Tag Archives: Reputation Management

Sam Zell…First in Our Hearts and Last In Line for $$$

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The following article ran on April 2, 2007 in the Media Bistro under a byline by Kate.

 Sam Zell – Tribune’s New Owner

Sam Zell, the new owner of the Chicago Tribune Company, has quite a reputation as a motorcycle-riding, cowboy booted swashbucker who came up the hard way.

He’s on the Board of Directors of Equity International.

He likes to take risks, according to Forbes and he’s #52 on the Richest list.

He’s the biggest landlord in America or was, in 2004.

He’s called the “grave dancer”.

He’s “salty to the point of crass”, according to the CJR.

He owns, at least in part, two baseball teams.

So what does this mean for the LA Times? Got any predictions? Send ‘em our way.

After a short run in which he fleeced nearly everyone in sight, including the employees of the Los Angeles Times where he used their money in an ESOP to fund a major portion of his purchase – Sam has finally met his match.

Judge Kevin Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. ruled that Sam Zell should be the very last creditor to get money in any payout from the Tribune bankruptcy proceeding. The judge found that “Mr. Zell’s investment ranked dead last in the Chapter 11 payment priority competition, ‘at the bottom of Tribune’s capital structure,’” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Ouch…but it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.  We wish you well Sam.  No, actually we don’t!  Go away and don’t come back again.  You will forever be the poster child for all those who hastened the demise of U.S. newspapers.

Lt Gen William Caldwell Beats the “Rolling Stone” to Dust

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General William B. CaldwellSometimes mistakes do get corrected.  Back on March 9th I wrote about the case against Lt. Gen William Caldwell, a very old associate of mine, who was covered by  Rolling Stone.  The accusation against him was that he had run a rogue operation attempting to brainwash visiting government officials and elected representatives into supporting the mission in Afghanistan.  Coming on the heels of the article that forced the removal of Gen McKristol for his, and his staffs remarks denigrating their President.

I spoke in defense of LTG Caldwell because I knew him, and I thought I understood what had taken place.  I was right, or at least the Army and of its’ investigators thought so as well.  He was acquired of all charges and will continue in his role heading up the training of Afghans for U.S. and NATO commands.  This is a big tough, and thankless command for any senior military officer.

The good news here is that a good man had his reputation restored.  After all the press comments after the Rolling Stone article I felt he would need a lot of luck to achieve a positive outcome…and he had it.  A career of stellar and exemplary service will continue.  We are all the better for this outcome.

For everyone else undergoing a trial of their reputation should take notice and heart.  Good things can happen to good people – even when a reporter from Rollng Stone is asking you questions.  Good can prevail!  This time it did.  His dad, my former boss, must be smiling from above.

Your USPS…with guns blazing, wants your business!

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The USPS Investigation Control Mobile Central

Forget to pay your postage?

One of my real hot buttons is reputation management.  I’ve written about it many times, and it is of continual interest to my clients.  Most of them fear getting smeared by something they cannot foresee or control.  This week two institutions that I am very familiar with came to ‘blows’ and both had their reputations sullied as a result.  The two institutions – the USPS, and a large commercial printer and mailing service, Advantage Mailing, Inc in Anaheim, CA.  What happened?

On Thursday morning the USPS in the form of Postal Inspectors and U.S. Marshals, a contingent of approximately 60 strong showed up at the doors of Advantage with guns.   They were there to search for malfeasance on the part of Advantage for short paying postal invoices for several months.  Wow, I didn’t realize that was a shooting crime.  I’ve been in the mailing arena since 1979, and I’ve never seen guns brought in to any facility and I’ve mailed billions of pieces of mail.

Quickly the word got out and the OC Register, another paragon of journalistic virtue, reported the event in their online coverage.  It wasn’t until today that they reported that the investigation was ongoing, and that Advantage had opened for business again on Friday.  For those who don’t understand how large commercial mailing operations work – there is ‘in-plant verification’, meaning that postal employees work onsite to verify all mailings before they leave the dock for the appropriate postal facility, generally then to large Anaheim mail facility.

