It’s an inconvenient truth for any business: at some point in your existence, whether it be tomorrow or 20 years from now, you will be faced with a crisis. Some call it Murphy’s Law, others sheer bad luck. Whatever you call it, a time of crisis is one of the most defining moments in an organizations history, good or bad.
Crisis in the news
The BP oil spill has brought a lot of attention to organizational crisis recently. The mismanagement of this situation by one of the planet’s largest oil companies is sure to be a case study for PR and business students across the globe for decades to come. The future bright minds of the PR industry will learn best practices from this devastating tragedy, and will be that much better prepared for the inevitable crisis in their professional future.
The role of PR
Crisis is scary, but it gets even scarier when you haven’t planned for it properly. Running an organization of any size involves an extraordinary amount of work, and sometimes things can get missed or put aside. The best way to run an effective company is to have divisions who specialize in the various aspects of operation.
Who specializes in crisis management? You guessed it.
An effective PR professional or team has the know-how and expertise to pull you through a crisis. This is accomplished with
a) A crisis management plan: Regardless of your industry, it never hurts to be proactive. We PR folk are an odd breed, using our imagination to think up likely worst-case scenarios that you never dreamed of. By planning ahead, we can be ready quickly at the time of crisis
b) Crisis communication: When the crisis happens, we know what needs to be said, when, and to whom. Careful but honest communication is the name of the game, and a PR professional can teach the face of the company how to deal with media and public scrutiny.
c) Image rebuilding: a crisis will likely hurt your image, but images can be rebuilt.
Realistic expectations
No PR person can guarantee you that they can “make a crisis go away” or “make everyone forget about it”. That isn’t realistic, and has undertones of dishonesty that no respectable PR professional would condone. What we can promise is that with effective crisis communication you can make the best of a bad situation, and can save face among your important publics.
With years of public relations experience, Kathryn Kates Public Relations knows a thing or two about crisis communication. We invite you to check out our website, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.
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