Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

 My journeys in Europe continued all week although I am now safely home and enjoying the first warm weather of the past two weeks. One thing that struck me in retrospect was that there was no market that did not talk about recession-weariness. Everyone mentioned how tough times had been with the global recession and might be getting worse as Greece faced its debt crisis, the EU bails out several members and the Euro was dropping. My presentation on The New Normal was perfectly timed.

• In Amsterdam I learned that some companies were rising to the challenge of the recession. Dutch airline Martinair had offered a similar program to Hyundai Assurance in the US where people who booked transatlantic flights could cancel their flight without cancellation fees if someone lost their job. It is called Boek Gerust Verzeking or worry-free booking insurance.  As well, the CEO of KLM, Peter Hartman, was applauded for going on YouTube to sympathize and apologize about the flight cancellations caused by the volcanic ash a few weeks earlier. A perfect example of CEOs resetting their reputations.  In addition, several people in our panel discussion mentioned the book The Truth about Ikea when we discussed this new  “tell all” and “see thru” world that has emerged. I also learned about an online site where you can “couch surf” or find a couch to crash on in another city so you can save some money. Smart alternative to paying for a hotel if your finances are strained. The Dutch also have a group buying site —  ichoosr.com – and their CEO had joined our panel to discuss the site’s success in this new age of austerity or what we were calling the New Normal.
• In Paris, at our luncheon discussion, one of the guests mentioned that they were moving their communications and marketing back to print since they were not convinced that the ROI online was working as well as they would have liked. Also had my first experience in Paris being interviewed in-person by bloggers. Turned out to be quite a lot of fun. This fits into my prediction that face-to-face communications will be back as a new channel for communicating.
• London was fascinating because I arrived the evening when the new coalition government was announced. The first day of the “new politics” or “plural politics” was brisk and spring –like, the perfect day for a new beginning. In our breakfast seminar, it was hard not to discuss what the new governance model in Great Britain meant but one idea I had was that the future would undoubtedly include more coalitions in business partnering over the next few years. Additionally, I thought that the outcome of the election was indicative of the new normal in that there were no winners and losers (except Gordon Brown) but something in-between. Not black or white, but just grey all the time.
• I could have sworn that Heathrow airport in London is scented. I could not believe my nose! There was a great scent in the air and although I can not find an article on why it smelled so therapeutic (aromatherapy), I think it might just be the air from the spa facilities inside. It is a great idea if it is true.
• Madrid had just heard their Prime Minister Zapatero talking about civil service workers’ salaries being frozen, pensions cut and other budget-minded recourses when I arrived. Like other cities, people instinctively knew that frugality was back with a vengeance. I had read in the paper before I arrived  that Zapatero had said it was the toughest speech he ever gave. I considered that quite humble although I doubt most Spaniards felt the same way upon hearing the news. In the world of reputation, leaders get all the credit when things go right and all the blame (and then some) when things go wrong. An interesting experience during my media interviews was that each journalist asked me what I thought the future of journalism was.  I think this happened everywhere I went when journalists took the floor. The reputation of journalism is sure taking a hit in this new digital world. I recall in Brussels how a journalist said that online was killing them off one by one. Is a global phenomenon and one I have a lot of sympathy for.

Now that I am back on solid ground for a few days and not spending my days and nights in airports and hotels, I can more easily get back to posting more regularly about reputation matters.  However, reputation is everywhere. Danny Rogers, the editor of PRWeek in London wisely pointed to the frequent mentions of the word “reputation” in media coverage. It was not always like that.  It is unavoidable these days.

I had a great time with my colleagues at Weber Shandwick and meeting clients and journalists, bloggers,  among others. Mind-expanding is good for the soul.

Before I forget.  As I travel to Weber Shandwick offices around the network in Europe, some things resound in my head. One constant is that I am always reminded how much I enjoy and respect the people I work with inside our network. As colleagues, they are immensely collegial, collaborative, client-first focused and committed. Reputations are built on these types of factors and it is good to be reminded how deep it goes. But returning to a few other things that caught my eye as I traveled last week and look ahead to this week…..

• My colleagues in Berlin told me that the day before I arrived, there had been a march protesting “work.” I found it fun to think about. Down with work! How would we pay our bills? I meant to follow up with this online but forgot because I had to work.

• In a taxi back to my hotel in Berlin, I saw a restaurant named White Trash Fast Food. Wonder what that was?  I think it is a place for music, food and tattoos.

• In some research our parent company IPG did on New Realities among consumers, one of the findings was that people were not suffering from data overload. In fact, US citizens and our German brethren (in a separate study) by Respondi said that they were energized by being their own researchers and not frustrated, overwhelmed and inundated as people think they are. In fact, people felt smarter and in greater control over their choices than ever before. One of my colleagues in Germany mentioned that there was a big debate in his country about information overload and that the abundance of data was making us dumber not smarter. I think not.

• In Brussels, I learned that the head of NATO is a frequent Twitterer. I also learned that the EU’s broadcast service….EbS…Europe by Satellite, provided such good up-to-date information that journalists were losing their edge in being able to report on EU news. I was told that EBS was so good that it broadcasted negative as well as positive information about itself. What’s a journalist to do?

• One well-known and large Fortune 100 company communications professional told us how the company had established an “amplification” room, not a war room, to deal with two years of criticism in order to get their story properly told.

• Another company at our lunch in Brussels had recently won approval from management to develop a word of mouth program that would allow for the negative with the positive. He talked about how hard he had worked at getting it to happen and how a pilot was about to begin that would telegraph the program in consumer language, not corporate speak. He was reading a book titled The Conversation Manager. One victory at a time.

• Our Milan office organized a superb event with the American Chamber of Commerce, a well-known journalist, one of our Milan office’s leaders and the US Consul General who spoke about the rising “green economy” in the U.S. I was there to talk about The New Normality that I mentioned in my last posting. The US Consul spoke highly of President Obama’s efforts and I have to say it felt so good to hear some pro-Obama talk after weeks of backbiting at home.

• I ran into someone in a large department store off the beaten path in Milan who had been at the event with the American Chamber of Commerce. It was Saturday morning around 11AM. Could the world be smaller? He had just bought sunglasses.

• I made it to Amsterdam despite the volcanic ash debacle. It was a long day.

• The Economist wrote an article where they mentioned “headline risk.” Since I often write about reputation risk, I think this is an increasing factor in reputation recovery….reducing headline mentions. At what point does headline risk start to dissipate? And what has to happen? One course of action is a CEO apology or CEO dismissal. That’s been proven to work but not always the best solution.

More later on the rest of my trip.  Will update you on Amsterdam, Paris, London and Madrid in due time.