I was having a conversation the other day with two 20-somethings when one of them brought up the family values associated with Mom, apple pie and the American Way.

“Oh, I get it,” I said. “Sort of like the Cleavers.”

Blank stares came back at me across the table.

“As in … ‘Leave it to Beaver,’ ” I offered.

More blank stares.

Now I have a sense of what Colonel Harland Sanders is feeling these days. According to a survey released by KFC, a majority of Americans ages 18-25 cannot identify the Colonel, once one of the world’s most recognizable brand icons. In fact, more than 50 percent think he’s simply a made-up logo – a sort of corporate Santa Claus or Easter Bunny.

What a way to celebrate your 120th birthday!

Established companies such as KFC cannot simply rest on respected reputations. They owe it to their stakeholders to stay ahead of the curve because, as the man once said, we ain’t getting any younger. As the population ages and new consumers move to the forefront, brands have to manage a tricky balance of managing their long-established reputations while constantly finding ways to keep themselves fresh and modern.

Swing too far one way or the other, and a solid reputation quickly erodes. KFC has felt these effects and is acting quickly to fix it through customer engagement, proactive position and a sense of humor. It’s a formula that worked well for Domino’s Pizza. We’ll see how it plays out for the Colonel.

bsilver General Corporate Colonel Sanders, Domino's Pizza, KFC, Leave it to Beaver

The HP Mark Hurd saga has provided a nice diversion to BP’s fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been interesting to follow the debate on whether HP’s Board of Directors did the right thing, the power of various advisors in the decision and whether the woman at the center of the controversy was merely an actress or an actress and Playboy model.

After all the stories and blogs on the incident and its aftermath along with the damage to HP’s share price and reputation, you’d think the company would do all it can to help the story fade away. Once it’s in the past, HP can get back to business, focus on its customers and enhance shareholder value.

When news broke earlier this week that Hurd is joining Oracle as co-president, many of us wondered how HP would react. After all, HP and Oracle are business partners in some areas and Hurd apparently was not subject to a non-compete clause. While California is reticent to impede employees from choosing a new employer, HP is pressing forward with a lawsuit challenging the hiring on trade secret and other concerns.

Legal pundits say the HP case has little chance of success in the courtroom. But in the court of public opinion (shareholders, customers, partners, employees and the Silicon Valley wags), HP is keeping the Hurd discussion alive. Whatever the motivation for the lawsuit (are there real business reasons or just revenge), HP may not have thought through the communications and reputational consequences of its actions.

As a start, Larry Ellison issued a statement that seemingly brings the future of the HP-Oracle partnership into play. More importantly, the lawsuit provides another opportunity for reporters, bloggers, financial analysts and others to rehash the details of the story up to now and speculate anew on HP’s future.

Stoking the controversy and prolonging the story may not be the best thing for HP in terms of reputation and relations with some key constituencies but it does allow the publication of more fetching photos of Jodie Fisher and adds to her 15 minutes of fame.

rtauberman General Corporate BP, HP, Mark Hurd, Oracle

Women around the world have been extolling the beauty of Eat, Pray, Love. To be honest, I only read Eat and Pray…never got to the Love part. But the concept of exiting your current life to go on an existential, all for yourself journey is something that many 30-something and 40-something working moms like me would fantasize about. Cast Julia Roberts as the poor, exhausted heroine in need of battery re-charging, and you’ve got a winner.

For those in the agency business….or men who don’t want to tie up the journey with a pretty, romance-novel inspired bow, check this out.

If you don’t know the name Alex Bogusky, you know his work. He’s the genius behind the reinvention of Burger King, including the much imitated, but never quite replicated subservient chicken. He made Crispin Porter & Bogusky the Ad Age agency of the decade.

And he stood up one day, and walked away from it.

Fast Company is chronicling his search for self….it’s a great read.

cwinters General Corporate Alex Bogusky, Burger King, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Eat Pray Love

Corporations across the country are closed today to celebrate Labor Day, the unofficial close of summer. Last Friday likely marked the last Summer Friday of the year for those companies that still, in these tough times, offer such perks benefits to their employees. But, after this difficult year, as we celebrate with friends and families, it’s wise to realize just how far we’ve come from that first Labor Day “parade” in 1882…and how far we still need to go.

128 years ago, Peter McGuire and 100,000 workers took to the street to demand better working wages, more reasonable work days and safer work conditions. More strike than parade, this uprising put the conditions facing workers out in front of the public in a manner that demanded change and attention. And it worked. Shorter work days, safer workplaces, better pay all came to be. Legislation that resulted in OSHA took just short of a century to follow but for most, the workplace became a better place.

In recent years, focus on corporate reputation and a desire to win the talent wars — a byproduct of a robust economy — had led companies to vie for “best place to work” status. From a greater sensitivity to diversity and inclusion to on-site masseuses and lactation stations, Corporate America had put “keeping talent” high on the list of items necessary for a sustainable business and strong corporate reputation.

