Reputation is everything.
Consulting on Crisis Communication, Reputation Management, Employee Communications, Media Engagement, Speech Writing, Executive Training
Services & Experience
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
Since founding Strategic Corporate Communications, LLC in 2021, Jeffrey A. Smith has been providing clients in business, government and the non-profit sector with counsel on building their organization's reputation, strengthening their employee engagement through internal communication, revitalizing their communication team's staffing, or preparing for, successfully managing, or recovering from a reputational crisis.
Jeffrey enjoys working with clients who want to make a difference, are passionate about communications in their enterprise, and who understand and value the importance of communication to its success.
Expert in crisis communication, strategic communication planning, content production across platforms, organizational efficiency and high-performance staffing, Smith is the former Vice President, North American Corporate Communications at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Over the course of his 28-year career at Honda, he led the company’s public affairs, corporate advertising and corporate communications efforts. Prior to Honda, he served as a trade association executive and held senior staff positions for members of the United States Congress.
A native of New York, Jeffrey lives and works in Southern California. He is currently serving on the Advisory Committee of the National Press Foundation and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University.
Prepare for Crises and Manage them When They Occur
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
An organization's reputation is everything. Threats to an organization's brand, corporate image or public perception can come from outside an organization or from within it. A reputational threat can come from lawsuits, from product quality issues, from bad actors within an organization or from several directions at once. Such threats can emerge slowly, or can develop overnight into a full-blown crisis involving the news media, social media and an angry public. An organization's reputation, nurtured for many years, can be destroyed in an instant.
Jeffrey Smith has effectively managed reputational threats to several sectors, including automotive, aircraft, marine and government. Smith's focus is on the three key components of successfully surviving a crisis: 1) crisis preparation, 2) crisis management, and 3) crisis communication. He provides strategic counsel and tactics to help companies and other organizations navigate troubled waters and preserve their reputation and their permission from society to operate as an enterprise.
STRATEGIC CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS CAN ALSO HELP YOU:
- Develop a values-based corporate communication strategy to serve as the framework for your communication with employees, customers, suppliers, investors and other key stakeholders.
- Build your enterprise's reputation through a clearly-expressed sense of purpose.
- Produce purposeful social issue and public policy communications.
- Create vigorous, engaging employee communications consistent with your brand.
- Build or revamp your communications team.
- Improve engagement with news media.
- Make memorable speeches and presentations.
- Produce highly-professional news conferences and teleconferences for announcements.
- Hire great communications staff.
Available Now: Strategic Crisis Communication
"Be prepared, flexible, quick, thoughtful and authentic."
Available Now: Strategic Crisis Communication
Published in June, 2023, Strategic Crisis Communication is co-authored with James O'Rourke, Professor of Management at the University of Notre Dame.
Addressing 21st-century issues, threats, and opportunities with time-tested principles, this book empowers corporate communications professionals to protect, inspire, and energize organizations in the face of a crisis. At some point, whether due to an external incident or an internal misstep, every major company or institution will find itself scrutinized, its normal operations disrupted, and its reputation and business continuity threatened. How it prepares for, and reacts to, a crisis can make a critical difference in the ultimate outcome of events.
This book focuses on crisis communication as a function of three elements: 1. crisis preparation—establishing a robust and nimble infrastructure and plans, in advance of any crisis 2. crisis management—rapidly gathering information, activating and adjusting plans, making decisions, and relentlessly monitoring outcomes 3. crisis communication—reaching multiple audiences, on multiple platforms, with clear, consistent, and purposeful messages that tell the truth and defend the organization.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
Bringing together best practices gleaned from hundreds of recent case studies and examples from today's headlines, this book is an unmatched resource enabling corporate communications and PR professionals, and the organizations that lead and employ them, to understand how to weather any reputational storm that may threaten their enterprise.
Strategic Crisis Communication is published by Routledge (Abingdon, Oxford), a Taylor & Francis imprint.
https://www.routledge.com/Strategic-Crisis-Communication/ORourke-Smith/p/book/9781032342580