Boeing, others crank up crisis communications.(News)

Byline: SEAN CALLAHAN

Companies beset by ethics flaps and hounded by the media are using an increasingly necessary marketing discipline: crisis communications.

Boeing Co. is among the many companies that have needed large doses of crisis communications recently. Last Monday a simmering scandal at the aerospace giant finally boiled over with the resignation of Phil Condit, the company's chairman-CEO.

That move followed the firing of CFO Mike Sears and Darleen Druyun, VP-deputy general manager of Missile Defense Systems, whom Sears was alleged to ha