How Coca-Cola’s op-ed hit the 3 O’s of crisis management

Coca-Cola is embroiled in a slow-moving but nevertheless monumental corporate crisis. The seller of sugary drinks has increasingly come under fire for not only fueling America’s obesity woes, but also attempting via Coke-backed research to shift the debate away from its products and toward topics such as exercise.

So it was refreshing—and even a bit surprising—to read Thursday’s op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal by Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent titled “Coca-Cola: We’ll Do Better.” The article appealed to me as a consumer, but more as a crisis communicator.

That’s because the column covered what I call the three O’s of crisis management. They are: