PR Resource

Not so many years ago, General Electric was a colossus striding the land. Its management techniques were imitated widely. Its former executives went on to run large companies. Now the corporation is struggling to survive, and it has lost $100 billion in market value. The downfall was relatively swift. After 2008, its financial arm was disassembled and largely sold off. It was the former engine of earnings outstripping the industrial arms of the business. Now, GE looks mortal, and there is speculation it might not survive as a conglomerate. If so, it will be an epic flameout equivalent to the demise of ITT decades ago. It is a reminder that there is no safety in size or in balance sheet. Market power can erode stealthily or of a sudden. A CEO needs a healthy paranoia and to remain on alert for trouble. Communications should retain a sense of humility and a clear recognition that what goes up can come down — sometimes hard.

AT&T’s CEO has publicly stated he will fight the Justice Department if it tries to get him to spin off CNN before merging with Time Warner. This sounds like a legal, lobbyist and PR full employment move. AT&T needs to gain high ground in public and legal opinion and do so quickly. Thus, President Trump’s allegations of CNN producing “fake news” have already become an issue. It is hard to say at this point who is favored to win the war, but it is unusual. Normally, when the Justice Department indicates it is not pleased with a merger, there are negotiations and agreements to do spin-offs or the combination is called off by the two parties. AT&T wants content to flesh out its huge distribution platform. Hence its will to fight to the bitter end. It might be a long road. These issues can take months if not years to settle.

Waymo, the Google company, is putting its reputation on the line with the announcement that it will send out driverless vans in Arizona as an acid test of its technology. The company has been working toward this day for more than 10 years. Now that it is here, there are still unanswered questions beyond the robustness of the technology. Who will insure a driverless vehicle if it is in an accident or suddenly goes rogue? Are customers ready for driverless technology or will they freak and attempt to steer the vans themselves? Can the vans find their customers on busy streets where GPS might not be as accurate as needed?

Waymo will be confronting these challenges as well as others that have not been foreseen. If it is able to conquer fears and to run without drivers, it will be the first in the world to have achieved it and to open a pathway to commercialization. That’s a huge step, which its competitors have yet to come near.

The Walt Disney Cos. are masters of marketing PR. That is why this is so dumb. No one wins when an organization tries to blackball the press. Certainly, Disney did not in this case, and it is unlikely to do so in the future. File this one under “What were they thinking.” If the company is upset with reporting on it, it should meet directly with the reporters and editors and work out a solution. In this case, Disney was angry with the LA Times for reporting on its relationship with the city of Anaheim where Disneyland is located. See “Company Town” below. The first rule of media relations is never to pick a public fight with the media. It is only on the rarest occasions where someone might try to punish a reporter for gross inaccuracies.That should be done quietly with an appeal to the journalist’s editors along with the accurate information that the reporter ignored. A company has every right to set the record straight, but for its own sake, it should not shut out the media.

The leak of a trove of papers from a law firm is revealing the extent of finagling that corporations do to avoid taxation. Apple, it turns out, is a skilled practitioner in avoiding taxes. It shielded hundreds of billions of dollars from its overseas accounts through domiciling on an island with 0 corporate taxation. Apple has every right to do what it did, but it still leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. The perception is one of a rogue corporate citizen. There is no guarantee with the pending tax reform act that Apple will repatriate any of its mountain of cash to the US. The money it made overseas is out of reach of the US taxman. US citizens have a right to inveigh against such corporate sleight of hand. It places a heavier tax burden on individuals, and it appears unfair although it is legal. Apple’s reputation may take a ding as a result of these revelations and well it should.

When a business is the largest in a city and employs a significant number of its citizens, it becomes a company town. Anaheim, CA is one such instance with the presence in its borders of Disneyland. Anaheim has extended tax breaks for Disneyland in the millions and built a vast parking garage for visitors. Now, after 50+ years, The city is starting to take a harder look at its relationship with The Walt Disney Cos. There is a growing sentiment that it ought to be paying more into city coffers, especially since the Anaheim has some significant budget shortfalls. Disney has responded that it has done a lot for the community and will continue its open-handed ways. There is a beginning of a stand-off. From a PR perspective, Disney ought to be paying more, especially for the parking garage. The company can’t move its operation easily to any other place.  It needs continuing good relations with the town. At some point, Anaheim will ask too much from the company, and then, Disney will have to consider a battle with the community. The situation doesn’t appear to be at that point yet, but as long as the company can ward off a fight, the better for it and Anaheim.

The large social media and tech firms are facing a continuous crisis with Russia meddling in US elections. If they shut one door to interference, hackers will find another to penetrate. Added to these problems is the role model Russia has become. That is, if Russia can intrude, why not another country or political entity? Google, Facebook and Twitter have a long and difficult journey ahead of them to shut off spigots of fake news and propaganda. They can tweak their algorithms, but that will only go so far. They can hire editors and researchers, but that is expensive.  Chances are they will settle on a solution that is a bit of both, but they will have difficulty with experts gaming their systems. They are now in a protracted war to provide truthful information to users, and it is possible they will be hailed before House and Senate committees after the next election for the same meddling.

Waymo, the Google subsidiary, is proving it has developed a completely self-driving car. The company has just held a journalist’s field day at its test facility in Central California. What Waymo hasn’t proven yet is that it can sell the software and hardware necessary for an autonomous vehicle. Its technology is ahead of the marketing. When asked about potential customers, Waymo’s response is nebulous. It might be the company has customers ready to buy when it has declared the technology fully mature. However, two out of three of the major American auto manufacturers have decided to go it alone and develop their own self-driving machines. Waymo could be left with a mature technology and no market. That would be a blow to the engineers who have labored for eight years and tested vehicles for millions of miles. What good is a better mousetrap if no one wants it?

A ranking of the top 10 world airlines has come out and there is not a single American carrier on it. That isn’t good for reputation or for PR. The reason for their absence is well known. They cram customers into their planes like cattle into a car. They have done away with amenities that make flying more comfortable. They charge for nearly everything including leg room. They do all this without apology. Part of their behavior is understandable. It is difficult to make a profit as an air carrier. Everything is shaved to the penny, but in the drive for cost accounting the customer has been lost. There doesn’t seem to be any change in the future. Airlines in America will continue to treat customers shabbily and for the most part customers will have to suffer because they have few other options.

Politicians often balance opposing forces, but so do popes. This article details a precarious balance the current pope is taking. He is riding a whirlwind of criticism from within his own ranks — conservatives who believe he is committing heresy and liberals who are pushing him to clean up the Vatican. It is a daunting task for an 80-year-old man and one wonders if he is up to it. No amount of internal relations will placate his right-wing critics. They want the Church to do it their way. Pope Francis doesn’t agree. They are out to destroy his papacy and recapture the seat of Peter. It doesn’t matter that the public at large has been supportive of the pope’s view and his dedication to the poor and homeless. His humility doesn’t offset a perception that he has gone soft on principle. That, in the conservatives’ view, is unforgivable. There is little in public relations to soften the anger. He has to live with it.