Corporate communications

BP doesn't need an engineer at the helm. It needs a leader. Of course engineers matter, when the task is stemming damage from the largest oil spill in...

A better approach to stakeholder management

When a crisis forces outside directors to navigate major changes, investors and directors must adopt new roles. The largest such case to date provides some useful lessons. The Royal Dutch/Shell Group was a 60/40 joint venture between Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading. It was run by a five-person committee of managing directors […]

Despite heavy investments to acquire talented data scientists and take advantage of the analytics boom, many companies have been disappointed in the results....

Advice for navigating a contentious climate.

As commissioner of the New York City Police Department, Lee P. Brown faces two enormous challenges. The first is crime. In 1989 in New York City, 712,419 crimes were reported, including 1,905 murders, 93,377 robberies, and 3,254 rapes. As Brown is quick to point out, the situation has grown so severe that people in cities […]

Yes — and here’s how to tell if their efforts are working.

CEO activism has entered the mainstream.

Research shows we use buzzwords to impress our colleagues — but they often have the opposite effect.

They say that the books business is beleaguered, bordering on broken. Over-production, under-consumption and the looming threat of digital perdition are concentrating minds as never before. Will publishing, as many fear, follow music and movies into an illegal download free-for-all? Or will J.K. Rowling ride to the rescue with a clutch of Harry Potters, as […]

Managers of smaller companies should pay close attention to the image their companies project to the business world. The impression conveyed to bankers,...

The new system in a day-care center is producing biased results--setting off an alarm when some dark-skinned parents enter the lobby. The director of...

Always give yourself four ways to win.

Three questions to guide your communication strategy.

Lessons for crisis communicators.

Five strategies to help leaders strike the right balance between saying nothing and saying too much.

Transparency is crucial — even if your reputation takes a short-term hit.

That sound you hear is the cry of outrage over the decision by Spirit Airlines to charge customers as much as $45 to stow carry-on baggage. It’s a horrible idea, but not for the easy, airline-bashing reasons cited by most critics. In fact, this decision is a pretty interesting case study in the wrong ways […]

Whatever you think of Carly Fiorina’s management style, she is a shrewd tactician. In the acrimonious proxy battle surrounding the 2002 Hewlett-Packard–Compaq merger, the promerger group, headed by the former HP CEO, squeaked by the antimerger dissidents with less than a 1% margin. But before Fiorina’s side could claim victory, the dissidents brought suit, accusing […]

A celebrity’s baby is severely injured when her stroller tips over. Was it user error or a faulty product? The media go wild—and BestBaby faces a PR disaster.