Introduction

Why in the world would my company need a Chief Crisis Officer?

Good question; here’s the answer: In the modern, media-saturated business and social environment, “crisis response” is most often dominated by communications concerns, i.e., ensuring the public, media, employees, and other stakeholders know (1) what has happened; (2) what may happen next; and (3) what you are doing about it. And the stakes have never been higher. In this new web and social media-dominated era, a fumbled, ineffective public response can mean the difference between a crisis you manage and one that manages you. In ways not imaginable previously, a public-facing crisis can have devastating and long-lasting consequences for an organization’s goals, success, and even its existence.

Chief Crisis Officer is built on the premise that every company and organization must identify a leader and a structure for effective and efficient crisis communications response. Using real-life examples, analysis, and tactical guidance, this book will break down crisis events into their component parts and provide both a strategic approach and proper tools to enable a Chief Crisis Officer to assemble his or her team and respond when an inevitable crisis occurs.

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Shit happens.

When it does, you need the right plumbing in place to deal with it. And you need a plumber who knows how the system works, and how to clear a drain when things get clogged.

This, in essence, is what Chief Crisis Officer is all about.

“Eww!” my wife remarked upon hearing this comparison. “No one is going to read a book that starts off talking about poop!”

I hope she’s wrong, and that you’ll excuse my vulgarity. I’m not someone who throws around such language casually, but in all honesty, there’s no more apt analogy to describe the main theme of this book … and no reason to sugarcoat it. A crisis—whether it’s an accident, workplace incident, product recall, data breach, lawsuit, or investigation—is, more often than not, what we call in the old neighborhood a “shitstorm.” Effectively cleaning up the mess is what this book is all about.

But let’s put my thesis in more dignified, business-like terms: In Chief Crisis Officer, we will examine two premises that are essential to public response when negative events or issues threaten to do reputational harm to you, your company or organization, or your personal or business goals:

First, you need systems and procedures in place that respond when a crisis hits (the plumbing).

Second, you need a Chief Crisis Officer who understands those systems, how they work, and when to use them (the plumber).

In the chapters to come, we will explore the structure and protocols you need to respond appropriately when a crisis occurs, and the particular skills and expertise of the Chief Crisis Officer to ensure you come through a crisis or other sensitive reputational event in the best possible shape.

Reached for Comment, Company X Could Not Get Its Act Together

We’ve all seen it before, whether on local television, in your daily newspaper, or in the pages of The Wall Street Journal: “Company X could not be reached for comment.”

The story in question is often highly negative in nature, involving either an immediate crisis event (product recall, workplace incident or data breach, to name a few) or, perhaps, a longer-term crisis like an investigation or lawsuit. The lack of response only makes things worse. The audience doesn’t know the facts, so they speculate; they don’t know the company’s side of the story, so they assume the worst. Allegations or unexplained negatives just hang out there, crying for some sort of explanation, some sort of context that would help the public understand why the company, organization, or individual is the subject of such unflattering publicity. Readers or viewers think: “Why isn’t the company available for comment? Don’t they know how bad this story looks? Don’t they care?”

I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years, so I can tell you the following with a high degree of confidence: When you see a lack of response during a crisis, it is often not intentional, and it is usually not because there was nothing to say, no way to manage the spiraling negatives that threaten both reputation and livelihood. Rather, in most situations, that lack of public response happens simply because the party in question couldn’t get its act together in time enough to respond. And more often than not, that’s because they didn’t have the structure or protocols in place to make such a response efficient and effective, and because no one was identified to lead the effort before media and other audiences.

This is the problem that Chief Crisis Officer is designed to help solve. Although this is a public relations book, it is less about the “creative side” of PR—cute soundbites and images, branding campaigns, media tours—and more about process, leadership, and message.

The Curious Profession of Crisis Counselor

“You have a corpse in a car, minus a head, in the garage. Take me to it.”

—Winston Wolfe, Pulp Fiction

“It’s handled.”

—Olivia Pope, ABC-TV’s Scandal

There is a mythology around the crisis manager—the fixer, the spin-doctor, the operative—forged through movies and television programs over the past few decades. The shady Svengali, moving in the shadows to bury facts, getting the right people to say the right things; the fixer who knows what strings to pull and buttons to push to make a problem go away; the sleek operative dropping an envelope with incriminating photos on a reporter’s desk, or trading a good story for a better story not involving their client.

I’d love to say that my business works that way—not only would my job be easier, but I personally would seem a lot more interesting.

