Transcript crisis - Aprio

Preparing and Implementing an effective
Issue Management Programme:
….the aprio and akkanto way….
ABOUT APRIO
•
APRIO is an independent operator, 100% South African owned, with ground support in Johannesburg and Cape Town
•
APRIO has a superb media network and a good knowledge
of the investment funds, analysts and media operating in
Johannesburg and Cape Town
•
Aprio has been active on numerous South African
transactions as well as issue management projects.
These include:
•
•
Xstrata’s (Aprio) proposal to merge with Anglo American;
•
Xstrata (Aprio) and Glencore’s proposed merger;
•
ArcelorMittal’s (Aprio) dispute with Kumba Iron Ore, and
•
Walmart’s (Aprio) offer to acquire Massmart in South Africa.
APRIO has formed a working relationship with Brussels based strategic communications firm, akkanto
ABOUT akkanto
•
Independent communication agency specialized in strategic consulting, Brussels, Belgium
•
Strong track record in managing crisis situations and helping clients prepare for crisis
•
7 senior partners
•
Turnover 2010: 4,448 million EUR
CRISIS MANAGEMENT REFERENCES
•
Quick, 1998 – Dioxin crisis
•
Husqvarna, 2004 – explosion at Ghislenghien (24 casualties)
•
Merck Sharp & Dohme, 2005 – withdrawal VIOXX
•
SWIFT, 2006 – public investigations into protection of confidential data
•
Mattel, 2007-2008 – product recall due to presence of lead paint
and loose parts in toys
•
KBC, 2008 – theft of clients' data in Czech Republic
•
CERAN, 2009 – children contaminated with A/H1N1
•
Infrabel, 2010 - in-house support train crash (19 casualties)
•
Unilever, 2001-2010 – various product recalls
(Lipton Ice Tea, Amora, silent recalls, etc.)
•
Saint Gobain, 2010 – Gyproc
•
Eternit/Etex, 2006-2011 – asbestos issue
•
Fluxys, 2010-2011 – trial Ghislenghien explosion
•
[Company], 2011 – suicide employee
TYPES OF SUPPORT
PRE-CRISIS
CRISIS
Consultation before the crisis hits
Consultation in crisis situations
 Analyse current crisis preparedness
 Help determine the course of
action to be addressed through
communication
 Weaknesses
 Potential improvements
 Prepare crisis communication
 Plan and manual
 Tools
 Raise awareness among
management and crisis teams
 Provide the opportunity to test
existing practices and procedures
PROACTIVE
 Support teams to develop
communication initiatives
 Prepare spokesperson
 Guarantee permanent availability
 Observe and analyze crisis
communication management and
propose recommendations
REACTIVE + PROACTIVE
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS
PRE-CRISIS
Analysis
of current
situation
Exercises
Managing
issues and
being prepared
for a crisis
Training
Tool
Development
ANALYSIS - EXISTING PROCEDURES
Group discussion and management
Board
interviews to visualise potential incidents
(impact versus probability): identify and rank potential
crisis scenarios
Chief
Executive
Officer
Analysis of existing documents (manual, plan)
and procedures (role description, responsibilities,
team composition)
Interactions between teams – information and
validation flows
Head of Stakeholder
Relations / Comms
Crisis
Executive
Head of other
affected groups
Team composition (crisis management versus
Communication management)
Comprehensibility documents
Link with legislation (local authorities and
emergency services)
Recommendations and action plan
Crisis
Executive
Stakeholder
Relations / Comms
Functional Line
Management
Local Command
Team
CRISIS MANUAL
PRE-CRISIS: TOOL DEVELOPMENT
Development of documents, procedures, tools & templates
 Centralize existing information of internal procedures
 Visualise procedures
 Role distribution and responsibilities
 Crisis manual/crisis plan
CRISIS PREPAREDNESS TRAINING
• Raise participants’ awareness of
importance of crisis preparedness
• Create a team-building experience
• Exchange experiences in preparing
and managing crises
• Develop participants’ ability to
handle media relations
• Develop a common approach for
crisis management
• Define each individual’s role in a crisis
and back-ups
WALK THROUGH EXERCISES
• Exercise where participants learn how to use their crisis manual and the crisis tools
• Step by step scenario
• Debriefing moments to evaluate the team’s performance
Walk-through agenda (approx 2.5 hours)
09h00 Welcome
09h05 Interactive session
- Individuals will be asked how they view their role in a crisis situation
09h20 Roles and responsibilities
- Role and organisation of team leaders in crisis
- Review individual functions
- Review cascading responsibilities
09h35 Review tools
09h50 ‘Intermezzo’
- Case study
10h05 Walk-through crisis scenario
- Interactive session
10h50 Wrap up: Do’s and don’ts
11h00 Ends
ACTIVATION EXERCISE
Exercise focusing on the alert phase –
the first 45 minutes of a crisis where teams
and procedures are activated
 Testing the crucial first moments of a crisis
 Specific attention is paid to
 information flows
 correct use of tools
 Less focused on communication output
(releases, stakeholders)
 Two exercises in half a day
DESKTOP CRISIS EXERCISE
 Crisis simulation in a controlled environment during
which participants
 are confronted by a variety of stakeholders who
want to give an opinion on the crisis or who will
request information
 must protect the company’s reputation on the
basis of internal procedures
 Realistic scenario and stakeholders interventions
 Real-time and no outside help
DESKTOP CRISIS EXERCISE
EVALUATION, OBSERVATION
AND REPORTING
 Observers assess each group during the
session without intervening.
