Monday, August 9, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Personal suicide will be dangerous to reputation of a company.
Nobody expected that he did suicide. Last January a vice president of Samsung Electronics took his own life. The media informed people that he was not satisfied with personnel shake-up. But, the news was hard to believe cause he had the best academic background, and always got swiftly promoted in a company. There was still doubt.
When an executive does suicide, a company is related to a lot of issues and suspicion. Then, how could a company handle with this matter? It could be divided into two cases according to whether or not it is connected with a company.
1. Related to a personal problem
For instance, an executive killed himself while he was in investigation regarding embezzlement. The company might be in trouble with this matter to be publicized. At this time, a company should explain a big picture that is surrounded by media. It is supposed to be background of his action. It should not be the cause of his suicide. That is the job of prosecutor, police, and his family. It could be caught up with another disgraceful issue.
2. Related to the company
Like the case of the vice president of Samsung Electronics, this kind of rumor would be expanded widely through the Internet. In this situation a company needs to actively face with the issue. First, they have to concern about the internal communication. If the employees in the company believe the rumor, it will be more seriously widespread to the outside. When the emotional matter happens, a company would better announce its formal opinion through the media online and offline. If they try to get rid of negative posts on the company website, that would get worse.
Conversation could be the best bet for this sort of problem. They have to listen to family and employees around the victim, and strive to settle misunderstanding between two parties in advance.
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Crisis can be an opportunity.
LG electronics proved this proposition last February. A child was dead in drum laundry machine made by LG electronics. The media reported this accident to the public next day. Three days later, LG announced that they started voluntary recall of a million of laundry models that cannot be opened inside. Also, it did campaign about the safe use of drum laundry washing machine while producing a video to inform users the risk and visiting kindergartens and elementary schools.
1. Safety
LG was not in charge of legal matters with this accident. It has been provided consumers with the guideline of a user book. Mostly companies do not try to take a responsibility if there is no legal problem. But, LG was different, and did put effort on preventing future accidents from consumers’ inattention. LG recognized the Europe has few accidents with drum washing machine because of the consumer safety use campaign.
2. Speed
In three days LG executive members did make a swift decision with this matter. Spending millions of dollars, they tried to recall all the faulty models. To save time, they communicate with each member in different cities through a video conference.
3. Speak
What if LG tried to be silent about this accident? Media might have reported that LG turned away from the responsibility. That would be harmful for LG electronics items in a market. But, LG actively confronted the problem.
4. Solution
There are two kinds of ways for a company to deal with the problem in a risky situation. One company tries to focus on defending the matter while the other one makes an effort for solution. The consumers are more interested in responsibility of a company than liability of one.
5. Social Media
LG utilized social media to cope with this matter. It asked people to participate in the campaign for the consumer safety use via its corporate blog and Twitter.
This recall done by LG was based on long- term results of its business and consumer safety.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Silence cannot be the solution to scandal
The origin of a word, "scandal" comes from 'trap' or 'stumbling block.' According to Wikipedia, scandal is a widely publicized allegation that damages the reputation of a institution or individual, and it may be based on true or false allegations.
Last year the emperor of golf faced the biggest stumbling block in his entire life. If you type "Tiger Woods Scandal" on Google, you are able to see over twenty six million postings and articles. Like this, scandal of a celebrity has a great impact on a society. Due to watergate, Nixon had to resign himself from the U.S. president position. A sexual relationship with Rewinski had U.S. people think Bill Clinton of an immoral husband, father, and leader. Scandal could be serious risk to celebrities. How can they cope with scandal to avoid the worst situation?
First, never lie. In a risky situation lying means adding fuel to the fire. On the internet, all of the information are shared, so there is no way to avoid investigation of people on the Internet.
Second, you would not better be silent. Then, you might miss the good timing to solve the problem.
Third, show your leadership. People might ask you how you could be like that when you are confident after you do something unforgivable, but it is always good to do with active and sincere mind. If you show your honest feeling and apologize about something wrong of your attitude, audience might feel sympathy and try to understand instead of scorning you.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Is news a fact or a story?
There have been a conflict between Fox news and White house last year. Rahm Emmanuel, White House Chief of Staff claimed that Fox news is an institute which has their own perspective. Many people agree that news should be fact-based, but it does not qualify as a news cause news is a story which has several characters, issues, conflict, and development of story.
This does not mean that news manipulates the truth. Even though news is based on facts, but views of media are reflected on the news. This is why media has different angles of opinions on the same event. Nobody can say which view is right or wrong. The judgement depends on each audience. in the past, media could hide bad news or focus on a specific event to control viewer or readers' thought. But, most people have the knowledge to verify whether or not the news is fairly reported since they can easily access to information on the Internet.
The Power of Social Media
This video was produced by Green Peace. What happened to Greean Peace and Nestle? Nestle had used palm oil from Sinar Mas, a large producer of pulp, paper, and palm oil in Indonesia. This company has destroyed rainforest, the habitat of orangutans to make their benefits. So, Green Peace tried to inform consumers that this kind of huge companies such as Nestle, Unilever, and Kraft have had harmful effect on environment.
Once a lot of people watched this video, they started leaving their response on Nestle's Facebook and Website, and tried to make others know this fact through other social media like Twitter. Finally, Nestle could not help announced that they will not buy any kind of products from Sinar Mas.
In conclusion, consumers pressured a company to change their business while participating in an issue and showing their request via various kinds of social media channel. Social media is no longer a trend in this world, but is the new paradigm which enables the world to be changed.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The things a cosmetic company does not tell you
Most people think an expensive cosmetic product might be better than cheaper one. Do you agree with this? Well, that could be, but when it comes to the quantity of toxics in cosmetic items, that idea is totally wrong. Environmental working group has been researching all kinds of goods in cosmetic market and posting the hazard score according to its substances included in items. When you type the brand and product model name on a search bar, it shows you how risky it is on your face or body through the score from 0 to 10. You might be surprised at how much money you spend every month for damaging your skin.