Wall Street Journal News Establishing and Maintaining

Wall Street Journal News

Establishing and maintaining public relations has become an increasingly important feature in corporate strategic planning because no company can achieve public confidence without a good PR plan. A good PR plan addresses the right audience with the right message. It reflects the core values of the corporation along with their commitment to serve their customers with unique benefits and products etc. However, in this dynamic global business environment bad public relations plan can damage the business and allow even the customers to sway away towards its competitors. This is because bad PR programs allow the customers to make connections between the news provided to them and the core values of the company. Therefore, this paper will generate the strategic planning necessary to overcome the fiasco being generated by the news media about Halliburton and (1) its accounting practices; (2) its services in Iraq (3) and its commitment to fulfill its contract in an earnest and ethical manner.

Review of the problem

Before providing a foolproof strategic plan to counter the negative propaganda being carried out in the media to defame Halliburton, it is important to thoroughly understand the nature and direction of the criticism. To address this need the paper has acquired the latest information about Halliburton related to this fiasco from "The Wall Street Journal."

It is important to note that the company has been under severe scrutiny from the liberal print and electronic media, not because it has done something wrong, but because of its political connections with the Bush administration. Therefore, every action taken by Halliburton is news, both for its stakeholders and shareholders, as well as, its competitors. On March 7, 2005, NBC carried out news asserting, "Halliburton Co. (HAL) in January won a contract to drill at a huge Iranian gas field called Pars - which an Iranian government spokesman said "served the interests" of Iran - despite U.S. sanctions tightly restricting the ability of U.S. companies to do business there, NBC News reported Monday."

Similarly on March 14, 2005, Dow Jones Newswires ran a story asserting, "The oil majors stayed on the sidelines as oil-services companies like Halliburton Co. (HAL) were awarded billions of dollars worth of contracts to renovate Iraqi pipelines and other infrastructure. The U.S.-led postwar administration and the provisional government that followed lacked the democratic or legal legitimacy to approve full-blown production deals - which typically guarantee companies a share of oil extracted from fields they invest in (Dow Jones Newswires)."

News broadcasted and printed by this liberal media has prompted the government officials to carry out investigations. These investigations have added to the fiasco being created in the media. On March 2, 2005, Russell Gold asserts, "The Justice Department is looking into whether former Halliburton Co. employees conspired with other companies to rig bids for large overseas construction projects, according to the company." Likewise, On March 14, 2005, "Pentagon auditors questioned more than $108 million in costs claimed by Halliburton (HAL) on its $875 million contract"

Then, on March 15, 2005, Russell Gold once again writes "Pentagon auditors have questioned $108.4 million that Halliburton Co. billed the U.S. government to deliver fuel to Iraq as part of a no-bid contract to rebuild the country's oil infrastructure, heightening questions about the company's billions of dollars in expenditures to support the military effort." The media has been so influential in its reporting that it has pressurized the government officials to make arrests. As a result, on March 17, 2005, an article carried out the news, "Federal authorities on Thursday charged a former employee of a Halliburton Co. (HAL) subsidiary and another man with defrauding the U.S. military on refueling tankers used at a Kuwait airport." On March 18, 2005, Russell Gold asserts, "A former Halliburton Co. procurement manager in Kuwait was arrested Wednesday and charged with defrauding the U.S. government of $3.5 million."

It is without a shadow of doubt that the media plays a huge role in a democracy because the people listen to what the media has to say. Therefore, corporations should engage with the media in a proactive manner so that it can counter any threat before it fetches trouble. It is indisputable that the power of money is an extremely effective weapon, which can turn the media's eyes blind and their ears deaf towards business ethics. However, this does not mean that Halliburton is engaged in unethical method, but it simply means that the company needs to use its resources to counter the negative propaganda against its interests and the interests of its shareholders.

Strategic Solution for dealing with this conflict

Before creating a strategy, it is important to note that Halliburton is fine financially, its profits have been in a strong position, and the corporation has done a splendidly in managing the dynamic market. "Halliburton Co. (HAL) said it expects capital spending for 2005 of $650 million, according to the company's annual report filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Marc A. Wojno, March 1, 2005)."

Therefore, the problem that needs to be tackled in related to its public relations department. The company has to project itself in a way that tells the people that it believes in principals and not profits and at the same time counter the liberal media in an effective way.

Morton Winston (2002) asserts that globalization has not transformed the mannerism of broadcasting and printing news. Therefore, a deliberate divide-and-rule strategy can be adopted by Halliburton so as to weaken the argument of the liberal press. If Halliburton can productively divide the liberal media by promoting them as either "trustworthy" or "extremist" groups, the company can utilize the discrepancy as the foundation for public relations operations planned to sidetrack and redirect the condemnation and unnecessary exposure of their policies.