Page 168 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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How Senior Management Can Make the Crisis Worse 149
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porate incident. Examples are plans that comprise a not very coherent
amalgam of corporate communications and business continuity.
Of course the board will consist of bright and able people who will
expect to be able to sit down and sort out whatever problems arise, but
they may find that in the event they are overwhelmed. They simply
won’t be prepared for the huge complexities and speed of events that
engulf them; nor will the organization be able to rapidly adapt to
provide them with the crucial services they need. Larken says:

Unless you really do think through crisis management and have a real
plan which involves the board and is tested and practised, crisis will
prove a traumatic experience and your business is likely to be seriously
damaged.
Most crises damage a business in some way but we’re talking here
about the difference between reducing the impact from say 80 per
cent to more like 30 per cent probability. That’s a huge impact on your
resilience.

The danger signs

What are the danger signs we should all be alerted to when assessing
the likelihood of a company or organization hitting the headlines for
all the wrong reasons? There are the obvious ones such as rampant
corporate greed – ridiculously expensive corporate headquarters,
inflated salaries and perks and a semi-detached connection with the
real world. Then there’s the all too familiar ‘not invented here’ syn-
drome where advice and best practice from outside the comfortable
corporate cocoon is eschewed in favour of so-called home-grown
expertise.
Helen Shannon of Octo reports a particularly alarming trend. She
points out that businesses know very well what they are spending on
loss prevention. But it is much more difficult to quantify the benefits of
this crucial ‘insurance policy’. Cutting back on loss prevention, for
example on scheduled maintenance, is a tempting target for
economies.
But at what point, a point by nature imprecise, does this cease to be
safe? Railtrack and BP are two UK companies that would appear to
have judged this poorly, precipitating crises and leading arguably to
the demise of Railtrack and serious current damage to BP.
All boards can only function as well as the quality of the support
they receive. A cadre of senior managers has also got to understand
the crisis arrangements ready to support the board or the executive