Sustaining Business Newsletter

Plan to Survive a Public Relations Nightmare 
By Jennifer S. Hendrickson

You can hardly open a newspaper or click on an article today without reading about the public relations nightmares plaguing Toyota and British Petroleum (BP).  Both companies have not only made some deadly errors in management, but to make matters worse, they have both made public relations mistakes that have further damaged their reputations, hampered consumer confidence and caused their stock prices to plummet beyond what might have been expected had the companies communicated more effectively and sincerely with the public. In hindsight, I'm sure both companies are lamenting the lack of preparation for such public and widespread disasters.  Most of our businesses will neither reach the size nor scope of Toyota or BP, but these two current events have illustrated the point that all companies MUST have a plan in place for communicating crises to the public - a plan that includes all of the following points:

1. Acknowledge early.  As soon as you're aware of a problem that affects your customers or the public, acknowledge it.  The problem itself still needs to be fixed, but you risk little in keeping everyone informed.
    
2. Respond quickly and authoritatively.  If you have a public relations plan to deal with adverse attention, this step will be easy.  If you haven't planned for this, you may find yourself scrambling with disjointed information and people in your organization speaking out of turn.
    
3. Provide information.  If you don't fill in the blanks for the public, the public will begin to fill in the blanks for you.  Provide factual information early and often.
    
4. Apologize.  Even if you're not completely at fault or if there are factors outside your control, pointing fingers or shifting blame makes you look even worse.  
    
5. Communicate the fix.  Communicate with your staff, customers and the media your master plan for fixing the problem and continue communicating until the problem is completely resolved.

Crisis management should include an aggressive strategy to communicate the right information to the right people very quickly.  All too often the legacy of a leader is made by a few casual or off-handed remarks about an incident that makes him/her sound apathetic or uncaring.  As an example, BP chief executive Tony Hayward recently said as he was assigning blame to the manufacturer of the oil rig:  "There are many barriers of protection that you have to go to before you get to (the safety device).  It isn't designed to not fail."  Even without the unclear double-negative statement, Hayward's comment only makes him (and thus BP) look foolish.  Messages need to be carefully crafted and shared regularly with all stakeholders who speak for the organization.

Too often we hear or read that someone was "unavailable for comment".  The likelihood that a CEO or spokesperson of a company in the spotlight is truly unavailable - especially given today's instant communications technology - is nil and the public knows it.  If you are not commenting on a situation affecting your company, the public will assume you are either guilty or disengaged.  Even if you don't have many facts to give the public because a crisis is still developing, it looks far better to admit that there is a crisis and that they can count on you to update them early and often.

Similarly, referring the media to your attorney will make you appear like a coward hiding behind your lawyer.  You should never leave your legal counsel in the dark; in fact, your counsel should approve every message you deliver publicly if there are legal implications, but you must say it with your own voice.  Even if you have a public relations professional retained to speak on your company's behalf, the public still wants to hear the big news and any apology from you personally.  Do that, and from then on they'll have no problem hearing from you through a public relations professional.  Even Akio Toyoda, one of the most reclusive businessmen in the world, appeared personally to apologize for his company's errors.  Some say he could have done better, but the point is that the world wanted to hear it from him and he knew it.

The main lesson we can all take away in order to survive a public relations nightmare is that every company and organization must have a plan.  While you may not be able to anticipate every situation, you can anticipate the most likely scenarios.  As General George Patton said, "A good plan...executed now is better than a perfect plan next week."  If you don't have a plan for keeping the public informed during a business crisis and would like help putting one together, contact us.  We'll work with you to develop one.