Leaders must know how to deliver bad news to employees and outside stakeholders. Whether an organization is responding to a complaint, communicating about a crisis situation, or notifying employees about a change in company policies or downsizing, its executives and managers must focus on creating an appropriate response while maintaining goodwill for the organization. This note addresses how executives can do just that. Where exactly do companies go wrong in their responses to crises? How can executives more effectively take responsibility in a disaster while at the same time crafting a positive image for the company? How can all leaders better communicate bad news of any kind?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people out of the office and into work-from-home setups. Use of video conferencing platforms, especially Zoom, skyrocketed during 2020 as meetings, presentations, and interviews started having to take place online. Virtual presence has become critical to professional success, but all too many people have made errors ranging from the silly to the disastrous in trying to adjust to virtual work. This technical note explores best practices for achieving success in virtual presence and virtual presentations. From testing your technology to optimizing your background, adjusting your expression and tone for video presentations, and engaging with your audience, it will help you bring your best self to Zoom meetings and beyond.

External corporate communications and the rapidly changing ways in which companies engage with their customers received a lot of attention between 2010 and 2020. With social media, online chats, blogs, vlogs, and much more, consumers gained unprecedented access to corporate decision-makers, celebrity spokespeople, endorsement-driven athletes-even the US president. Internal communications, through which companies engage with their employees and inside stakeholders, changed just as quickly for organizations undergoing digital transformations during the same period-without receiving due attention. By mid-2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had made effective internal corporate communications even more essential. The virus shuttered the physical locations of many businesses, requiring huge swaths of corporate staff to work from home. As a result, employees became increasingly reliant on web-based tools-such as virtual meeting applications, email, Facebook, and Twitter-to collaborate, complete projects, stay in the loop on company developments, and simply keep in touch. This note explores the digital media and internal communications tools being used by firms worldwide, presents the importance of these tools, and gives examples from leading companies that are using information and communications technology.

Family businesses are unique and complex; they have aspects and layers to them that are unlike any other organizations because at the root of family businesses' identities are the aspirations of both the business and the family's members, which could be at odds with one another. This note-a meta-analysis drawn from many authors' work-explores an approach that identifies ways to unify family and business, examining new possibilities and building a strong resiliency in the process. This analysis of various characteristics within family businesses provides opportunities to learn about how families are unique, offers examples of family businesses (when possible), and, most importantly, leads to clear recommendations.

Business has become increasingly globalized, interconnected, and disrupted by the unceasing progress of technology. As markets span ever-larger geographical areas, the war for talent among companies continues to heat up. As businesspeople enter the workforce, they seek not only challenging and stimulating roles with competitive compensation, but also organizations dedicated to people development. To attract the best and the brightest, companies are finding that they must demonstrate a commitment to training, coaching, and career planning. At the heart of people development is performance management, and this note does a deep dive on how performance management systems are wound into the fabric of our companies, how to leverage effective tools for evaluating and coaching employees, and how to look to examples of best-in-class organizations for creating a strong performance feedback culture.

In October 2016, Timothy Sloan, the newly appointed CEO of American banking giant Wells Fargo, faced a massive public-relations crisis. A few weeks earlier, a United States government agency had announced the results of its regulatory review of the bank and exposed a shocking practice common in the retail division, in which aggressive community bankers had created more than a million fraudulent accounts and credit card applications on behalf of unaware customers for the past several years. Over the next few weeks, the bank-and Sloan's predecessor, John Stumpf, in particular-suffered from harsh criticism from politicians, journalists, and former employees alike, ultimately forcing Stumpf's resignation. As Sloan sought to minimize the public-image backlash and restore general trust in Wells Fargo, he struggled to construct the best communication strategy for the bank's next chapter.

After five months of a fairly relaxed work schedule, Katzu Mizuno found himself wrapped up in an intense analysis. A first-year associate at Lynch Investments, Mizuno had received a morning phone call in February 1996. The caller was his boss, Anna Curti. The subject was a long-time customer, MCI. In contrast to the booming stock market, the performance of MCI's share price had been underwhelming. The board of directors had recently discussed repurchasing shares in order to bolster shareholder value. But cash was tight. If MCI intended to implement a stock repurchase program within the next six months, the company would have to use debt financing to supply the cash. Although the current debt-to-equity ratio of 40% was arguably below the industry average and MCI had excess debt capacity, the decision was far from simple. MCI had contacted Lynch to provide an analysis and recommendation regarding the proposed debt issue and stock repurchase. Curti needed to respond quickly, which gave Mizuno little time. The board planned to disclose the details of its plan to improve shareholder value by the end of the following week. Any recommendation and accompanying analysis would be intensely scrutinized. The heat was clearly on. As Mizuno labored to complete and refine the analysis in front of him, heavy on his mind was how he would relay his findings to Curti. What information and resources would she need in order to advise the client on whether to move forward with the plan?

This note discusses excellence in postmerger integration (PMI) communication, which results from applying many of the same principles that generate success in other forms of corporate communication.