Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies

Cases in International business Assignment

SUBMITTED BY: Debashrita Sarkar B-38

Q: How should the public relations staff at Airbus respond to the articles appearing in The Economist and The Guardian ?
The public relations staff at Airbus can respond in the following ways : 1) He should refuse to comment personally to The Economist and The Guardian .He should report the matter to his seniors in the organisation i.e Airbus, informing about that the articles published .And let the top management answer to the articles as they have greater insights in to this critical issue and the top management would be able to handle the issue more diplomatically. 2) Public relations officers should arrange a series of launches ,press releases and seminars to overhaul the tainted reputation of the Airbus. As the current present management is not a part of the team being scrutinised and Airbus contributing nations are already a part of OECD. 3)The public relation staffs should do proper research to look out for truth of the criticism and make correct statement in the same articles to protect and save the image of the Airbus .After consulting the top management ,the public relation officer should do a press release on behalf of the top management and should provide damage control assistance . 3) Promote Airbus CSR activities to create a better image of Airbus for instance Airbus could invent biofuel that could be used by 2050 .Thus making aeroplanes environment friendly or else could engage in other CSR activities like creating Aeronautical design engineering schools and provide free tuition to boost the image of Airbus .Also, the soft skills training to the aspiring cabin crew members can also be given in a separate school for cabin crews fully sponsored by Airbus in the sense free tuition fees for such schools .Students of this school can be bonded for some time with Airbus and given jobs in Airbus later .And the public relations officer could announce these CSR activities through press release to enhance the image of Airbus.