Some simple fundamental errors in crisis management have turned what could have been a routine car accidental into an international media circus.

Whether his moral compass is below par is one question, but the complete amateurishness with which his team treated the issue seems unforgivable. But it that true? I would suggest their hands were probably tied because they advise one of the most arrogant sports stars in history. He doesn’t listen and fires anyone who dares to have an opinion.

Throughout his career, Woods’ alienation of stakeholders has become legendary. Broadcasters were told to dance to his tune, promoters were required to fork out large chunks of appearance money, police escorts ring-fenced him on the links of St Andrews.

The public were asked to forked out billions of pounds to buy his good, while being told to respect his privacy… and don’t you dare ask for an autograph!.

Well now we know why.

Now we know that Tiger is a serial philanderer. And when the lurid allegations began to fly, the tabloids gorged themselves, frankly it is payback time. He has abused them on his way up and they are now taking their revenge.

By turning away the Florida State Troopers on three occasions and fobbing off the public, Woods and his handlers created an information vacuum into which wild speculation flowed.

Theories abounded that his wife had pursued his car armed with a three-iron, taking out several windows of his Cadillac Escalade as he attempted to make good his escape only to collide first with a fire hydrant before his inglorious progress was halted by a tree.

In the hours and days that followed, the disdain with which the media was treated by his spin doctors and lawyers and legal counsel, has only made the media dig deeper.

We are close to finding the number of mistresses is into double figures… a score Tiger never achieved on a golf course!

Trying to buy off one of the kiss and tell candidates, has only meant more have emerged to put their noses into the trough.

As one tacky tale followed another, Woods, acting on poor advice and misguided logic, cowered behind bland statements on his own web site, rather than confront the crisis head on.

“I am dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means,” he wrote.

“But no matter how intense curiosity about public figures can be, there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy.

“For me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”

He has a point of course, but is it realistic to actually achieve complete privacy when you are the most famous man in the world? He can say it is unfair but to a certain extent when you reap the rewards of endorsements, the sacrifice is you have to behave in a reasonable way.

Woods is a richly talented golfer, with 14 majors to his name. . In 2008 he earned over US$100 million from winnings and endorsements. He is the world’s foremost individual sports brand with personal worth of US$1 billion. He is icon and role model. It is on this last point that the world feels let down..

On every main principle of crisis management, Woods and his team failed. failed. 1. Have a plan for when crisis strikes; 2. Tell your side of the story – quickly, honestly and accurately; 3. Establish and control messaging.4 Make friends with the media in the good times. 5. Allow your media advisor to give advice and listen. And tell him/her the whole truth.

One American commentator wrote: “The warning signs were there at least a week before it all started to unravel. The tabloids had linked Woods to New Yorknightclub host Rachel Uchitel, who was reported to be in the same Melbourne hotel as Woods while he was competing in the Australian Masters.

“Woods had time to ponder the impact of the two issues – first that the media sharks were circling over claims of a dalliance, and second the confrontation with a fire hydrant and a tree near his Orlando home.

“Woods ignored at least three opportunities to talk with police investigators about the incident. He delayed, losing opportunities to take control of the messaging. The delay aroused suspicion and media speculation grew.”

I don’t blame his advisors – as I said earlier, I suspect he didn’t listen. But by not being proactive quickly he has been overwhelmed by the negativity.

If you leave a gap in the market in media management someone will fill it – and the tabloids have had a field day at Woods’ expense.

So Barak Obama has received the Nobel peace prize? It does seem somewhat premature for a president that has only been in situ for 10 months but I can understand from a PR perspective why this may have happened.

It places the hopes of every peaceful national on the president’s shoulders and will make him even more determined to succeed. But should the reward not have been for the world’s most confident leader?

Look at our Gordon Brown… he has a great intellect, outstanding knowledge of how the world economy works, but his body language shows no confidence. He looks stooped, puffy and there have been rumours his health is suffering badly.

It is no coincidence, in my view, that David Cameron has been seen jogging enthusiastically in Manchester this week, at the time of the Tory party conference. Will he become the first Prime Minister to cycle to work? I doubt that, but my point is confidence is what this country needs if it is to recover.

The banking system was in an awful state last year, but it was consumer confidence that tipped it over the edge. Once we, the public, stopped spending the liquidity in the banks dried up and they became paralysed and unable to operate until the Government poured money in.

I feel those who dismiss David Cameron and George Osborne as PR spinners or inexperienced are talking nonsense. Both are intellectually equipped to deal with the civil servants who bring the real knowledge and experience to the table. What they really have is the confidence to make choices they believe in… and confidence is what the voters will be looking for.

For all his mistakes, the dotty wife, the Iraq war, Tony Blair kept the support of the British public because he always looked confident. People believed he did what he thought was right.

