(This week, PR News editors Phil Hall and Aaron Jenkins rue the pain of those who failed to think of reputation management before it was too late.)
PHIL: I am not trying to be funny when I state that one of the happiest days of my childhood was learning my first grade teacher, Mrs. Michaels, was dead. Yeah, I
know that sounds cruel - but she was really a mean old witch who hated kids (or at least this kid), and I was glad she went to the great beyond. Now let's take that admittedly
extreme personal example and put it in the PR world: What would happen if your company went the way of Mrs. Michaels? What kind of a reputation will you leave behind? Will you
be remembered with nostalgic fondness, in the way that many recall defunct companies like Woolworth's or Pan Am or RKO Radio Pictures? Or will you be viewed
with scorn, like Enron?
AARON: Reputation management requires conscious thinking and calculated action, while asking the questions: Could what seems to be the right move, in fact, be the wrong
one? Other than my intended audience, who else will this affect and how? What will this mean for my company in the big picture? Really, it comes down to that little universal law
called cause and effect.
PHIL: And people have painfully long memories. Say "Exxon" and people will cite the Alaskan oil spill from years back. Say "Daughters of the American
Revolution" and people will immediately recall their racist snub to Marian Anderson in the 1930s. Both entities ultimately moved beyond their unfortunate happenings, but they
are still (to this day) linked to those respective disasters. Too often, a damaged reputation is a scar that never heals.
AARON: One of the things that defines adequate response is immediacy. President Bush interrupted his Easter vacation to issue an instantaneous reaction amid the din of
criticism surrounding Donald Rumsfeld. A reflexive response showed initiative - a stark contrast to past White House PR handlings. A reputation hinges on effectively responding to
an incident regardless of its severity or ramifications.
PHIL: But if you need to push the buttons to activate your damage control mechanism, then your reputation management has been badly hit (and in some cases, with
irreparable damage), and you will be playing clean-up for years to come. Whether you are falling lethally in the polls like the Bush White House or falling fatally off a
broomstick like my first grade class teacher, a tarnished reputation is rarely recovered intact.