Eric Dezenhall - Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal

Copyright 2014 by Eric Dezenhall

Cover design and photography by Catherine Casalino

Cover copyright 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First ebook edition: October 2014

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ISBN 978-1-4555-5800-1

E3

During my 30 years of helping people navigate the risks of public life, Eric Dezenhall has emerged as the most effective warrior and teacher. GLASS JAW offers the highest-resolution image of controversy in the new millennium, showing who wins, and howwho loses, and why.

Gavin de Becker, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Gift of Fear

Today, one product defect, one offensive remarkcombined with the power of instantaneous worldwide social networkingcan bring down the mightiest giant. GLASS JAW analyzes how scandals spiral out of control and details the hard work required to regain a lost reputation. Dezenhalls cautionary tales are fascinatingand should serve as a stern warning to anyone with a reputation to lose.

Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive

I highly recommend Eric Dezenhalls GLASS JAW for anyone interested in reputational risk management in an age where no one is safe from scandal. GLASS JAW is like a wise cornerman teaching you how to take a public punch. No crisis is ever the same, but Dezenhalls book, rich with amusing examples and cautionary tales, will help you recognize if its better to fight than to throw in the towel.

Ian Bremmer, president, Eurasia Group, and author of Every Nation for Itself

With GLASS JAW, Eric Dezenhall once again offers fascinating and timely insights into the gladiatorial arena of modern crisis management. Like an Amazing Randi of communications, he debunks anyone claiming to perform PR magic as a fraud. Instead, he offers realistic strategies tempered by hard truths. Weve been studying human behavior and how good and bad people react under great stress for quite some time, but we always learn something valuable from Eric.

Former FBI Special Agent John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, bestselling authors of Mindhunter, The Anatomy of Motive, and Law & Disorder

From Silicon Valley to the factories of the old economy, marketplace power has never been more precarious. Eric Dezenhalls GLASS JAW is to damage control what Talebs Black Swan is to economicsa jeremiad on how the seemingly powerful are increasingly at the mercy of the seemingly powerless. This book is the field guide anyone in a position of responsibility will want in the foxhole with them when their reputation is on the line.

Deborah Perry Piscione, New York Times bestselling author of Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World

To Ralph Ochsman (19202012)

Who survived Normandy and did all right for a poor kid from Philly

To Father Thomas L. Dixon (19342008)

Who understood the might of external forces

To Budd Schulberg (19142009)

Who knew a little about boxing and could write some, too