Just before Thanksgiving last year, the owner of a furniture company in Ohio texted and emailed all of his almost 3,000 employees during the night, informing them that their services were no longer required and the company was going bankrupt. He then flew to Paris for a holiday. No one knew where he was, he did not return any calls, he did not respond to messages.

The impact was immediate: social media exploded with employee outrage, old-school media – from red-tops to financial outlets and platforms – picked up on it and had a field day. People were scathing, and rightly so. Irrespective of the operational and legal outcome of the bankruptcy, the reputational damage to the owner, his family and his company is irreparable. The event will become a case study at American business schools of how not to handle a crisis.

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