Author: Jim Horton

The death of 298 passengers and crew from a missile is a tragedy not only for the families affected but also for the company — Malaysia Airlines.  The company must feel it is snakebit to have two major accidents just a few months apart and both mysterious.  We may never know what happened to the first plane but one theory is that it was flying on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.  If it was on auto-pilot, something dreadful happened to the pilot and co-pilot.  As for the present situation, it is unlikely anyone is going to “fess up” to having fired a missile.  Rather each side will blame the other, and only a careful examination of the wreckage might lead to a conclusion.  Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines must calm the nerves of potential passengers who might be leery of flying in its aircraft.  An airline can go years without an accident then suddenly, something happens.  It is a blow to the reputation of the company and there is nothing one can do but carry on and make adjustments, such as no longer flying over Ukraine.  There are times when business is crappy, and this is one.

You’ve probably seen a news story and heard the recorded customer call to Comcast that has gone viral.  Comcast has apologized for the rudeness of its service rep who wouldn’t accept that a customer wanted to cancel.  The company is already one of the lowest rated for customer service and this incident only confirms the view of many.  It is one more example of a bad egg supporting the public’s perception of a company’s reputation.   One would think Comcast would be working overtime to win favor, and employees like this one would be reassigned or rooted from the ranks.  But, apparently not.  Hence the company continues with the poor reputation for service it has had for years — and that is too bad.  When our family was a Comcast customer, its service was prompt and their techs easy to work with.  We left Comcast, not because of outages,  but because we could get faster line speeds.  Our present vendor has proven stable and easy to work with as well.  Comcast has lost us, probably forever, as it has lost millions of others.  Had it a better reputation that needn’t have been the case.

The best PR is a melding of self-interest with the interests of the public.  Under that definition, what Google is doing to fix the internet is PR at its finest.   With the name, Project Zero, the company is hiring the best programmers it can find to roam the internet and close off vulnerabilities wherever it finds them,  whether or not the software is Google’s.  This is the kind of big project that only the largest of companies can afford to undertake.  One might have expected Microsoft to handle the project since it has worked hard to identify and isolate hackers, but Google acted first.  The internet, in spite of Google’s efforts, will never be perfect.  There are too many holes that brilliant programmers can exploit.  However, it can make it more difficult for rogue hackers and that alone will be a benefit to the world.  Some fear Google because it is a large and pervasive company, but if it keeps acting like this, there is little to worry.

The attorney general of the US says opposition to the president is racism.  A Caucasian Senator and Republican says not so.  Who is right and does it matter?  Slavery and discrimination against blacks has lasted for more than 300 years in the US.  The attorney general can be forgiven for seeing any opposition as more of the same.  Republicans in turn have committed themselves to a smaller government in opposition to the President’s Big Government solution to chronic problems of unemployment and sluggish growth.  It would seem on the surface that the senator is more right than the attorney general, but the senator should have realized the sensitivities of African Americans to opposition.  It wasn’t long ago that dogs were sicced on to civil rights protesters in the South and governors denied integrated schooling to black children.   It will take time — decades — for African Americans to put history into perspective.  That will come as more of them enter the middle and upper classes and feel welcomed.  Meanwhile,  some African Americans will see every disagreement as racism whether it is or not.  The eyes of the beholder have a fixed lens.

No company, especially a start-up, needs negative publicity like this.  It shows a lack of command and training and most importantly, common sense.  Uber’s ride sharing service can fail quickly if there are more high-speed chases like this one. The company already is under pressure from Yellow cab drivers, Taxi and Limousine Commissions and other car services.  If there are more stories about poor service and unsafe driving, the company will lose passengers and its reason for being.  Uber should understand the power of social media and the ability of individuals to howl when they have been mistreated.  Its response to the incident was bureaucratic and hardly what a passenger should expect for an 8-10 minute hellish ride.  The suggestion at the end of the article that the company needs better screening of its drivers is an idea that the company should have had in place from the beginning.  Uber is walking a fine line, and it can fall at any moment.

