Houston, We Have a Few Problems: It’s inappropriate to assign blame at this point since recovery and rescue are top priorities. Still, there are crisis communications lessons stemming from the weekend’s weather tragedy in Texas. It seemed a bizarre sight Sunday evening to watch CNN’s ticker running a quote from Houston mayor Sylvester Turner saying he stands by his call not to evacuate residents of the country’s fourth-largest city in anticipation of Hurricane Harvey, now Tropical Storm Harvey. Above the ticker video showed scenes of waist-high water flooding Houston-area homes, businesses and roads. The mayor believed logistics surrounding an evacuation would have been “crazy.” Most officials, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, took the high road Sunday, preferring to address recovery, not the mayor’s decision, a good move in terms of crisis communications. Now’s not finger-pointing time and much more information needs to be collected before officials can say unequivocally that not evacuating was the right call. A bit of background adds to Abbott’s restraint. In what’s been reported as an impromptu remark, Abbott said Friday at noon that he’d “strongly consider” evacuating. “If I were living in the Houston region, as I once did, I would decide to head to areas north of there,” Abbott added. Unfortunately, Houston-area residents were caught in the middle of competing statements from state and local officials. Yesterday morning, the Houston area’s initial mandatory evacuations were ordered. In large part these evacuations are in anticipation of reports that Harvey is expected to regroup over the Gulf of Mexico and pour another five feet of rain onto Houston by Wednesday. – Good thinking by local Texas TV stations turning to social media to alert citizens during Harvey. Many stations provided continuous coverage via Facebook Live as well as posting stories, MarketShare reported.
Chief Brand Officer,
Uber Technologies
A Job for an Uber Woman?If it took Uber Technologies’ cars as long to arrive as it took the brand to replace former CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, who left in late June, chances are Lyft would own a fair larger share of the U.S. market. Seriously, as readers of this page know well, Kalanick’s alleged backroom fights to continue controlling the company (he’s still a board member, PRN, Aug. 15, 2017), a host of lawsuits (including one from Google over autonomous car development patents), regulatory roadblocks, a slew of internal issues and charges of a sexualized corporate culture made the CEO selection arduous. Oh, and there’s rising competition in the ride business. The job was so undesirable that former GE boss Jeff Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman pulled out. Having a woman as CEO might have helped rehab Uber’s frat-boy image. Still, Uber is one of the world’s largest private tech companies by estimated valuation and a behemoth in its sector. No truth to reports that unconfirmed, incoming CEO Dara Khosrowshahi of Expedia has purchased a bevy of olive branches and hired Job as a consultant. Wishing him and chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John (PRN, June 12, 2017) much luck.
News Bits: Our Katie Paine told you in a recent Image Patrol that Britain’s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) likely would sanction Bell & Pottinger for its part in mounting a campaign for sleazy South African client Oakbay Capital (PRN, July 17, 2017). Emails detailing BP’s work for Oakbay, now a former client, leaked and caused a furor. Reports in British media, citing sources, say PRCA has decided to slap on sanctions, although it would not comment. A decision is expected next week. – Chicago’s Motion PR added a digital practice and hired former Imagination VP Pete Herrnreiter as digital director.
People: Chipotle Mexican Grill named Laurie Schalow CCO, a new position. She comes to Chipotle from YUM! Brands, where she most recently was VP, public affairs. – Congrats to old friend Erin Calhoun on being named SVP, corporate communications, Showtime Networks. The veteran cable exec served at Discovery and NBCU. Hyundai Motor Americanamed 13-year Hyundai vet Brandon Ramirez senior group manager of product communications. Ramirez comes from the brand’s product planning division. – FleishmanHillard named John Isaf SVP/senior partner/GM of its Boston office. He joins after 10 years at Weber Shandwick. – Scott Circle promoted PR News friend Dee Donavanik to VP and named Kellie Murphy SVP. – Congrats to Ruoyu Sun for winning the 2017 Makovsky Best Master’s Thesis of the Year Award from the Institute for PR. The U of GA grad’s thesis examined the influence long-term communication and education about genetically modified foods has on Chinese and American millennials’ attitudes on purchasing such items.