WorldCom, Inc.

The Challenge

WorldCom named a new CEO who retained APCO to help rebuild the company and its reputation. Within weeks, WorldCom discovered the largest financial fraud in history. The company faced negative media coverage in all major international markets, as well as from televised Congressional hearings and federal investigations.

Rebuilding a corporate reputation quickly became a fight for survival.

The Solution

APCO assigned a crisis team comprised of the former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, former congressmen, senior advisors to the White House and Justice Department, and international communication professionals with decades of experience in consulting and with the media.

The team created a strategy to address all of WorldCom's constituencies and produced communication documents, including core message tracks and tactics, which became the primary reference supporting all communication.

In addition to coordinating Congressional testimony and communication with the President of the United States, press conferences attended by national and international media were held in Washington, D.C. and New York. APCO prepared all employee, customer, supplier and community communication; articles on behalf of former regulatory officials, academics, customers and suppliers that were placed in newspapers worldwide; interactive web casts; and an essay-style ad campaign that spoke to all audiences concerned.

APCO's European team helped WorldCom navigate across a complex variety of regulatory frameworks, ensuring governments and key customers throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa continued to have confidence in WorldCom's ability to meet their needs.

The Result

A prominent CEO and new directors were recruited despite predictions that no executive would risk joining the company. In addition, employee morale improved as WorldCom began competing to retain its key customers, and ultimately, none of the company's top 200 customers were lost. A sure sign of success was that competitors began to complain the company now had unfair competitive advantages. In the fall of 2003, WorldCom emerged from Chapter 11.

Services Provided

• Crisis management
• Government relations
• Internal communication
• Issue management
• Litigation communication
• Media relations
• Positioning
• Restructuring communication

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