Oxfam row – how should comms handle difficult leadership departures?
PR Week
The departure of a chief executive has gone from being a “private” HR matter to “public theatre,” says Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski. “The golden rule is this: if the exit is sudden, the public will assume something has gone wrong.”
He adds: “The smartest organisations do three things quickly: they acknowledge the reality of the departure, explain why in plain English, and set out what happens next.”
Borkowski warns against confusing legal safety with reputational safety. “Lawyers will always favour silence. The public interprets it as guilt or chaos. Comms exists to bridge that gap.”
In his view, the departure of a chief executive is a “stress test for organisational values” and those organisations that get it right “project competence and integrity”. “Get it wrong, and you look like you’re hiding behind a statement, hoping the news cycle moves on. It usually doesn’t.”
Oxfam row – how should comms handle difficult leadership departures? | PR Week UK