Archive for the ‘Reputation News’ Category

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010 has begun yet again with its Bollywood star power and deep pockets of business tycoons and is looking like a well-oiled business enterprise adept at social networking.

All teams, Kolkata KnightRiders (KKR), Deccan Chargers (DC) Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Daredevils (DD), Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Superkings (CSK), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI),l are active on Twitter.

For the first time IPL has tied up with Google and has live video streaming via the IPL YouTube channel so that the great Indian diaspora can enjoy the games from far-flung places around the globe.  In terms of channel views, the first day of IPL 2010 saw the number going up 84 per cent to 880,615 by the second half of the day from 478,057 in the first half. By Sunday, it had crossed 3.1 millions.

For now the quality of the videos being streamed remains to be analysed but there is no denying that as business ventures go, the IPL 2010 takes its online presence seriously.

Tweeting owners: Team owners like Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shettty; captains like Shane Warne and players like Robin Uttappa and Yuvraj Singh are all busy tweeting away. IPL Chairman Lalit Modi is active on twitter as well along with PR people of each team tweeting about their respective teams. This is celebrity reputation management as well; all things IPL have celebrity status these days in India.

Mobile TV technology companies, gaming portals and online ticket booking sites are all raking in the moolah.

Being active on Twitter is crucial for team owners and more so in the case of Shahrukh Khan (SRK) whose team faced a reputation management crisis like no other – a blogger, who called himself the “fakeiplblogger” on blogspot, regularly trashed the team and its owner with surprising inside info on the workings of the team and its off-scene activity in South Africa last year. The team morale nosedived and KKR were languishing at the bottom.

This time around the buzz is great for KKR,  SRK himself is tweeting his way into people’s hearts and making sure nothing works against his team. A great example of how controversy helped create a buzz is his last movie MNIK (My name is KHAN), thanks to social networking sites and the tag “MNIK” trended worldwide on Twitter and helped the star regain some of his lost popularity.

IPL 2010 stands testimony to how important reputation management through social media is for businesses and sport like cricket these days.

The British catwalker is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. The extent of her temper has invited suggestion to instate sirens and lights to alert those vulnerable souls she hires.  They say ‘When you are with Naomi better don’t say “No”, or else you get a bloody nose. This time it was her 27-year-old-driver, who was boxed and slapped from the back seat of the car in Manhattan. Naomi immediately fled the scene. The driver called 911 and the NYPD was looking for her to be questioned.

Naomi Campbell’s reputation is on the rocks. Just Google Naomi and you will find majority of the websites are related to her bad temper than modeling. She had been in and out of trouble numerous time before, the charges she faced ranges from beating an assistant, hurling mobile at her maid and throwing abuses at British Airways staff.

What is it that makes this sultry siren go wild? Is it because she had a trouble childhood and  struggled in life, so all that frustration has to be taken off by beating up people?   Money is not a factor and she doesn’t seem much bothered about her reputation. Serious loss in waiting and she need to realize that negative comments influences everybody and travels faster than her imagination.  Her recent show to raise funds for Haiti earthquake is over shadowed by bad stories.

Is Naomi Campbell adept to change herself? Half way through this blog I came across the news that Ms. Campbell’s driver has apologized and he is  blaming himself for the confusion. How did this happened? Naomi later issued a statement

I have worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I will not be held hostage to my past.

We at Reputation Management For.com feel that this was a great PR move by Naomi because she was able to turn this around while the news was still buzzing. But more than that celebrity management is one thing she may need, to realize success and failure in its true form and reputation management to defend her super stardom status.

Related celebrity posts

• Tiger Woods Press conference
• Sarah Palin- Tea Party
• John Terry and Max Clifford

Yelp Extortion

Yelp, the hub for disgruntled clients to put in scathing reviews is now facing class-action lawsuit. The allegations against Yelp is that it asks advertisement money from business houses to manipulate or remove reviews. Strange, but no advertisers on Yelp has a perfect reputation.

