Page 207 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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1 188 Crisis Communication
ating and managing the company’s financial and insurance cov-
erage; supervising and simplifying insurance programmes when
managed by the subsidiaries. Communication and risk prevention are
an integral part of the duties of a risk manager, who works closely with
the director of communication.

The risk manager participates in corporate communication that deals
with practical issues related to managing crises like product recalls,
and is increasingly involved in managing risks related to public
opinion. The risk manager’s role is gaining such importance that it
sometimes takes over the communication department either by super-
vising it, or by working with its management. To understand this evo-
lution – no, initially it was not a new profession trying to define and
conquer territory within businesses – it is important to review the new
emerging threats that can impinge on brands.

When brands do not measure up to

public opinion

Companies today have made considerable progress in the area of com-
munication, which is more often than not constructive and has
enabled them to establish stable relations with the public around them.
Motivated by what is at stake in such relations, companies strive to
comply with the ‘information requirements’ that modern day manage-
ment and the law demand. Companies open up and present them-
selves publicly, and information procedures have multiplied. But are
they listening as well? Often companies are so busy listening to them-
selves that they can’t really hear anything else! In the absence of pub-
licly expressed opinions, they are oblivious to public opinion and this
is where they get lost.
Versatile, forgetful, generous, quick to flare up, public opinion
demands that facts be accounted for immediately, effectively and,
depending on the criteria, sometimes unrealistically for a business.
Companies have their rules; public opinion has its convictions.
Companies claim the right to evolve freely in the legislative framework
that applies to them. Public opinion claims the right to have control
over and punish ‘abusive’ situations. One is backed up by the law, the
other by morals.
Convinced of their own truth, companies do not (or only dimly)
perceive the often profound changes in public opinion. Blinded by its