Handling Crisis

Managing company crisis is like managing threats. And hence before plotting the communication plan, it is very important to do the SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats - analysis. The threats are things that we fear could happen or may resurface. And hence we need to have an infrastructure in place to be able to handle it.

Dallas Lawrence, Chief Global Digital Strategist for Burson-Marsteller suggested 13-lessons for crisis preparation and management (Miltenberg, B. 2013). The steps that Lawrence suggests are:

• 1.      Know and engage key conversations drivers early and often.
• 2.      Actively monitor not just your reputation, but also the activities of your protagonists.
• 3.      Develop clear, effective and platform appropriate messaging.
• 4.      Own your brand in social before someone else does.
• 5.      Leverage the power of Twitter.
• 6.      People want to hear from people, not logos.
• 7.      Integration is key
• 8.      Be sure you know what you're talking about during a crisis.
• 9.      When you blow it, own up to it.
• 10.  Consider humor.
• 11.  Integrate paid and earned.
• 12.  Have clear employee rules and train for social engagement.
• 13.  Don't forget your secret weapon.

And then there are those old crisis that resurface. For example recently the 20-year-old allegations against Woody Allen resurfaced. The Monica Lewinsky scandals have resurfaced and even Paula Deen's racist remarks made years back, brought down her brand value.  Tony Silber from PR News Blog says that we should stop being defensive about old crisis. As corporate we need to take responsibility and inform the public about how we are trying to resolve the issue and promise never to repeat it again (Silber, T. 2014).

BP faced a lot of criticism from the world. The task of BP was to communicate the crisis with the people in America and the world over. An organization's reputation is the most important asset and the oil spill cost BP its reputation.

The oil spill happened in 2010 but BP till today stresses on the efforts of recovery in the Gulf of Mexico. It's advertisement stressed on its commitment to Gulf of Mexico, its commitment to America and about still being America's largest energy investor. It stresses on safety, providing employment to Americans and generating revenue for America.

The main purpose of BP's communication is on crisis management. Its theme is commitment and safety. Expressions such as "BP has two goals, help the Gulf recover and learn from what happened," "Safety is a part of everything we do," "produce energy safely," "We invest more in the US than anywhere else in the world," "America's largest energy investor," "Commitment to America," is continuously played out in its advertisements and marketing efforts. This only reiterates how BP is honestly trying to rebuild trust.

These many real examples only go to show that it is not bad to make a mistake, but not learning from it and not informing the public and your stakeholders about the mistake made and about actions taken to recover from it can do you more harm.