Strategy & Communications

Explores leadership and communication when stakes are highest and certainty is scarce—covering trust-building, navigating geopolitical risk, and leading through constant change. Insights from someone working at the intersection of business, geopolitics, and public trust.

Argues reputation is now a measurable resilience question, citing Coca-Cola’s revenue miss from a boycott and Target’s market value loss after a DEI rollback. Three forces make today’s crises different: polarization, bad actors, and information proliferation. Credibility in a crisis comes from standing firmly in your values, not favorable coverage.

Explores how employees interpret leadership signals and their positive or negative impacts. Advises leaders on unscripted moments, emphasizing that values are shaped by what people experience, and consistency matters more than perfection.

Explains that losing Spirit will raise the floor on airfares. In markets Spirit dominated, no other carrier can backfill at the same price. The impact may be structural, with fares rising months later in ways most consumers won’t connect.

Notes that while fuel prices may have been the tipping point, Spirit was already in a very difficult position. Emphasizes the more lasting consequence is that one of the strongest sources of low-fare pressure in the US market is now gone, meaning pricing dynamics will shift structurally across the industry.…

Explains how modern crises unfold amid AI, social media, and declining trust, and why old PR tactics no longer work. Covers the death of the Friday news dump, separating real crises from noise, five key brand fault lines, and leadership mistakes under pressure.

Advises companies on responding to global disruptions by identifying the key questions to consider. Emphasizes speaking to stakeholders who matter, not the loudest voices, and explains how over- and under-response often stem from skipping the core question of whether communication is truly required.

Underscores the importance of understanding critical stakeholders, explaining how the Air Canada CEO’s English-only video about a tragic plane crash created an additional, unforced crisis for the brand.

Based on new Northwestern research, Bradley explains how the CCO role has evolved, with CEOs increasingly relying on communications leaders for counsel on complex issues — meaning communicators must speak credibly about business implications, not just advise on messaging.

Features selected excerpts from Faster. Messier. Tougher. exploring why the traditional crisis playbook has become a liability. Highlights include the speed problem facing modern communicators, why trust outweighs truth in a crisis, and how bad actors now exploit predictable corporate communication patterns.

Previews Faster. Messier. Tougher. with host Mike Fernandez, sharing field-tested frameworks including the first five moves in the first 60 minutes of a crisis, when to narrowcast rather than broadcast, and why authenticity beats perfection in an era of political pressure and brand backlash.

Provided expert analysis on how brands are navigating political messaging in an increasingly polarized digital landscape. The piece examines the strategic calculations companies must make when their social channels inevitably intersect with political content and audience expectations.