And that is why Obama’s award has come so early… it is a victory for confidence over substance and achievement at a time when the world needs that above all other qualities from our leaders.

Why do our football administrators treat our highly paid footballers with kid gloves? Surely it is time to accept that with the fame and riches they enjoy, comes a responsibility to behave. They are role models, like it or not and if they can’t accept it they should stand down from the game we all love.

Emmanuel Adebayor should be banned for at least four games and be fined his full salary for that time. Imagine - £600,000 being donated to a worthy charity can make an enormous difference. And finally the football authorities would get some respect.

Likewise  Gabby Agbonlahor who scored against Birmingham City yesterday and rushed over to their supporters with what is now the all-too-common finger across the lips to suggest they should shut up. He too should be suspended and fined. Those sort of actions can insight violence and encourage the mindless morons that attend our games in ever decreasing numbers, to gain further notoriety.

Football needs to be a paragon of virtue not stoop to the level of the thugs that have defiled the game for some many years. But in the end human beings will always push the boundaries and it is up to the football authorities to show leadership.

The IAAF’s ill timed and slap handed decision to announce on the eve of the World Championship 800 metres race that South African runner Caster Semenya would be asked to take a gender test to prove she was a woman created a PR disaster for themselves.

Of course the federation should do everything possible to ensure a level playing field in its sport but how could the publicfail to symapthise with a young person shoved into the spotlight on the mosts sensitive of issues and on the eve of such an important race?

Reading between the lines, it seems that the IAAF assumed that the South African athletics federation would anticipate that questions would be asked about Semenya and therefore pull her out of the World Championships to avoid the sort of media inquest that was, in reality, caused in no small part by the IAAF. They were caught cold when Semenya was not withdrawn and did not have a satisfactory PR and communications strategy in place to deal with the situation.

By making an announcement just hours before the 800 metres final, the federation created a hostile environment in the Olympiastadion as the trackside chitchat focused on the gender of one athlete. This was no longer a race, it was an international talking point, a scandal that the IAAF could have avoided. The fact that Semenya won the race is a tribute to her ability to perform under such unnecessary scrutiny and Jenny Meadows’ superb bronze for Great Britain was almost forgotten amongst the furor.

The IAAF would shuld have worked through a senstive communications strategy with their advisors still achieiving the proper fairness in the sport but without damaging its own reputation in the meantime.

How badly have the Government handled the Afghanistan campaign from a PR perspective? We now have had 1,000 troops killed or seriously injured and according to a survey today most of the British public don’t even know why we are fighting.

The reason for the campaign is clear - it is to fight the Talaban on their own turf, rather than over here. Since the campaign became more intense, it is no coincidence there has been no atrocities in this country.

But the Government or the military leaders have simply failed to convey just want it is all about. This is not PR spin, it is important the public understand just why young British men are putting their lives at risk.

Surely that would mean the public appreciating the job they do on our behalf even more - and the politicians can take some credit for taking what must be very difficult decisions.

Only then will the newspapers - as they did today - stop running front page stories saying the British Government are wasting the lives of our brave soldiers.

The difficulty organisations like the Met Office have in the PR stakes is that they are always slow to react. They will debate issues, discuss the pros and cons rather than give their comms director the opportunity to get on the front foot and be proactive.

The newspapers and broadcast media will go on the attack and by the corporate affairs team have moved into gear, the news agenda has moved on.

I would advise them not to be so cautious but to be prepared to take risks and accept that sometimes there may not be perfect PR, but more often than not the media appreciate the fact that you are at least trying to work with them.

In December 2003 the Met Office were forecasting the following day maximum temperatures with 82 per cent accuracy and minimum temperatures with 77 per cent accuracy. Today those figures are 87 per cent and 85 per cent. The longer range forecasts have improved by 26 per cent in nine years.

Now that is a good positive story for them, but I suspect a lot of media organisations would turn a deaf ear to it because, after all, their readers and viewers love moaning about the weather forecasters getting it wrong.

The only solution is to make the presentation of it unique. Why not get a well-known forecaster out on Question Time; they are, after all well educated, bright people.

Why not show how the forecasts work these days - can TV cameras come into the centre and watch the sophisticated satellite systems at work? They work on oceanic and atmospheric readings, but how?

They then need to roll out a programme for schools so that the adults of tomorrow are familiar with how the system works and just how accurate it really is.

Only then will the clouds that surround the Met Office show they have a silver lining…

One of the great problems for PR professional is trying to turn the tide of negative publicity when readers of a particular newspaper do not understand the issues at hand.

Take a look at the stories running about the bankers in the newspapers this week. They are all up in arms that the guys who they perceive caused the financial meltdown are now being paid bonuses again.

I suspect that for banks to thrive, deliver value to the shareholders and ultimately pay back the British taxpayer for the bail-out last year, they need to keep the very best talent.

