PR Resource

The Mexican President is fighting charges of corruption in the ranks over the improbable escape of Drug Lord Joaquin Guzman from a maximum security prison  And he should.  What the escape engineers did to free Guzman is incredible.  Think of it.  Boring a hole thirty feet below ground and arrow straight for a mile to Guzman’s cell would test any miner’s skills, and one can only conclude that Guzman’s people had help.  It wouldn’t have taken much to miss the prison altogether without laser sighting, but once one dug below the facility, how would he know precisely where to come up?  Guzman’s people bought off guards almost certainly or somehow compromised their integrity.  It is an embarrassment for Mexico and its political structure and rightfully the President has lost credibility.  One must now ask what kind of PR is needed to regain the confidence of Mexican citizens.

According to a recent study, most local news sites make less than $50,000 a year in display advertising sales, and they are dependent on ill-paid staff or volunteers to generate and publish content. What this means is that publishers are leaning on the personal ethics of the reporters and volunteers to produce accurate and objective copy.  It also means that reporters and volunteers are open to manipulation by unscrupulous operators who see local news as “pay-for-play.”  It is fair to say that local news jobs have never paid well.  One had to scrape for a living, but the wage level of online almost certainly is lower and will remain that way until publishers make a decent level of ad dollars.  It is likely that many of them never will.

Donald Trump can’t keep his mouth shut, and every time he opens it, he looks a greater fool.  Consider this.  Not only does he inflate a specific case into a general statement, he is now demanding that those who mocked him apologize for their statements.  His position that all Mexican immigrants are law-breakers and a blight on the US is not nor ever has been true.  This country could hardly function without the labor of the immigrant, legal or otherwise.  Who would harvest our produce, care for our lawns, paint our houses, perform the dirty manual labor Americans don’t like to do?  I worked with Mexican illegals long ago as a teenager. They could and did out-produce me in the fields.  They were uneducated, scabrous in speech and often, unbathed, but where it counted they came through time and again.  They were on the lowest rung of society and knew it, but that didn’t prevent them from putting out and delivering an honest day’s labor.  They were wonderful, earthy people whom I recall fondly.  Maybe if Trump were to get his hands dirty while working with them for a few hours, he might figure that out himself.

It is hubris to declare that something will never happen in business.   Consider this statement.  Sony Mobile’s leader has no way of knowing whether the company can last in the phone market or not.  Sony has been bleeding for years after losing its no.1 status as a consumer electronics company.  It is an open question whether the firm will survive, much less catch up in mobile.  Sony will need to break the hammerlock that Apple and Android systems have on the market.  It is understandable that a new leader show confidence and some bravado to bolster employees, but there is such a thing as going too far.  In the internet age, business is topsy turvy, constantly disrupted, ahead today and behind tomorrow.  If that is what Hiroki Totoki is saying, he might have some justification for his belief, but he will need an extraordinary product to break through and Sony doesn’t have much time on its side.  There is a time for caution in public remarks.

The failure of two major networks yesterday points to the fragility of the digital economy.  Although there was no evidence of hacking, it is uncomfortable to know that a broken switch or burned-out router or other malfunction can bring down both a stock exchange and a separate airline booking network at the same time.  What is worrisome is the two systems are not related.  What kind of fail-safe backup systems do the two networks have?  What are the elements that went down and what is needed to make them secure in the future?  Uptime is the hallmark of network credibility.  These are systems that have to work 24x7x365.  They can’t afford an occasional crash.  The CIOs of United Airlines and the NYSE are facing hard questioning and well they should.  Their reputations and the credibility of their networks are at stake.

The Chinese stock market continues its sell-off, and novice investors have been burned badly.  One could have predicted the fall.  Many Chinese companies have obscure accounting and earnings that are not credible.  Many are carrying huge debt loads, which they will have difficult paying off.  Some are keeping two sets of books — one for the outside world and one internally, which is more accurate.  The Chinese are still learning the need for fiscal transparency.  The reputation of the stock market is at risk because of that.  If the US with its regulatory oversight of the markets can still have a major meltdown, how much more can the Chinese suffer through sharp falls in the value of equities.  It is a public relations problem at its core.  The Chinese markets need to capture and maintain the trust of investors for the long term.  If that doesn’t happen, investors will stay away and the funding needs of exchange companies will need to be procured in other ways.

The head of the Eurogroup of Finance Ministers is warning Greece to come up with a credible debt restructuring package.  Needless to say, the European Union will define credibility and not Greece.  The country may have its citizens behind it, but they are bit players in the drama taking place.  Greece’s prime minister is scrambling to come up with a new proposal that he can take to Brussels, but there isn’t much he can do if the rest of the European Union decides that it is too little too late.  The EU’s dilemma is that it doesn’t want to set a precedent of being too easy on a debtor nation lest others follow the same path of resistance.  The EU’s own credibility is at stake.  So the negotiations will wind on for weeks more and each side will strive for something it can take home.  The reputations of both bodies are at stake.  It is not a good position for either side to be in.

Last week I was in Alaska on a cruise from Juneau to Glacier Bay to Sitka.  The cruise line advertised itself as UnCruise because it claimed to be an active vacation with plenty of off-boat experiences.  The claim was more than true.  In fact, it was a high form of public relations because everything promised was more than delivered.  The ship held but 80 guests and they were grouped by those who did shore hikes, bushwhacking and nature strolls, those who kayaked and those who did skiff tours in zodiac boats.  Weather was no barrier.  The tour company told everyone to bring rubber boots, waterproof jackets and pants and hats. We used them on a day with 20 to 30 knot winds and driving rain.  Our naturalist guides advised us that this was true Alaska and bad conditions wouldn’t stop us.  They didn’t and we felt good enduring the weather even if rainproof pants leaked (and mine did).  There was good food, plenty of time to speak to other guests and bonding.  If you want to take an active tour, this is the way to do it.  I recommend the company and its people.

I’m taking time off.  There will be no blogging until July 6.

Wal-Mart has accomplished some smart PR in its decision to stop selling products with the Confederate flag.  It read the national mood correctly and acted swiftly before anyone else could make the same announcement — notably, Sears.  No doubt that some of Wal-Mart’s customers will be unhappy, but more will support the move.  It is also likely that products with the Confederate flag did not make up many of the SKUs of an average store, so it isn’t hurting the company’s bottom line.  This is one more example of what good PR should be — actions not words.