Three “Ten-Strike” PR Actions

In every one of the following cases, the reputation of a proactive company or executive -- in one fell swoop -- took a quantum leap.

$1 in Pay
For the second year in a row, Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi, says that he will take only $1 in salary, until he brings the company back to sustained profitability.

A Private Stimulus Package
A major company recently came up with its own stimulus plan to aid small business! It announced that it would award $65,000 in coupons to all its employees and arranged with the retail stores in the area to accept those coupons as cash, thereby stimulating sales among small businesses impacted by the recession.

A $100-Million Gift
Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook, gave away $100 million to the Newark School System to improve education. While this is a tiny slice of his estimated $6.9 billion fortune, it was a generous move and most likely one of the few gifts of that magnitude ever given the educational system. While a movie, “The Social Network,” is out, which creates a less than flattering profile of Zuckerberg, this gift is still remarkable and speaks well of his benevolence.

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