There are as many bad investment bankers as there are good one, but the latter will always command high salaries and big bonuses because the potential upside of what they can do in enormous. If you don’t reward them for their expertise, they will go elsewhere.

The days of £20 million bonuses must surely have gone. Thousands of failed bankers have lost their jobs and many are struggling to find new employment. It is not a case of those who created the problems are back cashing in again, although there will clearly be exceptions.

We should remember our own Government encouraged Lloyds to buy HBOS, a millstone that will take some time to shift from that particular corporate neck.

But readers of most national newspapers love a witch-hunt. The reality is, whether we like it or not, the banks need to prosper for this country to recover. To do that they must retain the best talent and whether you are a footballer or a banker, the top performers are paid for delivering.

The difficulty for the PRs of the banks is the audience has gone deaf… and it suits the Government to promulgate stories about the bad bankers because it covers their own mistakes.

Isn’t it time that instead of looking to the mistakes of the past we look to the future and how we rebuild the institutions we rely on. We are not going to prosper if the banks are run by quit, choirmasters from Shrewburyness.

We need bold leadership… and that costs money.

Reputation management in the media is becoming one of the key areas of our business. Calls come into our office from all over the UK and occasionally abroad too.

We advise people like Sir Fred Goodwin, the American DJ Michael Savage and Gordon Ramsay.

So I appreciate more than most how difficult it is to advise someone like Katie Price. She needs to stop the avalanche of negative publicity, so the chance to speak to Piers Morgan for ITV was a good one.

But although her advisors secured this great platform, they cannot  talk for her. Surely she should have shown humility, she could have admitted mistakes on both sides, instead she ploughed on with a confidence which says I don’t care what people think, I care only about me.

Good advice, the right opportunities, will only work if people are prepared to listen to the experts. Katie needs a reality check because she has good people around her, but only hears her own voice.

Today I am doing a talk on crisis management to Davies Arnold Cooper, a highly respected legal firm based just off Fleet Street in London. The talk will also be broadcast to Manchester and Madrid simultaneously.

Crisis management is probably needed more now than at any time when companies and individuals are dealing with the media, be it print journalism or broadcast.

Why? Well clearly we are going through difficult times, but I feel that there has been a real change in the media landscape in the last 10 years with a philosophy which seems to suggest it is attack first, ask questions later.

It is my view that anyone in the media spotlight has to go on the front foot. Simply saying no comment leaves a giant void for journalists to fill with their own interpretation of what is going on.

So many clients say to be: It is just not fair, this is my private business, this is not for public consumption, I shouldn’t be a target etc etc

My answer is always there is no point bleating, the media play by their rules and you can either join them or be destroyed by them. Play by their rules, give them a true story or a better story and their appetites will be satiated.

Many high profile celebrities call in media lawyers at every turn and while that is a valid option in extreme cases, it creates huge residual resentment and can often mean the famous are more in the sights of the media big guns than ever before.

Building relationships is essential. If you make friends in the good times, they will look after you in the bad. Many clients only call for help at the moment the media come knocking on the door, while we advocate all-year round relationships whether it be with the business media or national.

Remember you are the best eye witness for your business and you know it better than anyone else and in my experience giving The Press a full explanation, which is balanced and in perspective, often neutralizes a media attack because there are always two sides to a story.

The other common flaw we find is companies so often exclude their communications expert from the top table, so they find themselves trying to defend a corporate reputation without knowing how the story has developed and with a briefing from the chief executive which is inadequate, flimsy and without the bigger picture perspective that allows the department to fight from a position of real knowledge.

Everyone screws up sometimes and too often people in the media firing line try to spin their way out of trouble. The lies and deceit only lead to further analysis, the story runs on and on and often the hole they are digging becomes so big it engulfs the organisation.

Saying sorry is always the best approach, particularly when it is coupled with a well thought out explanation of why the mistake happened. The media feeds on deception so tell them the truth!

The £25 million Euro Millions winner could learn a lot from our client Mark Gardiner.He won £20 million plus with his business partner and has faced the rollercoaster life that one associates with a big financial win.

If he tried to help friends and associates, they just wanted more. The jealousy factor surfaced with kiss and tell stories in tabloid newspapers (one of which I was editing!) and Mark being generally knifed in the back by all and sundry.

But Gardiner’s Ronaldo style pay packet, also brought him happiness. He took 20 of his mates on a holiday to the Caribbean, flying by Concorde, bought Aston Martin cars and holiday homes in beautiful locations.

What I don’t understand is why lottery winners would not put an X in the no publicity box. You can then “retire” from work quietly and without fuss or simply carry on your life without anyone knowing the true story. It will need discipline of course, but surely that is a small sacrifice when the alternative can bring such misery…