WikiLeaks: The Story We Already Know

One thing we know after the WikiLeaks fiasco is that diplomacy around the world is not very diplomatic. Leaders are petty, ridicule and disparage each other and do not hold each other in high regard.

We also have learned that government officials are not very intelligent when it comes to keeping affairs confidential. Where have diplomats been these last years? Anyone using a computer, even our kids, knows that every email, attachment, document, IM, chat, text, voice mail, memo or cable is on a hard drive or server somewhere and is vulnerable to infiltration and compromise. Hackers are everywhere and experts have been warning for years that cyber warfare was on the horizon. Did the U.S. government think it was immune?

Those two points aside, I must admit, I am not very surprised by anything that has been revealed in the documents. We hear voluminous amounts of information in the 24-hour news cycle, in press releases, in statements and in speeches about the positions of governments around the world. Read between the lines and it is all there in plain view. 

Is it any great surprise that Iran's Arab neighbors fear her nuclear ambitions and brazen aggression? Are you shocked that China is upset by North Korea's diabolical and erratic behavior? Are you perplexed that Afghan President Karzai might be paranoid? Who wouldn't be if they lead a dysfunctional, corrupt country where suicide bombers are heroes. Is it of concern that the U.S. publicly wonders about the loyalty of Pakistan military, is it with the U.S. or with the Taliban? And the thought of Russia as a Mafia state, hasn't it always been that way whether it is the Putin oligarchs, the Soviets or the Czars?

What is disturbing is that the nations of the world are still so pathetically primitive, competing and bribing for resources, making dubious arms deals, conspiring against each other for political gain, plotting against each other and poised at the brink of nuclear attack in many corners of the globe.

This philosophy and mindset of power, the taint of secrecy, policies of conspiracy and evil alliances have created terrible wars in just about every generation for centuries now. Tens of millions of people have lost their lives in those wars. Tens of millions more have been wounded either physically or emotionally through these conflicts that arise as secret deals and a quest for power results in confrontation, death and destruction.

Today we face the long simmering conflict in Asia between the two Koreas, China and Japan. India and Pakistan have had each other in the cross hairs for 60 years. The Middle East is a cauldron of hate between Sunni and S'hia, despotic monarchs and fundamentalists, Jews and Arabs.

Latin America teeters as the landed gentry, drug cartels and indigenous people vie for control. In Africa nasty civil wars are being fought in most of that continent's nations with rape and pillage being the mantra of the day. In America, we still have impoverished ghettos, the highest prison incarceration rate per capita than any other nation and murder on our streets is a given. All of this casts a dark and bleak shadow over humanity decade after decade, century after century.

In these very uncertain times, we commit trillions of dollars to weaponry while the masses in the world have little to eat, no clean water, breathe toxic air and are stripping the earth bare of resources we need to sustain the planet.

It is time for the diplomats to really become diplomatic and start working with each other to truly end this ludicrous and deadly strife? Is there not a way for the nations of the world to come together to end the deprivation and violence that is in our midst?

What is the fight for? Which nation must gain hegemony and to what end? What nation deserves to have power over another? Why are so many people subjugated by oppression and poverty? Why don't the diplomats and heads of state start pressing to reduce the arms buildup, work toward civil rights for all peoples, fight to purify our shared environment, stop global warming before it consumes us and end oppression of women, ethnic and religious minorities?

It's time for the nations of the world to step up and begin managing their reputations as citizens of the world. If we pursued that goal we wouldn't need to keep dirty little secrets about each other that are bound to find their way into the light of day and cause new conflicts and confrontations.

Ecoimagination or Ecohype? GE on the Hot Seat

General Electric has been promoting itself for years as an enlightened company when it comes to climate change and environmental challenges facing the globe. It launched a branding campaign in 2005 called "Ecomagination" spending nearly a hundred million dollars touting the need to press for cleaner, efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water. Read More >

 

 

Ecoimagination or Ecohype? GE on the Hot Seat

British Petroleum “Greenwashing” Backfired

The black, slimy ooze continues to relentlessly pour from deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico at the site of the British Petroleum drilling site to surface waters and the toxic mess is being swept to shore where precious wildlife is being wiped out in a torturous death.
The British Petroleum drilling rig that exploded and sank 40 miles off shore, killing eleven workers, is spewing at least 5,000 barrels of oil per day and is threatening to destroy estuaries along the Louisiana coast as well as severely impacting shorelines in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Hundreds of thousands of people who live along the Gulf Coast are bracing for an economic meltdown just as the devastated region was recovering from the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Read More >

Goldman Needs To Fix Damaged Reputation

Goldman Sachs, in order to turn this reputation disaster around before it causes permanent and irreparable damage, is going to have to take the lead on reforming finance. It is a company with the intellect, the wealth, the power and the connections to do so.
If the company were to become contrite about its financial engineering and work with legislators and regulators on eliminating risky and unsafe investment ventures that caused the financial system to teeter on the brink, it would go a long way toward reestablishing its credibility. 

Read More> 

Ford Motoring Down the Reputation Highway

You might call it the ultimate reputation management turnaround story. It began in 2000 at Ford Motor company, one of America's oldest and most venerable car companies. It was a rough road at the beginning of the decade, Ford was embroiled in a nasty legal fight with tire maker Bridgestone and its Firestone unit. 

Ford and Bridgestone were pointing fingers at each other over safety problems that allegedly caused a spate of rollover related crashes that resulted in 174 deaths in the U.S.  

Bridgestone claimed Ford's design was at fault and refused to recall all the tires Ford wanted off the road. 

Ford ended up shelling out $2.1 billion to recall 13 million tires it claimed were the problem. The two companies severed there 95 year business relationship.

http://paymarcommunications.com/ford-motoring-down-the-reputation-highway/

Protecting the Company Name and Brand

Reputation Management can help Protect Corporate Image

Feb 15, 2010 Mike Virgintino

Communications strategies impact sales and, collectively, they impact performance. Today, company teams are involved in protecting the corporate image.

Marketing experts often have told corporate executives that a company’s reputation is its most important asset and that it is critical to performance. Without successful management and protection of the corporate reputation, equity in the company can quickly erode in terms of stock price, customers and whether or not a prospective employee will want to work for the company.

A company today is confronted by a challenging explosion of social media where anyone can write a blog, post a comment or video about anything whether it's factual or not. This has put companies on the defensive as they attempt to counter the ravages of negative publicity. The corporate suite has begun to realize that they need to be fully engaged and proactive to protect brands, reputation and profits.

"When a company is hit with negative publicity, they often face an uphill battle just to survive. If they don’t act quickly and appropriately to repair the damage, the results can be long lasting and sometimes devastating to the bottom line.

Companies must be vigilant in monitoring all media platforms to deal with potential problems head on,” said Jim Paymar, president of Paymar Communications Group and a partner in Reputation Outlook, a media-centric reputation management firm that helps businesses navigate the difficult communications environment.

A past corporate communications executive and a former journalist with CNBC, Business Week and several New York City television stations, Paymar told Suite101.com that companies have been conditioned to make decisions based on metrics and metrics are not the way to measure public perception.

“Metrics help with marketing, manufacturing, the opening of new offices and the acquisition of other businesses, but metrics analysis doesn’t protect the brand or the company’s overall reputation,” said Paymar. “Until recently, organizations weren’t overly concerned about reputation, because it was difficult to measure and even more difficult, at times, to relate cause with effect.”

Read more at Suite101: Protecting the Company Name and Brand: Reputation Management can help Protect Corporate Image http://corporate-marketing-branding.suite101.com/article.cfm/protecting-the-company-name-and-brand#ixzz0femSGakN