Corporate Crisis Management Blog

Do you recall the frustration of trying to manage a crisis when you were being told by legal that the only acceptable public response was, ‘No comment’?

That might have been good legal strategy – but it was often a disaster as a way to protect the organization’s reputation and rebuild trust with stakeholders.

Now, in the age of digital and social media, the need to regain control of a crisis with your own story and messages has never been greater.

For those of us who live in Florida, the memories of September 2017 are very fresh.

Just days after we had watched on television the devastating impact on Texas of the named storm Harvey, we were glued to the television watching the ever-changing path of the category 5 Hurricane, Irma.

As Floridians in the strike zone evacuated to safer locations, major employers in the state activated crisis and emergency contingency plans.

Imagine how you would feel if you heard about a family secret from a third party on the internet, or in the newspaper?

That is exactly how employees feel every time they learn about a significant announcement or bad news from somewhere other than company leaders.

This powerful observation opens a fascinating chapter in RockDove’s new ebook, ‘The New Rules of Crisis Management’, focusing on the role of employees in a crisis.

The pace of business and the flow of information makes it tough for all communicators in the new world of crisis management. However, teams at professional services firms face even more complications. 

Professional services firms – such as management consultants, lawyers and accountants -  are often decentralized fiefdoms representing individual practices, offerings or solutions.

The Practices operate in silos within the firm, with little integration, a situation exacerbated when there has been acquisitions and mergers in the recent past.

Not everything is new in the new rules of crisis management.

If crisis management were a game of sandlot football, the call would be, “play the same plays…a little differently”, says long-time leader and expert in the field, James Donnelly, a senior member of the team at top global communications consultancy, Ketchum.

James authored the opening chapter in the new eBook, ‘The New Rules of Crisis Management – Issues & Crisis Planning and Response in the Digital Age’, published by RockDove and supported by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

We are in the golden age of crisis.  

So, if you have not already done so, you should download your free copy of the new ebook published by RockDove and In Case of Crisis, supported by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), titled, ‘The New Rules of Crisis Management – Issues & Crisis Planning and Response in the Digital Age’.

You can download your free copy here.

It’s fair question to ask if there was any real need for a fresh set of rules of crisis management?

Weren’t the old ones doing just fine?

‘New York’s attorney general is investigating a company that sells fake followers on social media’ was a headline that caught our eye in the technology and media network, The Verge, on January 29th.

On behalf of In Case of Crisis users who are trying to build robust crisis plans, we are always alert to new risks that are emerging from the confluence of culture, social, economic and political forces and the increasing widespread use of social media and digital technologies such as smartphones.

United Airlines. PWC. Wells Fargo. Pepsi. Delta. Equifax. Chipotle. Dove Soap.

Presidential tweets. Viral videos. Cyber thefts. Sexual misconduct. Brand mis-judgments. Corporate malfeasance. Extreme weather.

From a crisis management point of view, 2017 had it all!

But what lessons do we to take from it all?

 You pretty much guessed that trust for government among Americans fell precipitously in 2017 and is at an all-time low, right?

I am also thinking that you will have no problem holding onto your hat when you hear that trust in the media fell last year.

But did you realize that trust in businesses and NGOs fell at a faster rate than that for the media? I didn’t think so!