But that’s not what we do in the crisis communications business. Rather, consider this quote, from the 2013 George Clooney movie Michael Clayton:

There’s no play here. There’s no angle. There’s no champagne room. I’m not a miracle worker, I’m a janitor. The math on this is simple. The smaller the mess, the easier it is for me to clean up.

Janitor, plumber … very similar concepts. And this quote is an effective distillation of what crisis counselors do: We take steps to make sure the mess is smaller, so it is easier to clean up.

Which is why every company over a certain size needs to have a plan for responding to unexpected public events that can do reputational damage. And a Chief Crisis Officer and team to execute that plan. Only then can you ensure the right response when things get dirty.

There’s nothing tricky, or sly, or cinematic about it … most of the time.*

This Book Is for You!

“This book is not for me,” you think. It’s for General Motors. Or Toyota. Or Target. Tylenol. BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The Exxon Valdez. Three Mile Island. These are the types of companies and events that need crisis communications: Big companies, with big problems. Companies with oil rigs in the Gulf, ships at sea or thousands of potentially deadly vehicles on the road.

Not me, you think.

Respectfully, you are wrong. Crisis communications planning and execution are vital for every company that interfaces with the public and worries about the negative implications of unforeseen (or at times, perhaps, foreseen) events on their organization and its reputation.*

Want proof? Consider the following crises that occurred in March 2015, over a span of less than two weeks, involving organizations of all sizes. Each of these incidents were high profile enough that the organization in question had to issue a statement to the media in response:

And again, this is just in a two-week period!

From the list above, you see small manufacturers, regional hospitals, local retailers, government bodies, police departments, high schools, community banks, and universities. All are moderately sized institutions for their industry or segment, yet all are facing the types of issues that, while perhaps not likely to land them on wall-to-wall coverage on CNN, will nonetheless portray them negatively to their respective audience. These companies and organizations were not household names, and the issues involved were not necessarily front-page news. Each incident, however, was critically important to the organization in question; each organization’s response, therefore, is vital to its perception in marketplace and ultimately, its business or organizational mission.

Thus, the critical question is: Were they prepared? Even more critically, are you?

There were other, more major crises in this two-week span as well, involving name brands that are in the headlines every day. During this period:

Here’s the point: Although this book is for McDonald’s, Novartis, Apple, and Herbalife to be sure, you don’t have to be a name brand to face an issue or event that will put you or your company under the unflattering glare of the media spotlight. You only need to have a public—and care about what that public thinks about you, your product, service, or issue.

Crisis Communications Is Not Just for the PR Team

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It is important to recognize that a thorough understanding of crisis communications is not just for your public relations department or outside PR firm. For that reason, although this book provides an excellent roadmap for planning and executing a crisis communications program, it is not a technical treatise accessible only to those who already have an in-depth understanding of the communications or public relations field. And there’s an important reason for this: because planning and decision-making during a crisis involve many functions and operational levels of an organization—from the executive suite, to the legal department, corporate security, the IT department, and more.

Indeed, as you read the lists detailing crises that befell companies and organizations of all sizes, many of you who are not in a traditional PR role might have thought of the issues you are currently facing in your position and how you may assist in the response—because crisis communications touches everyone.

Thus, I’ve written this book with many audiences in mind, including:

The point is: this book is for you. Crisis communications planning and techniques are not merely for the largest of companies, facing the biggest of issues, in the most major of media outlets. Nor is it solely the domain of the public relations practitioner who specializes in the crisis field. Effective crisis communications is for everyone involved with issues or events that could negatively impact their organization.

Thus, while big companies, their executives, and their advisors will find enormous value in this book, it is not solely for them—or even primarily for them. If you’re a $5 million manufacturing company whose facility has caught fire or a small software startup that just experienced a breach and the theft of several thousand credit card numbers, crisis communications suddenly becomes very relevant to you, your company, and your future. So read on.

Who Am I?

Why take advice from me? Let me give you a bit of my background: I’ve been doing this work for more than 20 years. I started in politics, became a lawyer, entered PR, and eventually got into crisis and litigation communications. I run a specialist PR firm in New York and recently became a software entrepreneur, launching a separate company, CrisisResponsePro.com, which offers an innovative crisis communications software product. (You’ll learn more about the role of technology in crisis communications response in Chapter 7.)

For more than two decades, my crisis communications consulting firm has been involved in high-profile, sometimes explosive crises, including industrial accidents, facility fires, truck and airplane accidents, data and IT issues, product recalls, discrimination and sexual harassment complaints, workplace violence incidents, class action litigation, labor disputes, business lawsuits, investigations and indictments, and so forth.

