How to Turn a Corporate Scandal into an Opportunity

Astronomer's comeback after the inglorious exit of its former CEO Andy Byron is a case study for crisis management

- Somak Ghoshal

Heard, Byron is considering suing Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of the band, for the viral "kiss cam scandal". In the meantime, Astronomer installed one of its co-founders, Pete DeJoy, as interim CEO, who quickly went into damage control mode by making the right noises. In his first post on LinkedIn since the incident, he praised the integrity and professionalism of his employees in the face of all the attention Astronomer has recently received.

"The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies—let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world—ever encounter," DeJoy wrote. "The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name." It was a textbook move on managing crises in the workplace: start by clearly acknowledging the problem and assessing the extent of the damage.

Ironically, Astronomer's reputational troubles proved to be a blessing in disguise because it was caused by poor personal choices of its leaders rather than unscrupulous business decisions. Had it involved a disaster pertaining to the company's services or finances, it would have been much harder for even the best PR machinery to undo.