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Wonders & Blunders: Heat Wave High Jinks

10.30.2017
By: Kevin Dinino
Category: Fintech

 
 OUR CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WEEK’S NEWS
 
We are sweating in San Diego! It’s 105 degrees outside our office downtown as we’re writing this, so there may be a few heat-induced hallucinations in this week’s commentary on the news. We sure wish that Yankees loss was a mirage…
 
United Airlines is making headlines again, and it just can’t win. The stock plummeted after CEO Oscar Munoz fought with analysts on an investor phone call last week. This blunder proves that external communications can definitely impact a business.
 
The creator of the World Wide Web himself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, gave us his thoughts on blockchain’s use in fintech during a conference this week. His views included a blockchain browser security feature where you would never need to remember a password. Can’t wait!
 
Finally, have you ever visited a company website and spent a few minutes scrolling around, trying to figure out what the company actually did? We have, so we want to emphasize that no matter how trendy you are trying to make your business appear, communicating your company’s services and value is very important!
 
Check it out!
 

Mayday, UAL Stock is Going Down!
We prefer to focus on the positive, but boy has United Airline presented us with another cringe-worthy blunder. CEO Oscar Munoz sent stocks spiraling on Thursday when analysts pressed company management for proof that cutting ticket prices and adding flights is helping to improve financial performance.
 
United Airlines stock fell 10 percent following the analyst call. The company’s trouble spurs from two places, the first being that the airline promised a number of changes last year at an investor day and claims that implementation is going well … however it declined to give any specifics whatsoever. The second being that Munoz avoided direct answers and instead told analysts “I just need a little more time.”
 
As a Barclays’ analyst told Munoz, “The CEO should know that when a company makes public statements about financial targets, investors will want to measure it against those numbers.”
 
There’s no denying that running a publicly traded company is a delicate and stressful job, but we can tell you that transparency is key. If your competitors’ stock gained 17 percent this year and your company’s stock has fallen 17 percent, you best be ready and able to answer investors’ questions.
 
WWW Creator Talks Blockchain + Fintech
Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Internet and obvious voice of authority in technology, predicts internet browsers and blockchain will merge together in the not so distant future. At a recent fintech conference, Berners-Lee spoke about the record-keeping power of blockchain.
 
Commonly known as the technology behind bitcoin, blockchain is a secure technology that keeps track of all phases of a transaction. It is essentially a ledger. The technology is becoming prevalent in the banking industry, such as IBM’s launch of blockchain technology enabling almost instantaneous cross-border payments.
 
Berners-Lee explained that browsers like Chrome and Firefox enter the fintech/blockchain mix by making it easy for even the casual internet buff to use blockchain authentication tokens to verify their identity. Which means no more pesky passwords!
 
Emoji Index
What Does Your Company Do?
This Should Be an Easy Answer
An article about indecipherable company websites made our team chuckle this week, describing the all-too-common practice of talking about your company in ways only you understand. Kasper Kubica’s article “For the love of god, please tell me what your company does” on Hacker Noon goes hand-in-hand with the trend of jumping on the bandwagon to try to make your company appear to join “hot” industries, like WeWork calling itself a tech company instead of a company that rents office space. (On a side note, saying your company is fueled by “Silicon Valley Pixie Dust” may not be the wisest PR move to prove your monetary value to investors. Moving on.)
 
“More and more often, upon discovering a new company or product, I visit their website hoping to find out what it is they do, but instead get fed a mash of buzzwords about their ‘team’ and ‘values’. And this isn’t a side dish — this is the main entrée of these sites, with a coherent explanation of the company’s products or services rarely occupying more than a footnote on the menu,” Kubica says.
 
While celebrating your company’s values and beliefs is all well and good, we think it’s best to be clear about who you are and what services and products you offer when introducing yourself to potential clients on your homepage.
 
» IN THE NEWS
ABC 10 News covered CCOE’s Secure San Diego cybersecurity event live from Qualcomm last week.
» DON’T MISS THIS
Today!
Kevin will be speaking on two panels, “Personal Branding: Raise Your Professional Profile” and “Presentation Skills: What to Say and How to Say It.”
DATE: October 25-27, 2017
LOCATION: San Diego
SORRY YANKEES FANS!
» BOTTOM LINE: Five Key Benefits of Outsourcing PR and Marketing Efforts
True or false – when an organization is working to increase its industry presence, increase brand recognition or launch a new product or service, public relations is one of the most valuable and effective tools.
If you answered true, you are on to something, my friend. Furthermore, outsourcing your public relations and marketing efforts can save you time and ensure that your brand is excellently positioned with a strategic and effective method behind it. The decision to outsource must be both strategic and tactical. What’s the right choice for your organization?
»FEATURED CASE STUDY: CCOE
KCD PR was selected to promote the San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE), a nonprofit organization that promotes alignment and collaboration within the cyber community.
KCD PR developed a comprehensive public relations strategy by first thoroughly understanding the nonprofit organization space, then establishing a set of measurable objectives and communications guidelines to guide the overall strategy that would help CCOE position San Diego as the hub for all things cyber-focused.

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