There has been little discussion on the Internet and print media about crisis management. When you look at how BOA, Merrill Lynch, and the banks handled the media during the financial crisis you would expect that these big firms would have had a crisis management plan.
Crisis management planning is an integral part of business today, big or small. I can tell you from first hand experience and I do not mean business continuity planning. So let me tell you a little story. Back in 1988 or early 89 to quickly summarize, the Boston area was rocked by a young 8 month pregnant woman who was killed by a so called black man in her car where she was a passenger after coming from Lamaze classes . Also wounded in this tragic murder was the girls husband who told police it was a black man that entered their car to rob them and shot his wife and him. Well if you were reading the papers or the Today Show you would have heard about this terrible incident. The person who was murdered was Carol Stuart, an employee of mine in Newton, MA.
Back to crisis management. There was an immediate meeting with the VP, HR and hi directs on what to do, we corded off the building from reporters, sent out an immediate email to all employees and made sure that the media only spoke to one (1) person from the company. Needless to say at that time we did not have a director of communications or PR person. The reasoning behind this was to protect our employees from the media and to make sure there was a consistent message to the press. In the end, our crisis management plan worked and it saved the company from undue scrutiny, protected the employees, and managed the benefits flow to the widow/family.
Again, if you remember the case 3 months later it was found out that the husband killed his spouse for the life insurance money because the family business (Kakass Furs) was in financial trouble. Needless to say having paid the husband the life insurance claim was a mistake and since that time the carrier now requires a final police record of a case before payment is determined.
Last but not least if you do not have a crisis management plan you should. HR should be at the forefront of this along with the head of communications, or PR, along with the CEO.
