the one having a hard time adjusting to changes, and I consult on the subject.  I’ve found I have a real weak spot for picking up the telephone to reach out to clients, friends and prospective clients.  I have a hard time calling my own family members, especially the boys who both work in the Web arena.  Now even my wife, the lovely LRHG of my dreams has told me to cool it.  What gives, and why do I call myself a slow learner?

I wrote about the very same subject just last August 11th, in a post that you can find here called “No Wonder They Don’t Return My Calls.”  It was based on the article from The WaPo “Texting Generation Doesn’t Share Boomer’s Taste for Talk.”  I railed how Gen X&Y prefer to text or email over using the phone, seeing the phone as an intrusion.  Ok, I understand, but I still didn’t get it – Duh!

Now in a New York Times article by Pamela Paul – “Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You” I think I really am beginning to comprehend, now if I could just resist the temptation to pick up the phone.  On the other hand I am very slow to answer, using caller id to help screen calls.  However, I think it is in my genes to want to reach out and touch someone – Ma Bell was big in my life, and mothers are never wrong.

Ms. Paul in her NYT article that even Emily Post would say that using the phone is very intrusive.  “I remember when I was growing up, the rule was, ‘Don’t call anyone after 10 p.m.’” Mr. Adler said.  “Now the rule is, ‘ Don’t call anyone, Ever’” I think I want to cry.  Judith Martin, a k a, Miss Manners says that – phone calls are rude, Intrusive, Awkward…I’ve been hammering away at this for decades.  The telephone has a very rude propensity to interrupt people.”  Now I really want to cry.  I thought all of my thought personal and sales calls were being greeted with open ears.  Ouch!

OK – I’ve resolved to alter my personal style, and have even refrained from ‘reaching out’ by phone for the last couple of days.  Instead I’ve got a list of people I need to email to set up some meetings, and perhaps even a lunch or two.  I also need to work on this subject for my clients and their staffs.  I was probably a little wishy-washy on this in the past months, but now that I’ve become a modern communicator – I will send emails to set up phone calls as I’ve been advised to do by Ms. Paul.

I get it, but I still don’t like it.  For all of you who have failed to return my calls – it’s ok, you’re now on My Personal Do Not Call List, but please check you email shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Radioactive Careers

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SONGS - San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

Surfs Up in San Onofre

I confess, I was one of ‘those people’ who helped to build nuclear power plants.  This includes a number of sites in the U.S. and Europe, but mainly in my own backyard in California and Arizona.  I was recruited to join Gulf & Western Industries in 1976 after 3 years with Xerox.  This was during the height of building the Alaska Pipeline, and a boom in nuclear energy.  Since I was local to the So Cal area I had a number of dealings with Bechtel who was the AE for both San Onofre and Palo Verde outside of Phoenix.  It was a profitable time, and I was never the low bidder since they were ‘cost plus’ projects.

With little background in piping and engineered projects my role was to work with the buyers from Bechtel and our manufacturing plants.  I learned quickly and loved the challenge.  During this time all of the components that went into all of the plants in the U.S. were sourced with U.S. materials.  Our biggest challenge was providing the reams and reams of documentation that accompanied each component.

The hardest thing to understand is that the engineering on each nuclear plant being built was unique.  With each new plant major decisions over which kind of reactor would be used to start the overall design of the plant.  As a novice I thought this was a waste as compared to the French mode of using comparable designs to keep the engineering costs down.

It was a great business, but alas, it was short lived.  By 1978 there were signs that new plant designs were slowing down, and by December of that year a number were cancelled.  By the time that the Three Mile Island accident occurred the industry was on hold.  The public outrage, and the growing costs of building and maintaining the nuclear plants was hurting public opinion.  TMI was just last nail in the coffin for the industry.  I four months I left the field for a role in the hot new advertising and direct marketing field and never looked back…until now.

Having left a field that went into meltdown, I now find that my 2nd field of direct marketing and print publishing are also in a meltdown of sorts.  I see and hear the same kinds of remarks now that I heard from my former associates back in 1979 – what happened?  My last newspaper, The Orange County Register, now has revenues less than half of what it had just 6 years ago.

What does this mean?  Nothing lasts forever, and nothing ever totally dies.  We need newspapers, and we need nuclear power.  The world for both is going to be ugly for a while, but even flowers grown around Chernobyl, and TMI is still in operation.  Anyone for a quick surf trip to San Onofre – the waters real warm just out beyond the cooling towers.

Lessons in Reputation Managment

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General William B. CaldwellIn my last post ‘Runaway Journalist Attacks Again’ I focused on the story of LTG William B. Caldwell, an old acquaintance of mine who had been charged in a The Rolling Stone article of using ‘psyops’ on visiting U.S. dignitaries in order to secure more resources for his assigned mission in Afghanistan – training Afghan forces to take over their own security.  Knowing something of the man I was taken back by the very strong accusations.  I was also alarmed by the speed of the vast condemnation in worldwide media – calling it ‘a wildfire’ doesn’t do it justice.

My plan was to immediately do some quick research on ‘reputation management’ that I could use to enlighten everyone with.  I felt strongly that he had been maligned and needed some digital help to improve his ‘brand.’  Two things happened – I started the research, and the ‘noise’ began to quickly subside.  Good news on both fronts.

In my work on reputation management, something I had worked with clients before on, never so publicly however.  What I found first was that my Google search on the subject immediately returned nearly 1 million hits – wow, where had I been.  Two years ago it was a fraction of that.  Was there more information – no, just more bodies offering to help.  It comes from the SEO arena with its unique approaches, to the PR side of pushing out a better message.  I was truly blown away since this is something I don’t focus on heavily for defensive reasons, mainly just building an identity out for ‘newbies’ breaking into the arena.

I guess that the shear size of the ‘reputation management’ services industry points to the fact that this is really a big deal, and a lucrative one.  With our reputations now on the line 24/7 there are lots of opportunities for them to get tarnished, or even trashed.  Glad we didn’t need it for General Caldwell at this time.

What went well, and why did things subside.  After the initial flare up, cooler heads started to look at the situation and see that it was really more about the journalist and a single disgruntled officer, the ‘psy-ops’ trained junior officer who had, perhaps made more of the issue.  It appears that this had already been in process and that General Caldwell had legal counsel who had approved his actions – really PR and not brain washing.  Some key journalists also came to his aid with some positive articles you will find in the sidebar to your right.

The other thing that pushed this out or the fire and into the background were larger challenges in the arena including that of the bombing of nine Afghan boys while gathering firewood.  This brought new challenges to General Petraeus, Caldwell’s superior officer.  As I was taught at Infantry Officer Basic School – there is nothing like a good diversion to help you advance against the enemy.  This time that has worked for General Caldwell, but it may not help him earn his 4th star.  Time will tell if the full reputation will be restored to this honorable man.