The Wall Street Journal had a clever article this week about how companies are increasingly using navigational terms to explain the challenges they are facing in this uncertain economy. Company spokespeople are fast using terms such as headwinds, tacking, winds of change, tailwinds, rough seas and ill winds. I have been guilty of using these types of terms too.  In my reputation work, I prefer medical terms to describe reputation events. Here are a few I like to use. 

• Surgery is just one step on the road to recovery (Got this from the Economist)
• The company is out of the operating room—though not in the clear.
• The long-term prognosis remains uncertain.
• The company looks healthier.
• More surgery may be inevitable
• Must get the company off the ventilator and breathing back on its own.
• The company is out of intensive care.
• The company’s arteries are clogged.

However, my favorite health-related description which I use in my book is as follows:  

• The book is not merely about the initial emergency response.  Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps  to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation is not just about what happens in the emergency room but more about what happens to the patient after the trauma has been diagnosed, life-saving intervention has been made, vital signs have stabilized, and the patient is out of immediate danger.  It is also about post-operative care and the long rehabilitation before a patient can cautiously begin life anew.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 2:43 am and is filed under reputation recovery, Company reputation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.