Seems like Apollo’s PR department has gone into a slumber post the AIIMS report contradicting its in the Rahul Mahjan episode. Maybe I shouldn’t be trying to poke my nose into this episode much - I’ve already written before on this - but I just can’t help myself wondering what sense does it make for Apollo to go into hybernation. That just seems to reinforce the fact that they were wrong. Sure there is legal angle involved in this and people can’t speak much about it, but just utter silence is not good PR I think.

We all know the first rule in managing a crisis is transparency and good communication flow. There is not even a whisper here. With this policy, to me Apollo looks like any of those who suddenly choose to go mum once they are busted by the police. There should be at least something to say.

Now on the long term PR policy, I suppose Apollo has decided not to do any pro-active media pitching for stories for the next couple of months, which might be a good strategy. As a fellow PR person, I would suggest they at least continue to profile their key doctors in health related stories. That way, even if there is much negative publicty on its management, its doctors would continue to be industry spokespersons.

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