graphic courtesy of CommunItelligence

Last night I had a dream of consulting a prominent Utah CEO regarding a current crisis situation. Hence, it’s on my mind this morning. As we launch into a new year, we hear “year-in-review” reports of crisis after crisis endured during the past year.

Mayan Calendar

During the coming year, mark my word, we will be snowed under with doomsday speculation about the 2012 December deadline for the Mayan Calendar. Regardless of apocalyptic hyperventilation, crisis hits companies and the news daily. As a CEO, you are wise to consider the crisis ahead before it happens. The best way to mitigate bad company news is to prepare in advance. It’s the old “pay me now, or pay me later ” message or “an ounce of prevention…”

A few years ago, the Crandall Canyon Mine crisis and the company’s CEO, Robert “Bob” Murray, have riveted media viewers/readers across the country on the plight of six miners trapped underground. FlackLife, Rockford Gray, USCHO and the Moderate Voice are examples of bloggers chiming in. We all are hoping for the best and bracing for potentially tragic news for the families of the six missing miners. Much has been said regarding Mr. Murray’s handling of press relations during this crisis and perhaps when our hearts heal from this tragedy Crandall Canyon will become a case study for PR students to learn how to better plan for and handle crisis communications.

For corporate leaders in the boardroom seeking to better prepare for crisis communications, perhaps some tips would be helpful.

Create a Plan – it’s usually better to be proactive, than reactive. Before the crisis hits have a written communications plan that clearly assigns responsibility, accounts for media deadlines, and has total agreement among key management. Running a simulated crisis scenario can help work out kinks in the plan. This is especially important for companies that offer services impacting large numbers of people or that perform work that is potentially dangerous.

Appoint One Spokesperson – usually a top executive, this should be an individual who engenders trust and who has authority to speak for the company.

Communicate Quickly, Thoroughly and Frequently – from a pre-arranged location provide access to vital crisis information. Who, What, Why, How, and When should be answered as quickly as facts become available. A constant flow of information to the media will mitigate the reporters’ tendency to fill in story gaps with inaccurate information or questionable sources. Provide the chain of events, graphics, data, and independent third party experts as quickly as they become available.

Focus on People – every media interview or press conference should begin with a focus on the human component of any tragedy. Location of those impacted, services for family members, and efforts to find survivors should be covered before other subjects are discussed.

Be Accessible – Be Transparent – Stick to the Facts – members of the media have a job to do. The vast majority of reporters and editors seek to get the story right. Work with them around their deadlines and communicate often regarding the crisis. When tough questions are asked, stay cool. Be as open as possible to avoid looking guilty. Provide the facts and encourage continued dialogue to fill in gaps in the story. Focus on what is being done to help people impacted by the crisis. Avoid speculation or assigning blame, especially in the early days after a crisis. This keeps the focus on the human component and away from rushing to judgment. Credibility during crisis is a fragile thing. Avoid rejection of alternative opinions or experts which can easily backfire.

MORE Crisis Planning Resources & DOWNLOAD 5 Crisis Tips for CEOs.

In 2010 I must admit to being “Jimmered” by the amazing team on which Jimmer Fredette was a key player. The BYU run to the Sweet 16 was, well, SWEET! So much so that I had a FREE web app created to follow Jimmer news (www.FollowMyPlayer.com ).

Now, Jimmer is making his mark as a Sacramento King and the media likes what they see (story). Jimmer’s public relations charm is not just his explosive play and long shots from the parking lot, but also who he is and how he comes across to fans and media. In direct contrast to many pro athletes, here are some character traits others could learn from:

Humility - Jimmer’s self- effacing “it was a team effort” is key to his past and future success.

Dedication - Jimmer’s commitment to family, faith, community go far beyond just dedication to sport.

Friendliness - Have you ever seen Jimmer complain in a press interview? Nope. Always a friend to all.

Happiness - Alot of folks smile, yet, I see a deep inner happy streak a mile long, and it’s infectious.

Honesty - You have not, nor will you likely every hear of Jimmer breaking the law, beating or stepping out on his wife

Substance Abuse Free – Jimmer doesn’t drink, smoke, abuse or sell drugs.

