crisis management: the essentials
TRANSCRIPT
Crisis Management: The Essentials Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Presented By the IADC International Committee
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Steven Rosenhek Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP
Toronto, ON
Moderator
Presenters
Gary McConnell Bayer Corporation
Pittsburgh, PA
Guy Giorno Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP
Ottawa, ON
[email protected] Mark Fullbrook
CTF Partners
London, England
“IF I KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT
THEN IT WOULDN’T BE A CRISIS!” PREPARING AND PLANNING FOR THE UNKNOWN
Guy W. Giorno
“Crisis” “An external or internal occurrence that is not a reasonably expected consequence of your plans and has the potential to harm people, property,
business, value or reputation.”
Emergency landing in Reeuwijk lake, Gouda, the Netherlands, 1919.
Nationaal Archief / Spaarnestad Photo / SFA022812673.
“not a reasonably expected consequence of your plans”
• Predictable results of business decisions should not need crisis management
• For what you anticipate in advance, prepare in advance
• Limit crisis management to genuine surprises
Don’t let poor handling of the expected and anticipated force you into crisis-
management mode.
Team pulling a car out of the mud. (Russell Lee, 1940)
Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information
Collection 11671-24 (DLC) 93845501 (Library of Congress)
“potential to harm reputation”
• Often corporate reputation is the asset most at risk in a crisis
• Avoid protecting other assets in a way that worsens damage to reputation
• Good crisis management strategy balances and protects all of a company’s interests.
Preparation and Planning
Preparation and Planning
• Crisis management audits
• Crisis management plans
• Internal, external communication protocols
12 Rules of Crisis
Management
1. Address both problem and consequences
2. Quick response
3. People before property
Reviving mine victims (circa 1910-1915). Bain News Service.
George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
4-6. Crisis management team
Rule 7
8. One- window approval
9. Quickly gather the facts
Communication 10. Single spokesperson
11. Open and up front
12. Motive
(Dec. 1969), State Library and Archives of Florida, PR13095
Background Materials
CRISIS MANAGEMENT AUDITS
• Identify types of crises that might arise
• When potential problem identified, act to reduce the risk
• If potential problem cannot be avoided, draft specific crisis-management plan
• Conducted by or on behalf of corporate counsel
• Continually update protocols and plans
CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN
• Composition of crisis-management team
• Role of corporate counsel
• Protocol for making crisis-management decisions
– includes authority of crisis team
• Protocols for internal and external communication
• Identification of outside professionals
REVIEW AND UPDATE REGULARLY
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL
• Reports from the incident site
• Disseminating decisions
• Keeping non-involved team members in the loop
EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL
• Audiences may include:
– News media
– Consumers
– Local residents
– Governments
• Protocol should address:
– Announcements
– Responses to inquiries
• Identify who is authorised to answer questions
• Establish clear communication approval process
• Anticipate specific announcements for specific types of crises
12 RULES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT
1. Making the problem go away is different than remedying its consequences. Both must be tackled immediately.
2. Practise quick response, with the emphasis on “quick.” (Corollary: Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.)
3. Protect people before property.
4. Gather a crisis management team that represents all relevant departments and whose members’ time is dedicated to managing the crisis.
5. Identify in advance the outside professionals you will use during a crisis.
6. Require organization-wide co-operation with the crisis-management team.
12 RULES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT
7. Caveat: To the extent possible, those not responsible for crisis management should avoid distraction and carry on with their duties.
8. Establish a rapid, “one window” process for obtaining approval of the few decisions that your crisis-management team cannot make on its own.
9. Gather all the facts ― complete and accurate facts ― as quickly as possible.
10. Identify a single external spokesman.
11. Be open and up front with the public and the media. (Corollary: Communicate bad news on your own terms, before others do it for you.)
12. Communicate with motive. Tell people what you are doing for them, not what this means to you.
Crisis Management- Lessons From Political Campaigns Mark Fullbrook
“Reputations can take years to build but only weeks to be
destroyed… But good management of a crisis can enhance a
reputation”
Don’t ignore…
Depending on size, crisis can become the number one priority for the party/business
Establish a small Crisis Command team (crisis campaign team) to deal with the crisis, pulling in top people from relevant sections of the organisation, with clear reporting lines
Appoint a ‘face of the crisis’
Ensure the designated spokesperson is senior enough to be credible in public, customers, media’s eyes.
Must be experienced in speaking for party/company and dealing with the media
Give them an intense media training session
Ensure they are fully part of the process and fully briefed – one bad interview looking like they are avoiding key questions can set back crisis management for days
Death by a thousand cuts
Do your research and establish the facts as quickly as possible – you are in a
better position if you know all the facts before anyone else eg. media
Never lie – “it’s the cover-up that kills you”
People will forgive a mistake, but not hypocrisy
Isolate the crisis and avoid contagion – don’t let the crisis infect other elements
of party or business
Take responsibility and lead
Develop a narrative (from the view of the customer/voter) which:
Acknowledges the problem/failure and isolates it
Does not excuse the failure
Demonstrates that lessons will be learned
Outlines future actions
Develop LTT and key facts bible which is constantly updated as new facts
emerged
Have one person in charge of maintaining this
Make your case
Be proactive not reactive
If possible, get out before the story breaks, so you are in control
Set the context and shape the debate early
Get the debate on to ‘home ground’
How to react to a crisis
Acknowledge the problems Don’t make excuses about why
things went wrong
Demonstrate the lessons learnt Outline your future actions to avoid
recurrence
How to counter negative public
opinion in a crisis
Crisis Management- Some Thoughts from the In-House Counsel Perspective Gary McConnell
Be Prepared
• Plan ahead
• At a minimum think about:
– The types of crises you may face
– What your role may be in addressing each one
– What your reporting obligations may be, both internally and externally
– What resources may be needed and where will you get them
Types of Crises
• Environmental Issues
• Natural Disasters
• Explosion/Fire/Employee Injury
• Work Place Violence
• Government investigation/compliance
• The “dawn” raid
• Legal/litigation issues
Types of Crises Con’t.
• Activists/NGO activities
• Product related issues:
– Recall/Suspension/Withdrawal
– Shortage/access issues
– Tampering/Counterfeiting
– Manufacturing/Sourcing Issues
– Grey market Issues
– Product liability issues
Time To Act
• Subject and Source Dependent – Evaluate the Subject Before Acting
– Some Sensitive Topics May Invite a Restrained Response
• Short Time if: – From Most External Sources, i.e. News Media or
Governmental Authority
– Involves Immediate Safety Concerns
Role of the In-house Lawyer
• Gather and Evaluate Facts
• Provide legal advice/counsel
• Assemble needed resources/coordination
• Report Up
• Report Laterally
i.e. regulatory, environmental, safety
• Report to communications and support their actions?
Role of Outside Counsel
• Gather and evaluate facts
• Provide legal advice/counseling
• Interact with government agencies
• Support corporate communications
• May identify and coordinate with external experts
• Independent counsel investigation? (presents complex privilege issues)
Questions for Presenters?
Gary McConnell Bayer Corporation
Pittsburgh, PA
Guy Giorno Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP
Ottawa, ON
[email protected] Mark Fullbrook
CTF Partners
London, England
Crisis Management: The Essentials Tuesday, June 4, 2013
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