How Communications is Saving Lives in Chile

"Urgent. In Constitucion an eight-year old boy named Ivan Lara showed up alone. He's looking for his family," read the tweet.

In earthquake torn Chile, there is one language that connects everyone, regardless of where they are from. Social networking is the lingua franca.

Your life might well have been saved if you were lucky enough to have had a BlackBerry or iPhone with you when the 8.3-magnitude quake struck. Twitter and Facebook have been critical resources for help: coordinating rescue for individuals buried in the rubble, finding food and water, and reuniting families and friends.

According to a recent article in USA TODAY , Chile ranks fourth worldwide in terms of social networking penetration among its home and work internet audience. While traditional media have focused on hard news, the piece said, Twitter, Facebook and some Google applications have been key for communicating locally about personal needs.

If we ever doubted the universal utility of social networking, this should put those doubts to rest. It’s not just about chat. It’s also about the instantaneous delivery of critically important information, which has enabled a quantum leap in personal safety.


Technorati Tags: Chile, earthquake, Ivan Lara,social networking, USA Today , communications, public relations, Makovsky

HE NEVER SAW HIMSELF AS OTHERS SAW HIM

He was humble. He was kind. He was deeply devoted to his family. He was a leader in his profession. He always shared his knowledge. He was a strategic thinker. He was conscientious. He cared.

And the list of Harvey Greisman’s virtues goes on and on. But everything came to a screeching halt about a week and a half ago. For Harvey Greisman died suddenly while he was on a trip to Florida to attend his father’s funeral.

The suddenness of it all left everyone frozen in their tracks.

His death was shocking for me, as Harvey was my friend. I had just had dinner with him a couple months ago. Professionally, I had served on a number of panels with Harvey and most recently had invited him to participate as a member of our IPREX global panel on the financial crisis last May.

The respect for Harvey was broad and deep. He served in leadership positions at IBM and GTE. He was on boards of organizations like the Arthur W. Page Society and the Institute for Public Relations . Most recently he headed global communications at MasterCard.

“But he never saw himself, I now understand, as others saw him,” noted his wife. “He never thought of himself as an industry leader, and I never knew that he was. And rather than focus on the great things he did do, Harvey always thought about what he didn’t do and didn’t say – at meetings or assignments on or off the job. He was never truly satisfied with his contribution.”

This was a sad revelation about the man. I always admired Harvey and was disappointed to learn that he was not aware of the esteem in which he was held. As professional communicators, we need to be more forthright in communicating our positive feelings to colleagues both about what they represent to us and mean to others.

Technorati Tags: Harvey Greisman, Mastercard, communications, public relations, Makovsky

The Financial Value of Reputation

Call them whatever you want, but one thing is certain. When Goldman Sachs talks, people generally listen. That’s why I found a statement from Goldman’s just published annual report to be nothing short of monumental: for the first time, the bank added “adverse publicity” to the laundry list of financial risks it faces going forward.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal ,arguably the most respected voice on Wall Street has acknowledged that negative press coverage could have a material impact on its financial results – or, more to the point, that corporate reputation possesses tangible financial value. This follows on the heels of a study a number of years ago by Ernst & Young that found 35% of a typical public company’s valuation relates to intangibles like brand awareness and regard.

Goldman’s insight, which is unparalleled in investment banking and, in my opinion, would have been impossible just a few years ago, suggests that the Great Recession may be convincing financial leaders that risk management involves more than investment portfolios. That’s good news for public relations professionals who have long argued that intangible assets like corporate reputation have genuine impact on the financial statement – and should be valued and managed accordingly.


Technorati Tags: Goldman Sachs, annual report, communications, public relations, Makovsky

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

The answer to that question? Everything. Among the people who know you, when they hear your name, they think of everything about you. Your character. Your appearance. Your relationship with them. Your usual behavior. The terrific or horrible things you have done. Your demeanor. Your reputation. And the list goes on.

If you are famous, then all of those things are magnified among those who know of you. Apply the above factors to Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Mark McGwire, Bernie Madoff.

Well, I think you get the idea. Thus, it was not surprising to read in a recent New York Times article that people with the Madoff name, whether relatives or not, feel the need to change it—or proclaim “not-related”—because of the stigma. (Madoff carried out the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, causing client losses of more than $60 billion.) His daughter-in-law, Harriet, asked the court to allow her and her children to change their name to Morgan, noting that she cannot get a decent dinner reservation with the Madoff name, today synonymous with evil. And in the financial services world, she noted, the name is a real “horror show.”

Further, a guy I know who worked on the so-called legitimate side of the Madoff brokerage operation, has been out of work for months because of the stigma on his resume which, he says, is holding back potential employers.

However you stack it up, and whether you are an individual, a corporation or an institution, your name IS your total identity. It stands for all that you are. Your deeds and presentation create the perceptions that make your reality. May you build a name that anyone would be proud to bear.




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