Crises Communication: Can businesses make a comeback?
According to the book, the definition of a crises for an organization is "...a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally or as a result of human error, intervention, or even malicious intent. It can include tangible devastation ,such as the loss of an organization's credibility or other reputational damange. The latter outcomes may be the result of mangament's response to tangible devastation or the results of human error. A crises usually affects multiple constituents in more than one market."
Crises Characteristics
The elemnent of surprise- Businesses can be hit hard with a crisis whether it is natural disaster or a business mistake, it is the companys number one priority to repair the issue. ie. Philip Morris found carcinogens in its filters.
Insufficient information- the company doesn't exactly know all the facts in the situation but has to recover fast and explain the issue to the public.
Quick pace of events- it is important to keep up with the issues surrounding the company.
Intense scrutiny- executives are often unprepared for the media's scrutiny. The media can play a big part of how much loss the business will take.
History of Business Crises
Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol Recall- Tylenol vs. Toyota
Perrier Benzene Scare
Perrier faced a contamination crises when a techinician in the Mecklenberg County Envrionmental Protection Department, discovered a minute amount of benzene in the water. The recall included over 70 million bottles from North America.
Pepsi- Cola Syringe Crises
Pepsi faced a highly publiczed contamination crises when a man in washington State reported that his can of diet Pepsi has a syringe in the can.
How to bounce back? http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3289/is_n3_v163/ai_15312359/
Plan for Crises- Experience
Right now we are all experiencing the Toyota Crisis. What can Toyota do to help them deal with the crisis of their vehicles?
-The person in charge of corporate communication should call for a brainstorm session that inclused the most senior mangers in the organization. During this session, the participants should work together to develop ideas about potential crises. They should be encouraged to be creative with new ideas. Once ideas are put into order the faciliatator should help the group to determine which of the ideas developed have the most potential to actually occur.
Hacking
On Thurday April 15th, we discussed in class the importance of keeping your computer and files updated and protected. There are many hackers out there that want to steal your information. Below is a link to a video on how to protect your computer from Malware.
I think you are right Trevor. Any company has to carefully plan for the crisis period of time. In the unfavorable condition of the business environment today, whether it is a big or small company, every organization should have the crisis communication plan in hand. Like Trevor mentioned, crises could happen at any point of time: it could be a fire, robbery, flood, or it could be a major safety issue with one of the company’s product (like the recent example could be the massive recall of the Toyota Company). Looking at it straight forward, many crisis plans are not even worth preparing for in advance, because their probability of occurrence of the crisis is very very low. As such for any company, it makes more sense to prepare for the crisis after it has occurred because at that point of time, necessary actions could be taken according to the situation. But it is a universal truth that almost all crises have a common element, i.e. how will the company communicate with the media during and after the crisis. Therefore I think even if the company does not decide to create a crisis plan it is extremely important for them to put together such a plan which could help them effectively communicate with the press and the public when the unavoidable crisis occurs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinions and I enjoyed reading the reference links too. I think you are right, as we discussed in class, we should pay more attention for security issues when we surf the internet and use our computers more carefully. We need to keep our file safe and keep our personal information from intruding of hackers.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time we need to know how to handle the crisis happened more and more often to businesses. We need to plan and prepare for our businesses to survive and go through tough times. As the book mentioned, "Fail to plan is a plan to fail".
I completely agree Trevor. I enjoyed all of your links that had additional information as well. It is extremely important for business to recognize any mistake, admit to the mistake, apologize to the public and let them know what the company is doing to fix the problem. It is better for a company to be proactive instead of reactive. You want people to know that you care and you want them to see the company doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI think the crisis can be managed more effectively and systematically using the business continuity plan or business recovery plan that Dr. Wilkie had discussed in the last class. It is good to say that “better to prevent than cure”. However, most of the time, most of the crisis will happen spontaneously, such as failure of the equipments or the natural disasters, which will discontinue the normal operations of an organization. The most important issues for the organization to consider in order to respond to the crisis are:
ReplyDelete1.Remain calm.
2.Perform the business continuity plan that has been prepared beforehand.
3.Appoint the backup representative(s) to record and provide explanations to the public as necessary.
4.This respective organization should learn from the lesson from the crisis so that if similar incident happens, better solutions can be performed.
5.Major constituencies are very concerned about the organization’s ability to mitigate the crisis. Optimistic and persuasive tone should be used to achieve mutual understanding.
These are my opinion, hope that it is useful for an organization to work on.
In the event of a crisis that directly affects an organization and its constituents, a company must formulate a plan that will rectify the situation and leave minimal damages to the company and it's reputation. The links Trevor shared were very enlightening and also gave some good examples of the importance of a crisis communication plan. I beleive that a company like Toyota for example, should recognize when there is a problem with their product, raise awareness to the issue throughout their constituency, and fix the situation as quickly as possible so no more damages are incurred. Being public about a problem and showing the steps bein taken toward solving it will restore people's faith in your company. That makes people decide to continue to do business with you.
ReplyDeleteThat is very true William, almost all crisis's happen when people aren't expecting them. I really feel like the the preparation we talked about in class and the information that the book provides is the only way businesses can prepare. One thing is to have a written paper as to what the company would say, the only way to prepare is to just always know that something could happen at any time.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well that being proactive is necessary. When a crisis happens, it is important that the company acknowledges a mistake and takes the steps to fix the problem. I enjoyed reading all the comments and links that were provided.
ReplyDelete