Author: Jim Horton

The federal government is caught in a mess of its own making.  It has been hacked twice —  in the Office of Personnel Management and most recently, the Army’s web site.  Millions of records have been compromised, and it makes agencies and departments look stupid, especially since they are worried about hacking outside of the government, such as the public utility power grid.  One would think that the feds would get their own house in order before worrying about the rest of the nation, but that is often not the way.  Bureaucracy is often “Do as I say not as I do.”  Such hacking incidents scar the reputation of the government and open it to deserved mockery.  The proper public relations approach would be to seal its systems first and then to use itself as a model for others to follow.  It won’t be perfect because hackers look for new ways of entry constantly, but prevention of most incidents should be enough.

Apple has been trumpeting the success of its “Apple Pay” application and calling 2015 as the year it will take off.  Reuters is not convinced and did its own study of the system.  It turns out that Apple has been exaggerating.  The result is embarrassment because someone checked the facts versus the contention.  Apple ought to know better.  It is a warning to PR practitioners as well to be conservative in claims.  Talk about what you have done and not what you plan to accomplish.  Or, at least, caveat your claims.  “We hope to make 2015 the year of Apple Pay.”  “We’re striving to make 2015 the year of Apple Pay.”  The flat statement that “2015 is the year of Apple Pay” begs the attention of fact checkers.  Apple may yet make 2015 the year of a breakthrough in mobile payments, but now it has to overcome negative perceptions of its own making.  It is a needless distraction.

There are too many lawyers seeking too few jobs.  Are MBAs next?  There is a rising concern that Wall Street doesn’t value the MBA as it once did.  The certification now is the Chartered Financial Analyst for which one doesn’t have to spend enormous sums for tuition.  It requires hands-on experience, however.  The question facing universities is what to do.  Career offices can help only so much and then the newly minted MBA is on her own.  It is hard for business schools to develop PR programs that differentiate them.  Essentially in the public’s view and in the view of industry, other than a few top schools, one MBA program is like another.  The annual rankings are as much a curse as a benefit.  Who wants to trumpet that “we’re no. 15.”  Still, there is merit in getting professors interviewed and mentioned in the media.  It can provide an aura of relevance that might otherwise be lacking.  There are no easy ways to negotiate a sea change.  One must be flexible and prepared to tack to another course.

It was news yesterday that Hillary Clinton’s polling numbers had dropped. There were fretting and warnings about her future as a presidential candidate.  Some had the good sense to note that early polls don’t mean much.  The electorate hasn’t focused on the 2016 elections.  The fear is that the perception of weakness with voters might be enough for Republicans to attack and for other Democrats to start running.  Both of these outcomes have happened but they haven’t made much difference yet.  The perception of Hillary and her husband has to turn more sour than it is now for there to be real danger to her candidacy.  So far, that is missing.  If poll numbers remain low during the months to come, there will be worries.  Today, there is no need to overhaul her campaign strategy.

Even though one has a title, there is no guarantee power goes with it.  That is what Sepp Blatter realized after being re-elected as president of FIFA.  Rather than running the organization, he was going to be spending his time defending his reputation and answering questions from prosecutors.  He also would be under the gun to reform FIFA in order to purge it of corruption.  This would mean sacking more officials and turning others over to authorities for charges.  The loss of reputation has been so great that Blatter realized he couldn’t recover. He did the right thing by resigning, but his reputation already has taken a mortal blow and he himself might be in a legal pickle, resignation or not.

One of the first lessons a PR practitioner learns is that people aren’t rational.  This fact took decades for economists to learn.  The burgeoning field of behavioral economics is a testament to the truth that people often work against their best interests because of risk aversion. What to make then of men who work long hours to compete with peers for no good reason?  They gain little from doing so except bragging rights and an early grave.  Yet, they continue to stay at their desks long after normal work hours have ended.  I’ve never been a believer in doing that. In fact, it seems to me that those who work late often work inefficiently.  If they organized their day and workload, chances are they would get out on time more frequently and learn to enjoy life.  Work should not be the sole reason for existence.  Unfortunately, in some cultures it was — such as Japan — where salarymen barely made it home by 11pm to fall into bed drunk and exhausted.  Eventually, Japan’s managers came to their senses, and there is less of that workaholic tendency in the country today.  The rational position is to maintain balance in one’s work-life.  That many don’t is one more sign that reason is not the sole driving force of human endeavor.

The Supreme Court voided the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who posted violent remarks on his Facebook page.  The court said federal law had set the bar too low for the charge to be upheld.  The ruling was apparently narrow but it poses a question of how threatening messages can be before authorities can act.  In this case, the man had stated he was expressing himself based on free speech principles.  That was discounted by lower courts.  Does this mean that anyone who says I’m simply saying what I feel can get off free?  The court didn’t answer that.  Although it is unlikely PR practitioners will ever send violent messages to the public, it is possible they will be the recipients of screeds from unhappy consumers, investors and others.  The practitioners need to be aware that one can express himself strongly and be within the law.  They still need to hand over the messages to authorities and to track the situation, but they can’t stop threatening words from coming.

China is in the midst of a stock bubble, and there is rising fear of the consequences when it bursts.  Millions of Chinese might find their savings disappear.  At least one board of directors has cautioned investors against speculation.  This raises a question.  What duty, if any, does a board or a CEO have to dampen irrational exuberance?  Companies will release information when there are unusual moves in their stock price to let the markets know that nothing has changed.  But, should a chairman of the board and/or a CEO publicly caution investors that they have bid a company’s shares too high?  It shows that a company is watching out for the investing public and concerned that they avoid getting hurt in a price correction.  One can make a case for and against speaking out, particularly if the stock buyers are speculators seeking to make a quick buck.  This is when the investor relations department earns its pay.

How does an organization maintain its credibility when this happens?  The world of professional soccer has been turned upside down with the indictments of vice presidents and executive committee members for graft.  The president, Sepp Blatter, has been left untouched, but the charges stop at the door to his office.  It is clear that FIFA needs to do its own internal investigation and become transparent, which it isn’t now.  However, it is unlikely under Blatter to do so, since he runs the organization with an iron hand and has been deaf to criticism.  The actions of FIFA have opened other questions such as players throwing games and gambling on their outcome.  The impression left with outside observers is that FIFA is rotten to the core.  Some say they are not surprised by the indictments.  They knew all along that FIFA was crooked, but it was left untouched, as if a city state.  FIFA faces years of repair to its reputation, and it might have to change its entire leadership to become credible again.

The pope’s pronouncements on the environment and the poor are not sitting well with Republican Catholics.  Once upon a time — a few hundred years ago — this might have put the pontiff in a political bind, but no longer.  Popes today have the ability to speak their minds concerning moral issues.  The present Holy Father has been more vocal than his predecessor to the delight of many and anger of others.  Normally, one would say that it is risky PR to take an unpopular stance, but for religious leaders it needn’t be.  They can, if they wish, rise above daily dealings and concentrate on long-term implications of the way the public thinks and acts.  In fact, religious figures who have descended into politics have done themselves and their followers a disservice.  There is no doubt that they possess secular power through their preaching that shows in the ballot box, but they have often been on the wrong side of the facts.  This Pope thus far has avoided politics.  He has called upon all secular leaders to pay attention to the migrant situation in Europe, and he is about to make a major pronouncement on the environment and the need for human stewardship of it.  There are those who are already dismissive of his ideas, but he is hard to ignore.