Yelp the popular user-generated reviews website, was more popular than Google; users would search for a particular company or local business house before they wanted to deal with it. And anything that appeared negative or positive will be the final impression. So if it is on Yelp, it’s heard.

The company on the other hand denies the allegations, contained in the class-action lawsuit, but the whole affair has put a huge question mark about the reliability of Yelp.

If Yelp’s revenue was solely based on advertising, it was easy to understand why they wanted to tamper with reviews on its website, but it was not to be. Yelp will have some hard time explaining the ethics it follows. It will be interesting to see what the company has to say in its self-defense.

The situation would have been different if Yelp had a big brother with corporate backing like MSN or Google, then meddling with reviews wouldn’t be a cause for worry.

As reputation management goes Yelp needs new principles, new moral code of conduct to bring back credibility before they are totally deserted.

Crisis management is the new buzz word now, everybody from Celebrities, Politicians, Automobile companies to Theme parks are in dire need to salvage their reputation from getting tarnished online.  No organization wants to be in a situation that would stimulate bad press against them and cause disruption to their business.

Some companies that are hard hit recently were not able to handle crisis efficiently. Toyota is one company that is finding it difficult to stop the embroiling situation, the quality crisis refuses to die down for them. This clearly shows that the company is not good at handling crisis. The initial slow response, the half-minded recall, poor communication had adverse effect on the reputation of the company.

Managing crisis is the second best thing you can do for a successful business. To deal with crisis needs accurate and  decisive action. Take for example ‘A Gun manufacturing company loses a gun while on transit and before the public or the media ever comes to know about this the company is able to find it and put it back into the inventory‘. So rapid and precise action saved the company from getting a bad name.

Some of the ways to handle crisis is as follows:

• Identify the problems: The first step towards crisis management is to identify the problems in clear terms, so that you can sort it out easily.

• Collective decision: Fighting crisis can never be a one-man-show, a collective decision and team work is always better. Consider the relevant team and their decisions pertaining to the risk factor and go with the best option.

• Leadership: Lead from the front and talk with everybody in the team. Monitor the function required to minimize the crisis.

• Communicate: The most sought after action is to have continuous communication with the public and media. It is always good idea for the company to have their own portal or hub to update their view.

• Segregate issues: Take the best team out and let them work on every piece of the issue, break the issue until you identify the grey areas. Hire a reputation management company, which has standard practices to deal with crisis related issues.

• Encourage feedback: Read customer/client online reaction, this will help you know the correct pulse of the general public and help you overcome crisis.

• Analyze the problems:  So you know from where it took shape and who is responsible and what corrective measures can be taken to get rid of it.

• Learn: Take a cue from your last experience, this will help you mold a better strategy in future.  Always keep your last crisis experience in perspective and put in place tools so that your company is safe from similar crisis.

If you’re a diabetic, your doctor would have told you this  - “With Diabetes your chances for heart diseases are now higher”!

So what happens if your medication prescribed for diabetes also comes with an added risk for cardiovascular disease? Scary? Yes it is! And this is what’s happening with GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia or  rosiglitazone.

A Senate Finance Committee report had some hard-hitting words for GSK and this was what was said:

GlaxoSmithKline, knew the type 2 diabetes drug had possible harmful cardiac effects several years before a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study initially raised concerns about Avandia.

It all began three years ago when Dr. Steven E Nissin conducted a study and found that Avandia raised the risk of heart disease and this snowballed into a Congressional inquiry and report resulting in a drop in stock value for GSK. NYT reported the following:

A Congressional investigation released Saturday concluded that GlaxoSmithKline had threatened scientists who tried to point out Avandia’s risks, and internal memorandums from the Food and Drug Administration show that some government health officials want Avandia withdrawn. The drug is still being taken by hundreds of thousands of patients, and sales last year were $1.19 billion.

GlaxoSmithKline has today fired a rebuttal and has in its 30-page “white paper” response made it very clear that:

It has been “proactive in investigating the safety data” of rosiglitazone and has kept all regulatory agencies, including the FDA, aware of its investigations.

