The hovering black cloud and other tales
In the course of planning the new seminar in crisis management, I generated a large set of files, most of which hang together in a vague sort of way. But a leftover collection is labeled "Where do I put this stuff?" What follows is a sampling.
The hovering black cloud: Drexel
At Drexel Burnham Lambert, Angela Dailey, head of communications during the three-year government investigation of her firm, tells how CEO Fred Joseph made a videotape explaining Drexel's new advertising campaign to employees. Writes Dailey: "We sent copies of the tape to all our 50 branches and asked that the offices show the tape on a specific day after the close of the markets. We were viewing the tape at headquarters when I got a frantic call from my secretary....
The tape was great -- but after the commercials were finished, our offices were being treated to a Spanish-language porno film!"
Determining the cause of a crisis
In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook Northern California. A woman in Palo Alto watched as her husband tried to snake a blockage from a fouled plumbing line in their backyard. As she stood watching from her back porch, the porch started moving to and fro. She called to her husband, "Stop! Stop! You're shaking the house."
Post-crisis resolutions
After the bombing of the World Trade Center, one person carried a personal computer down 70 flights of stairs because failed electricity did not allow him to "save" his work to a backup disk. He remarked, "I've got to remember to back up my stuff."
Unanticipated consequences I: Building a basilica
The legend goes that following his decapitation, the martyred St. Denis walked seven miles north from Montmartre, sat beneath a tree, put down his head, and died. A pious person built a church on the site, which is now the lovely Basilica of St. Denis and the burial place of a number of French royals.
Unanticipated consequences II: How to make investment choices
The lot numbers of the Tylenol capsules that had been laced with cyanide were 2,880 and 1,910. In three states that had lotteries, the numbers were so popular with players that officials had to halt betting on them.
Gene Webb
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