Issues & Crisis Management & Conflict Communications ... Sa

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Issues Crisis Management Conflict Commun
ications
Managing Under the Glare of Public
Media Scrutiny Prague, Thursday, June 24, 200
4 Mike Seymour International Director, Crisi
s Issues Management
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September 11, 2001

• Where were you?
• Why should we remember this date?

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September 11, 2001
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September 11, 2001
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Le contexte
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September 21, 2001

• Where were you ?
• Why should we remember this date?

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(No Transcript)
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Dynamique de la crise
Un accident industriel
Une entreprise dénoncée
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Raft of Corporate Disasters
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Bali BombingOctober 2002
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Paradise Hotel at Kikambala Beach November 2002
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Madrid BombingMarch 2004
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Saudi Arabia BombingApril 2004
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Terrorist Hostage Situation in Saudi Arabia May
30, 2004
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War in IraqMarch 2004
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War in IraqMarch 2004
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SarsFebruary 2003
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Charles de Gaulle Airport DisasterMay 2004
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Assessing our Post 9/11 World

• Unique set of circumstances pushing issues
  crisis management onto news levels?
  
• More of the same but more extreme faster?

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Assessing our Post 9/11 World

• Unique set of circumstances pushing issues
  crisis management onto news levels?
  
• More of the same but faster?
• Some key factors
• Growing media hunger for news competitive edge
  
  
• Potent power of media to speed, distort or
  escalate crisis situations
  
• Capacity of public to develop worries into full
  scares
  
• Difficulties of communicating complex detail
  risk
  
• Collapse of crisis borders
• Power of rumour speculation

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Issues Crisis Management Conflict Commun
ications
Managing Under the Glare of Public
Media Scrutiny Prague, Thursday, June 24, 200
4 Mike Seymour International Director, Crisi
s Issues Management
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Normal Management
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Crisis Zone
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Issues Zone
PublicDomain
Company
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What is a Crisis?

• Your problem or issue in the public domain
• When perceptions become more powerful than
  reality
  
• When communication vacuums are filled with
  rumour, speculation, allegations accusations

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Characteristics of a Crisis
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Crisis Management Challenges

• Defining the problem in the short term
• Then assessing possible long term impact

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Crisis Management Challenges

• Identifying and planning against worse case
  scenarios

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Information Handling Challenge
Centralising and controlling information flow
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US Trust NGO/Brand Highlights(Tracked
2001-2004)
Never Heard Of over 15
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Europe Trust NGO/Brand Highlights(Tracked
2001-2004)
Never Heard Of over 15
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Credibility of Information SourcesAbout a Company
In general, how credible do you feel each of the
following sources is for information about a
company? Is information about a company that you
get from (INSERT SOURCE) extremely credible, very
credible, somewhat credible, or not credible at
all?
Rank order by US data
Percentage saying Extremely Credible or Very
Credible
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Credibility of Spokespersons
In general, when forming an opinion of a company,
if you received information from (INSERT PERSON)
about this company, how credible would the
information be? Would it be extremely credible,
very credible, somewhat credible, or not credible
at all?
Rank order by US data
Percentage saying Extremely Credible or Very
Credible
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The Media Context

• Background points
• 1) Speed and spread of communications
• 2) Role in increasing levels of education and
  thus public awareness

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Conflict Communication Challenges

• Understanding the medias agenda
• Looking for a good story
• Searching for cause
• Seeking to attribute blame

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Conflict Communication Challenges

• Websites - first stop checkpoint
• Appreciating the power of new communication
  channels all available to the spread rumour,
  speculation and accusations
  
• Internet super highway
• Chat rooms bulletin boards
• Weblogs wickis
• Email correspondence battlegrounds
• E-crime terrorism

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Conflict Communications - Rumour Control

• Rumour equation (10 people 2-5 stories)
• The whispering game
• Rumour will always be
• More interesting than the truth
• Believed
• Embroidered or expanded
• Share of voice essential to combating rumour

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Communications Guidance

• Observe The Five Cs
• Care
• Commitment
• Consistency
• Coherence
• Clarity

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Communications Rules

• Observe The Five Cs
• Care
• Commitment
• Consistency
• Coherence
• Clarity
• Credibility trust depends on The Big Three
  Ts
  
• Tell The Truth

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Doing Business in a Dangerous World

• Before 9/11 a poll of US CEOs revealed that
• 85 of them expected to manage a crisis during
  their tenure
  
• 50 admitted to having a plan
• 97 were fully confident that they could handle
  any crisis
  
• This sounds to me like over-confidence. I hope
  that more businesses are taking a hard look at
  their crisis plans
  
• Ambassador L Paul Bremer, Former Chairman,
• US National Terrorism Commission
• Harvard Business Review, April 2002

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Crisis Readiness Preparedness
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(No Transcript)
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Seven Step Programme for Crisis Readiness
Preparedness Planning

• Define risks threats for which plans issues
  crisis plans are required
  
• Conduct gap analysis of existing plans,
  procedures systems
  
• Develop pick up, alert crisis management
  communication protocol
  
• Build crisis manual off on line
• Awareness team briefings
• Specialist training team building
• Programme of test validation exercises tests
  
  

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Issues Crisis Management Conflict Commun
ications
Managing Under the Glare of Public
Media Scrutiny Prague, Thursday, June 24, 200
4 Mike Seymour International Director, Crisi
s Issues Management