Let's begin by acknowledging that you are reading this entry on our corporate blog and you've probably already launched some sort of interactive communications with your customer base. Even Wal-Mart has a blog, featuring its in-store buyers. Corporate blogging has taken a seat alongside the most traditional communications tools and deserves serious consideration when looking at how you currently develop your brand.

A matrix organization takes workers with matching skill sets and places them together, allowing a project manager to select the employees that are needed for a given task. In this decentralized system, everything flows through a project manager, who then reports to a corporate executive or department head.

Matrix organizations arose in response to "silos," divisions wherein a strict hierarchical structure left employees in isolated groups only responding and communicating to their direct supervisor. Since information was not effectively shared between the silos, project coordination fell to a C-Suite executive.

In a matrix organization, synergies can be realized by combining elements of project and functional management, as the sharing of resources and employees leads to cost reductions and a more efficient organization. The silos, which in a matrix organization consist of a group of programmers or engineers for example, are now required to communicate. 

Critics question the sustainability of matrix organizations over time as the fluid nature of the corporate structure means that employees can have several superiors and talented workers might feel overburdened.

Origin:

The concept of the matrix organization rose to prominence in the 1970's and 1980's. It was outlined in Professor Jay R. Galbraith's work, Matrix Organization Designs: How to combine functional and project forms.

Southwest Airlines is a brand in crisis.

The corporation was an anomaly: an airline known for efficiency and entertainment but this month, they became known for fuselage cracks and inadequate safety inspections.

The low-cost airline's tailspin began with the recent announcement of a $10.2 million fine from the Federal Aviation Administration based on 2007 maintenance records. The Dallas-based company is also scheduled for a congressional hearing on April 3 to discuss maintenance practices while the stock price has dropped 10 percent since the news broke earlier this month.

When a scandal breaks, the corporate crisis team springs into action crafting a series of simple sentences to be repeated ad nauseum by the executive chosen for sacrifice on the media altar. The goal is to avoid liability and defuse a public relations firestorm. The problem is that a well-crafted media response often just adds to the noise and destroys the underpinnings of the brand you've worked so hard to establish. Spin is not authentic. A public relations "statement" is not authentic. A response that deviates from your brand is not authentic. And without authenticity, your crisis management strategy is not likely to succeed.

If you're looking for a blueprint in how to authentically respond to criticism or a crisis, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama offered a three-step plan in his recent speech on race in America. In what has been seen as the signature moment of his campaign, Obama properly and authentically answered the media outcry over comments from his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.