Role Model – My niece recently named her new baby boy. The name she chose was Jimmer. Corny, yes? Unlike a bad tattoo, that little boy will always be proud of his name.

What other traits do you see in Jimmer that you admire?

So, what do you think. SOPA bad dog or SOPA good dog?

OK. OK. I’ll share my secret for a super juicy Turkey.

• Rub turkey w oil of choice. (No, not a deep tissue massage)
• Sprinkle 2 envelopes of dry Italian dressing inside and outside bird. (Do this in the sink unless you have big biceps or your dog won’t jump on it when you drop the now slippery bird)
• Put bird on its breast side down on baking pan in plastic baking bag. (yes, this means you won’t be able to see that little red pop-out plastic thermometer thingy. you still know how to read a clock, right?)
• Pour 1/2 c vinegar of choice inside bird. (if you forgot to put turkey in bag before this step, your cat may help you clean up)
• Put chopped vegetables or stuffing in bird if desired.
• Follow bag instructions. (like tbsp Flour. Holes. Bake time) (guys, you did keep the instructions, right?)

It will cook faster than traditional cooking.

Drippings minus fat make great gravy n soup. (if you hate it, remember the dog & cat like Thanksgiving, too. Plus, you only paid $7 for the darn turkey at Smiths w purchase of $35 in groceries and a 6-pack of Coke products) :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I’m thankful for my family & my new daughter-in-law! & my company staff…& my talents…& my warm house…& my church calling…& great movies…

Turn Facebook Fans Into Customers-click graphic

Click here to view the embedded video.

At Thanksgiving Point today, the crowd was wall to wall (220+) to seek connection and instruction on entrepreneurial ventures. With the promise of prizes the tweet-fest began, smart phones flashing in the sunlight streaming in The Garden Room’s panoramic panes. After welcome messages by event sponsors UTC, UVEF, and Wayne Brown Institute, Tom Dickson of BlendTec “Will It Blend” fame took the stage. He did not disappoint.

Tom first shocked some in the audience, revealing his ADHD and dyslexic and claiming theme as a entrepreneur’s “blessing.” He then regaled the entrepreneurs with stories of his career, starting with his early jobs working for others in product development. He shared his key role in the development of patches for motion sickness, as well as a highly prescribed IUD. One of his early entrepreneurial ventures was in the food storage industry. He accidently got the idea for a home electric wheat grinder when his vacuum cleaner ground wheat as he vacuumed it from a mess he made on the floor. From that he produced his first electric wheat grinder which sold 43,000 units under the Magic Mill label.

Tom admits marketing has always been his weakness and he has sought partnerships over the years to make up the gap. Tough, and not always wise decisions including the sale of  his wheat grinder company and subsequent lawsuits brought Tom’s adventure to its knees. He discussed candidly the legal challenges to his patents. He says he has learned to “smile” through these problems.

Post wheat grinder, Tom took the 28,000 RPM motor used therein and decided to make a blender. Jamba Juice came calling when they caught wind of Tom’s powerful blender. He made a deal to take five cents for every smoothie blended using his blender. A roller coaster relationship with various large customers ensued. Tom continued making improvements to his innovative design. Continued patent defense regularly strained company coffers until this summers $24 million judgment against Vitamix found in favor of Blendtec…and the people rejoiced!

Tom continues to innovate. His new Twister Jar blends nut butter in under a minute. He predicts this new innovation will soon be seen in smoothie shops near you.

Tom wrapped up his fascinating entrepreneurial adventure by blending a rake, perfected on the Jay Leno Show, in his BlendTec blender. “Will It Blend?” Yes

Tom Dickson blends rake for UVEF luncheon

Keynote speaker and serial entrepreneur, John Pestana made a great case today at UVEF’s Top 25 Under 5 awards luncheon for “bootstrap” financing for a new company, letting the first company’s revenues finance growth, rather than more  investors. His formula for making that happen…”sell, sell, sell.” Don’t wait on the product developers for a perfect product. Perfect it as you go and get the revenue flowing to finance growth.

