Crisis Communication: Expect the Unexpected

“A crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur wither naturally or as a result of human error, intervention or even malicious intent. It can include tangible devastation, such as the destruction of life or assets, or intangible devastation such as the loss of an organization’s credibility or other reputational damage. The latter outcomes may be result of management’s response to tangible devastation or the result of human error.”

• News Media have traditionally derived a high percentage of front page or prime time news stories from crises occurring in the corporate world.
• A crisis is everything has everything journalists and readers alike crave: high drama and the catharsis that accompanies witnessing such events.
• Mangers need to understand crisis communication because organizations too face crises that are often capable of reaching huge proportions and substantiality influence the work ability.

Types of Crisis
• Natural Occurrences : Corporations face crisis that occur naturally : A hurricane rips through a town, leveling the local waste management company’s primary facility; an earthquake turns the three biggest supermarkets in the area into piles of rubble; a ship is battered at sea by a storm and sinks with the cargo destined for a foreign market. Organizations have no control over these incidents and it cannot be avoided.
• Human induced crisis: There are many crises that are caused by human error or negligence, which can be prevented through planning. Such human crises can be bigger than the natural disasters in terms of cost to the companies in terms of both dollars and reputation. Not all human crises can be lumped together. One type includes cases in which the company is clearly at fault, for instance cases of negligence. The second type of crises includes cases in which the company becomes a victim. A company’s role as either perpetrator or victim in a crisis is the distinction upon which public perception often hinges.

Crisis Characteristics
• Element of surprise – For example, Pepsi learning of reports of a syringe found in a Diet Pepsi can. The element of surprise leads to a loss of control. It is hard to think strategically when overwhelmed by unexpected outside events.
• Insufficient Information – The company does not have all the facts right away, but very quickly finds itself in a position of having to do a lot of explaining.
• The quick pace of events – Things escalate very rapidly. For example, even before Exxon’s crisis centre was up and running in Valdez, the state of Alaska and several other environmental groups were mobilized.
• Intense Scrutiny – Executives are often unprepared for the media spotlight, which is instantaneous, as answers and results normally take time.

How to prepare for crisis
• Assess the risk – Organizations need to analyze whether it can be attacked or not and by whom. However, the question arises as how can organizations determine whether they are more or less likely to experience crisis or not. First, publicly traded companies are at risk because of the nature of their relationship with the key constituency, their shareholders. A privately held company does not have to worry about shareholders when a crisis hits, but it does have to worry about the loss of goodwill, which can affect sales.
• Set Communication Objectives for Potential Crises - The overriding objective of all crises planning should be to maintain the flow of communication at all times – not jus on paper but in practice as well. Managers need to focus on what kind of things they will say and to whom as the crises involve intangibles such as the loss of reputation rather than the loss of lives.
• Consider the Constituencies – Companies need to determine which constituencies would be most affected by a crisis. Ranking the constituencies over one another during the hectic fast-paced environment of a crisis is difficult. Hence planning helps the organization further refine which potential crises it should spend the most time and money preparing for.
• Analyze channel choices – Companies should select effective communication channel to convey the message. Mass distribution of memos would be too impersonal for a message to employees in time of crisis. The company might consider personal or group meetings or a “town hall” gathering instead. The choice of communication channel reflects how sensitive a company is to its constituencies’ needs.
• Assign different teams to each crisis - Different problems require different kind of problems, hence a company need to determine in advance, who will be on what team for each crisis. Assigning different teams to handle different crises helps the organization put he best people in charge of handling that crisis and the necessary communications.
• Plan for centralization - When it comes to crises approach must be completely centralized. Planning for centralization can help strip away layers of bureaucracy, keep lines of communication open throughout the organization and dissipate conflict, all of which are especially critical in a crisis.
• What to include in a Crisis Plan – Research on crisis planning has shown that following information is almost always included in crisis plan :

1. A list of whom to notify in an emergency
2. An approach to media relations
3. A strategy for notifying employees
4. A location to serve as crisis headquarters
5. A description of the plan

