Audience: your own employees
Message: We’re finally getting the attention we deserve. Let’s enjoy it together.
Tone: informal
Timing: 5-6 minutes, depending on the insertion of details of media coverage

Good afternoon…. We should have asked you all to enter the auditorium backward. We want to pat you on the back. In case you haven’t read the newspapers recently, our company has just been cited as (citation or media mention).

The (name of newspaper) had this to say in a recent issue: “[Insert quote.]”

Others of the print media have joined the chorus singing our praises. Here are a few of the lyrics they’ve used:
[Insert quotes from other papers and journal articles.]

One school bulletin board had this truth posted: “Laugh and the class laughs with you,… but you stay after school alone.” That’s a fairly true commentary on the state of the average person’s response to business difficulties. If our company had been responsible for a nuclear mishap or had spilled oil offshore, we’d be hanging alone in a very nasty breeze.

I dare say that 98 percent of the businesses in this country are well-managed companies made up of honest, hard-working employees. But it’s usually the other 2 percent that get the coverage.

Not this time, however. It’s positive news. And we’re pleased that the press and the public are celebrating with us. The media have done a valuable service in bringing to light the nature of [insert details of the issue]. The public, especially our customers, has a right to expect such, and we’ve given them that possibility.

[Insert details about the situation/research/changes/products that have produced such positive attention.]

We as a company can celebrate. But in essence that means you. You are (corporation). You contribute creative ideas,… develop them,… plan for their implementation,… and then carry them to their logical outcomes—the products and services we now offer and plan to provide in the near future. You are the people behind the machines. You are the people behind the policies. You are the people behind the customer counters. You are the people making the service calls.

In short, you are the reason we are celebrating.

Take this bit of good news and swallow it. Enthusiasm goes down much easier than medicine and will go a long way in reducing fatigue and generating energy. In fact, we encourage you to share it with your neighbors and professional associates. The more other people understand of what we do and its significance to their daily work lives, the more they like us.

Our sincere thanks to each of you for your conscientious dedication to every detail of your job. And thank you for coming and wallowing in the limelight with us this afternoon. We’d like to get a good tan before this is all over.