 They observe the way in which the group acts
and reacts based on 5 categories:
management of the team, attitude, decisiontaking, management of information and
production of an output.
 The total score for each category is shown in
a diagram, visualising the performance of the
group in each category.
OPERATIONAL CRISIS SIMULATION
Simulation of a potential crisis to see how well information is transferred
from different departments to the communication department and vice-versa
Objectives
Test, evaluate and improve the
communication process and the
crisis management at the local
and corporate level
Prepare the spokesperson(s) and
the internal stakeholders for a crisis
Same ‘rules of the game’ as for desktop
crisis exercise
SUPPORT DURING A CRISIS
-
+
Adversary
Ally
Detractor
Sympathetic
STAKEHOLDERS’
MAPPING
&
CRISIS
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
(see slide 22)
SUPPORT DURING A CRISIS
HOLDING STATEMENT
A short written statement you prepare
to answer questions re-actively in the
beginning of a crisis
PRESS RELEASE
A more elaborated statement you send
out pro-actively to the press
SUPPORT DURING A CRISIS
Press
statements
– internal
statements
Call
centers
CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
Product
recall
SUPPORT DURING A CRISIS
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
– PRESS MONITORING
4 types of media monitoring
SUPPORT DURING A CRISIS
SOCIAL MEDIA MATRIX
Pre-crisis
Crisis
Post-crisis
 maintain corporate
site
 crisis blog activated
 crisis blog
deactivated
 crisis blog dormant
and ready to go
 continuous
relationships with key
bloggers
 monitoring
blogosphere/
Twitter/forums through
advanced search
engine Radian6
(picking up over 85%
of online
conversations)
 integration of useful
information on crisis
into corporate site
 continuous social
media monitoring in
case of lingering issues
 reach out to key
bloggers
Crisis team monitors Blogs, Twitter, Social Networks and Forums
APPENDIX
COMPOSITION OF A CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM
TYPE OF CRISIS
FUNCTIONAL AREAS
TRAITS
Natural disaster
⍌ CEO or deputy
⍌ Low in communication
⎕ Finance
apprehension
⍌ Legal
⍌ High in cooperation
⎕ Marketing
⍌ High in ambiguity tolerance
⎕ Operations
⍌ Moderate in
⎕ IT
argumentativeness
⍌ HR
⍌ Stress tolerance
Workplace violence
Rumours
Malevolence
⍌ Stakeholder
…
relations/Communication
⍌ Safety
⍌ Security
⎕ Quality assurance
= able to select the most competent crisis management team
EGO CENTRIC
EXAMPLE: CRISIS RESPONSE STRATEGIES
DENIAL
DIMINISHMENT
REBUILDING
↳TYPE: Challenges
(unwarranted) Rumour
↳TYPE: Rumour
Accident/Victim crises (no history)
Attacking the Accuser
The CM confronts the person or group that
claims that a crisis exists.
Excusing
The CM tries to minimize the organisation’s
responsibility.
↳TYPE: Accident crises (history)
Human-error product harm/ accidents
Organizational misdeeds
Preventable
Denial
The CM states that no crisis exists and the
response may include explaining why
Justification
The CM tries to minimize the perceived
damage associated with the crisis.
Compensation
The organisation provides money or other
gifts to the victims.
Apology
The CM publicly states that the organisation
takes full responsibility and asks forgiveness
(click here)
Scapegoating
Some other person or group outside the
organisation is blamed for crisis.
Reinforcement
BOLSTERING POSTURE
Reminding
The organisation tells stakeholders
about its past good work
Praising
The organisation praises stakeholders.
Compensation
The organisation explains how it also is
a victim of the crisis.
Natural disaster, Rumour,
Workplace violence, Malevolence
Build positive connection between organisation & stakeholders
+ Do not forget, credibility & prior reputation of a company are components of crisis response.
HOW A GOOD MANAGER REACTS TO A CRISIS
PROVIDE PERSPECTIVE !
& BE EMPATHIC
Take a moment to
figure what is going
on – impose order
on a chaotic
situation
Act promptly, not
hurriedly – provide
direction in a timely
fashion
Manage
expectations –
don’t alarm people
but don’t be afraid to
speak to the
magnitude of the
situation
Demonstrate
control – you don’t
control the disaster
but can control the
response
Be flexible – be able
to adapt rapidly
CRISIS TYPES (1)
 Natural disaster
When an organisation is damaged as a result of the
weather or “acts of God” such as earthquakes,
tornados, floods, hurricanes, and bad storms.
 Workplace violence
When an employee or former employee commits
violence against other employees on organisational
grounds.
 Rumours
When false or misleading information is purposefully
circulated about an organisation or its products in
order to harm the organisation.
 Malevolence
 Challenges
When some outside actor or opponent employs
extreme tactics to attack the organisation, such as
product tampering, kidnapping, terrorism, or
computer hacking.
When the organisation is confronted by discontented
stakeholders with claims that it is operating in an
inappropriate manner.
CRISIS TYPES (2)
 Technical-error
When the technology utilized or supplied by
the organisation fails and causes an
industrial accident.
 Technical-error
product harm
When the technology utilized or supplied by
the organisation fails and results in a defect
or potentially harmful product.
 Human-error
product harm
When human error results in a defect or
potentially harmful product.
 Human-error
accidents
When human error results in an accident.
 Organizational
misdeeds
When management takes actions it knows
may place stakeholders at risk or knowingly
violates the law.
accidents