Along the way, I wrote a book called In the Court of Public Opinion (now in its second edition), which specifically discusses the types of reputational issues that arise during litigation and legal disputes. In the Court of Public Opinion was well received in both legal and non-legal communities, earning nearly unanimous accolades. (Financial Times, for example, called the first edition “the perfect handbook for this age of show trials.”)1 My book was cited in textbooks and law review articles (and even in an Indiana state Supreme Court ruling),2 spawned more than a few imitators, and helped ease the acceptance of communications consulting as a legitimate tool in the modern litigator’s arsenal.

If you like this book, in fact, I encourage you to read In The Court of Public Opinion as well. It’s full of valuable lessons for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Indeed, as the discipline known as “litigation communications” continues to become intertwined with traditional crisis communications, it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Or as crisis communications expert Harlan Loeb puts it in Chapter 8 of this book: “There is not a corporate crisis I’ve seen that was not either preceded by or generated litigation. So it’s either on the front end, the middle end, or the back end, but litigation hovers quite closely.”

This is an important point, and one that we will revisit throughout this book. The interplay of legal and crisis communication issues informs both the approach an organization should take when preparing and executing a crisis communications plan, and who should take the role of Chief Crisis Officer to lead the organization’s efforts.

Toward a More Expansive Definition of Crisis

Much of the study of crisis communications fails in one significant regard: Research and discussion primarily focuses on only the most high-profile crises of recent years, such as the BP oil spill, the Target data breach, or the GM ignition switch recall, to cite just three examples. Other studies examine notorious crises of past decades, such as the “cyanide-in-the-Tylenol” case or the Three Mile Island nuclear power plan disaster of the late 1970s. In other words, the type of wide-scale, “center-stage” crises that tend to dominate news coverage and—in recent cases—light up social media for months at a time.

That’s fine, and we’ll look at these big cases in the pages of Chief Crisis Officer, too, since there are many lessons that can be gleaned from such case studies. But I believe more is needed, since we all don’t work in major, Fortune 100 multinational conglomerates, and we won’t all face a “cyanide-in-the-Tylenol” style crisis. If we are only focusing on the most famous crises, involving large corporations and multimarket products or services, we’re missing something. And if you write a book that only examines “name brand” crises involving the largest companies in the world, not only will you have a very small audience for your book, your readers will have a somewhat skewed perspective regarding what crisis communications is all about. Thus, a more expansive definition of crisis is required when considering examples of crisis events, with case studies drawn from many types of companies of all sizes and shapes, and in all industries.

There is, for example, tons written in both general business media and the trade press regarding the handling of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This coverage includes stories in both the general business media and the public relations trade media, analyzing the overall response and the steps that were taken, or not taken, at each stage in the crisis. As a result, there were ample opportunities to analyze every public utterance made by all of the actors involved—and there is value in that.

But the truth is this: A small crisis to a large multinational corporation may be a big crisis, or a very big crisis, to a midmarket company with a half-dozen locations across the United States. As such, if we study only the biggest of the big, you wind up with a wonderful set of recommendations for these companies and little else for the rest of us.

So, while still focusing on some of these big-name cases at various points in Chief Crisis Officer, I’m going to try to avoid just rehashing the biggest events, impacting the largest companies. Throughout this book, I’ll draw broadly from my own experience handling crises of all sizes—from those involving large multinational corporations and product recalls to those involving small and mid-market companies. This scope allows us to draw lessons from a variety of issues and events, thus giving a more comprehensive view of the discipline and best practices that ensure crises are managed properly, regardless of company size or the nature of the event.

I think what is great about this field is that there are lessons to be found for every organization in all types of crises. It’s not my intent to say that the BP oil spill and Toyota sudden acceleration cases cannot provide lessons for organizations of all sizes, but, rather, that we need balance. In the pages of Chief Crisis Officer, that’s exactly what you get.

The Road Ahead

As you’ll learn further along in this book, a good crisis plan provides you with a roadmap of where you are going and how you are going to get there. So does the Introduction to good business books. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you are going to learn in the pages of Chief Crisis Officer.

First, in Chapter 1, we’ll break down a crisis event and draw lessons that form the basis of our discussion throughout. We’ll examine the big-name crises that have made news over the past several years, as well as less well-known events involving small and mid-sized organizations, with the goal of developing a real sense of what happens during a public-facing crisis and why effective leadership and proper structure for crisis communications response are important.

In Chapter 2, we’ll discuss the Chief Crisis Officer position—who this person should be, the particular skills and capabilities he or she will need for the role, and the characteristics that make an otherwise talented professional a bad crisis responder.

