4、一波未平一波又起

4、一波未平一波又起

Innovo在產(chǎn)品遭到一家private enterprise的仿造之后，按照Nancy的建議采用了“軟硬兼施”的手段把這個令人頭疼的問題暫時搞定了。Johnson感嘆說：“The Chinese know best how to deal with Chinese problem.（中國人的問題還得靠中國人來解決。）”Nancy跟他開玩笑說：“外來的和尚不一定好念經(jīng)哦！”在中國工作這么多年以后，Johnson的漢語已經(jīng)相當(dāng)不錯了，他明白Nancy的意思，不好意思地笑了。

大家剛剛松了一口氣，誰知一波未平一波又起。

午餐之后，Nancy和同事們有說有笑地回到辦公室。剛一坐下，桌上的電話就響了起來，是公司的legal consultant Tommy。他叫Nancy馬上到VP辦公室去。接到電話后Nancy不禁奇怪，到底什么事兒會這么急??？午休還沒結(jié)束呢。該不會是剛剛搞定的那個patent infringement case又出什么問題了吧。她匆匆趕到VP辦公室，只見Tommy和VP正在那里嚴(yán)肅地討論著，神情很是緊張。見Nancy來了，趕緊招手叫她過去。

Nancy走近了，看見Johnson的辦公桌上放著一份court（法院）發(fā)來的announcement（通告），標(biāo)題是“對Innovo公司侵犯知識產(chǎn)權(quán)的通告”。Nancy以為自己看錯了，趕緊拿起announcement仔細(xì)讀了起來，原來是competitor（競爭對手）Maintop公司認(rèn)定Innovo剛推出的新產(chǎn)品有infringe（侵犯）Maintop IPR的行為，并列舉數(shù)條evidence（證據(jù)），以此為依據(jù)claim for compensation（提出賠償要求）。

這真是太富有戲劇性了，本來是Innovo遭到了別人的侵權(quán)，現(xiàn)在卻又有第三方突然出來狀告Innovo侵權(quán)。顯然，這突如其來的情況把Johnson也弄暈了。他焦急地希望Tommy和Nancy能趕快想出辦法應(yīng)對這個mess（混亂的局面）。

Nancy明白，公司遇上這種事，不論控告是否屬實，很快就會有媒體來大肆報道這起風(fēng)波。如果控制不好局面，這將對公司的聲譽(yù)造成不可預(yù)計的negative influence（負(fù)面影響）。Johnson覺得Innovo需要迅速做出反應(yīng)，表明立場和態(tài)度。Tommy作為legal consultant，主要是從法律的角度來分析這個問題。Nancy更多地想到的是如何做好crisis management（危機(jī)管理）。三個人又認(rèn)真地研究了一遍announcement，經(jīng)過一番討論，最后達(dá)成一致：要調(diào)查和應(yīng)對這個IPR Claim是必須的，但現(xiàn)在首要的任務(wù)是確定如何應(yīng)對媒體、社會和公司員工的questions（疑問）。

　　Rules of Crisis Communications

Have an in-depth crisis communications plan that includes dealing with the media, the community and your employees.

Name a spokesperson and two back-ups.

Deal with the crisis head-on. Do not hide out.

Never lie. The big lie would be stupid but many executives tend to tell the little white lie.

Never go off the record. In a crisis there is already much confusion. Do not add to it. Tell a reporter only what you want to see on the front page of the paper.

由于時間緊迫，他們很快制定好了一個應(yīng)急方案，VP決定讓Nancy做應(yīng)對媒體的speaker。于是Nancy趕緊開始按照大家商量好的思路準(zhǔn)備如何回答媒體的質(zhì)疑。為了防止出錯，她把要講的內(nèi)容寫在紙上。如果在回答問題時用詞不當(dāng)，一些媒體很可能會在對外報道時添油加醋，曲解本意，那樣后果就不堪設(shè)想了。

果不其然，下午三點，就有外媒記者打來電話。針對Innovo涉嫌infringement的事情要求予以解釋。好在公司已經(jīng)做好了準(zhǔn)備，前臺總機(jī)的小姑娘接到電話后，沒有多說一句話，馬上按照事先的安排把電話轉(zhuǎn)給了Nancy。

I am informed that Maintop Company lodged a complaint with court this morning. The lawsuit filed accuses your infringing their patents relating to technology covering speech coding. Could you comment on that?

We will defend strongly against the lawsuit in subject. Maintop Company's claim refers to the successful new products that are based on our patent portfolio, acquired by us in December, 2011.

These products are unique in their functioning and are highly acknowledged as an excellent solution in the field of speech coding.

Our products result from wholly owned proprietary technology. Innovo Company is highly confident that the Maintop Company's patent will be held not infringed and invalid. Innovo Company will vigorously defend itself and its products in the interests of its customers and shareholders.

These new products use Innovo Company's registered trade mark. To discover how these products can add value to our customers' application, please feel free to visit our website.

Thank you for calling. You are always welcome to visit our company.

放下電話，Nancy松了一口氣，這一關(guān)算是闖過來了。她不敢懈怠，立刻把剛才向媒體說明的情況做了個書面report，用e-mail發(fā)給了VP和Tommy作為參考，以便大家統(tǒng)一口徑，商量下一步的對策。