Issues and Crisis Management Sue Wolstenholme FCIPR CIPR Chartered Practitioner Crisis (Response) Communication Diploma 10 th April 2015

Today  The course and the project  Some background  Issues Management  Crisis

Definitions  Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.  Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. CIPR, 2004  "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." PRSA, 1988

Reputation  By generating a positive reputation, a company can, moreover, gain competitive advantage, because from the customer perspective, a good reputation reduces the perceived risk of buying a company’s products and services.  Reputation is something that has to be earned, but cannot be bought.  Henry Ford - "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." Reputation is the result of a company's former actions, but at the same time, it has an expectational quality.  Roberts, P., Dowling, G. (2002) Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance, p Dowling, G. (2002) Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image, and Performances, p. 23 Ford, H. (2005) Quotations of Henry Ford, p. 21 Compare Dowling, G. (2006) Reputation risk: it is the board’s ultimate responsibility, p. 62 Lewellyn, P. (2002) Corporate Reputation: Focusing the Zeitgeist, p. 447

Reputation  Research in definitely affected by bad behaviour, low morale etc  Little or not at all affected by business as usual or ‘good news’ stories  Most ‘relationships’ are built with those who have no consequence  PR must be at a the leadership level  D Vercic, PhD paper 2002

Reputation is intangible  “We've entered a new ‘reputation economy,’ in which people increasingly choose among competing products and services based on their impressions of how the companies behind them behave.  Corporate brands therefore have to worry more than ever about becoming embroiled in any controversy that might tarnish their image.” Fombrun (2010).

Issues Management  Issue….an unsettled matter which is ready for decision  Trends….detectable changes which proceed issues  Howard Chase. Issue management - Origins of the Future. Issue Actions Publications 1984

Issues Management  Issues managers ‘take a competitive pro- active stance by meeting or exceeding stakeholder’s expectations and lessen unwanted interference by fostering mutual interests and developing harmonious relationships with stakeholders’  (Heath, 1997 cited in Daugherty, 2001 p.397).

Publics  Publics are not fixed categories waiting to be identified but are formed dynamically through the conversation in which they participate.  Bringing Publics into Public Relations: New Theoretical Frameworks for Practice; Shirley Leitch and David Neilson, Handbook of Public Relations; Sage Publications (2001)Handbook of Public Relations

Publics share  Problems  Pleasures  Concerns  Issues

Publics  Latent  Aware  Active

But not necessarily  Age  Gender  Race  Ethnicity  Religion  Employer  Location

 Who are your priority publics?  Are any of them are listening?  Do you have anything to say?  What could you say/do?

Global Village  51 female - 49 Male  30 white - 70 non-white  30 Christian - 70 non-Christian  50% of wealth in 6 people’s hands - all US  80 in substandard housing  70 unable to read  50 suffer from malnutrition  1 has a college education  No-one owns a computer  Mizgayla in Carmichael

Interview  The publics next door

News for Parrots

Publics  If you spend a month showing genuine interest in someone else’s concerns you will be likely to form friendship  If you spend 10 years only putting forward your own concerns you might be very lonely

Aristotle’s 3 Pillars  The sharing of pleasures  Being useful to one another  Being committed to a common good

Life cycle  Emerges  Public Debate  Codification  Legislation

Workshop  Identify publics!

Public Relations  Truth  Concern for the publics’ best interests  Dialogue

Dialogue  A conversation with a centre, not sides  the intention of dialogue is to reach new understanding and, in doing so, to form a totally new basis from which to think and act. Isaacs, Dialogue - the art of thinking together, Currency Doubleday 1999 :19

Duck or lead? or

Your Team  Cross section of internal publics  In touch with external publics  Using all channels  Communication linchpins  Gossips  Rumour mongers

African Proverb  If lions had written histories the tales of hunters would be differently told.

