Everyone has had moments where their tempers get the best of them. When I was in high school, I screamed a few expletives at a referee in my basketball game after he repeatedly missed calls. As quick as the swears were out of my mouth was as fast as I had received two technical fouls, an ejection from the game, and one extraordinarily disappointed mother on the ride home from the game.
But one good thing about my incident is that it took place in a half-full gym and the ramifications certainly didn't extend beyond my driving privileges for the next week (although, when you are 16, this is the world to you). Tim Armstrong is the CEO of AOL and is known for his brash persona. In charge of the once leader in the internet experience, AOL has had a hard time reinventing itself as it fell further and further behind competitors.
Naturally, this whole situation has caused stress throughout the company for the better part of a few years. Earlier this week, Tim Armstrong held a company call to announce the reduction of AOL's hyperlocal news websites, Patch, from 900 to 600 total. This, obviously, meant that there would be staff reductions.
While Armstrong was delivering his presentation, a member of the creative team was taking pictures of the presentation. Armstrong was not entirely pleased with this action and lost his cool. He didn't just have a few choice words for the man like I did the referee; no, he fired him on the spot. Told him that he could get up, leave the meeting, and not return the next day to AOL.
Naturally, this leaked to the press because when you are a high profile executive at a name-brand company and you act like a child in front of 1,000 employees, news will get out of it. Armstrong isn't exactly beloved at AOL and this didn't do anything to help his reputation. The press picked up on the story immediately and stories were being posted around all the major news and tech outlets.
Armstrong, the head of the company and main public-facing employee, couldn't control his temper and acted like a child. It is as simple as that.
Naturally, this story combined with the Patch reductions dominated the news cycle for the full 24 hours as the AOL PR team did the best they could at picking up the pieces. In many crisis situations, there is an opportunity to turn the issue around and capitalize off of it, if the company handles it correctly. However, in this instance, there wasn't exactly a lot that AOL's team could do.
Armstrong ultimately apologized to the employee, but that is an expectation at that point. There was no way that the director would come back to AOL at that point, even after the apology. There is no way for Armstrong or AOL to undergo proactive actions that demonstrate company reform or a commitment to righting the wrong. All they could do was field calls from reporters and provide "no comments."
The danger of a CEO like Armstrong is that they're a ticking time bomb. PR teams shouldn't have to have a crisis response plan to "Your CEO lost his cool in front of 1,000 employees during a recorded meeting and unjustifiably fired the creative director, so now what?" No amount of media training and coaching of an executive can change the outcome of a situation like that.
No matter how heartfelt the apology, no matter strongly committed Armstrong is to the regretful rhetoric, and certainly no matter how many phone calls from reporters the PR team takes will allow Armstrong and AOL to recover from this particular black eye. For the next couple of weeks, maybe even months, AOL will be connected with this event.
There are times where good PR and crisis management skills come in handy. This is not one of those times. Sometimes the instance is small, but the consequences are severe and essentially irrevocable.
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