After suffering a heart attack and cheating death one month into the job, unconventional CEO Oscar Munoz led United to become America’s best airline. That was the gist of the headline Business Insider reporter Benjamin Zhang penned just two months ago when describing Munoz after his success turning around the fortunes of the airline. On March 16, Munoz collected PRWeek’s coveted U.S. Communicator of the Year award for his ability to build consensus. Within 48 hours of the fateful video showing the forceful removal of Doctor David Dao from United Express Flight 3411, PRWeek publishers virtually snatched back their choice. As if everything the man had accomplished the prior two […]
Transparency is a word that comes up a lot these days. From business ethics to transparency in government, the notion that open, honest communication is key to building trusting relationships, reputation and performance is not new. What is new, however, is how much transparency has come under fire in our so-called “post-truth” era. We see this playing out in virtually all facets of marketing, PR and advertising. The rise of social media in the digital age has created new sources for news, opinion, endorsements and ads. Yet, the line between fact and fiction has become blurred or, perhaps more accurately, chalk. Although media hoaxes and slanted stories have a long […]
What would happen if everyone said precisely everything they thought all the time? That was the premise of the popular Jim Carrey movie, Liar, Liar, the tale of a successful lawyer incapable of telling a lie for an entire day due to a birthday wish granted for his son, Max. Carrey’s performance as Fletcher Reede, a lawyer obsessed with his career, shows what can happen to your relationships when bending the truth at the expense of others becomes a way of life. Eventually, his habitual lies catch up with him. Once he finds it impossible to tell a lie, we see Fletcher wrestling with the consequences of his blunt truth-telling, […]