Sustainable Crisis Communications

-> Data Collection -> Issue Analysis -> Issue Management -> Crisis Management

• What Happens when your Reputation is on the Line
• Exercising Compliance
• Practice Makes Perfect
• Ten lessons from Global Crises
• One-Stop PIER
• Helping Old Friends
• 2020 Vision is on the way

What Happens when your Reputation is on the Line

Poor arrangements and processes are threatening company reputations; an analysis by Mike Hogan head of MediaLINK has shown that organisations are failing to meet the rapidly changing communications environment.

More and more organisations are recognizing the value of reputation but are stuck with yesterdays solutions; reputation is hard to win, easy to lose and difficult to regain.

LINK has pioneered a new way of looking at communications. It addresses what we call Sustainable Crisis Communications. Put simply SCC is proactive and reactive communications, resilient in terms of people, processes and technology which effectively manages issues, business impacts and stakeholder expectations and ensures the long term stewardship of the organisation.

We believe the old view of crisis communications… you only have a reactive system for when things go wrong… is no longer enough. What is driving the change is social interaction and new technology.

Your staff, families, contractors, customers… and critics… are communicating at a speed and with a geographical spread inconceivable only a few years ago. Twitter, social media, citizen journalism. Buzz words for a new generation of communicators.

Central to SCC is a development we call Reputation on the line and it does exactly what it says on the label. First, data collection. Who is saying what about you in all the places that matter to you? And it is no longer purely mainstream media.

Once you have gathered the raw intelligence, it is analysed to see where the story might go. Ideally you will then be able to put in place an Issues Management solution before the Tipping Point into a full-blown crisis is reached.

LINK is there to help with the resources, the processes and the training. For nearly a quarter of a century we have been helping companies manage crises, training key people in business recovery and communications, with the advert of Reputation on the Line, LINK is now also working on prevention as well as the cure.

Exercising Compliance

How do you raise employee awareness, demonstrate effectiveness of controls and ensure regulatory compliance? Well increasingly LINK’s corporate exercise programmes involve far more than a simple request to engage the executives or to test the organisations arrangements and capability.

Our clients often use our detailed data gathering and analysis phase to help assess the company’s arrangements relating to governance and compliance, including corprate manslaughter, product recall and supply chain management. The scenarios we generate are then used during live exercises and ongoing training programmes to both test the arrangements and raise awareness of the risks.

Bribery and corruption is an area that’s attracting lots of attention at the moment. The Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has been in the headlines following BAE systems out of court settlement in the USA and United Kingdom.

Both the FCPA and the OECD Convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions, require management systems to be in place to demonstrate compliance. The OECD guidelines include a requirement for organizations to “enhance the transparency of their activities in the fight against bribery and extortion” and “promote employee awareness of and compliance with company policies against bribery and extortion through appropriate dissemination of these policies.”

Demonstrating compliance with regulation and raising organisational awareness is never easy but well researched exercises and scenarios can deliver far more than a tick box.

Practice Makes Perfect

The old adage that practicing improves performance on the day is as true for Emergency response, implementation of Business Continuity plans and board level Crisis Management teams as it is for musicians and sportsmen. Neither of whom would dream of being able to achieve their best performance without practice. Yet we still see many organisations choosing not to commit to conducting these essential rehearsals.

Well planned and conducted exercises of response plans tick so many boxes:

We recommend that your 2010 business continuity resolutions should include:

• Developing a programme to exercise every area of the business;
• For those who already exercise their recovery strategies seek out new challenges which extend the exercise to look at longer incident windows or exercise the lower priority aspects of your plan.
• Test the recovery assumptions such as we can work from home or easily open up the recovery site;
• Integrate IT DR and business recovery exercises.
• Share your exercise programme with the business so that everyone is involved;
• Make sure the lessons from exercises are identified and remedial action is taken.

How can LINK help? We have a strong team of experienced consultants who conduct 100s of exercises every year. We can help you plan all aspects of your exercise programme; increase the value added component and bring new ideas and perspectives. We can provide as much or as little help as you need from mentoring your team as you develop and deliver your own programme through to writing and conducting challenging exercises for the boardroom.

Concerned about safety

Access to high quality advice from experienced and well qualified consultants is often difficult to obtain. Well LINK has a team that would be difficult to better, with chartered engineers, senior HSE inspectors, chartered safety professionals and 200 years of experience. Where else would you want to look.

From Oil and Gas through Chemicals to Construction and many other industry sectors we are available to help. Just call us to find out more.

Ten lessons from Global Crises

Are Governments and regulators playing an increasing role in the creation and escalation of crises? From the events surrounding the financial crisis through Toyota's problems to the current events in the Gulf of Mexico, the actions and omissions of government and its regulators can clearly be making a significant contribution to the escalation and possibly the creation of the crisis.