Wei Jii

Reputation  A survey of the top 250 UK companies in 2000 revealed that damage to reputation was the biggest business risk managers faced. In times of increasing competition, what the public perceives is prominent. The focus has shifted from what a company does to how it does its business.  Smith, W. (2003) Give yourself a good name, p. 28 compare findings of Gatewood, R., Gowan, M., Lautenschlager, G. (1993) Corporate image, recruitment image and initial job choice decisions, p. 414–427 Fombrun, C., van Riel, C. (1997) The reputational landscape, p. 6 Cf. Money, K., Gardiner, L. (2005) Reputation management: ignore at your own peril, p. 46 Money, K., Gardiner, L. (2005) Reputation management: ignore at your own peril, p. 43

Nakumatt  47 missing  Riot police  Locked doors  No apology  No problem

Crises can come from many directions  Service failure  Contamination (accidental or deliberate)  Natural disaster  Health/safety issues  Blackmail  Terrorism

Crises can come from many directions  Scandals  Harassment  Discrimination  Lawsuits

www.  Tell Shell - Tells Hell  Blogging  Domino Pizza  Capitalism and corporations are under more pressure now than at any time since the Great depression - John and Thompson (2003:1)  Estonia

Coca Cola  Coca Cola famously took an entirely different approach when, in November 2008, they were contacted by Facebook to tell them that an unofficial page created by two fans of the brand had grown to become the second biggest page on the network with 3.3 million ‘likes’ (Klaassen, 2009).  By giving up a little bit of control, Coca Cola benefitted from the advocacy of the page owners and improved the company’s reputation. As Grunig and White suggest: “Organisations get more of what they want when they give up some of what they want,” (1992:39).

Trust

It can happen to… types of crisis prone organisations  Destructive - exploitative, uncaring ‘little to be done’  Tragic - understand the need to change but just don’t seem to be able to - culturally or in resource terms  Ian Mitroff quoted in Risk Issues and Crisis Management, Regester and Larkin, Kogan Page 1997

Terminal 5

Terminal 5  Planned for 20 years at a cost of £4.3bn  Should not have happened  Tens of thousands of BA customers were affected by the chaos, many of whom have vowed never to use the airline again.  BA's shares fell 3% on T5 opening day, wiping £90m off BA's value

 On the operational side, there were technical errors, mechanical failures, and little system testing.  On the management side, there was arrogance, complacency, poor communication, and a refusal to listen to staff and technical experts.  Staff were poorly trained, morale was low, and goodwill had long evaporated.

 No training  Nowhere to park  Staff two hours late

 When BA and BAA executives finally emerged, they misjudged the mood badly by mentioning "teething problems" associated with a "bedding-down period". Eventually, a full day after the fiasco, BA's CEO admitted, the opening was "Not our finest hour." He offered a "promise to do better" and disappeared.

Whatever….  “How people react to crises provides one of the most powerful windows, if not the most powerful windows, into the souls of people and their institutions.”  Ian Mitroff quoted in Risk Issues and  Crisis Management, Regester and Larkin,  Kogan Page 1997

Some underlying causes  Low morale  Poor housekeeping  Staff quality (Training)  Cost cutting  Arrogance  Rapid change  Complexity Bland in Strategic Public Relations, MacMillan

What do you do if it happens?  Having sorted out your approach with the lawyers and insurers…..  Apologise  Inform  Never speculate, argue or make defensive excuses  But do not shrink from standing up for your organisation

It will be back!  On Anniversaries  During any resulting inquests or legal cases  When reports are published  If anything like it ever happens elsewhere  When ever your organisation is mentioned you run the risk of being “the company who……”

Take control  Tell it all  Tell the Truth  Tell it quickly  Michael Regester  And keep listening

People want to talk And people will talk to almost anyone!

How does it feel?

Levels 1. International interest, Royals/VIPs, two weeks+ 2. National interest, VIPs, two weeks 3. National interest, VIPs, few days 4. National interest, one day 5. Local interest, few days

Preparedness - The plan!  Stop or continue?  Send half the staff home?  News media, VIPs  Who needs to know?  Testing, testing  Leave money until later

Preparedness - The plan!  Audit  The Team  People - map under groupings (policy areas, publics)  Environment  Senior decision makers - include and involve them and their ideas, make them feel part of the plans

 People revert to what they know - police, health staff etc and communication often not included  Be confident and build partnerships with the publics  Meticulous attention to detail at every stage  Ask the children - if they matter

Workshop  Whose crisis?  Three publics  Main problem for each public  One short message

Two plane crashes Only one chairman

Next Session The next session for this diploma is on 24 th April We look forward to seeing you all there.