Communicating during Crisis
• Get control of the situation – The first step is for the appropriate managers to get control of the situation as soon as possible. This involves defining the real problem with the use of reliable information and then setting measurable communication objectives for handling it. Failing to take this seemingly obvious, but crucial first step can be devastating to crisis management effort.
• Gather as much information as possible - Directly related to defining the problem, the gathering of relevant information is crucial to addressing a crisis. This involves managing the information coming from several sources. As information becomes available, someone should be assigned to mine this information.
• Set up a centralized Crisis Management Centre – Crisis management centre will serve as the platform for all communication during the crisis. All communications about the crisis should come from this one centralized location. The centre should include adequate computers, phone services, fax machines, etc.
• Communicate early and often – The organization’s spokesperson needs to say whether he or she can as soon as possible. Silence and delayed responses should be avoided. Companies need to put good inside people on the front lines rather than hired guns and should encourage managers to adopt a team approach with others involved in crisis communication.
• Get inside the media’s head – Members of the media in and extremely competitive environment, which explains why they all want to get the story first. They are also accustomed to a crisis environment in their work. They look for stories with villains, victims and visuals.
• Communicate directly with the affected constituencies – Employees are likely to be the best media sources in the crisis as each of them act as a goodwill ambassador for the firm. Hence, the employees need to be communicated first about the crisis. External constituencies need to be contacted as well, which includes customers, shareholders, communities, suppliers, emergency services, experts and officials. All the available technologies should be used to communicate with them including e-mail, voice mail, faxes, direct satellite broadcasts, and online services.
• Keep the business going – Except the top management, which is involved in dealing with the crisis, others should work to keep the business going. Managers should plan ahead replacements for employees working in crisis team.
• Make plans to avoid another crisis immediately – Post crisis, corporate communications executives should work with other managers to ensure the organization will be even better prepared the next time it is faced with the crisis. Companies should realize that there is no better time than the period immediately following a crisis to prepare for the next one because motivation is high to learn from mistakes made the first time.

Experience
• When cyclone struck the state of Gujarat in India in 2001, devastation of life and property was to its peak. I was in my school and the Independence Day function was being celebrated. When the earth trembled, all the students and the staff got panic. However, the Principal took control of the situation and she evacuated the school premises. Due to centralization of authority, the flow of instructions from her to rest of the staff members was very fast and effective. The school management took responsibility of students’ safety and managed to send all of us safely back home. Due to the efficient management during the crisis, there was no loss of lives and no one was even wounded.

• In July 2004 when I was in the first year of under graduation, there was a bomb threat in the college. The college premises was full of students who ran here and there spreading the news, which made the President come up front and console the students by touring the whole campus and denying the fact of any bomb present. The management was able to react quickly because it had collected relevant information and made the necessary security checks for any threats as soon as it got the news. It was well aware of the students’ security and had the crisis team at hand to handle the issue. Parents and the media were contacted as soon as possible to stop the rumors spread any further and timely and accurate information was provided.

Example

• Communications during The Syringe Scare, Pepsi-Cola
When two separate reports of syringes found in Pepsi cans prompted the FDA to issue an advisory recommending that Pepsi drinkers empty their cans into cups before drinking in 1993, Pepsi-Cola Co. sprang into action.

Utilizing public relations principles to develop a four-step plan of action, Pepsi communicated with its publics and the FDA as new facts were discovered. First, the company granted on-site interviews and brought camera crews into the canning line to rule out the possibility of sabotage. To counteract the inevitable spreading of a local story to national news, the company develops several methods of dispersing information including news releases, video releases, trade letters, still photos, graphs and interviews.

Then, the Pepsi CEO appeared on every major network to share the message that the contamination was virtually impossible in the plants. Advisories were sent out twice daily while six media relations personnel were stationed to answer phone calls and inquiries from various media.

Throughout the crisis, FDA officials concentrated on finding the source of the contamination, while Pepsi focused on the safety and reliability of its packaging process. As a result, the scare ended in less than seven days. A very large crisis for the company was diverted by adhering the plan developed and being upfront about the situation.

Pepsi was able to return to normal sales within two months and in fact ended the season with an increase of seven percent in sales. In addition, 94 percent of consumers reported that Pepsi had handled the crisis responsibly and 75 percent said they felt confident in Pepsi products as a result.

• SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF CRISIS COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT:A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND PLANNING MODEL
By James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA
As Published in Ragan's Communications Journal, January/February 1999

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