Public Relations and Communicators Blog

Update on 1st May 2012: To see glimpses of my forthcoming book Decoding Communications, please visit  http://decodingcommunications.blogspot.in/   You cannot rush to gain Trust - especially when one is soliciting investment from financially and emotionally drained investors in the wake of several market scams, misdeeds and misfortunes. The financial markets have not even started showing full signs of stability (let alone recovery) and there's a rush to the stock markets to sweep funds in. To squeeze the markets for a quick milching even before they even show full signs recovery is akin to working a recovering workhorse, bound to puncture the slowly building strength and confidence. Why is now NOT not a good time to seek funds from retail investors? Well, the most primary reason is that the IPO is only ONE milestone in a long cororate journey and should, at best, be considered as an important direction-setter which determines how the corporate should behave in...

An Apology in all crisis circumstances is the most important tool that rebuilds the perception of positive intent. This in turn, forms one of the three most important pillars of rebuilding (corporate) 'Trust'. For an apology to be impactful it must have three important components. Firstly, it must be honest (and must also seem as genuine as it really is). Secondly, it must show self-sacrifice (which implies that the company or person making the apology must make a statement for the public good). And lastly, it must be done with the right attitude (which implies that it must be made in time & in the right manner). Even if one of these three aspects is missing from the apology, the apology becomes counter productive and often deteriorates the image further. When organizations willingly or unknowingly commit errors, the act almost always erodes the trust the stakeholders have painstakingly built and placed on the organization. This is because such errors question two more...