On the BYU directory John Pestana lists his expertise as e-Business, e-Commerce, & model trains. I also know he is an accomplished musician and prolific song writer. John is also the Co-Founder of Omniture, once cited in Forbes magazine as “the juggernaut of Web analytics.”

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) today announced winners of its 2011 “Top 25 Under Five” Award, spotlighting outstanding Utah entrepreneurs and start-up companies. Award ceremonies were held at Utah Valley University with Adobe, Silicon Slopes and InnoVentures sponsoring the event. UVEF recognized OrangeSoda, an online marketing company with a unique blend of intelligent service and simple technology, as the number one performer among nominees. Today’s winners collectively created 800 jobs and $189 million in 2010 revenue.

“The national Chamber of Commerce recently joined the list of those recognizing Utah as a top five spot to grow an entrepreneurial startup,” said UVEF 2011 chairman Cary Snowden. “Today’s UVEF winners demonstrate that Utah’s business climate is geared to launch world leaders in diverse industries from internet marketing to medical technology to cleantech.   This bodes well for our state’s great economy.”

Serial entrepreneur and mentor John Pestana emceed today’s event. Pestana is most noted for co-founding Omniture, which sold to Adobe for $1.8 billion. However, his tireless efforts support budding entrepreneurs through Utah schools as well as organizations such at BoomStartup and Utah Student 25.

“Utah is prime real estate for growing scalable new business ventures,” Pestana said. “I’m so pleased to associate with these entrepreneurs who take great personal risk in their quest for the American dream.”

This year’s other award recipients are Simply Mac, Qivana, CampusBookRentals.com, SEO.com, Experience Dental Studio, Fifty Films, mediaFORGE, KT TAPE, BizVision, CFOwise, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, iApplicants, Orabrush, Professional Cable, LLC, DrivingSales, ClearCenter, Avantar, Omnia Alliance, Bluehouse Ski Co., Launch Leads, Zylun, Izatt International, BambooHR, and EcoScraps.

This is UVEF’s twelfth Top 25 Under Five competition. UVEF has highlighted more than 200 companies through this competition, including Utah success stories like Omniture, Skullcandy and Xango, among many others.

Deseret News coverage of the event

Daily Herald coverage of the event

Salt Lake Tribune coverage of the event

Sadly, it is not science fiction that NASA is struggling for direction and budget as the space shuttle Atlantis counts down to the final chapter of the shuttle program. Why? I don’t know all of the reasons, but I have some opinions.

NASA has missed the mark in its quest to maintain public and congressional budget support–public relations. What, you say? Don’t they have cool Tweetups, Facebook fans, kids education programs, and more press releases than you can count? Yep. In fact, NASA flew 150 NASA twitterers to view this week’s launch.

However, I really had to search online for information about the HUGE societal and economic returns generated by the space program. ENORMOUS may be a better word. Thousands of spinoff companies selling everything from Teflon to heart pumps, to mylar balloons can credit NASA for the technology. The GPS in your smart phone and the miniaturization of computer chips trace their roots to the space program. Baby food and LED lighting advanced at the feet of space research.

So, what has been the payback in dollars and what is the cost. I’ve seen estimated of several dollars returned for every dollar spent in space. The lowest estimate I found for return on investment (ROI) on Wikipedia was 33%. I’m OK as a taxpayer getting that return on my tax dollar. Name another government program with that kind of return. Wikipedia reports 350,000 jobs spawned by the space program. USA Today reported at one point that nine of the Top 25 Scientific Breakthroughs came from space. However, there is precious little easily consumable metrics reporting for the general public.

Yes, NASA Spinoff Magazine provides a mountain of information to in intrepid congressman or committed reader. But, among all of the astronaut tweets this week about technology and waving to the public from space, I see none sporting a thousand different things we enjoy every day coming from NASA programs. Those astronauts should have been briefed, “Guys (and Gals), our back’s against the budget wall. When you speak, when you Tweet, when you Facebook talk about the awesome ROI of NASA.”

There should be a section on NASA’s home page and its virtual pressroom dedicated to the ROI of space—in brief snippets the Twitter age can consume. “Enjoy that smart phone and your car with miniature computers inside, thank an astronaut.” That’s under 140 characters, right? Yes, I heard the iPhone is going into orbit, but did they mention that space research made it possible?

