Page 34 - Crisis Communication Practical PR Strategies

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No Thrillers, but Hard Reality 15
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Ensure that you have a plan

The crisis communication plan is an essential tool in dealing with a
crisis, disaster or accident. Every company, regardless of the sector
that it operates in, the type of activity or size of the company, should
have an up-to-date crisis communication plan. When the Tylenol crisis
broke, Johnson & Johnson already had a fully elaborated plan and the
crisis was contained in a professional way. Drawing up a crisis commu-
nication plan requires the company management to think about
potential disaster scenarios, regardless of how painful they can be. It is
an ideal intellectual exercise.
At every phase of a crisis situation – from the moment that it breaks,
during the rescue and communication responses, up to the evaluation
– the company image, reputation and its good name and renown are
at risk. The adage applies that it takes years of hard work to build up a
good name, and a great deal of energy devoted to keeping it, yet it can
be destroyed in an instant. If you respond too late or poorly to a crisis,
it will cost you blood, sweat and tears to rebuild your good reputation.
That’s if it’s not too late, that is, and your company has not gone under
or had to divest major parts of its operations.

Don’t lose any time

Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol crisis is a textbook example of a proper
response and a successful resolution to a crisis situation. Union
Carbide presents us with another example.
The chemical company Union Carbide (since the takeover on 6
February 2001, part of the giant Dow Chemical Company) was con-
fronted with an extremely serious crisis and responded to it in a pro-
fessional way. On 3 December 1984, shortly after midnight, a large
quantity of poisonous gas escaped from an underground tank installa-
tion of the local Union Carbide factory in the Indian city of Bhopal.
The gas formed a deadly cloud that spread over an area 20 square
kilometres in size. Several hours later, as morning approached, gas was
still escaping from the leaking tank. By that time, more than 1,200
people had already died. They suffocated in their sleep when they
inhaled the extremely poisonous gas. Twenty thousand others were
dealing with serious breathing and blood circulation problems. The
gas, methyl isocyanate, is an important component in pesticides that
are used in large quantities in Indian agriculture. The pesticides were
manufactured in the Bhopal factory that was owned by the Indian
subsidiary of Union Carbide.