Practice of Crisis Communication (2)
摘要
In the previous chapter, we analyzed why and how organizations get it wrong when they find themselves in a crisis situation, and we discussed one particularly prominent example of how not to do it, BP’s Deep Horizon spill of 2010. Now, having seen the Bad and the Ugly, let’s turn to the Good—beginning with the story of a crisis well handled; in fact, handled so well that even over four decades later it is still viewed as the benchmark of crisis management and communication. We begin this chapter with a brief case study of the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis (1982), which has rightly been identified by many as a prime positive example, and we will analyze which initiatives the company took that worked out well for them. Then, we will look at what an organization in the real world today needs to overcome a crisis—the internal structures and the required resources that must be put in place before the unpredictable happens, hoping of course it never will. Having dealt with these more formal prerequisites, we will then turn to content, discussing in some detail a crisis communication game plan and finally arriving at an overview of best practices, absolute “Dos,” as promised at the end of Chap. 15. In closing and returning to our winning formula from Chaps. 9 to 13, we present the job description for a Crisis Management Lead.