You’ve got enough to worry about. Let the Crisis team fix PR problems.
It’s a timeless concept. Right up there with the ancient proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Andy Grove, who helped create and guide the success of Intel, even wrote a book about it: Only the Paranoid Survive.
The bottom line is simple: Worrying is not only good.
It’s essential. It lets you glimpse possible futures before they’re apparent. It lets you establish strategies to protect what you have and seize new opportunities.
It’s the antithesis of the belief that this is how life and business always were and always will be. The less-aggressive attitude may be reassuring because you don’t need to think too hard, but it’s a recipe for failure. If you don’t foresee the future and adapt, you’ll be left behind at best. At worst, you’ll be crushed beneath it.
There are alternate futures. In science fiction, they’re called parallel universes. In chaos theory, the butterfly effect, in which small changes in one place may create vast changes elsewhere.
Some of those possibilities are full of promise, as well as threats.
The most successful Chairmen and CEOs are able to envision them, avoid the business threats, and exploit the opportunities to benefit their company.
Others are risks to reputation lurking just beneath the surface. Maybe someone in Finance is dipping into the till? Or an employee you fired for incompetence is considering suing you for wrongful discharge? Or a counselor at a nonprofit’s youth camp is getting too “friendly.”
All those things may not happen, at least at this moment in this universe. But do you really want to take the risk?
That’s the bailiwick of those who do Crisis & Reputation Management. They are professional worriers as well as fixers. They ferret out reasonable dangers and erect defenses so you don’t need to worry as much. You can focus on what you do best: Running your business.
For a deeper glimpse into our world, see our book on Amazon, A Lawyer’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting Your Clients In & From the Media.
It was ranked by Amazon as #1 out of more than 1,500 books on Crisis PR.
It provides a glimpse into the dicey world of working with the media when time is short, tensions are high and reputations are on the line.
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You can reach Roger Gillott and Eden Gillott directly at 310-396-8696.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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