So, if they thought Advantage was not paying the right amount on mailings they could have been stopped before they left the plant.  In nearly all of these cases all of the postage is computed via highly controlled postage software, certified by the USPS, which makes all of the computations.  The postal employees on site can do any checks they desire including weighing the pieces, weighing the total loaded mail and checking all mailing lists used to address the pieces.  Why then show up later with guns?

Advantage is back in operation.  They are now trying to rebuild their reputation that, with a large hue and cry of the media, was destroyed last Thursday.  They were guilty the minute the armed postal inspectors showed up.  The USPS will also have to repair their image.  Does any other large mailer, or large mailing client, want to have the similar circumstances show up at their door in the future?  I doubt it.

With all of the problems the USPS is having, mainly being several billion dollars in the red this year and requesting more cuts including dropping Saturday delivery, they don’t need to scare off their customer base – especially with loaded weapons.  I think they are also losers in the reputation area.  This will not help them in trying to win back commercial customers to mail who have switched their programs on-line.  As far as I know Google, Microsoft and Apple aren’t allowed to carry loaded weapons.  That appears to be the ‘safe’ choice for the future.

 

Disaster Control for Two Prominent Reputations

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This has not been a good week for a couple of very prominent names – Lance Armstrong and Disney.  I’ve written many times about Disney, and my experience working there, but never about Lance Armstrong.  This week they both went over the cliff due to their own actions, and how those actions hit the press.

The biggest news was the 60 Minutes TV interview of one of Lance’s long-term cycle team members.  This was a real showstopper with insights coming from a real insider who claimed to be privy to, and a participant with Lance in illegal training habits and foreign sources used to bolster their performance.  There have been many accustations in the past, and convictions of others for doing the same thing in both cycling, and other sports where winning was everything.  For a 7-time winner of the Tour de France race, the only person to accomplish that incredible feat, Lance was sports royalty and he parlayed that into commercial success and a huge non-profit Livestrong.  He is also a commecial success in his home town of Austin, TX where he is a ‘sports god.’

The article “Livestrong’s Challenge: Surviving Lance Armstrong” talks about his chances of beating the rap, and the impact of his fall from grace and the impact on the Livestrong foundation which has raised over $400 million in support of cancer victims.  Lance could be facing civil and criminal charges, but the impact could also hurt the foundation.  The jury is out there for now.

Disney ran afoul of many where it tried to trademark the name ‘Seal Team Six’ after the Special Ops team that handled the raid in Pakistan.  At first this looked like a good idea, and it appeared that Disney was first to apply for the trademark.  Never wanting to waste a good licensing target Disney hyped the idea and some of the things that could have carried the brand.  Almost instantly a howl came up that this was unseemly…and poof, the idea went away with Disney dropping the application.  Concurrently, it was shown that the Navy had also applied for the trademark, and may have actually beaten Disney to the door of the legal offices.

What’s the fall out from these two instances of reputation mismanagement?  Disney will recover quickly – no harm no foul.  They were lucky this didn’t go further when the real hew and cry went up for their scalps for being way to commercial.  Lance may not fare so well.  As a sports hero he may find his name being mentioned along with Barry Bonds, and Reggie Bush as a sports cheat, and some medals may have to be given back.  In Texas, Lance is a hero and will always be a hero as a hometown boy.    However, I don’t think I would go jogging with the Governor, Rick Perry, when he carries his trusty pistol with the laser scope.  Lance could find himself in the Gov’s sights if there is any hint it could hurt Rick’s reputation.

I’ll follow-up on both of these cases in a month to see what the longer-term impact of these revelations will be.  The lesson for all…in today’s world – it all comes out, eventually.

