Terakeet. Woof. Reading bad stuff about people in your industry should rarely be viewed as a positive, but it’s truly excellent when bad actors are called out.

An industry’s weakest link holds everyone back, so I always believe it a duty to talk when someone or something crosses a line in the communications world.

For Chase Global’s work on behalf of the Forensic Justice Project and its mission of supporting the wrongfully convicted, we won a Stevie at the 24th annual American Business Awards. Huzzah!

Republication of an opinion column for WeSpeakIoT.com:

At approximately $1 trillion, the IoT industry is well established with an incredibly bright future. It’s also among the least respected by political officials, financial markets, tech leaders and the news media. An industry rebrand is desperately needed.

There are three stats about comms that the smartest CEOs know well:

• 63 percent of a company's market value comes from its overall reputation (Source: Weber Shandwick)

• Nearly 70 percent of leaders report facing a true crisis in the past five years (Source: PwC)

• Only 1-in-3 have a crisis management plan in place (Source: PwC)

SoFi, a $30 billion private financial institution, today sent out an email about a hack of consumer personally identifiable information (PII)...from three weeks earlier….

That’s sketchy.

No comment. It’s one of the absolute worst possible responses you can give when faced with a question from a reporter. We’ve all seen it on TV when the lawyer walking outside the courtroom says “no comment” on behalf of their client. This amps up the dramatic stakes and tension for the viewer — but it’s never ever ever ever a good thing.

NBC is an awesome and very reliable legacy news outlet — not as great as it used to be, but still a beacon of truth in this horrible age of misinformation. But this story gets four paws down for sensationalist garbage reporting.

Levi Strauss & Co.'s partnership with Lalaland.ai in March 2023 to use AI for creating diverse models sparked significant backlash and viral attention, critiquing the move as a step away from genuine diversity and inclusivity. This reaction from the internet and coverage by major news outlets highlighted the communications challenges and potential risks to LS&Co's reputation, sales and investments.

It wasn’t long ago that I had to fight CEOs to open their mouth to talk about anything outside of OPEX, ARPU, profit margins, and M&A. Everyone talks about the need for thought leadership, but when push came to shove, the CEOs refused to say anything on the safest of topics.

Allegations of bribery. A $200 million fine from the the U.S. government. Criminal investigation across four continents. This SAP scandal has all sorts of juicy content. As the issue is nearing its end, are there any crisis management lessons to be learned?