By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 26, 2010
[Written with a healthcare industry slant, but obviously applicable to most organizations] There’s a death or serious injury due to questionable circumstances. An employee is accused of impropriety. Your company is acquired by or is acquiring another. A natural disaster occurs. There’s an investigation of your facility by a regulatory or law enforcement agency. By […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 23, 2010
The consumer complaint site, RipOff Report, has been the bane of many companies’ existence and a challenge for crisis managers everywhere. ED Magedson (yes, he capitalizes his first name), Founder of the site, agreed to a lengthy exclusive interview for my ezine, Crisis Manager, that I plan to publish on Thursday, April 29, along with […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 20, 2010
“Playing with the media is a game you can’t afford to lose. At worst, your reputation’s at stake. At best, you forfeit a chance to build important relationships which can benefit you, your firm, and your clients. Reporters may make the rules, but media training helps you learn to play the game to your advantage.” […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 18, 2010
Crisis: an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse (Webster’s New Collegiate). How many public relations spokespersons does your company have? The correct answer is, “as many employees as we have.” Sure, any organization can and should have a policy whereby only certain […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 16, 2010
Crises can be divided into three categories: 1. Creeping Crises – foreshadowed by a series of events that decision makers don’t view as part of a pattern. 2. Slow-Burn Crises – some advance warning, before the situation has caused any actual damage. 3. Sudden Crises – damage has already occurred and will get worse the […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 13, 2010
[The following is an excerpt from my newly published Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.] I would love to be able to tell you that with regards to media interview skills, ‘practice makes perfect,’ but that would be disingenuous, a fancy way of saying it would be a lie. No amount of […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 13, 2010
7. Don’t Listen to Your Stakeholders Make sure that all your decisions are based on your best thinking alone. After all, how would your clients/customers, employees, referral sources, investors, industry leaders or other stakeholders’ feedback be at all useful to determining how to communicate with them? 8. Assume That Truth Will Triumph over All You […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 12, 2010
All organizations are vulnerable to crises. You can’t serve any population without being subjected to situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in ownership or management, and other volatile situations on which your stakeholders — and the media that serves them — often focus. The cheapest way to turn experience into future profits is […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 9, 2010
DON’T make the media your primary means of communicating on pending or current litigation in progress. Journalists are not a reliable means of ensuring that your key audiences receive your messages, nor is it a reporter’s job to make sure everything you think is important gets to the right people. DO communicate directly with your […]
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By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 8, 2010
Welcome to Crisis Management in the 21st Century and to Internet: The Ultimate Medium. A cross between tabloid journalism and a gladiator competition, between Pollyanna and Pandora, where minds meet and merge, clash and clamor, and where you can get more of anything you want than was EVER available at Alice’s Restaurant. The Internet has […]
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Jonathan L. Bernstein, founder and Chairman of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.[Read more ...]
Erik Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the president position.
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