Most people avoid controversies like the plague. Bill Furlow feeds off them.
As the sole owner and employee of Tustin-based Furlow Corporate Communications, he makes a living off other businesses’ calamities.
“I’m not saying it’s easy,” Furlow said. “But it’s what I love to do.”
Over the years, Furlow has helped several high-profile Orange County and Los Angeles companies try to sidestep bad media exposure and quash public outcries before they rise above whispers.
In years past, he has been tapped by the city of Westminster to deal with media relations after a 5 million-gallon water tank ruptured and ravaged a nearby condominium complex. He helped the Los Angeles Department of Transportation calm a storm that developed after new digital parking meters malfunctioned, and a television station implied the city did it purposely to take money.
Most recently, Furlow was the spokesman for Anaheim-based Westview Services, which runs programs for the developmentally disabled. The company found itself under intense scrutiny after a caregiver at one of the residential homes was accused of raping a 30-year-old woman with the mental capacity of a 2-year-old, who was staying at the facility. She had become pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn.
“In general, my role is to help the client tell its side of the story,” Furlow said. “There’s often a lot of emotion and a lot of fear, so a big part of my job is to reduce that level of fear and to provide some perspective and objectivity to a situation.”
Furlow is not alone when it comes to providing crisis management to companies facing sticky issues. A slew of OC public relations firms step up to the plate for clients who are not sure how to approach, much less dance around, public perception minefields resulting from layoffs, financial woes, deaths in the workplace or faulty products.
“The initial reaction from many clients is to push the panic button,” said Rick Miltenberger, vice president and general manager at Corona-based Magnet Communications, which has an office in Irvine.
PR execs are pretty tight-lipped about the actual work they do for current clients, calling it “sensitive” and “confidential.”
However, they’re quick to say crisis public relations is critical to the long-term health of any business that wants to protect its public image.
But it’s not always easy.
Melinda Morgan, president of Morgan Marketing & Public Relations, Irvine, does a lot of work with restaurant chains, such as Marie Callender’s and Weinerschnitzel. And she said that it’s crucial that restaurants, which can face food-poisoning issues among others, have a plan in place that can be quickly adapted to any situation,before a crisis hits.
Yet companies don’t always think that way.
“We really pound on them when they first hire us that we need to put together a crisis plan,” Morgan said. “Sometimes it takes a couple of years (before they agree).”
Plus, Miltenberger pointed out that companies often tap agencies because they’re looking for a “screen or a buffer.”
“They’re surprised and a little dismayed when you tell them, ‘No, that’s not the way to do it,’ ” he said.
Companies must act quickly and be ready to communicate, according to Christopher Perez, senior vice president at Magnet Communications.
“All too often we’re brought in when there’s a firestorm, and it’s such a harder place to be,” Perez said. “First and foremost the media is aware that you’re bringing in a PR firm, and it validates the crisis.”
Joan Gladstone, chief executive officer and president of Gladstone International Inc., Laguna Beach, pointed out that companies that wait “too long to address the public aspects of their business” may be fatally wounded.
“It gives them less ability to manage the situation,” said Gladstone, whose clients include Sempra Energy, the parent of San Diego Gas & Electric.
Gladstone said she helped tone down publicity surrounding an Orange County-based lender by being prepared. She said the undisclosed company was under investigation for allegedly discriminating in its lending, which it felt was unfounded.
Five months before the case was settled, Gladstone said she came up with a comprehensive plan so the company was ready to field calls, set up a hotline and circulate a press release when the news hit the wires.
“I believe that the stories that resulted were far more balanced and far more fair than they ever would have been if we hadn’t been prepared,” Gladstone said. “It was a black eye for the company to have the resulting publicity, but it didn’t drag on.”
Laer Pearce, president of Laer Pearce & Associates, Laguna Hills, also pushes the advantages of being prepared, which isn’t always easy because usually a crisis hits “and then the phone rings.”
“It’s virtually unheard of that some company will call a PR agency and say, ‘We may have a crisis someday; we’d like to hire you,’ ” Pearce said.
His firm won a top industry honor for work it did for FRD Acquisition Co., a holding company of several subsidiaries including Coco’s Bakery and Carrows restaurants. FRD filed for Chapter 11 protection in February so it could reorganize and prepare to sell the brands.
“We worked closely with them, making sure reporters understood the nature of the bankruptcy filing and why it was being done,” said Pearce, who later expanded his work with the brands.
“The headline in one of the local papers was ‘Coco’s sale moves forward.’ It didn’t even mention the bankruptcy,” Pearce said.
No matter the issue, public relations execs agree that education and honesty on the company’s behalf are key.
David Paine, president of PainePR, Costa Mesa, has dealt with clients facing issues ranging from food poisoning outbreaks to fatal workplace violence.
In each instance, Paine said, the company needs to be “forthright” and “aggressive in communication.”
“It’s important they take ownership for what occurred and putting a solution into place as fast as possible,” Paine said.
And if the situation means the public’s health or safety is at risk, Paine said, a company must recall a product immediately,even if it involves a significant cost. Later, he said a new and improved product can be reintroduced to the market.
PR execs weren’t quick to cite examples of clients experiencing more than a few scratches in the end. But they did give general examples of self-defeating business reactions, for instance a chief executive refusing to take any media calls for a month or more after a layoff.
That situation could potentially arise among OC’s technology companies, many of which have downsized this year due to a slowing economy.
Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide, Irvine, works with some the area’s largest players, including Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Co. and Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., which all have laid off staff in recent months.
Lisa Zwick, senior vice president and general manager, said the agency tells clients not to bury their heads in the sand, but to communicate.
“People want to understand what’s happening and why,” Zwick said. n