They have even gone on to say that they rumours of them trying to silence people were simply efforts made to ensure the right information goes out about their product.

Avandia is a very popular drug for Diabetes and for the hundreds of thousands using it everywhere nothing couldn’t be scarier than this. The best advice we can give is to contact your doctor and not decide things yourselves.

As for GSK, trying to arm-wrestle out of this with a 30-page rebuttal may not be enough. Coming clean on research results funded by them and allowing this to be evaluated or going back to the lab to improve the medicine maybe the way to go.

Finally the word from FDA : The FDA warns that patients who are taking Avandia should be monitored for signs and symptoms of heart failure, including excessive and rapid weight gain, difficulty breathing and/or swelling. “This work is ongoing and no new conclusions or recommendations about the use of rosiglitazone in the treatment of type 2 diabetes have been made at this time,” the agency announced.

While GSK handles this reputation management problem, what transpires next should be interesting indeed! Watch this space for updates!

A possible strike is in waiting for British Airways as the second ballot results of its 13,000 cabin crew members is to be announced shortly. After the first strike called by the cabin crew members was luckily overruled by the High Court due to the busy Christmas season, seems this time a sure strike is in the offing from March 1.

With the BA cabin crew strike still looming on the UK travelers, things even got worse when the pilots union of Lufthansa started a strike today over worries of pay and job security. BA which lost over £400m is planning for a layoff for its present staff and a salary freeze this year in order to save £140m a year. It’s crunch time for BA with nothing less than an acid test ahead.

Things can’t get any worse for BA with the ongoing unrest among the cabin crew and the airline, at the same time comes the threatened walkout, seems like nothing is going well for BA. All this unrest is also damaging the reputation of the airline. Well, the extent of damage on BA is widely seen with the internal bickering proving out to be a PR disaster for the airline specially when BA is really struggling to survive. This is not the first time this inner conflicts is proving fatal for the airlines online reputation, in the past also few disgruntled employees of London Heathrow airport Terminal 5 aired their anger on Facebook,with rude comments about passengers.

Being a top airline company BA seems failing to make both the ends meet, the airline should give a thought on repairing its reputation and getting back the lost faith of its customers by putting into act the effective tools of reputation management. As the adage goes, A stitch in time saves nine!

The real question is how many people won’t be booking a flight with BA over the summer period with fear of the staff threatening about going on strike again. The staff have 2 choices, either get over it and realise in order for a business to survive then they need to streamline  or watch BA come to a disastrous end.  BA is a global company and needs to be able to compete on a global scale, it can’t if there is a lot of wastage, might be unfair but unfortunately a fact of life for open global market.

Related BA Posts

• BA – Glug Glug Glug
• BA – Is this strike all bad
• BA – What lies behind the strike
• BA – Legal action to save reputation

Tiger Woods apology and press conference yesterday went off without a glitch except for a couple of nervous stops in the beginning. He tried to talk about everything a reporter would have wanted to question him. His mom was present and his wife’s family, he even thanked Accenture, and the golfing community for understanding the timing of his apology.

The read out speech asking for atonement, telling the Paparazzi to stay away from his family and saying he was sorry thrice was all very well.

In celebrity reputation management terms, Tiger did all that he needed to do, touching upon spirituality and Buddhism and his therapy and the millions of kids who idolized him – he said it all!

But I wasn’t moved, there were tears and he touched on all aspects, yet watching it one was left with questions of how it seemed only rehearsed.

• This is a man who was an expert in leading a double life and perpetuating a holier-than-thou persona off the golf course.
• The Tiger brand thrived on his presumed golden image – the star with no faults –  a star like no other.

The extent of the damage on the Tiger Woods brand to me seemed more evident yesterday in the public apology. Again we are not talking about the golfer Tiger Woods but the brand which projected him as the ideal on and off the field.

Tiger is definitely not out of the woods yet, with his problems or image, the public still feel cheated and only time and a phenomenal comeback in the game can really solve this.

