FLYING THROUGH CRISISMH370: LESSONS IN CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

“Balanced, vivid, eyewitness analysis of crisis cases”DAVID KIRKHAM;KRISHNAMOORTHY MUTHALY

• Malaysia Airlines suffered a double disaster. MH370 lost and Flight MH17 shot down. Pg VIII What was your

reaction?

How Your Attitude Shows In Your Behaviour?

Are you passionate enough?

Book addresses what remains one of the 21st Century’s greatest mysteries with the loss of MH370 on 8th March 2014. Pg VIII

The future of Malaysia Airlines was placed in greater jeopardy by the second aircraft loss and so the chapter reviewing the crisis impacts has been updated. Pg VIII

Flying Through Crisis

MH370: Lessons In Crisis

Communications

• The book is an extended case study in public and media communications during a crisis. Pg VIII

“That makes it a

double tragedy. They feel there was nothing

they could have

done.”

What it does do is provide sound and entirely

practical advice on how to handle communications in

a complex and long-running crisis. Pg VIII

The book emphasises learning from the crisis by

concentrating both on those things which went well and those which did

not. Pg VIII

The book addresses media relations, press conferences, written statements, interactions between media and families, social media use, training spokespeople, media agendas, angles and politics and delivering key messages.

• Pg VIII

Learning is a journey Pg x

• Najib Tun Razak commented, “But we didn’t get everything right. In the first few days after the plane disappeared, we were so focused on trying to find the aircraft that we did not prioritise our communications.” Pg x1

KRISHNAMOORTHY MUTHALYMEDIA EXPERT

Why is internal communication so important to get right?

CEOs and employees need to voice their opinions for the improvement of an organization

Flying Through Crisis is written in all humility about how Malaysia, propelled onto the world stage, handled the crisis communications. Pg x

Humble leaders and workers must seek

views from others to ensure they have all the

facts in making decisions that are in the

best interest of the team.

The reputation of Malaysia Airlines and

the government is influenced by

perceptions created by the media Pg xi

“Don’t write anything that will hurt our

leaders, the Government or the

airlines” Pg xii

A cover-up is an attempt,

whether successful or

not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing,

error or incompetence.

From learning comes

understanding and

knowledge. Knowledge

sets us free, for it is

ignorance that keeps people fearful. Pg xii

No country has performed to perfection

in any crisis and Malaysia is no

exception. Nevertheless, lessons

have to be learned, with nothing swept under

the carpet. Pg 1

Sometimes, organisations are

unprepared for the communications side of a disaster even though they are well-prepared

for an operational response.

Plan, prepare and practice

If your operational response is good and communication is poor, the public will perceive that you have failed on both accounts.  If you don't prepare, you will incur more damage and costs.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.

As the media continues

playing up a crisis,

especially the negative

aspects about the

response…Pg 2

“Stop letting people who do so little for you to control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions” – Will Smith

While attending the press conferences, it was obvious

that some, but certainly not all, of the

spokespeople were neither well trained nor properly advised about managing

the media.• Pg 2

Expectations of Effective Communications• In a crisis, the expectations placed on

government and company officials are at their most demanding. So what went wrong with communications surrounding the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 and how could this have been done better? Pg 2