If I were on the corporate, PR and/or internal communication teams involved in any of these current business situations, I’d undoubtedly be burning candles at all ends:
- As soon as Barclays Bank’s bid for ABN Amro Bank looked likely to be a done deal, out of the woodwork comes a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland with a higher value counter offer that ABN Amro simply has to consider, if only from a regulatory viewpoint. Amid it all come allegations of poor leadership at ABN Amro. Communication challenges all around.
- An emerging scandal at global energy giant BP? Things smoothly set for an orderly transition of leadership from incumbent CEO John Browne who hands over the reigns of power to incoming CEO Tony Hayward in a few months. Today, Browne quit three months early amid allegations that he allowed a former boyfriend to misuse company resources, and lied about it.
- News Corporation makes a surprise and unsolicited $5 billion takeover bid for Dow Jones, probably best known as the owner of the Wall Street Journal. I can’t imagine such iconic American brands falling easily to Rupert Murdoch.
All of these situations would make terrific scenarios for the IABC accreditation examination, as in “What’s your communication plan?”
In any event, plenty to keep the communicators busy.