Conclusion: For now this ‘mea culpa’ can be only termed as the tiniest step in rebuilding his brand. The golfing circuits need the Tiger brand back and up; after all he is the one who brings in the crowds!

Apple’s iPad has caught up with yet another controversy. Previously, it was the host of features, which were missing making it lose out to be a better choice than a notebook, now even the name ‘iPad’ has become an issue. It seems as if Apple has a habit to be in the news for various reasons .

The controversy saga continues; with the name ‘iPad’ in trouble. A Japanese electronic company ‘Fujitsu’ has alleged Apple for stealing their name ‘iPad’. According to Fujitsu their handheld computing device launched in 2002 was named iPad. There are also other takers for iPad like  Siemens, which claims to be using the name iPad for their engines and other equipments. But in case of Fujitsu the name iPad is used for a similar kind of product like Apple’s.

Apple’s products have always been in the buzz for varied reason, similarly iPhone too had its share of woe  when it rhymed with Japan’s Aiphone which led to confusion.  Luckily Apple escaped with an agreement for a slight alteration of the Japanese spelling.

Though Apple has time till the end of Feb 2010 to prove this claim against Fujitsu, but it has to be seen how they defend this latest assault on the reputation of their brand. We strongly feel that Apple needs to realize that PR and reputation management are two different things and needs to be dealt accordingly. Being in news for all the bad reasons, is not good business. Remember reputation management is like a goal keeping, you save many but people tend to remember the one you missed.

A while ago Web Faceoff series conducted a survey asking users to vote between Twitter and Facebook as their favourite social networking site. Well the results, Facebook marginally managed (48%) over Twitter (40%). And now here comes something new – Google’s Buzz.

Google had minimal success in the social-networking field compare to Twitter and Facebook. But with this latest tool, Google is looking to give them a run for their money, and are hopeful to catch up with the leaders of the social networking world. They have closely integrated with their Gmail service to target a percentage of that market.

Google is famous for keeping things simple and easy, but with “Buzz” things were not quite upright. The major concern was their feeble approach to privacy.  Secondly, it was about “Auto-suggest” not like Twitter or Facebook where it will  suggest, but Buzz will allow users to follow you automatically.

So is it worth to shift base from Twitter or FaceBook? Another nagging issue was to do with convergence, most of the users didn’t like the idea of having one service for all. They would prefer their email to be here and social networking to be there and did not want to mix it. So it was all about changing human habits.

True to it’s reputation, last weekend google buzz team quickly amended the tool based on users’ feedback.

“It’s been an exciting and challenging week for the Buzz team,” says Buzz/Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson. We’ve been getting feedback via the Gmail help forums and emails from friends and family, and we’ve also been able to do something new”

Started on a shaky note, Buzz is already showing signs of potential. Will it be able to phase out Facebook? It’s too early to predict, but then anything can happen. How do you rate “Buzz”? Share your views.

December, 09 all flights of Flyglobespan were cancelled after its parent company, Globespan, entered administration. An attempt to enter a financing deal with Jersey-based Halycon Investments broke down that led to Flyglobespan collapse.

The firm blamed for the deadly blow to Globespan was E-Clear, a credit card processing company. When passengers book tickets online with their credit card, the money goes into the booking site (E-Clear) and is then passed on to Flyglobespan. So it’s all about the way money reaches the airline after it was processed by E-Clear

It was learned that E-Clear withheld £35m from Globespan, this was money that had been paid for tickets, but was not been passed on to the airline. They also diverted £1.5 million to keep its struggling sister company Allbury Travel alive.

E-Clear was forced into administration by Globespan’s in an effort to reclaim the missing cash and Allbury Travel was closed.

This disgraced episode only raises few doubts, No credit card company can hold money of this size particularly if that business depends on cash flow, so what was Globespan doing to retain the non-payment?  Secondly why did they continue to use E-Clear when payments were not being processed?

This is a strange situation and it’s getting murkier by the day and it’s time for some close introspection about the reputation of credit card processing companies. Airline reputation management is going through its most turbulent times.