Damage Control (Revised & Updated). Eric Dezenhall

AND WHAT’S THERAPEUTIC

       DON’T ASSUME THE PUBLIC THINKS AS YOU DO

       CHAPTER 13 - Write Your Own Case History

       RUDY GIULIANI: CRISIS MANAGER IN CHIEF

       INOCULATING AGAINST HYSTERIA

       PERCEPTION IS REALITY

       CHAPTER 14 - Know When to Fold Them

       WHEN TO RUN

       AVOIDING BATTIES THAT AREN’T WORTH FIGHTING

       CHAPTER 15 - The Best Case Studies Are the Ones You’ll Never Hear About

       PLAYING THE INSIDE GAME AT TYCO

       BETTING THE INDUSTRY: HOW WIRELESS WAS SAVED FROM ATTACK

       CHAPTER 16 - In Crisis, Personality Trumps Planning

       “MR. CLEAN” CONFRONTS THE ULTIMATE MARKETPLACE ASSAULT

       CHAPTER 17 - Know Whose Side Your Team Is On

       THE PLAYERS

       A WORD ABOUT DREAM TEAMS

       KNOW WHOSE SIDE YOU’RE ON

       CHAPTER 18 - The Crisis in Your Future

       CHAPTER 19 - Fighting Back in the Age of YouTube: The Duke Lacrosse ...

       THE DUKE LACROSSE CASE: NAILING THE PROSECUTOR

       THE CRISIS ROUNDUP

       RICHARD JEWELL’S DAMAGE CONTROL LEGACY

       CHAPTER 20 - Our Permanent Ieakocracy

       A GUARANTEED FORUM

       IS TRANSPARENCY ALWAYS GOOD?

       IS THERE AN ANTIDOTE TO WIKILEAKS?

       FOREVER LEAKY

       INDEX

       Copyright Page

       DAMAGE CONTROL

      Eric Dezenhall is the CEO of Dezenhall Resources in Washington, D.C. He began his career in the White House Office of Communications during the Reagan presidency. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked at an international public relations agency and a political consulting firm. He is also the author of Nail ’Em: Confronting High-Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses. His forthcoming novel The Devil Himself will be published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s in the summer of 2011

      John Weber is the president of Dezenhall Resources and the firm’s second partner. He oversees client services and is the primary liaison with its affiliate agencies in the United States and Europe. Weber previously served as a senior manager at three of the world’s largest public relations firms. He began his career in marketing and advertising.

      Visit their Website at www.DezenhallResources.com

       To Donna and Stephanie

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      The authors wish to thank the following people for their behindthe-scenes assistance with Damage Control: Bernadette Malone, Adrian Zackheim, Will Weisser, Kris Dahl, Bob Stein, Susan Haralson, Stuart Dezenhall, and Malinda Waughtal.

       AUTHORS’ NOTE

      This book includes numerous case histories and examples of both well and poorly managed crises. While some of these are based on our direct involvement, many are not. Where an example is based on our experiences, we have obscured the facts to protect the identities of clients we did not want to reveal. It has always been, and will continue to be, the corporate policy of Dezenhall Resources not to reveal our clients or to discuss, without their permission, our work on their behalf.

       INTRODUCTION

      You’re gonna need a bigger boat.

      —CHIEF BRODY, JAWS

      We knew we weren’t going to take the case within thirty seconds of walking into the boardroom. This prospective client—a large consumer health products concern under attack by the news media, government regulators, activist groups, trial lawyers, and shareholders—was going to get slaughtered, but not because its crisis was so bad. It wasn’t as if its best-selling product was alleged to be killing people.

      The prospective client—let’s call the company Socrates—called us in to meet its crisis management team. We had been under the impression that the objective of the meeting was to listen to Socrates tell us its side of the story—why its best-selling product was under attack. Then, presumably, we’d give Socrates our initial ideas on how to defuse the attack.

      One look at the dynamics of the room, however, and we knew we had landed smack dab in the middle of what we sarcastically call a “beauty contest.” Beauty contests are presentations that are held ostensibly to hear out the ideas and credentials of the potential consultants available for hire. Sounds legitimate, right? The real purpose, however, of a beauty contest in many high-stakes PR assignments is to identify the consultant who is least likely to get anyone sitting at the table fired.

      A company in crisis is often no longer a company at all: It’s a collection of individuals, each of whom is looking for personal cover. Truth be told, the company’s welfare was low on the priority list of the individuals in this room.

      This probably seems like a cynical assessment.

      Welcome to the blunt talk of contemporary damage control, which requires a sober appreciation of both human nature and the tides