We used to take trust for granted, and we depended on that unmentioned certainty. Then the Internet blew it up. We need to reclaim it. Traditionally, our institutions did little to earn trust. They asserted it and people gave it, presuming that governments, news media, academia, financial institutions and markets, Read more…
It’s trendy for big companies to devolve authority to operating units, and the jury is still out on whether or not making them compete as collections of smaller independent ones makes any sense (the management consultants who came up with the plans will be long gone before there’s a verdict). Read more…
If the content on company websites was complete and truthful, you’d have to conclude that we’re turning the corner on climate change and social injustice. Only it’s not, and we’re not. Yes, corporate sustainability has a credibility problem. The recent news about Coca-Cola is a good example. A special interest Read more…
Corporate communicators are working hard to make programs work in a ‘new normal’ of changed expectations and, generally, constrained budgets. I worry that not enough of them are experimenting with new ones. Who could blame them? All of us are being challenged to do more with less, and do it Read more…
Earlier this month, Intel rolled-out a new logo and graphics color scheme. It deserves new actions to walk the talk. Its announcement came replete with all the “right” words about what the branding meant. The company is “a catalyst for world-changing technology,” it is “[making] a leap into the future,” Read more…
While most of us think about “corporate purpose” as companies adopting programs to promote public good beyond what directly benefits their bottom lines, I wonder if a bigger, more complex transformation is at hand? I’ve been an outspoken critic of the philosophy as it’s currently conceived (here and here), but Read more…
The world we knew at the start of 2020 longer exists. Covid has disrupted how we work, live, and learn, and the only certainty about the future is that we’re not returning to the past. Therefore, it’s the perfect time to disrupt how your company (and how you) communicate. No, Read more…
Many global businesses use the UN’s SDG’s as drivers of their sustainability comms. There must be a better way to narrate their journeys. The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the UN’s members in 2015 as the areas in need of change in order to live up to its 2030 Read more…
If your sales team approached customers the way we communicators talk at our stakeholders, your company would go out of business. The differences are shocking, and for years they’ve been evident in the different ways each department is treated: Sales departments are all but untouchable by others in the organization Read more…
The WHO just bought a PR plan that’s cutting-edge thinking, circa-1950, wrapped in an approach that confuses medium with message and appears to have been written by someone who didn’t too terribly well in high school English class. [Read the entire essay at Spiritual Telegraph]