Shaping perceptions and overcoming a C-level transition is a multi-faceted task, according to Alex Stanton, CEO of Stanton Crenshaw Communications. First and foremost the CEO
has got to pass muster among the rank-and-file then you can start to worry about gaining approval from Wall Street analysts.
Typically, a scandal comes from a faulty corporate culture, event if it's the CEO who takes the fall. To repair the damage it's necessary to remold the culture, "and PR is the
primary driver in that, because it is primarily a communications problem, rather than an ethics problem," Stanton says. "Take the most obvious example of Enron. Bad behaviors were
rewarded there. Now if you are the new CEO, you have to completely turn that on its ear by celebrating behaviors that are good behaviors."
What's the most effective way to shape a new corporate culture? Stanton says PR should urge the CEO to make digital improvements. "From the point of view of internal
communications, the job is to remake the Intranet. A CEO can send a very strong signal from the get-go by recasting the Intranet, freshening it and using it to do lots of
communications, including opening him or her up to questions. That is a visible sign, on everybody's desktop every morning, to show that things have changed."