The US finds itself in a pickle after Germany caught yet another spy who was working for America within the German defense ministry.   The Germans are angry and well they should be.  If a government can’t trust an ally then who can it trust?  For the United States, it is a blow to reputation and an example of poor international relationships.  The breach is a matter of trust.  There is the cliche that President Reagan used often, “Trust but verify.”  The question is whether verification should be in the form of spying or more transparent methods.  Based on the anger of the German government, the latter is what the US should have been doing.  The result of the exposure is that diplomacy will be made more difficult for the two countries.  US diplomats most likely won’t know whether there are American spies in German ranks, and German politicians can assume there are.  In other words, trust has been damaged with the leader of the European Union.

The White House offered the governor of Texas an opportunity to shake the President’s hand when the President lands in Austin.  The governor, Rick Perry, declined and countered that he wanted a meeting to discuss border issues with the President.  Perry got his meeting.   Ordinarily, when one is lower in the power structure, making demands on someone above you is out of protocol and rude.  Perry, however, was playing politics over an issue of deep concern to Texas and the rest of the US.  The President has request nearly $3 billion to handle the problem of children crossing the border in droves, some as young as eight years old, out of a mistaken belief that they will be allowed to stay in the US.  In other words, there is good reason for Perry to have turned down a handshake.  On the other hand, what can Obama tell him in a meeting that hasn’t already been reported in the media?  The real reason, it would appear, is that it gives Perry a chance to sit with someone whose job he wants and to communicate to his base that he is no pushover.   If this were a ball game, it would be Perry 1, President 0.

Apparently the cupcake fad is over.  The bakery that was riding the wave has shut down all of its stores and laid off employees.  As with many fads, it was hard to understand why so many people decided to eat cupcakes at the same time, but they did.  Then, they didn’t.  Was the company aware that it was riding a swiftly vanishing wave of sentiment?  Probably not.  There is a tendency to believe that trends will last.  Every industry has gone through growth spurts that insiders have maintained will continue into infinity.  Of course, they never do.  In that regard, cyclical businesses have an advantage.  They know that a sine wave describes their economic activity, and they try during healthy periods to prepare for the next downturn.   With a fad, once the growth is over, it stops altogether.  The plunge is a free-fall to the bottom.  There is little that a company can say or do with marketing and PR to reignite interest.  Those who ride fads should keep their resumes up to date.

Asking anyone to rank a President while the President remains in office is a dumb idea.  That is why this ranking which thrusts Obama to the bottom of Presidents in office since World War II is spurious.  Most voters weren’t alive or cognizant when Truman and Eisenhower were in office.  Most don’t remember Kennedy that well either.  Someone once said it takes 20 years before one can judge a President historically.  The long wait is needed to allow partisanship to wither and the individual be considered objectively.  But why is such a poll useful?  Because it is a gauge of current voter perception.  It tells a President how well the public thinks the President is doing today.  In light of that, Obama needs to choose well and execute better until he leaves office.  There is still plenty of opportunity for him to show his mettle given the upheavals that roil the globe and turbulence at home.  If he fails, it won’t be for lack of trying.  How historians will rate him in 2034 is anyone’s guess.

You’re the number four cell phone service provider, well behind the leaders.  You have dedicated your company to better customer service in order to catch up.  Suddenly the Federal Trade Commission hits you with the first-ever lawsuit for bogus phone charges.  That is what happened to T-Mobile, and it has knocked the wind out of the company for the moment.  The lawsuit vitiates all that the company has done and makes it look like a scammer when it is in reality a victim of scammers.  There isn’t much the company can say to regain its reputation until the lawsuit is resolved.  It should — and  did — protest the action, but that is hollow when a government regulator is involved.  T-Mobile’s PR department must be working overtime without much hope of making headway.