Articles

Ever since Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple in 2011, people have been wondering how Apple would fare. Would the company continue to innovate, and reward shareholders? Or would it falter and become a high-tech “also ran?”

In recent weeks, the NFL (National Football League) and its commissioner Roger Goodell have provided a good example of bad crisis management.

Several months back, Kevin Durant delivered a moving, gratitude-filled MVP speech that generated quite a buzz. Even those who don’t follow professional basketball were talking about the speech. For those of you who are basketball challenged, Durant is the highly regarded forward with the Oklahoma City Thunder. In May, he was named league MVP for the 2013-14 season.

For most publicly traded companies, the quarterly earnings conference call is an important communications tool to reach analysts and investors.

During some of our media training workshops, we occasionally hear participants express frustration with their company’s media relations policy requiring them to obtain approval before talking to reporters. These individuals find it ironic that their company invests time and money for media training, but then curtails their freedom to use that training. And if their corporate headquarters is in a different time zone, obtaining timely approval is often difficult, if not impossible.

The Ammerman Experience public workshops are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, and are available to a limited number of participants to ensure maximum personalized attention. To register for a course, contact our office at 1.800.866.2026.

Shortly after 26 children and adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, CNN reported the suspect as Ryan Lanza. Dozens of news outlets and blogs repeated that information, along with several other “facts.”

A funny thing happened recently during one of our media training workshops. First, some background: When a client participates in one of our crisis press briefing simulations, occasionally we’ll pose a question or two in Spanish. We do this in locations with a significant Hispanic population, and to sensitize clients to the growing presence of the Hispanic news media (Telemundo, Univision, etc.).

Ever wonder why it’s so hard to eliminate those “uhs,” “ums” and other annoying non-words that punctuate your spoken communication? Most likely, you don’t hear them. So say Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, lecturers at Harvard Law School and authors of the new book, Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well.

Bruce Hicks, a veteran communicator with 45 years of experience in the news media and public relations, is partnering with The Ammerman Experience to provide additional support in the area of crisis management.