In the thick of it: How brands can prepare for and respond to disasters
Anne Field
When the stock market crashed in September 2008, it was the beginning of a long journey back for Bank of America.
The Charlotte-based financial services company had recently bought Countrywide Financial, the teetering mortgage originator that blew up when the housing market collapsed; then, under pressure from the U.S. government, it purchased the floundering Merrill Lynch.
Both acquisitions landed the company smack in the middle of the sub-prime and mortgage securitization fiasco — and considerable consumer and government ire. In December 2009, newly named...