Rodent Regatta

In any case study of a company under pressure or making major announcements, there is a set of phases in what’s happening. These phases often proceed very rapidly, but they generally take the following form and sequence:

1. Pre-information
2. Customer comment, rumors and speculation
3. The Announcement
4. Customer reaction and misunderstanding
5. Company Response and Clarification <----You are here!
6. Customer comment, rumors and speculation – Round 2 and beyond
7. The company responds well and recovers/flourishes…....OR
8. Customers stay away in droves and the company’s history is rewritten

The early stages of this sequence largely determine whether a crisis forms and must be ”handled.” Properly done, a crisis never ensues and the announcement is questioned, answered and the company preserves its reputation.

• * * UPDATE * * * Brad Choate has some comments about the MT 3.0 announcement(s). My perception is that Brad has been a rather prolific producer of plugins for Movable Type, and has done a great deal to educate the Movable Type user community. His thoughts belong in the list provided yesterday.