BackCRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
Companies are more vulnerable to potential business threats than ever before. Yet in my experience they do not do enough to anticipate and prevent crises nor have in place sufficiently robust plans to mitigate their consequences.
Too often, I am approached by executives tackling a firestorm that might have been avoided had a strategy assessing corporate risks and mitigations been in place. Crisis communications, perversely, is arguably one of most overlooked branches of communications, only seemingly becoming a priority when a crisis occurs – when it is almost too late.
I believe one of the reasons it is not ordinarily high up corporate agendas is that executives and indeed their marcoms teams are not fully aware of the multiple risks they face and the degree of their companies’ exposure.
Even the most well-run firms have vulnerabilities and may be subject to unforeseen threats. The number and range of fault lines in the corporate world have grown significantly in recent years. Some are more visible than others, yet like a geophysicist monitoring signs of earthquake activity, they need to be identified and assessed to avert reputational disasters.
An upsurge in reputational risks in the last decade or so has been largely driven by, firstly, the digital revolution and, secondly, the emergence of more assertive employees, consumers and activists.
Under the first trend, the expansion in unregulated social media channels has provided opportunities for those wanting to weaponise content through slanderous comments and disinformation, while technological disruption has destabilised markets, causing sudden falls in consumer confidence and revenue.
The second trend has seen companies coming under more scrutiny. Any ill-chosen public remark or other shortcoming concerning diversity, human rights, as well as cultural and environmental issues, is likely to be called out and amplified should they gain traction on social media, particularly if woke millennials and Gen-Zs are driving the criticism.
Given the heightened potential for things to go very wrong, business leaders, I believe, have a responsibility to ensure their companies have taken the necessary precautions to prevent crises or at the very least limit any harmful fallout. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Having worked on a wide range of crisis communications campaigns – from companies accused of wielding political influence to win contracts to charities charged with poor governance and business leaders facing social media storms over public comments – I have been able to develop robust crisis prevention and mitigation strategies.
Central to my approach is a thoroughgoing assessment of where things could go wrong before they have a chance to. In practice, this amounts to carrying out a risk audit and identifying reputational vulnerabilities. Out of that comes a risk register where potential threats are graded in terms of likelihood of occurrence and the scale of impact. Then, a risk reduction plan is developed, and a reporting mechanism created to monitor issues that could pose a threat. That would include the use of social media listening tools to track sentiment around issues of concern – a kind of early warning system, so they can be downgraded or upgraded over time.
Equally important is to know how to respond when threats come to pass. I’m a strong advocate of developing ‘what if’ scenarios, essentially mapping out the sequence of management team actions required to deal with various types of crises. This also involves crafting appropriate baseline copy and tone of voice instructions for senior spokespeople, so that they can respond effectively to information requests from media and other stakeholders. It is crucial preparation because when a crisis strikes time is of the essence – knowing what steps to take and avoiding lengthy approval processes optimises organisational response.
