Boeing deploys proactive and reactive PR after Dreamliner grounding
Its stock price plunged nearly 5 percent this month due to safety fears over its 787 Dreamliner. Throughout the crisis, its communications team has offered measured responses.
The answer, as Boeing has recently discovered, is billions of dollars. This month, the manufacturer saw its company value drop 4.6 percent overnight when its new high-tech 787 Dreamliner series was grounded in the U.S. and Europe due to safety fears. The drop wiped out roughly $2.7 billion of the company’s value.
The 787 fleet is undergoing a federal review, and progress was discussed Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington, D.C.
According to Bloomberg report on Monday, the company might have to write off up to $5 billion from the Dreamliner, although experts say it will probably be far less.
The way in which major companies—giants of enterprise—respond publicly to these situations affects their stock prices. The end result of poor crisis management is always the same—serious stock depreciation.
This, ladies and gents, is where communication professionals earn their keep.
What response options do these behemoths have in a crisis? Fundamentally, the answer falls into one of two categories: proactive or reactive communications.
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