MBAs low on reputation skills

Surprisingly only 16 percent of MBA programs offer a PR course. Yet you don’t want to be the next CEO going on TV and clamoring for some sympathy while your rig is spilling millions of gallons of oil into the ocean.

Mastering the ability to communicate calmly under pressure when faced with a PR crisis is critical, but it may surprise you to learn that very few business programs do so, according to a Business Week article.

This lack of preparation is reflected in gaffes made by companies such as BP and Enron. For company leaders, knowing what to do in order to run a business is not the same as knowing what to say. This is where many MBA programs could help.  

The key, writes Anthony D’Angelo, is reputation. A good reputation can pay great dividends, while a poor reputation can leave businesses floundering to recover their losses.  Here's an excerpt:

"Not a week passes without headlines that excoriate some corporate executive for mishandling an operational crisis that has mushroomed into a public relations disaster. Despite impeccable credentials and accomplished careers, many chief executives find themselves looking foolish after responding obtusely to common and inevitable threats to their companies' reputations.

From Warren Buffet attempting to explain away insider trading at Berkshire Hathaway  to Tony Hayward, formerly of BP, complaining about getting his life back, the litany of gaffes certainly changes public perceptions and corporate reputation—along with company valuations and career trajectories.

Why then, aren't even the highest-ranked MBA programs doing better at preparing graduates for eventual responsibilities in reputation management?

An analysis of highly ranked MBA programs by the Public Relations Society of America showed that only 16 percent offer a single course in crisis and conflict management, strategic communications, public relations, or whatever label one chooses to describe management of a precious organizational asset: reputation.

Even that course is likely to be an elective.

So glaring is this omission that it's typical for MBA-holding executives to assume "reputation management" or "public relations" is the black art of spinning an alternative version of reality, as though that works in today's wide-open, relentlessly scrutinized, electron-speed information environment.

One can't blame organisational leaders for not understanding that the way they operate the business is inseparable from the way they communicate about the business, inside and outside the organization.

They're not educated sufficiently to know these are inextricably linked leadership requirements: You can't have effective leadership without an effective communications strategy.

The latter is based on authenticity and transparency because nothing else works."

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2011/bs20110427_477428.htm