What's an "Issue?"
Below are links to two remarkably similar articles that appeared this past Friday and Saturday. One is from the Washington Post and the other from the New York Times. The columns describe two columnists' interactions with a couple of the most well know brands in the U.S., if not the world.
These columns touch upon some of the matters we have been discussing in class. While they don't involve "issues" in the sense of legislative or regulatory policy - at least not directly, I am sure that whoever is responsible for "issues management" in the companies described, has something new to deal with when they come to work on Monday.
So, please read the articles and discuss and of the following:
In what way to these columns raise "issues" as defined in this course?
What threats do these columns raise for the companies?
What might you do if you were responsible for issues management in any of the companies named?
Have you had experiences similar to those described by the columnists? What were they? What relevance does your reaction to such experiences have for the company or companies in your stories?
Here are the two columns
Pearlstein in the Washington Post
Nocera in the New York Times
I'd love to discuss these in person, so I'm probably going to break my rule already and discuss them in class on Thursday.
These columns touch upon some of the matters we have been discussing in class. While they don't involve "issues" in the sense of legislative or regulatory policy - at least not directly, I am sure that whoever is responsible for "issues management" in the companies described, has something new to deal with when they come to work on Monday.
So, please read the articles and discuss and of the following:
In what way to these columns raise "issues" as defined in this course?
What threats do these columns raise for the companies?
What might you do if you were responsible for issues management in any of the companies named?
Have you had experiences similar to those described by the columnists? What were they? What relevance does your reaction to such experiences have for the company or companies in your stories?
Here are the two columns
Pearlstein in the Washington Post
Nocera in the New York Times
I'd love to discuss these in person, so I'm probably going to break my rule already and discuss them in class on Thursday.
posted by Guy Noir | 12:13 PM
2 Comments:
I've commented on Pearlstein's experiences in my blog: An All-Verizon Family
In my opinion, the biggest problem for the companies in these two stories is that they are no longer in control of their interaction with the public. As we've been discussing issues management, they've crossed that line, I think into crisis management mode.
Perhaps that's not true with members of that dreaded "general public," for whom the negative impact of the stories could be countered with the next hip iTunes add, but it certainly applies to these disenchanted early adapters.
The people in these stories more than willing to convert to "all-Apple" or "all-Verizon" households, what seems to me to be a desirable and exceedingly difficult transformation for a company to affect. That aura of loyalty, which Apple in particular tries so hard to cultivate, is clearly shattered by these tales of woe.
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