Finding Blame: Similarities of Boeing And PR Agencies
Arthur Solomon, Public Relations Consultant“Boeing on Monday fired its chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, whose handling of the company’s 737 Max jet crisis had angered lawmakers, airlines, regulators and victims’ families,” read the lead graph of a New York Times story on December 23.The responses by Boeing’s chief executive since its two Max 737 jets crashes killed 346 people could be a PR case study in how not to respond to a PR crisis.Here are a few blunders from my unwritten book, “How Not to Act During A PR Crises:”
- After the crashes, Mr. Muilenburg blamed pilot error.
- His statements to the families lacked empathy.
- Like an addicted gambler who always feels his next bet is a winner, Mr. Muilenburg made a string of optimistic comments that the problem would soon be solved; eventually he amended the quick fix and said the planes would fly again before the end of the year. (Don’t bet on it. No matter what the odds.)
- He antagonized members of Congress with his statements.
- His credibility with the airlines, pilots’ union, Congress, foreign airlines and the media was lost. (His most ardent supporters were the crises PR “experts,” and ad agencies that saw the Boeing problems as a cash cow.)
- Muilenberg said that fixes planned for the 737 Max jets would make them “even safer,” a strange comment that could be interpreted as meaning that the planes weren’t as safe as Boeing could have made them before the two crashes grounded the aircraft.
- Boeing’s flawed PR crisis response to the crash of two 737 Max planes was made worse by a comment by Mr. Muilenburg, reported in the New York Times in April. “We followed exactly the steps in our design and certification processes that consistently produce safe airplanes,” he said in a news conference, as if following the rules was all that is necessary to ensure a safe plane.
- Boeing also broke Safety Communications 101 rule by not notifying airlines that there was a problem with its cockpit safety alert system for more than a year, according to a May 6 Wall Street Journal article.
Certainly there are many take-a-ways from the sad Boeing saga that veterans of our business will recognize, the main one being the higher the executive the longer it will take for the bosses’ bosses to assign blame.In our business, here’s what a non fiction road map of might happen when an account turns sour: (Non fiction because I’ve seen it happen.)
- The most junior member of an account team will often be blamed by an immediate manager, usually an account supervisor (or whatever new meaningless title is invented).
- The account supervisor is called before the account executive and group manager and asked to explain what happened: The blame is put on an individual who was just following orders from the inquisitors.
- The general manager is called before the president about the situation. The blame is put on the group manager.
- The general manager is than asked by the president or ceo for an explanation. There the buck usually stops. There are already enough people to blame, and even if they are not at fault it doesn’t matter. (Agency Rule # 1 -- Scapegoats must be found, because as everyone in our business knows, high-ranking managers are never wrong. Right?) As I learned in the Army, rank has its privileges, even if it’s the top soldiers fault.
There are important lessons to be learned from the dismissal of Mr. Muilenburg:
Lesson to be Remembered: In the Boeing situation, Mr. Muilenburg was given a lot of rope before the board took action and assigned blame. And he’ll probably leave with a platinum parachute with diamonds, emeralds and rubies attached to the drawstrings. The blameless account people will be dismissed with a packet of information on how to apply for unemployment insurance.Lesson to be Remembered: In our business, heads roll faster than at Boeing when accounts turn bad. Unfortunately, unlike the scenario at Boeing, in our business it’s the lower level people who are immediately blamed, even when they are following the directions of high-ranking agency executives, who were followings directives of their higher-ranking executives. Indeed in out business rank has its privileges.Lesson to be Remembered: In the PR agency world, chances are that when things go bad it will be the innocent that will be found guilty.Lesson to be Remembered: In an attempt to lessen negative coverage, a client or PR person can’t talk or spend their way to limit bad press. Only the press can decide when to end the negative coverage.Lesson to be Remembered: All the advertising and PR in the world can’t turn negative news into positive news.Lesson to be Remembered: The only way to fix a PR crisis is to fix the problem.
About the Author: Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, and was responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in some of the most significant national and international sports and non-sports programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser to high-ranking government officials. He now is a frequent contributor to public relations publications, consults on public relations projects and is on the
