Since it is that empty week between Christmas and New Year’s, I’ve been trying to catch up on some reading. Specifically since I launched my new PR endeavor, I’ve been catching up on old posts from other blogs and whatnot. That might have been a mistake. I stumbled over the awesome Bad Pitch Blog, whichfeatures this train wreck of bad taste. The flak was attempting to draft off the news of Ken Lay’s death and sent this monstrosity:
From: Dave Overton
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 12:27 PM
To: Beucke, Dan
Subject: [NEWMANPR] – Why the demise of Ken Lay?
Dan,
One of the top reasons why CEOs get fired is “Denying Reality.” In milder cases, a CEO will quit rather than let a horrible truth puncture their fantastical views. Or they’ll blame their workers or board. They’ll craft all sorts of psychological defense mechanisms to avoid shouldering culpability.One could argue in Lay’s case that the truth he would be forced to confront (bankrupt company, displaced workers, destroyed nest eggs, prison, etc.) was so horrible, and so unavoidable, that his body simply shut down rather than confront a terrible reality.
Lay’s death may be the equivalent of a child sticking their fingers in their ears to avoid hearing something bad. But a lot more final.
Mark Murphy is CEO of Leadership IQ, a Washington, D.C. based management consulting firm. Mark has some interesting thoughts on the demise of Ken Lay and how others can avoid his fate.
Please let me know if you would like to speak with him.
Thanks for your time.
Oh my goodness. In addition to the frankly hideous writing, this is just so classless it would poison me from ever wanting to interact with him. Ever. Ever ever ever.
Mark has some “interesting thoughts” on the death of Ken Lay?
I am sure that whatever these “interesting thoughts” are, they are probably cheap because they’re recycled all over the internet and through-out print media. This Mark person needs to hire a better PR firm. Just yuck.
