Washington, DC

Thursday, February 16, 2012

David Morey, Vice Chairman of Core Strategy Group and Founder of DMG, is one of America's leading strategic consultants. He is co-author of the award-winning book The Underdog Advantage (McGraw-Hill), and for many years served as Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. Over the years, Mr. Morey has worked with some of the world's top business leaders—and advised five Nobel Peace Prize winners and twelve winning global presidential campaigns, including that of Barack Obama. His corporate clients include GE, Bancomer, Verizon, Pepsi, Mars, KPMG, McDonald's, Microsoft, News Corp., Nike, P&G, Disney, Visa, The Coca-Cola Company, TPG, American Express, NBC Universal and many others.

Jim Moorhead: How has your experience in political campaigns helped you address crisis situations?

DM:We are honored to have helped direct twelve winning presidential campaigns around the world. And our first corporate clients, Steve Jobs at Apple and Sergio Zyman at The Coca-Cola Company, taught us the power of transferring the strategic focus, discipline and techniques from campaigns to the corporate world. Our experience in helping companies and political leaders resolve crises and restore brand values shows that far more can be done in a proactive, pre-crisis process meant to mitigate risks and develop an organization that is more aggressive, responsive and agile. This insurgent strategic approach has been used with companies like McDonald's, The Coca-Cola Company, Symantec, Nike, Google, Verizon, American Express, Microsoft, GE and in global political campaigns. It is an approach developed from the successes of insurgents, underdogs and revolutionaries in business, politics and warfare.

JM: How can companies improve their crisis communications planning?

DM: We believe in the power of the underdog-insurgent approach to crisis communications planning. Today, change is in control of the dialogue in all aspects of business and politics. And in this volatile information environment, crises arise faster, go viral instantly and do more damage than ever before. This situation clearly calls for new strategic and tactical approaches. That's why we apply a proactive insurgent framework in our pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis work. And this insurgent approach has helped us forge a more effective and efficient process for identifying and neutralizing crises, then rapidly restoring a company's brand reputation and business results.

JM: What distinguishes how great companies handle a crisis?

DM: In today's volatile information environment crises arise faster and travel farther than ever before. The damage is done quickly and the losses of market value and reputation are profound. As a result, the great companies develop a clear strategic direction, a tactical game plan and constant training before a crisis hits. This results in a transformation of an organization's aptitude and attitude for crisis or competition; it develops a more nimble, quick, results-focused and aggressive culture. The key is to identify and manage vulnerabilities and risk-issues. This means establishing and managing a productive dialogue with all stakeholders—internal and external, whether supporters or opposition. Importantly, this will not only provide a unique kind of anti-crisis insurance; it will positively change the way you do business forever. The best crisis is the one that never happens. That is the goal.

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DAVID MOREY, Vice Chairman of Core Strategy Group and CEO of DMG, is one of America's leading strategic consultants. He is the award-winning co-author of The Underdog Advantage (McGraw Hill), and has helped add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and value to a wide range of Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Morey has worked with some of the world's top business leaders –and he has advised five Nobel Peace Prize winners and twelve winning global presidential campaigns, including that of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. Mr. Morey can be reached at info@playoffense.com.

David Morey

Vice Chairman

Core Strategy Group

Washington, DC

888-849-1250