Paying forward pays big dividends

Two competing restaurants are offering a reward for finding a killer. It’s difficult to think of a better example of paying forward to develop a reservoir of good will.

Trudy's and Taco Shack are Austin, TX restaurants that have grown over the years to multiple locations, all within the city. They each have a business in the vicinity of a small park where a blind homeless man was murdered. And they each anted up funds to offer $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

Showing humanity above and beyond what typically is expected of a business is inspirational to the cynics of the world (I count myself as one of them) and raises the bar for corporate good citizenship. It also brings in customers who feel good about the eateries and adds a smile and bounce in the step of servers.

Even if, over the years, the public forgets about this positive action, news media i n the future will uncover it when they do research on the companies should they experience a crisis down the road. When the companies speak, their voices will be heard and much more likely to be believed.

Thanks, y’all, for being good corporate citizens. I’m jazzed by the example you’ve set, and I even have a bit of bounce in MY step because of you.

Wizard of Oz: Number One no-no in crisis management

In my list of issues I address in vulnerability audits I’ll have to add "officer stupidity."

Hometown hero (I live in Austin) John Mackey, chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, was outed as rahodeb, author of years of anonymous blogging that included negative comments about competitors.

Not only was it stupid--exposing this company to public ridicule, FTC scrutiny, and undermining employee confidence--it was amazingly childish. It reminds me of passing notes in class in junior high school, hoping they weren’t intercepted by the teacher, but getting a thrill out of the very process.

One has to wonder whether the chairman of such major business doesn’t have something better to do with his time. I have enough trouble working for my clients and trying to find time for my own blog. I can only conclude that he is the master of delegation!

Now that it has hit the fan, Mackey chooses to address reporter, investor and employee questions via the Whole Foods blog. Who wrote that? His attorneys? That’s how it reads. And a very unsatisfactory read at that.

Hiding behind his blog, Mackey is mimicking the Wizard of Oz rather than addressing the public’s questions. We need to hear his voice and read his body language to judge sincerity. In the meantime, we’re left to imagine our own answers to the questions: The Number One no-no in crisis management is hiding from the public!

If you ignore it, does it exist?

Evidently not, if you’re a county commissioner in Hidalgo County, Texas. Their levees aren’t up to snuff, and FEMA is meeting its responsibility by releasing new floodplain maps. The county is opposed because lenders could then insist their customers have flood insurance.

What am I missing here? The county is going to sue FEMA for putting out the flood maps that by law they are supposed to put out to inform people if they are in flood-prone areas so they can move, buy flood insurance or build mitigation devices so they won’t lose everything they have or die.

Whew! Long sentence, but it really does all run together in my mind and in reality.

I saw this repeatedly in the years I worked for FEMA. Another example of trying to have it both ways is people who contest their property appraisals so their taxes will be lower then claim the appraisal was too low when they experience a natural disaster and want FEMA funds to help pay for their recovery.

Stand up, people! Crises happen. Turning your backs will change nothing, except to increase your risk. Something about this makes me want to slap faces!