Question

what companies has had PR disasters but being able to authentic leadership in the workplace to get through the situation

Answer 1

There have been many companies that has had PR disaster but many of them have been able to manage the crisis quite well. In the past few years we have seen PR disasters of Facebook, Oxfam, Tesla, and many other companies. However, if we have to talk about leadership that took charge and led the company through the tough times, we should go back a little.

In early 2007, there was a sudden dip in temperature as ice storm hit the north eastern part of USA. At that time many of the flights had to be stranded. Now, considering that there have been weather forecast about this, many of the airlines cancelled and notified their customers beforehand. However, JetBlue didn’t manage to do that. As a result of this, thousands of passengers were stranded. This happened due to inefficient communication and planning from the part of JetBlue.

Now, considering that the weather was not in the control of anyone, the company could have blamed it on weather and maybe the passengers would have accepted. Instead the founder and CEO David Neeleman came out to press and announced that they have been shortsighted and will make sure such mistakes are not repeated in the future. They also promised to pay compensatory covers if this happens in the future. This made the customers appreciate JetBlue’s honesty and forthcoming attitude.

This has been a strong example of leadership where a CEO had been able to turn a corner on PR disaster. Being transparent and owning up to a mistake publicly has led to JetBlue’s brand become stronger after the incident.