53
COMMENT
Who’s who at the
Specialized Carriers
& Rigging Association
CHAIRMAN
Michael Battaini
Sheedy Drayage
San Francisco, CA
PRESIDENT
Ron Montgomery
Intermountain Rigging & Heavy Haul
Salt Lake City, UT
VICE PRESIDENT
Alan Barnhart
Barnhart Crane and Rigging
Memphis, TN
TREASURER
Delynn Burkhalter
Burkhalter
Columbus, MS
ASSISTANT TREASURER
Bruce Forster
Rigging Gear Sales
Dixon, IL
ALLIED INDUSTRIES GROUP CHAIRMAN
David Wittwer,
Hays Companies
Salt Lake City, UT
CRANE & RIGGING GROUP CHAIRMAN
David Cowley,
TNT Crane & Rigging
Longview, TX
LADIES GROUP CHAIRWOMAN
Cathy Moore,
NBIS
Atlanta, GA
TRANSPORTATION GROUP CHAIRMAN
Geary Buchanan,
Buchanan Hauling &
Rigging
Fort Wayne, IN
SC&R FOUNDATION OFFICERS
President:
Robert Moore,
NBIS
Atlanta, GA
Vice President:
Stephanie Bragg,
Bragg Companies
Long Beach, CA
Treasurer:
Jim Sever
PSC Crane & Rigging,
Piqua, OH
C
ertain celebrities
and public relations
authorities might
have you believe that all PR is good PR.
Leaders in our industry would tend to
grit their teeth at this suggestion. The
last thing anyone needs in the specialized
carrier, rigging and construction industry
is PR that suggests we’re not operating
effectively, safely or ethically. In fact, most
of our day-to-day efforts as professionals
in this business aim to achieve as positive
a result as possible with each endeavor we
undertake. But recent marketing trends
propose that, in a media-centric world,
professionals across a landscape of global
industries often find themselves in the
crosshairs of negative publicity – whether
they deserve to be there or not. And
there’s only one way to handle it. Turn a
negative into a positive.
Let’s face it: when times are good, we
want all the publicity we can get. When
the tide turns, we head for the shadows.
Being in the spotlight is a slippery slope
for any company. The current can change
quickly, and what you once craved, you
now detest. But negative media coverage
and publicity (across a range of mediums)
doesn’t have to cripple our business. We
can learn from it, and even strengthen
our processes as a result.
The media can be crafty, to say the
least. As much as positive news reports
can elevate your company’s status,
the same scrutiny can ebb and then
reappear by taking your management
and operational practices into question.
Because of this variation, business leaders
keep a cautious eye on the media – to
the extent that undesirable coverage is
often disregarded, or even studied with
contempt. However, upper management
professionals should look at the media
as neither a friend nor an enemy, but
instead, a key source of outside (and free)
analysis.
News outlets can provide evidence that
allows a company to assess its practices
from top to bottom. Especially with
negative coverage, leaders too often look
to distance themselves from information
that could prove quite relevant in
determining where and how such results
came about. Negative exposure is an
announcement to upper management
that current strategies need to be
reviewed, even changed, if a company
is to not only move away from said
exposure, but bounce back and progress
accordingly.
Another recent finding, concerning the
media’s impact on business success or
failure, is the discovery that governing
boards made up of representatives
with only familial and/or business
ties are less likely to entertain outside
perspectives, which certainly includes
the media. In other words, the more
tight-knit the leadership at the top, the
less they consider (or believe) anyone’s
analyses of their company – often in
spite of themselves. It’s being proven
more and more that even one outsider
in a boardroom greatly increases the
likelihood that negative media coverage
could be converted into strategic
adaptation.
Researchers warn, however, that
negative media coverage can be ignored
in additional ways – one being fairly
easy to recognize: when times are good.
When stock prices are high, awards
are being handed out and projects are
completed on time and under budget,
it’s easy for a company to get a little lost
in its own reflection, so to speak, and
choose to catalogue any negative press as
white noise, or even the “cost” of doing
business. Again, this is a time when
leaders need to focus on the coverage in
its entirety, both good and bad, and see
each for the value within.
Winning isn’t a very good teacher.
Not that this quote is going to win any
popularity contests. But it should be
noted for its deeper message – that some
adversity, when addressed strategically,
can offer up valuable results.
■
DECEMBER 2013
ACT
You can control the value
of bad press.
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Joel Dandrea
5870 Trinity Centre
Parkway, Suite 200
Centreville, VA 20120
Ph: 703-698-0291
Fax: 703-698-0297
Is all PR
good PR?