In Chapter 3, we’ll create a crisis plan and explore how the Chief Crisis Officer and his or her core crisis communication team can put together a plan that is actually useful during the heat of battle.

In Chapter 4, “Rapid Response: Where BP and Target Went Wrong … and Where You Can Go Right,” we will examine our trademarked methodology for responding to crises to ensure you understand the proper systems and protocols that should be triggered as a crisis unfolds.

In Chapter 5, we’ll look at messaging and why it is so important to avoid clichés, corporate-speak, jargon, and other ineffective language when communicating about your company’s issue or crisis. I’ll give you my take on what makes a good message during a crisis, information on what the message shouldn’t be, and how you can work to create a message that resonates with your audience, even as the crisis is unfolding.

In Chapter 6, we’ll consider litigation communications, a particular subset of crisis communications that is increasingly prevalent in an era where legal issues and regulation reach into every aspect of business operations.

Technology and social media are everywhere, and in Chapter 7 we will examine the role of technology in crisis communications response and the particular tools that can help create a more efficient and effective system in the event of a crisis.

In Chapter 8, we bring these themes together by looking closely at a hypothetical example of a well-managed crisis—showing what an effective crisis communications response looks like when you’re “hitting on all cylinders.”

I’ve also included Action Points at the end of each chapter to give you of quick summary of the main points of the chapter.

Finally, in an Afterword called “Perspectives on Crisis Communications,” I’ve collected interviews with leaders in various aspects of the crisis communications field to give you a sense of what works and what doesn’t in the real world from variety of different perspectives.

It’s important to note that this is not a book discussing the nuts and bolts of PR practice, such as how to write a press release, how to call a reporter, or how to arrange a press conference. There are very good books out there that will give you a grounding in these areas. My goal is not to create a simplistic, paint-by-numbers manual—since, obviously, managing the modern crisis is decidedly not a paint-by-numbers process. Rather, although plenty of “how-to” is found in Chief Crisis Officer, I want to give you a way to think about crisis communications response and the leadership, teams, planning, and tools you need to get the job done right.

In examples from my own work, I’ve tried to use as many of the facts of the actual crisis as I can while protecting client confidences. As a result, these examples will tend to be amalgams of various crisis matters and situations I’ve been a part of in the past—all are “based on true events” and the names changed to protect the innocent. My clients should take note: I’m not talking about you! Rather, I’m providing lessons drawn from various crises involving hundreds of clients over the course of more than 20 years.

I hope you find this book interesting, informative, and even a little fun. And when you are done reading, I hope this book leaves you with the following takeaways: First, that organizations of all sizes can face crisis events that subject them to public scrutiny in a manner that might negatively impact both their reputation and overall strategic goals; and second, that smart organizations must take the steps outlined in this book to ensure that they manage the crisis, rather than have the crisis manage them.

 

 

* Ok, I guess it would be wrong to suggest that there’s nothing interesting about the work we do. Over the years, I’ve been involved in many situations that seem like they’re pulled from the pages of a movie script, but even in these situations, our advice tends to be more strategic than sensational.

* You’ll notice I bounce back and forth between the terms “organization” and “company” throughout this book. To be honest, this is not intentional … I just chose whatever term sounded better in that particular sentence. But to be sure, some of the lessons contained herein are probably more applicable to for-profit companies than to nonprofits, government agencies, and other organizations (or high-profile individuals with their own reputational needs). Rest assured, however, that this book is designed for organizations of all types and sizes—business, government, nonprofits, educational institutions, the arts … you name it.

* These lists were compiled using the innovative software CrisisResponsePro—a tool you’ll learn more about later in this book.

* There is a small but growing trend in Corporate America for the PR function in an organization to report directly to the chief legal officer, and not only in highly regulated fields: For example, in fall 2015, Twitter announced that their General Counsel Vijaya Gadde was also assuming the role of head of communications for the company (see http://www.corpcounsel.com/home/id=1202739500003/Twitter-GC-Swoops-Into-Dual-Role-as-Communications-Boss?mcode=1202617073467&curindex=4&slreturn=20150914073435).

* Major law firms are now entering the crisis management business, including Washington, DC, heavyweight Covington & Burling, which created a “crisis management” practice group in 2011 that included former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, among others (see http://prcg.com/law-firm-unveils-crisis-management-specialty/), and Holland & Knight, which created its own crisis communications group in 2015 (see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/10/powermoves-holland-knight-starts-crisis-communications-team/).