Eric Dezenhall is CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a specialized public relations firm based in the District.
Explain what your company does.
We are in the business of crisis management and marketplace defense. Our typical client is a large company that is under attack by motivated adversaries.
How do you help them?
We are basically like a campaign manager. We help companies navigate these attacks on them in the public domain.
What’s the number one mistake made by people in crisis?
Believing that they are facing a communications problem, as opposed to a conflict.
Explain.
In crisis management and marketplace defense, you’re dealing with agenda-driven situations. It’s not a big misunderstanding. I mean, it’s not like if the Palestinians and Israelis just sat down and communicated more clearly, the Palestinian Authority would say, “Oh, now I get it. You mean that West Bank.”
So it’s more about addressing the underlying conflict as opposed to the message?
I do media commentary all the time and I’ve been asked, “Oh, what can President Bush do to better sell the war?” Well, the answer is very simple: Win. When you win, you get good PR; when you lose, you don’t.
Then how can you help clients whose problems stem from something deeper than communications?
We can tell them the facts of life. … You know, if you are a petrochemical company, you are never going to get people to like you. Ever. Years ago, I had the CEO of a major petrochemical concern say to me, “Can you do for me what you did for a cosmetics company that you helped?” When I said no, he asked why. And I said: “You’re an oil company, everybody hates you. We’re starting with that baseline. Now, what we can do is make improvements in how you do things and communicate this to key audiences in a way that causes them not to want to attack you as much.”
