A press release from The Reputation Doctor.
NEW YORK, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is Mike "The Reputation Doctor" Paul's Annual Top 10 List of Reputations in Crisis in 2006. This list is compiled by and solely the opinion of global reputation management expert Mike Paul, who is also a weekly guest in the media providing expert analysis of various reputations in crisis:
1. Donald Rumsfeld -- The now-former Defense Secretary was the
stubborn and poor-listening architect of the war in Iraq, and because
the U.S. has still not "won the war," he was finally asked to leave by
President Bush under strong pressure from Democrats in Congress. Both
the Bush administration and the U.S. as a nation have global
reputations in crisis because of decisions in Iraq and Donald Rumsfeld
ran the war in Iraq and tops my list this year for reputations in
crisis.
2. The Duke case -- D.A. Mike Nifong charged former Duke lacrosse players
Collin Finnerty, Dave Evans and Reade Seligmann with allegedly raping
a stripper hired for a team party in March. The case has made both
national and international headlines for many months and highlights
the importance of both the court of law and the court of public
opinion. All the reputations in this case have been damaged, especially
D.A. Nifong, who is up for re-election and has many thinking he only
took the case in an attempt to get re-elected.
3. Mel Gibson -- His drunken, anti-Semitic rant towards an L.A. police
officer will blur our perception of him forever, mainly because it was
not the first time he voiced similar opinions. To overcome a crisis,
you must remove the root of the problem and sadly, the root has not
been removed within Mel Gibson.
4. Floyd Landis -- Floyd Landis was fired by his team and his sponsors and
the Tour de France no longer considered him its champion after his
second doping sample tested positive for higher-than-allowable levels
of testosterone. The samples contained synthetic testosterone,
indicating that it came from an outside source. This was the top
steroid story in the world in 2006.
5. Halliburton -- The Reputations Institute's recent survey ranked
Halliburton as the corporation with the worst business reputation
worldwide. This is not a good thing. Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton
before becoming Vice President of The United States. Halliburton is a
products and services provider to the oil and energy industries with
major contracts in Iraq.
6. NYPD -- Five undercover detectives and officers fired a total of 50
shots outside a Queens strip club, killing Sean Bell and injuring his
two friends. Before the shooting, Bell's vehicle hit one officer and an
unmarked police car, and officers apparently thought one of Bell's
companions was about to get to a gun, police have said. However, no gun
was ever found on the victims. Only a few years ago, NYPD police
officers shot a man named Amadou Diallo in the Bronx 41 times and he
also did not have a gun. As a result, the NYPD moved from heroes to
zeros in the court of public opinion.
7. Enron's Ken Kay and Jeff Skilling -- Ken Lay was found guilty on all
six counts that relate to Enron fraud, including conspiracy to commit
wire fraud, perpetrating wire and bank fraud, and making false and
misleading statements to employees at a company meeting, as well as to
banks, securities analysts and corporate credit-rating agencies. He
also was found guilty the same day on four other bank fraud counts in a
separate case on his personal banking. In 2006, this historic case
finally came to an end, but before former Enron Chairman Ken Lay could
be sentenced, he died of a heart attack. However, former Enron CEO Jeff
Skilling was found guilty of 19 of 28 counts against him and he is
currently serving 24 years in prison. This case will go down in history
as the most influential corporate case in recent history to influence
both new laws regarding ethical behavior and radically changing public
perception regarding unethical behavior by adding further fear of
prosecution to executives' minds. Accountability is a great deterrent.
8. Michael "Kramer" Richards -- His racial rant at an L.A. comedy club was
not a one-liner, but went on for several minutes. The root of this
crisis is heart work and not head work or mere words. To best improve
his reputation, Richards must now prove to the world with action that
his heart has changed. He should also stick to comedic acting and leave
stand-up comedy to the pros. The crisis has also reminded all of us
that the N-word is not something to mess with.
9. Zidane -- It was the headbutt heard 'round the world! In the 110th
minute of the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on July 9, 2006,
French soccer player Zinedine Zidane notoriously headbutted Italian
soccer star Marco Materazzi in the chest. The French captain said that
Materazzi had insulted him, targeting his sister and mother. The
incident spawned an internet and pop-culture video frenzy referred to
as the Zidane headbutt. Following the incident itself, Zidane was shown
a red card by the referee, meaning he had to leave the game for his
penalty. As Zidane had previously announced that he would retire from
professional football after the 2006 World Cup, the headbutt became the
last play ever of his illustrious career. Not a good thing for his
reputation. Advice to Zidane: pro athletes in the U.S. get heckled by
players and fans every week. Part of being a professional is learning
to handle conflicts not just adulation.
10. Hewlett Packard -- The confrontation at Hewlett-Packard started
innocently enough. Last January, the online technology site CNET
published an article about the long-term strategy at HP, the company
ranked No. 11 in the Fortune 500. While the piece was upbeat, it
quoted an anonymous HP source and contained information that only
could have come from a director. HP's former chairwoman, Patricia
Dunn, told another director she wanted to know who it was; she was fed
up with ongoing leaks to the media going back to CEO Carly Fiorina's
tumultuous tenure that ended in early 2005. According to an internal
HP e-mail, Dunn then took the extraordinary step of authorizing a team
of independent electronic-security experts to spy on the January 2006
communications of the other 10 directors -- not the records of calls
(or e-mails) from HP itself, but the records of phone calls made from
personal accounts. That meant calls from the directors' home and their
private cell phones. It was classic data-mining: Dunn's consultants
weren't actually listening in on the calls -- all they had to do was
look for a pattern of contacts. Dunn acted without informing the rest
of the board. Her actions were now about to unleash a round of
boardroom fury at one of America's largest companies and a Silicon
Valley icon. Congressional hearings were called to investigate the
matter and HP's reputation continues to take a major hit as trust has
been severely breached at the leadership level within the corporation.
Ms. Dunn: it is important to remember, the first step in crisis
management is ego management.
ADVICE FOR ALL OF US: Learn from the mistakes of those above. You don't want to become a YouTube video star or plastered on the front page of the newspaper with a reputation in crisis. Why? Because Your Reputation Is Everything!
About Mike Paul
Mike Paul is editor of The Reputation Doctor blog. The Reputation Doctor is a nickname given to him by various clients he has counseled over the years. Mike's blog is located at www.ReputationDoctor.com. He appears regularly on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, ABC News, ESPN, CBS News, BBC, and others as a weekly contributor and expert in the global news regarding CEOs, political leaders, celebrities, corporations and other organizations with reputations in crisis. Mr. Paul is also president and senior counselor of MGP & Associates PR (www.mgppr.com), a leading strategic public relations and reputation management firm based in New York. For interview requests, speeches, senior counseling or other business opportunities with Mr. Paul, call 212-595-8500 or email mpaul@mgppr.com.
Source: The Reputation Doctor blog
CONTACT: Mike Paul, MGP & Associates PR, +1-212-595-8500, fax,
+1-212-504-7964, news@mgppr.com
Web site: http://www.reputationdoctor.com/
http://www.mgppr.com/
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