Today, in a tougher economy, where keeping staff seems less of a concern, it is tempting to forgo the niceties that were adopted to keep employees happy. It is tempting for a business to demand longer work hours when operating “lean and mean” to save costs. Forgoing the company summer outing is an obvious way to save dollars when things are tight.
But, to maintain talent and a reputation as a place that the best want to work, as the economy turns around, it will be critical for businesses to remember why Peter McGuire and others marched in that first Labor Day parade.

Exploding oil rigs that put workers lives at risk, collapsing mines and trapped miners, and scientific studies that show that those with jobs today are more likely to die young than the unemployed, remind us that at the heart of any business are its people.

Protecting and nurturing them is the best way to sustain a strong business and a healthy reputation amongst workers, customers and communities.

awadler General Corporate, Uncategorized Corporate Reputation, Labor Day, Labor Relations

I remember when the most common thing I heard about Bill Gates came from the IT guy in our office. Frustrated by a bug in the latest version edition of Windows or some other Microsoft product, he’d mutter, “Bill Gates is the devil.”

What a difference a decade makes.

Bill Gates has become our generation’s most influential and admired business person. He drove the creation of one of the world’s most successful enterprises and in doing so, he spun off legions of Microsoft millionaires who are out there, starting businesses and charitable foundations or in the case of Paul Allen, otherwise disrupting the marketplace.

This may be the most dramatic reputation 180 ever.

Needless to say, the guy has some clout. A shout-out, a nod or any sort of recognition from Gates – real or implied – is the ultimate endorsement. Just ask Sal Kahn, hedge fund guy turned Internet educator. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Gates gave a shout-out to Kahn’s online education channel.

Almost immediately, Khan Academy’s viewership spiked to 70,000 viewers a day and is the most popular education site online. He’s gone from working in his closet for free to paying himself a six-figure salary, with money people in hot pursuit.

Like another famous Bill who started a little movement known as CGI, Gates has become more like-able and more influential in his “retirement” than he was in leading one of the most disruptive and transformative companies in America since the industrial revolution. He’s transformed philanthropy with his foundation and joined forces with Warren Buffet to challenge the uber-wealthy to give half of their fortunes away in life or at death. He’s even making nuclear power cool.

Is there anything Gates can’t do? And is there anyone more influential today?

cwinters General Corporate Aspen Ideas Festival, Bill Gates, CGI, Khan Academy, Microsoft, Warren Buffet

As we mark the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another tragic event just occurred off the shore of Louisiana – an oil rig owned by Mariner Energy exploded earlier today in the Gulf of Mexico several hundred miles west of the site of BP’s infamous Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The people of Louisiana have had more than their share of tragedy. For the families of the 13 people on the rig (thankfully, all accounted for based on news reports), this raises questions about worker safety that are tailor-made for union organizing.

So why does an explosion at a rig owned by Mariner Energy spell trouble for BP, which has spent nearly $100MM on advertising in an effort to repair its reputation since the explosion?

It’s simple – BP has become the face and acronym of BIG PETROLEUM.

Today’s explosion creates a legitimate argument for President Obama’s drilling moratorium and increased discussion of regulation … but who really cares about Mariner Energy besides The Apache Corp., its owner? If you read John Grisham’s novels you know that it is the big-name, big-money entity that gets targeted.

Every news story will rehash the BP events. Every call for regulation and investigation will cost them. And every energy company will cite BP for decreases in sector valuation.

Conventional public relations wisdom says today’s event will get BP out of the news and off the hot seat. But I’m betting against the house on that one.

cwinters Crisis Communications Apache Corp., BP, Hurricane Katrina, John Grisham, Mariner Energy, President Obama

This week I am on PTO….and I’ve readied this post in advance as a challenge to myself, to see if I can stay at least somewhat disconnected…except for emergencies. The question is…what is an emergency, when you are an addict?

The funny thing is, I resisted getting a Blackberry. When our then head of IT arrived in my office with it, I reminded him I hadn’t ordered one, and didn’t want one. I told our CEO that I didn’t need to be efficient in the morning car pool line, because I am multitasking all day long, and maybe five minutes of simply listening to the radio each day would be good for my psyche, my stress level or both. I was ahead of my time…today Oprah would hail me as a hero for not wanting to text and drive. (Note to clients desperately trying to get on Oprah’s last season….Think long and hard. Because she is going to make you take this pledge.)

Today, I am a Crackberry addict. When it doesn’t work, I panic. I check it at red lights (Oprah, if the car isn’t moving, is that OK?) If I forget my headset at home, I worry about calls I need to make from my car. Every minute of the day is scheduled…OK overscheduled. And being disconnected makes me anxious. I was fascinated by the story about people (including a PR person!) who lived without Blackberries for 72 hours. Being disconnected adds to my long list of complaints about business travel….no e-mail in the air.

So my heart leapt when I saw this headline:

Making Connections at 35,000 Feet.

Finally, someone was going to stop requiring me from turning off my non-approved electronic devices.

Except this story isn’t about Wi-Fi in the air. It’s about the joy of an unexpected connection made by conversing with people you meet while traveling.

cwinters General Corporate Blackberry, Oprah