Your PR Architect

Chipotle, the Mexican-ish restaurant rocked by a series of food safety scandals, needs a life-line. Actually, several of them. Paris Chipotle by Maxlöh (Own work) [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0],  via Wikimedia Commons A few days ago, its chief creative and development officer, Mark Crumpacker , was charged with drug possession and ties to a cocaine delivery service. This isn't helpful for a nationwide chain that's struggling to rebuild trust with consumers after tainted food caused the chain to close several restaurants. Chipotle's comeback strategy seemed to be going well. The stock only dropped 0.68% when Crumpacker got his mugshot. And, to be fair, Chipotle's spokesperson handled the boss' away-message as well as any PR person I've seen. (I wrote about Chipotle's issues in late 2015 , and again in January. Three's my limit. Honest.) To mend its reputation, the company closed all its restaurants for a day to shock-train e...

One of the classes I teach involves helping students understand the concept of Big Data . And it gives me a headache to think about it. Big Data describes all the digital transaction information organizations acquire about us. Our health records (supposedly safe) are part of Big Data. When I buy kosher hot dogs, orange seltzer, and Tums (don't ask) at Wegmans, the loyalty card I carry tags my purchase in some data file. That becomes part of Big Data. By Thierry Gregorius (Cartoon: Big Data) , via Wikimedia Commons Taken together, an immense database contains our online purchase histories, our health histories, our online tussles with Microsoft, and so on. Most companies struggle to sift and manage this trove. And few can explain how hackers get into their computer servers and swipe it. In 2013, Target experienced a major data breach. They were hacked. The chief information officer resigned. A few months later, after Target experienced an awful fourth quarter, the CEO qui...