 

Disney & Apple – May the ‘Magic’ Live On

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I was lucky enough to have had the fun of working my way through college at Disneyland.  A long time ago, but the memories are still fresh.  Fresh enough to have endured my recent IRS audit, the first in 25 years, by talking with my auditor who had been a contemporary of mine working there at the same time.  The IRS and ‘magic’ don’t often go together, but the time passed with a number of mutual stories of Disney lore and the names of many shared contacts…and a small check at the end for a mistake on my return that meant I owed a wee bit more

In my first year at DLand I had the good fortune to see Walt Disney ride around the park in his small carriage, usually with a niece or nephew riding with him.  His vision had created something special, and some of that died with him later that year.  For a number of years, both as an undergrad and grad student, DLand funded my studies, and my first business experiences.  After returning from a few years in the Army I noticed the real change.  As DLand grew, and Walt Disney World became a reality, the company was guided by “WWWD” , What Would Walt Do!  The company had leaders, but everyone still looked to Walt’s vision in making key decisions.

After some time, the WWWD stopped working, and the drift was very noticeable until Michael Eisner came in.  His impact was immediate and very noticeable.  WWWD was soon abolished and Eisner set the direction for the company for the next several years.  Disney is still a magical place and a magical company, especially to its many ‘guests’.

In 1980 I bought my first computer, an Apple.  For many years I was a total Apple guy.  I found in Apple the same kinds of ‘magic’ that I had found earlier at Disney.  In Steve Jobs, the perfectionist with a vision, guided Apple’s early years, just as Walt had done in days at Disney.  This really comes out in the new Fortune article “Inside Apple.”  In the review article “Apple Employees Tell the Secrets Behind Jobs “Magic” I found the similarities between the two men to be extraordinary.

Both men had a vision that was distinct and unique, and one that was more counter intuitive than most of their peers.  They saw things others did not, and were willing to risk it all to make those visions real.  Disney is still a top brand, but today Apple is the most admired brand in the world.  To reach those lofty pinnacles it takes some luck, and more than a little “magic.

From the Fortune article it is apparent the working for Jobs is not easy, but it is good to see that they diligently work on investing and learning for their key staff with the Apple University, a very costly undertaking, that is preparing for the next generation of top leaders.  Steve, though still young, has had his major health issues.  I hope that Apple doesn’t need to create their own version of “WWSD” to guide them if he were to exit in the near future.  The training and transition to the next group of leaders at Apple is now moving smoothly…and that should ensure that the “magic” will continue for Apple and for us in this changing digital world.

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.

 

 

 

Life in the Fishbowl

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Well everything hit the fan yesterday, and we have had wall-to-wall coverage of the Wikileaks in the diplomatic world.  If you love titillation and scandal, things just couldn’t get any better.  If you believe that these things should not have been leaked, then life is now hell.  Better get used to it since there is more to come, and I’ll get to that later.

Many of my clients are senior executives who both love the limelight, but who also want to control their image, and that of their organization.  That has gotten to be hard in this highly 24/7 social world.  Anyone can be spotted and tagged in a photo or video and it is hard to do anything about it.  For the photo shy this is frustrating.  What can you do – best advice today – get over it.  You now live in a fishbowl world and transparency is full time and real time.  Be it your image, or any data about you – it is being shared, and in many cases sold to someone who wants to market to you.  We now live in a world wide small village where we all know everything about everyone else.

There is outrage at the leaks, and talk of espionage charges against the leakers, one of whom an Army enlisted man is awaiting trial.  Things will get sorted out in the future, but one thing is not and will not change in the future.  Once the story is out, the damage is done…the bell has been rung and cannot be un-rung!  If this is to be our future we must adapt our behavior on the front end to avoid consequences on the other end.

The change in behavior needed?  Think transparency and reputation management.  If you start with the fact that you really do live in a fishbowl, you should adapt your behavior on the front end, cause the consequences WILL follow on the back end.  You should also be active in promoting your brand and all of the positive things it stands for on a routine basis.  That should help if any small hick-ups occur along the way.  A good offense helps to create a good defense in football parlance.

What happens next with the leaks?  In a new Forbes cover story Julian Assange has ‘leaked’ the fact that their next target is going to be a major bank.  Big business is now in his sites.  With all of the damage being played out in the news over the sad state of the foreclosure mess which is hurting some of the major banks now, I don’t think it will take much to cause a real stir, and perhaps a crisis there.  My retired banker father-in-law is so thankful not to be working in this environment.  He for one could not stand to live in the ‘fishbowl’ of today’s world.  Fish food anyone?