The PR Crisis Bible: How to Take Charge of the Media When All Hell Breaks Loose [Hardcover]

Robin Cohn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2000

You're the CEO of XYZ Worldwide. CNN has reported today, based on an unsubstantiated Matt Drudge report, that a female board member is engaged with you in insider trading of XYZ stock. And that she's rumored to be your lover. Camera crews and reporters are gathering in the lobby.

What do you do?

Ten years ago-even five-all an executive had to do was slip out the back door. But to survive in today's business world, where executives' personal lives (like recent Presidents') are no longer out of bounds, CEOs have to take responsibility for such stories, and have to respond immediately to the media with a credible explanation. Most executives simply don't realize that this is what they must do. Their careers are at stake.

The PR Crisis Bible is the only book to protect a CEO's reputation by stopping the problem where it begins: in the mind of the CEO. It's the first book that shows CEOs how the new media rules have changed the world. It demonstrates the right ways to respond to today's instant scandals, unsubstantiated reports, Internet rumors, and other crises. It pinpoints the reasons why CEOs get themselves into trouble, and shows how to turn a disaster to advantage. Today, CEOs must avoid the "seven deadly sins of handling a crisis" because even if they had nothing to do with a problem, it ends up in their lap. The buck always stops at the top.

Robin Cohn strikes a masterful balance between fear, the most powerful of motivators, and humor. Her cautionary tales of executives on the receiving end of adverse media will strike a chord with all decision-makers and leaders. The author's message? You can be prepared. But you must know the drill before a cyber-disaster strikes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Managing potentially damaging business news has become trickier in today's fast-paced television and Internet news environment. Cohn, who runs her own public relations firm specializing in crisis management, offers solid advice on avoiding the PR sins that can sink a company. Among the most common mistakesAoften made by experienced executivesAare believing that disaster will never strike, shifting blame and responding "no comment" when confronted with a difficult question. Drawing on familiar news events to prove her points, Cohn shows how, for example, personal problems can become company problems. When chief executive Gary Wendt battled his wife in a bitter divorce, his employer, GE Capital, was scrutinized in the media. William Agee's career at Bendix was hurt when his affair with associate Mary Cunningham was made public. In another telling example, she recounts how a well-known business reporter once stopped an executive in the hall to ask for directions to an office and, when the man quickly hurried away muttering that he had no comment, was spurred to dig for a story. While Cohn presents some useful pointers on sidestepping the "seven deadly sins" of PR crisis management, her book would have been stronger if she had expanded and systematized her recommendations instead of offering only brief nuggets of advice. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

There is something about the media (and, perhaps, the public) that enjoys the sight of a company or leader in disgrace or in disfavor. Such are the events that well-trained, well-seasoned public-relations practitioners feed on, including one Robin Cohn. To her credit, she does address the critical importance of planning a well-thought-out strategy before addressing a crisis. Yet all of her stories, even chapter titles, are intended for quick sound bites; the Motorola cell phone's reputed link to cancer is one of dozens of anecdotes. A few helpful exercises here and there help readers focus on elements that can trigger or presage crises--corporate values, for one. Her advice, on the whole, is sound, but it's difficult to figure out Cohn's audience . . and her intentions. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Truman Talley Books; 1st edition (November 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312252307
• ISBN-13: 978-0312252304
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PR Crisis Practice Turns Peril Into Opportunity, November 25, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The PR Crisis Bible: How to Take Charge of the Media When All Hell Breaks Loose (Hardcover)

This is the best book I have read on how to prepare for and handle public relations crises. It is incredibly up-to-date and timely, featuring material in its introduction about the public relations aspects of the currently occurring recall of Firestone tires being used on Ford Explorer vehicles.

Business has become one of the favorite whipping boys in the media to provide temporary diversion from the usual stream of personal scandals, talk show confessions, and entertainment releases. Do a good job, and you will seldom appear. Be remotely connected to something harmful, controversial, or threatening, and the world is at your door. Ms. Cohn does a very effective job of explaining why this is, and how you can influence it.

The book is organized around 7 deadly sins in a public relations crisis. These sins are really mindsets that are mistaken and will usually prove harmful:

It will never happen here (chances are it will)

I don't care how it looks (the more you ignore it, the worse you make things, up until the day that everyone involved is fired)

Let them eat cake (describing things inaccurately just draws more wrath and personal jeopardy)

It's not our fault (customers and the public aren't looking to find out who's at fault, they want to know who's going to take responsibility for solving the problem so they can feel confident again)

Just say "No comment!" (people will assume you are hiding something and more negative attention will come your way)

Just numbers on a balance sheet (the source of all the damaging material will probably come from current and former employees -- good internal communication and behavior are most critical)

React first, think later (you can step into a mess from which you cannot extract yourself, like quicksand)

These sins and the stallbusting solutions for them are detailed in each fascinating chapter. These sections are enlivened by a wide variety of former crises handled unsuccessfully (such as the Exxon Valdez) and successfully (such as J&J's Tylenol recall). Almost all of them will be familiar in general, but you will get added detail to help you understand why a company did or did not do well.

Ms. Cohn herself is very experienced in this area and draws on personal examples in many cases, especially the crash of an Air Florida jet in Washington, D.C.

The basic lessons revolve around the concept of establishing crisis scenarios and practicing how to handle those scenarios before they occur. You also get directions for how to do the practice so it will be relevant and realistic. This benefits of this type of simulation training are also spelled out well in The Art of the Long View, which you may wish to read as well.

The book is filled with an enormous quantity of do's and don't's. I found it hard to keep track of them all as I went along. I was pleased to see many of the concepts behind them summarized on pages 329 and 330. You might find it easier to absorb the material in the book if you began by reading the introduction, then went to these two pages, and returned to the beginning of the book.

The management process described here would work well in any problem-solving environment. Although the author does not make that point, you should be sensitive to it. You have a lot more to gain by studying this book closely than you realize, and broadening its application. Stalled thinking is also a problem in other critical areas of a company.

Remember that an ounce of prevention can often be worth much more than a pound of cure!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Serve You Well In a Crisis, November 26, 2004

By 

TJ Walker "Author, 'Presentation Training A-Z... (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The PR Crisis Bible: How to Take Charge of the Media When All Hell Breaks Loose (Hardcover)

Cohn has been there and done that. She carefully dissects well-known crises in the news and lets you know how they could have been handled better, and more important, how you can survive and thrive if similar crises were to hit you and your company.

1.0 out of 5 stars garbage, October 12, 2011

By 

ginger pen - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The PR Crisis Bible: How to Take Charge of the Media When All Hell Breaks Loose (Paperback)

There is nothing of tangible use in this book for actual PR or communications professionals.

If I wanted a book of mostly corporate US anecdotes (that aren't that well told frankly, and demonstrates the very shallow bias of the author and their lack of understanding of the actual issues in each circumstance), I'd buy one of those bathroom readers and get as much insight.

60 pages in and realizing that this book is simply jumping around from example to example, I started skimming instead and I'm pretty sure I got the same out of it as someone that read it thoroughly.

The title of this book invokes a proper guide to the PROCESS and PLANNING (yes folks, they do exist and should be the road map for any crisis scenario) for good PR and comms work. Instead, the author just says 'be prepared, use common sense, be quick to react, be honest and be genuine".

Thanks Sherlock. Can I have my 16 bucks back?

Seriously. It's that bad. Judging from some of the other more, ahem, positive comments. I suspect a little stacking of the deck from other so-called PR gurus trying to sell their wares hoping for reciprocity on their review pages.

Nice PR guys. Real clever.