I’m in the process of prepping a global crisis simulation for a multinational corporation. The other day, our brilliant client lead came to me and said “I can’t believe I’m bringing this up, but we need to add a Canada component. For the first time, we have to worry about the differences between...
As we approach the Easter and Passover "egg season," egg prices remain at an all-time high due to an ongoing shortage caused by the widespread avian flu. Businesses in the food and beverage industry that use a large volume of eggs – such as breakfast restaurants IHOP, Waffle House, and Denny’s –...
The Washington Post has been shaking things up lately, especially in its opinion section. Owner Jeff Bezos just announced a shift to focus on "personal liberties and free markets," which led to the resignation of respected opinion editor David Shipley. This move, like many shakeups happening in...
Saying “I’m sorry” shouldn’t be hard. When we say or do something that hurts someone else, then we as humans should own it, apologize for it, and try to make it right. But, many public apologies seem to miss this relatively easy target. Is someone sincerely apologizing when their apology...
We are all professionals. As professionals there is one cardinal rule of talking to the media (or if you ask my grandma, anyone): never lie. Don’t outright lie. Don’t tell a half truth. Don’t try to be cute. Don’t parse the truth. Don’t lie. All that does is make your audience mad and make them...
It can be incredibly difficult as a business to publicly admit that you made a misstep. Savvy executives and communicators know the importance of making a timely mea culpa statement that demonstrates ownership and empathy, and clearly outlines steps being taken to support impacted consumers and...
At Kith, we often say that a crisis does not develop your leadership skills – it reveals them. It also reveals what type of creature you are: warm blooded or cold blooded. Now, obviously, humans are warm blooded as a matter of biology, so what we’re really asking you to consider is more about...
Few words bring a C-Suite conversation to a screeching halt like, “We need to think about litigation.” Instead of killing the conversation, it should start a conversation … between the legal team and the communications team. Attorneys’ primary goal is to limit their clients’ exposure to legal...
If you’ve spoken to me for more than five minutes, you know I’m Canadian – also American – but I was Canadian first and very proud of it. Every stereotype of Canadians includes that we like to say sorry: to each other, visitors, inanimate objects, and so on. Move away for a while and you’ll...
Let’s be clear. You can’t win an argument against Crazy. Once rightfully relegated to the lunatic fringe, Crazy abounds today – it is everywhere. Crazy is encouraged, fanned, inflamed, and carried to new converts by the magnifying lens that is social media. Sadly, organizations that value their...
Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions? I didn’t make any this year. Instead, I built a plan that will build on small changes throughout the year. January has been a focus on slowing down. But even with my change of thought, it was pretty hard to ignore the barrage of ads about weight loss,...
There have been some really great dissections of the #KyteBaby crisis response. Jeremy Tunis and Eleanor Hawkins to name my favorites. But for all this great analysis, I want to dive a little deeper into how this could have been prevented. I see there are three points: It’s a commonly held...
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