Crisis management 101: The GMA way

Crisis management 101: The GMA way

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from nowhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic-stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away, but it landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama when a waiter rushed forward to their rescue.

The cockroach next fell upon the waiter. He stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts; was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

Crisis Management Preamble

A crisis is an event that can have a negative effect on a brand, company, or individual’s reputation. It can be something that occurs offline and is then brought to social media channels; or it can begin on social media channels, and then spread. Examples may include inappropriate postings by employees or ex-employees, embarrassing photos, or voiced opinions that can reflect negatively on a company.

The story of the waiter and the restaurant attendees has lots of lessons on crisis management. Key among the takeaways is the power of taking charge of the narrative. The waiter handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. The restaurant patrons on the other hand, reacted whereas the waiter responded. Beautiful display of PUBLIC RELATIONS tenets.

For us as PR People, if crisis management is handled wrongly, long-term damage can be done to an organisation’s reputation. This will affect relationship with stakeholders and in turn may affect a business’s bottom line. If handled well, a crisis can actually be an opportunity to improve an organisation’s reputation – in the real as well as the “virtual” online world.

Let’s look at some few takeaways.

Planning Ahead of a crisis

What to do during a crisis

Conclusion

So long as day and night occurs without failure, bear in mind that within a couple of days or weeks, a new crisis may knock your company off the front pages. The tides of time will wipe memories of the event. And if you handle it well, your reputation may even emerge strengthened, rather than weakened.

Three key things are worth mentioning as a brands, communications person or business owner. Evolve your Brand, Project your Brand and Protect your Brand.

Bonus Points

Paa Kwesi Forson

Head of PR at GMA and blogger at www.paakwesiforson.com  

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