Portraying yourself as a victim can be a great communication strategy. It deflects attention and can even arouse sympathy. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been playing the part masterfully ever since a volatile stock market exposed flaws in one of his company’s biggest products. But is BlackRock the victim – or the villain?
The days grow shorter. A dusting of frost appears. The season seems to arrive earlier every year. Yes, it’s time for the annual speculation about banker bonuses.
Like a modern-day Molotov cocktail, the lawsuit filed by Bill Gross against his former employer and colleagues at Pimco burst into flame on the internet, just as intended. It’s an example of how lawyers are starting to realize that telling a sizzling story is at least as important as making a strong legal argument.
A CEO can be vague about a lot of things, but there’s one clear sign he is frustrated by a lagging stock price – a big newspaper ad. Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, is the latest to write a check to proclaim the virtues of his company’s shares. Will it work?
Give UBS credit for bravely launching a major ad campaign when antipathy toward big banks is as strong as ever. The ads pose deeply personal questions in a bid to put UBS in the middle of an individual’s most critical dialogue. But will people let UBS inside?
Congratulations, you’re a public company. Now what? An IPO is a crowning achievement for a company and its management, the fruit of much hard work. But being a public company can present challenges they might never have faced before. We have created some guidelines – called The Ten Commandments of Investor Relations for Newly Public Companies – to […]
When Apple shares were plunging amid a broad market rout yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook penned a short email to Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” to provide reassurance about Apple’s business in China. The shares promptly rallied. It’s not always that easy to quell a panic, but there are a few important lessons […]
With news about a newly discovered earth-like planet and out-of-this-world comments from Donald Trump, we hardly noticed when a little article on Bridgewater Associates passed through our orbit last week. It was a rare galactic phenomenon: the non-clarification.
Dick Fuld was never that skilled with the media when he was CEO of Lehman Brothers. Nearly seven years later, he still isn’t.
Meeting with opinion-makers is often a good communication strategy. It has risks, but they usually can be managed. Unless, that is, you’re Janet Yellen, in which case such meetings are best avoided. With an investigation underway about a leak of confidential information, the Fed is learning that lesson the hard way.