Every NASA press release should feature something we enjoy from the space program. Their website should feature a counter that shows the growing NASA ROI (opposite the Federal deficit counter for all of its other programs)

Oh, and what about that nasty NASA budget? A 1997 poll reported that Americans had an average estimate of 20% for NASA’s share of the federal budget. The truth, it’s around .5%, one-fortieth of the perceived budget. And, at the height of the space race (1966), it was less than 5%. Sounds like poor Public Relations education to me.

It’s sad to think of that NASA treasure trove of smart folks going to work in China or Russia because of downsizing of the most profitable Fed program I know of. Is the U.S. really built to be a follower or a leader in the space industry? The future of technology and our quality of life can only benefit from a robust space program. But, NASA is going to have to do more to sell the public benefits. That starts with great Public Relations.

Maybe I should move to Houston to give them a hand.

Sources:

http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/benefits.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/20/public-reaps-benefits-of-nasa-research/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget

http://www.bu.edu/sjmag/scimag2005/features/NASA.htm

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

Lean: low burn…with much less waste

Several of the BoomStartup Class of 2011 were in the audience to learn from one of dozen of notable mentors serving this year’s 10 portable companies.

Lack of customers is the #1 challenge for new businesses seeking to scale.

Kunz outlined the tremendous current free resources for entrepreneurs:

Open Source & Free Software; Development Processes & Tools; & Cloud Service & Virtualization (See OpenCrowd.com) are keys to the new environment that enables start-ups to keep costs down.

Robb discussed a real startup exploring the process drilling down on:

Key Resources, Cost Structure, Key Partners, Key Activities, Value Proposition, Customer Relationships; Customer Segment, Revenue Streams, and Channels.

More Information: www.BoomStartup.com ; http://pilmerpr.com/lean-launch.html

We love cleantech and green energy, and the ElectraTherm Green Machine is as green as it gets. Translating industrial waste heat above 170 degrees into fuel free, emissions free electricity, ElectraTherm’s patented technology is rapidly catching on with expansion both domestically and internationally. When I was first introduced to the company, few knew who ElectraTherm was. We changed that from the ground up. A new communications plan, website, launch event, partner development, and press releases yielded astounding results:

• More than 25 to 1 payback on ElectraTherm’s investment in PilmerPR
• Approaching $2M in advertizing equivalency
• Total media audience exceeding 400M
• Green Machine awards from the Wall Street Journal and Popular Science Magazine
• More than 100 press articles & coverage by Dow Jones, Fox Business News, Red Herring, etc.
• And on and on…

Well, now they have garnered some Presidential love, based on their early success with investors and a market crying for energy efficiency solutions. Using Obama’s Jan 2010 Time Magazine commitment to “energy efficiency,” we discussed alignment with the President’s strategy even at that early point. Now, it feels like the company, now graduated from PilmerPR, is “all grown up.” Way to go ElectraTherm! Great technology and visionary leadership.

Our work for ElectraTherm and other energy clients was noticed internationally. I (John Pilmer) was asked to meet some months back with a Ukrainian Energy Delegation to discuss communications issues around that countries enormous energy issues and their transition to more sustainable solutions. That was an honor. I also presented on Green PR at the recent MiaGreen cleantech conference in Miami to an international group of green business and government leaders. We’ve also provided feedback to Ted Wilson and the Governor’s Energy Task Force working on the state’s 10 year energy report.

Much communications work remains to be done to implement the vision of this Utah effort, and state leadership must get on top of pressing environmental and energy issues if it is to maintain its leadership in tourism and quality of life.

I have been tagged this week to present in Salt Lake City on effective promotion of clean technology to investors, partners, prospective customers, and the public. More to come on how to get into that event.

Gotta love Green, Clean Technology, and the Corporate Social Responsibility they represent. Now that we celebrate Earth Day, perhaps we can get holidays for the other two legs of the 3-legged stool or Triple Bottom line of Green & CR (People, Planet, Profits). How do you think a People Day or a Profits Day would go over?

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