Much attention has been focused in the world’s media over the past two years on the failure of authorities to adequately police and control financial exposure. As the events of the Gulf of Mexico unfold, we learn of weak regulatory systems and of an inconsistent and ineffective oversight of drilling operations.

There are few who would challenge that BP is facing a major crisis arising directly from the event which claimed 11 lives and threatens major environmental damage. The company is currently managing a major problem on a scale which few organizations would be capable of addressing and one which will impact its business for many years in the future. At present is less clear how the future will treat the other stakeholders including politicians and regulators who may have their own crises to deal with.

We can see that when things start to go wrong the problems can multiply rapidly, demands on communication, the resources required for coordination and management of the response rise exponentially. Organisations need to challenge their current thinking on the planning, preparation and resourcing of response arrangements if they are to be capable of handling global crises. Of the lessons to be learned from the recent “global” crises, my current top ten are:

1. Risk is not compliance or paper based but real and it reflects the ultimate truth that if your business model is not sustainable you will be caught out. It is also true that the organisation will judge the risk differently from stakeholders and this will affect the decision. Akio Toyoda referred to this during his statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as outlined plans to put in place arrangements “… to ensure we do not make a misguided decision.”

2. Governments and Commercial organisations have shown they do not conduct effective horizon scanning. As problems become apparent they fail to realise the significance and the potential for escalation. This means they become rapidly overwhelmed by the situation and fail to get ahead of the threats.

3. Soundbites fail when action is required. It is of no use trying to deliver proactive media statements if you do not understand the true nature of the threat and its implications and you are not in a position to take action.

4. Ramping up to meet the implications of scale will require organisations to rethink their plans. The interconnectivity of banks illustrated how difficult is was to follow the networks of connectivity and to build a common picture of understanding that would allow an effective analysis to be carried out. The Toyota recall illustrates similar issues, whilst the immediate cause and the tracking of the technical problem is easier to understand the complexity relates to the scale and number of vehicles plus the number of regulators, governments and media. The expansion in stakeholder demands is significant and can overwhelm the capability of the organisation to analyse the issues and make a coherent plan for response.

5. Global communication plans have to address not only the capability to monitor global issues, but to be able to deliver a common message whilst address local and regional concerns.

6. Relationships with governments and regulators are very important. In the early stages of the recall crisis Toyota struggled to meet the expectations of the NHSTA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and the survival of some of the worlds financial institutions rested on their ability to manage these relationships.

7. We are living through the first examples of the crises of globalisation, ones which will influence the regulatory business environment for many years to come.

8. The crisis will lead to significant opportunities. In the financial crisis the rebound has seen investment banking generating significant profits and for Toyota if it can cap its liabilities and rebuilt trust then it will have opportunities to enhance its reputation and market share.

9. Global crises involve complex networks of stakeholders encompassing supply chains, governments, competitors and regulators. Whilst some of the stakeholders may be global many are not and local and regional influences will generate conflict.

10. Yesterday’s crisis will not be tomorrow’s, that will be something altogether new.

David Evans, MD LINK Associates

One-Stop PIER

LINK’s sister company, O’Brien’s Response Management, has acquired PIER Systems Inc., a crisis communications company which has developed software to provide an all-in-one web-based solution for communications management.

In effect, PIER is a control centre which allows an individual or team to perform all vital comms functions, anywhere and at any time.

It is designed to streamline the whole process and the integrated features allow anyone, regardless of technical skills, to manage web content, media contacts, document distribution, mass notifications and much more.

Commented Tim Perkins, CEO of O’Brien’s RM and President of PIER: ”With the addition of PIER our customers now have access to an even more comprehensive suite of crisis communications and incident command applications supported and provided by one company.” The system is currently in use by the US Coastguard in the Gulf of Mexico.

For further details contact LINK as below.

Helping Old Friends

In support of a new exploratory drilling programme LINK consultants have returned to an old stomping ground in the Faeroes to help both a long standing client and the Faeroese government to update their emergency response plans. LINK’s experience in this region is long standing having supported the emergency planning for previous drilling operations and helped the Faeroese authorities to set up their Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC). Our detailed knowledge of operations and the Search and Rescue infrastructure and interfaces across the international border with the UK means we have been able to add value for both sides by updating the bridging document covering emergency procedures for the new drilling company and recommending a programme of training and exercises to bring everyone back up to speed. Hopefully we can go back to see it all working when the weather has improved.

2020 Vision is on the way

Research to refresh our crisis management methodologies raised a number of observations that there are signs of significant changes in the business environment, the world of communications, in regulatory demands and risk management and stakeholder expectations that continue to challenge current thinking in crisis management.

Out of these discussions 2020 was born, a book which examines how the demands on crisis organisations will change over the next decade and explores how current practices will need to adapt.

The working title is “2020 Visions of Crisis”. If you would like to be notified when it hits the shelves just send an email to David Evans at LINK.