Crisis Communication
James Lukaszewski once described crisis as “unplanned visibility”
Why You Need A Crisis Communications Plan
Whether big or small, no organization should be without a crisis communications plan.
Crisis happen all of the time: it could be a fire, it could be a robbery, it could be a high-profile sexual harassment case, or it could be a major safety issue with one of your products. Whatever it is, it’s highly likely that some kind of crisis is going to hit your company sometime in the next couple of years. There are many aspects to being prepared for a crisis, many of which, frankly, are not worth preparing for in advance, either because of their low probability of occurrence (alien abduction of your entire management team), or the fact that many crisis require more real-time attention that a crisis plan simply can’t prepare for in advance.
But almost all crises have a consistent element, which you can plan for in advance – how your company will communicate with the media during and after the crisis. Why? Because how well your company manages the media during a crisis could determine your whether your company gets hurt, or even sometimes, grows as a result. Many companies who do not handle these issues suffer the ultimate fate – the death or reorganization of the company.
Think about the rash of corporate scandals – Tylenol, Pepsi, Enron, Martha Stewart… and how those company’s bottom lines have been affected. And while you’re at it, think of the ultimate example of excellent crisis management – the original poisoned Tylenol case, where J&J came out more strongly positioned with the public than they were before the crisis happened. Much of this success came as a result of their relationships with the press during the disaster.
Lecture Note 1
Extra Reading One
Extra Reading Two
No comments:
Post a Comment