PR Resource

Microsoft is engaged in smart public relations with this announcement.  Donating a billion dollars in cloud services is a major step for the company and the thousands of not-for-profit organizations and academic institutions which will use it.  Make no mistake.  Microsoft isn’t doing this solely out of a philanthropic impulse.  It is trying to gain market share for its software and this is a way to do it — by reaching a market that hitherto couldn’t afford it. Once these organizations understand what the cloud can do for them, they will make it part of their operating budgets.  What could be better than that?  Microsoft gains kudos for its gift in the beginning and wins in the end.

When a large group of CEOs are dour about the future, it is worth paying attention.  That is the subject of this survey.  Top leaders don’t see a way forward this year.  Call it influential pessimism and negative PR.  It is hard for an optimist to overcome the negatives from those who make spending and buying decisions.  In truth, the sour feelings on the part of CEOs might be self-fulfilling.  They will cut back in the face of headwinds and thereby insure the storm will be all the stronger.  There isn’t much else they can do if their companies’ sales are sluggish and earnings flat.  They have to manage to make it through and not push forward to growth that isn’t there.  So, the globe starts the year under a cloud.  That doesn’t mean the CEOs are right.  Something could change in the next 11 months to shift their opinion, and if it does, it will prove that CEOs don’t have any better vision than anyone else.

Elon Musk of SpaceX has had bad luck with his rockets re-entries into earth’s atmosphere and touchdowns.  The latest missile fell over on an anchored barge.  Musk blamed condensation ice from the heavy fog in which the rocket was fired.  No matter what happened, Musk is facing a PR problem until he can get his stage ones to settle gently in an upright position upon re-entry.  No one argues that it is easy to do.  It is probably the hardest part of a launch likened to a juggler doing magic tricks while keeping balls in the air.  Musk, however, boasted that his company would master the technology.  He put himself in a position of peril by making the statement before showing the proof.  Thus far, one of his rockets has landed safely back on earth.  The others have crashed in one way or another.  That’s not a good record.

Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, and once again, blacks were shut out of the awards.  The fault, however, is not that of the Oscar nominators but of the type of movie being made.  The problem is systemic and goes back to writers and producers who develop and fund scripts as well as directors who cast them.  Oscars are symptoms of the underlying problem and not racist in themselves.  It is a challenge that will be dealt with over time and with pressure from minority groups to be included in filmmaking.  Still, the Oscars are taking a PR nick because of the situation, and there is nothing to be done to make it better.

There is a drumbeat of publicity and PR for settling worlds outside of our own — e.g., Mars, the moon and eventually, a planet in another solar system.  This article discusses just how difficult it would be.  It would take many years to assemble the materials, technology and individuals and many more to complete a  mission, barring new physics or scientific breakthroughs. Essentially, we are stuck with earth, and we had better take care of it.  There is no place else to go.  Even a much-touted Mars mission has difficulties beyond imagining.  How do you sustain individuals for the six-month travel time to get there and how do you get them back?  There are issues of air, food, sanitation, psychology, physical health, shielding from cosmic rays, fuel to get there and fuel to get back.  There is nothing on Mars that we know of today that can help with any of these needs.  It takes 10 minutes for a radio transmission to transit from Mars to Earth.  Imagine the time it would take for communication to another solar system. Space enthusiasts dream of possibilities but reality bites.

Why is this scientist tweeting rumors of the discovery of gravitational waves?  He certainly knows the protocol that one’s work needs to be vetted before it is considered sound.  However, even respected physicists can breach the process in an attempt to be first to report a discovery.  In this case, the scientist is not the discoverer but the rumor-monger who must be creating tension and anger among the physicists conducting the experiment.  If waves have been detected, it will be the physics triumph of the year, if not the decade.  Scientists have been trying to detect them since Einstein postulated their existence, but the waves are so weak they have evaded discovery.  There is no guarantee that this time physicists were successful in spotting them and the experimenters are not talking.  It is poor form and mendacious for an outsider to speculate on another’s work, but one must deal with it even in science.

Once upon a time not long ago, a mall was the gathering place for teenagers and adults.  It was the happening scene in many a town.  That has changed and malls today are facing extinction.  There is no mystery why.  Americans have changed their shopping habits.  They buy online.  They look for bargains that can’t be found in a typical anchor store such as Sears or Macys.  No amount of PR or publicity is going to change the new habits of Americans.  They have been taught a better way to shop and they like it.  So, retrenchment is what the retail chains must do and in the process, they are killing malls that depended on their presence.  This is another reminder to business persons that nothing is guaranteed and change occurs constantly.  Mall developers now need to look into alternative uses for their empty buildings.

Even before beginning his presidency, Obama said he would close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Entering his final year in office, he is still making that pledge.  His chief of staff says Obama will present a plan to Congress, and if Congress objects, he will use executive action to do something — whatever that might be. No one should be faulted for failing to believe the President at this point.  The problem has been intractable.  No one wants the prisoners.  So, they remain in limbo — men without a country.  There is no doubt their rights have been violated.  They merited at least a speedy trial and sentencing, but they got neither. Look for Guantanamo Bay to be open this time next year and don’t be surprised if Obama hands the problem to his successor.

The world knows you have a contamination problem with your food, but you can’t learn where it is coming from.  Every scientific test comes up empty.  There is no one ingredient that caused the problem.  There is no one supplier of foodstuffs.  The outbreak occurs across the country in a seemingly random fashion.  What do you do?  If you’re Chipotle you investigate and install new procedures, then you pray the outbreaks of e coli and Noroviruses stop.  The damage to the brand has been deep and might be long-lasting.  Without the “Aha” moment that reveals the cause(s) of the contamination, the company must tread carefully.  It doesn’t know when the next attack might happen or where.  It is a PR nightmare.  Newspaper ads expressing apologies, which Chipotle ran, are a small sop and will have little effect if the outbreaks continue. The only effective PR is to find the problem and fix it, which is why the CEO must be having sleepless nights.

It is a CEO’s nightmare to have his company singled out for a product defect that isn’t true.  That is what happened to pharmaceutical manufacturer Regeneron.  Because of faulty reporting in a Federal database of side effects from its new drug, Praluent, investors rushed to dump the stock.  It turns out that a suicide related to its medication was reported over and over again providing the impression that the drug’s side effects could be lethal.  The Food and Drug Administration tried to clear the situation up but the damage was done.  There is no way to sue the FDA for the misreporting nor, for that matter, those who noted the incident in good faith.  Now the CEO has to rebuild credibility for his drug and boost sales.  It is a tough PR challenge made worse by the way that it happened.