Speaking at the Boston College Chief Executives’ Club of Boston November 29, Aflac Insurance Chairman and CEO Daniel Amos described the growth of his company, which insures 50 million people worldwide, and the difficulties it faced in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, where sales accounted for more than three-quarters of Aflac’s earnings.
. . . prior to the new millennium . . . nine out of ten people did not know our name. But all of that changed in 2000 when we started the Aflac duck campaign.
Today, we insure one out of four households in Japan, . . . As all of you are aware, last year there was a major earthquake and tsunami that caused more than 20,000 deaths. It absolutely devastated the country.
. . . [B]ad news does not improve with age. By this I mean that even if it isn’t good—we’ll make that especially if it isn’t good—don’t wait to deliver it.
Every CEO knows how important it is with your brand. And anything that threatens or tarnishes your name . . . can do it quickly. And while we were still hearing about the anguish of lives lost, the U.S. voice of the Aflac duck, Gilbert Gottfried, decided to tweet jokes about the situation.
Boston Globe
