Corporate Crisis Management Blog

There is a growing swirl of bafflement around the PR industry’s inability to adopt new technology to become more effective.

I read a recent interview with the CISION CEO Kevin Akeroyd, who observed that when it comes to technology, the PR industry is in the dark ages, particularly with regard to measurement and results metrics.

Each year, nearly 3 million cases of non-fatal injuries and illnesses are reported in workplaces across the country. Meanwhile, about 4,800 deaths occur due to work-related injuries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While those numbers may seem high, they are actually on a downward trend as corporations continually adopt better and more effective workplace safety initiatives. These days, advances in technology are helping push these numbers even lower. 

If there is anything to take from the amazing number and variety of corporate and brand crises in just the first six months of 2017, it’s that if your crisis plan is more than two years old, it’s next to useless.

The manner and speed that issues arise and then have the flames of controversy fanned means this year is not an anomaly – it’s the shape of things to come, thanks to the rise of social media, smartphone technology, the changing relationship with brands and the widespread political, social and cultural upheavals.

If your company is one of the 51 percent of organizations that admits to not having crisis management playbooks in place, now is the time to sit down and start planning. The very future of your business could depend on it.

But where should you begin? If you’re new to the process, building crisis management plans likely seems like a daunting task. Luckily, there are just six key steps required to create a plan—and the process will likely become easier after you’ve gone through it the first time.

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste,” was the famous 2008 observation of Rahm Emanuel, then Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama.

In which case 2017 is providing rich pickings.

Technology, generational shifts and widespread cultural/political/social upheaval has created a golden age of crisis.

Let’s take a look at the top ten corporate and brand crises of the first half of the year and what lessons they hold for the rest of us.

If a crisis struck your organization today, how long would it take you to activate your communications plan? Would you be able to quickly and confidently begin addressing the crisis, enabling your company to control the overall tone of the response? Or would a slow activation of the plan leave time for the story to spread, for the public to speculate, and for your customers to grow uneasy?

Here’s a random top ten list of activities that I undertake more quickly, easily and effectively using my smartphone that was imaginable even five years ago.

The pace of technology is reaching a fever pitch, with new innovations, upgrades, and features emerging all the time. As technology evolves in countless ways, it’s vital that your crisis management plan evolves as well. Today, we’ll take a closer look at the dangers of not keeping your plan up to speed with technology changes, which are happening all the time. 

Do you remember Friday June 29 2007?

Do you recall what you were doing that day? No, me neither!

At least some of you began that early summer day standing in line at your local Apple store for the first ever iPhone.

Yes, that was really ten years ago.

Since then there has been 12 billion sales of the iPhone. If you were not in line in 2007 to get the first one, the chances are that you have one now.