Public relations

Advice for navigating a contentious climate.

Know your employer brand.

Edward Bernays, the “father of public relations,” once defined PR as “a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.” If that is the case today, the CEOs of the Big 3 automakers remain challenged on both aspects. Having taken private jets to their first round of testimony, they came off as both unprepared […]

When Ken Deaver, CEO of Fairway Electric, promoted me to vice president of the nuclear division, I was on top of the world. Now, just a month later, it feels like the world’s on top of me. I’m used to having a team to share the problems, but now I’m on my own. At least […]

The last time the CEOs of the big three US auto makers went to congress to justify their bailout request, things didn’t go so well. Congress was torn on whether to green light billions in new funding, public sentiment was mixed at best, leading economic pundits such as Mitt Romney were publicly declaring bankruptcy as […]

Yes, you can perfect your posts.

Identify, quantify, and manage the risks to your company’s reputation long before a problem or crisis strikes.

A number of years ago some enterprising deal makers at GE Capital proposed a series of transactions that would provide financing for a chain of funeral...

The news media and the government are entwined in a vicious circle of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest. Journalists need crises to dramatize...

A national brewing and distilling company grapples with its most profitable brand's racist history. This fictional case study by Joseph C. Miller, Michael...

Be ready to respond.

From the sprawling Kodak Park complex with its own fire station and railroad to the dozens of family-owned mill-and-drill shops and optical companies, Rochester, New York is a prototype of a traditional industrial town. But today it is also a prototype of another kind, the site of an evolving experiment in community-based economic renewal that […]

I recently heard an educational message on the radio about wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD, the leading cause of blindness among people over age 50. The radio spot, which noted sponsorship by the American Society of Retina Specialists and by Genentech, provided information about the signs and symptoms of wet AMD and the […]

I made the commitment to public involvement. Then I had to make it work.

Companies are no longer just economically important — they’re intellectually valuable, too.

As I watched a local production of Jerry Springer: The Opera recently, I thought two things: Ridiculous, meet sublime. Businesses, there may be a takeaway here. Seriously. Jerry Springer is a TV personality many people love to hate because his tabloid-style talk show revels in the base and the trashy. And Jerry Springer: The Opera is […]

A wounded-but-wiser AT&T veteran recounts how one of the world’s biggest and best-known companies became one of its most battered—and explains how others can avoid that fate.

Executives need guidance about managing their organizations' engagement with societal issues-including hot-button topics such as gender, climate, and...

Greatest Southeast Community Hospital is a 494-bed acute care facility located in southeast Washington, D.C. With revenues of $145 million and 2,650 employees, it is both the largest private employer and the only medical facility in a troubled and isolated community called Anacostia. Nearly a quarter of the area’s residents live below the poverty line, […]

Jeff Henry, owner of and creative visionary behind Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts, created one of the most sought-after water park companies in the...

This case presents the issues and dilemmas that Monsanto faced in deciding how to market its genetically modified products. It also covers patent issues,...

When the XFL professional football league debuted on February 3, 2001, it generated a Nielsen rating of 10.1, higher than any nationally televised program...

The (A) case describes a series of controversial events and alleged misdeeds that placed Citigroup in the public spotlight and launched investigations...

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's of Central Canada,...

In the fall of 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals increased the price of its recently acquired drug, Daraprim, by several thousand percent. While the short-term...

In the fall of 2009, Toyota Motor Corporation, once revered for its commitment to quality and reliability, faced a highly publicized series of recalls...

Burroughs Wellcome Co., developer of AZT, the first drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency...

Southwest Airlines, a small intrastate carrier serving Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, begins service in 1971 in the face of competition by two larger,...

Considers the lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of apartheid against multinationals who operated in South Africa prior to 1994. Reviews the debates...

Updates CEO Beers' progress two years after her initiation of a massive organizational change effort. Designed as an in-class handout.

Describes an IT security crisis, and raises issues of risk management, preparation for crisis, management of crises, computer security, and public disclosure...

The case describes a crisis management situation faced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler-Benz AG. In 1997 Mercedes introduced a revolutionary new...

Bp's green re-branding efforts began officially with the unveiling of its new bp Helios mark, named after the Greek sun god. The new logo did away with...

In the days following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and its crew in January of 1986, NASA officials were unwilling to communicate with the...

By 2013, Adobe had reinvented itself from a publisher of popular software such as Photoshop and Acrobat to a digital marketing and digital media company....

This case is based on highly publicized events surrounding lethal medication manufactured and sold by a small pharmaceutical company outside Boston, Massachusetts...

This case series involves a crisis in business ethics and management decision making, when one of the company's diesel fuel storage tanks collapses, releasing...

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from societal, public policy,...

In April 2014, the co-founder of lifestyle brand dpms., situated in London, Ontario, has a dilemma. Started as an opportunity to showcase her partner's...

Jeff Henry, owner of and creative visionary behind Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts, created one of the most sought-after water park companies in the...

Advice for navigating a contentious climate.

This case presents the issues and dilemmas that Monsanto faced in deciding how to market its genetically modified products. It also covers patent issues,...

When the XFL professional football league debuted on February 3, 2001, it generated a Nielsen rating of 10.1, higher than any nationally televised program...

Know your employer brand.

The (A) case describes a series of controversial events and alleged misdeeds that placed Citigroup in the public spotlight and launched investigations...

Edward Bernays, the “father of public relations,” once defined PR as “a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.” If that is the case today, the CEOs of the Big 3 automakers remain challenged on both aspects. Having taken private jets to their first round of testimony, they came off as both unprepared […]

When Ken Deaver, CEO of Fairway Electric, promoted me to vice president of the nuclear division, I was on top of the world. Now, just a month later, it feels like the world’s on top of me. I’m used to having a team to share the problems, but now I’m on my own. At least […]

The last time the CEOs of the big three US auto makers went to congress to justify their bailout request, things didn’t go so well. Congress was torn on whether to green light billions in new funding, public sentiment was mixed at best, leading economic pundits such as Mitt Romney were publicly declaring bankruptcy as […]

Yes, you can perfect your posts.