The February episode of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” features Neville and Shel discussing these topics: The Houston Astros’ owner hosts a clinic on how not to deliver an organizational apologyOracle workers are the latest to engage in employee activismFacebook has way more users than Instagram but Instagram is number one in some important metricsAn IPO filing lists the company’s influencers as a potential threatHow brands should handle communications during the coronavirus epidemicTwitter … [Read more...] about FIR 192: The latest employee revolt
Investor Relations
What next for Facebook?
Even if you're not interested in nor a user of Facebook, you'd have been hard pressed indeed to have avoided the blaze of publicity about the social networking site every day this past week. That blaze has been white hot in its ferocity and intensity on alleged wrong-doing by the American firm, and by a British political consulting and data mining company called Cambridge Analytica, over the mishandling of data related to more than 50 million users that allegedly played a significant role in … [Read more...] about What next for Facebook?
For Immediate Release 109: CEOs Torturing English
Shel and I recorded the October edition of the monthly Hobson & Holtz Report. This month’s topics: Three distinguished PhDs propose a Magna Carta for Artificial Intelligence. Too soon? Research establishes a connection between CEOs who mangle English during analyst calls and falling share prices. What can PR agencies and associations do to build a reputation of trust in the wake of the Bell Pottinger scandal? New data points reinforce the importance of companies taking … [Read more...] about For Immediate Release 109: CEOs Torturing English
HSBC: Crisis management is broken and there are no quick fixes
Credible and candid comments on the state of crisis management today by a man whose company went through its own crisis hell earlier this year. Reporting on a panel discussion in a summary of last month's PR Summit 2015 in The Holmes Report, Arun Sudhaman notes: [...] From creativity to crisis management, via a heavyweight panel that featured communications leaders from HSBC, GM, Danish Crown and Qsoft. And it was HSBC's Pierre Goad that caught the eye, when he candidly admitted to the … [Read more...] about HSBC: Crisis management is broken and there are no quick fixes
TalkTalk: Is it time to RunRun?
It's the stuff of PR nightmares - a company embroiled in its most significant crisis, one that has wider implications in society at large, with negative press and other opinion wherever you look, watch and listen; and photos (like the one in Saturday's Telegraph, above) presenting a carefree image of its CEO looking like he or she is thinking about anything but the crisis, its effect on stakeholder groups including employees, customers and shareholders, and how to get through it to the other … [Read more...] about TalkTalk: Is it time to RunRun?
VW: Recalling a reputation
The Volkswagen emissions-test-cheating scandal moved on a few miles/kilometres this week with developments that saw the VW group headquarters and some employees' homes raided by German prosecutors and criminal investigators, the CEO of the US subsidiary hauled in front of the US Congress to explain what happened (and where he admitted he knew about the cheating in 2014), finger-pointing gets underway, dire warnings emerge about potential restructuring and job losses, and a share price that has … [Read more...] about VW: Recalling a reputation
The value of a valuable brand
Brand consultancy Interbrand has published its latest annual report and ranking on the world's top 100 global brands for 2015. The top 10 companies ranked by brand valuation, with the percentage difference in 2015 rank compared to Interbrand's rank of last year, are these: Apple - $170.3bn (+43%) Google - $120.3bn (+12%) Coca-Cola - $78.4bn (-4%) Microsoft - $67.7bn (+11%) IBM - $65.1bn (-10%) Toyota - $49.0bn (+16%) Samsung - $45.3bn (-7%) GE - $42.3bn (-6%) McDonald’s - … [Read more...] about The value of a valuable brand
Can a tarnished VW emerge successfully from #dieselgate?
The global #dieselgate crisis engulfing German car maker Volkswagen may well produce significant and disruptive change in the governance and regulation of the auto industry and publicly-listed companies in that industry (likelier in Germany than anywhere else, I'd say), although it's far from clear what the consequences and outcomes will actually be. What's extraordinary - except, maybe it isn't anymore - is, on the one hand, the speed with which the unravelling of VW's reputation is … [Read more...] about Can a tarnished VW emerge successfully from #dieselgate?