Stakeholder Control in a Crisis

When a crisis team meets in the first 90 minutes of managing a critical incident, one of the essential priority actions has to be identifying key stakeholders. There is no doubt that a stakeholder checklist can be prepared by crisis managers before an event happens but many of these stakeholders can only be identified on the day.

This proactivity is about getting ahead of your key audience agendas.  It doesn’t take long to call and tell a politician, a senior police officer, a journalist, a regulator, a stockbroker, a banker or indeed your own executive and managers about your emerging problem and how you are dealing with it.  They become a credible source in understanding and communicating your response. It’s not a time to bury your head in the sand and say nothing.  The bunker mentality may feel good for a few hours but it’s the fastest way to lose the high ground and encourage the rumour mill.

The court of public opinion wants to know what happened from you and social media plays a large part in early news transmission. Very quickly they will form opinions as to whether you are guilty or not guilty.  If your stakeholders understand that you are on top of the situation making every effort to fix it, they will be an asset to your response.

Commercial Union, one of Britain’s largest insurance companies, had their offices blown apart in London in the 1990s as a result of a terrorist bombing.  Much of the incident and emergency management was handled by the London Metropolitan Police in a very efficient manner, however the company played its part in dealing with a large group of audiences of its stakeholders.  The CEO and crisis Team Leader showed strong leadership and split the business management team into two, one to deal with the day-to-day running of the business and the other to deal with the crisis.  

This explosion killed three people and injured 30.   Four hundred tons of glass and debris were spread across the street and the city of London was brought to a virtual standstill.   The Commercial Union premises were totally inoperable.  The management team went straight to their crisis plan which outlined management teams and established priorities. 

As part of their damage limitation, assessment and action planning, they were quickly able to audit their employees to identify injured personnel and make contact with families.  They had procedures for effective liaison with emergency services. 

Plans were in place to make their building safe and secure, particularly related to the company's information and communication capability. 

All meetings were documented as were all discussions.  They moved immediately into recovery mode to restore communication links and it wasn’t long before they had established alternative premises and replacement of their main switchboard and computer information facilities. They established a temporary communications centre while they were moving into their new building and they were able to follow a plan of where to go, what to do and who does it.

In terms of communication, they made themselves available and distributed information to their staff, the public, media, customers, shareholders, brokers and the insurance industry.  Commercial Union particularly honed in on immediate and longer term plans for staff to encourage morale, goodwill and enthusiasm.

Admittedly, Commercial Union were the victims of a terrorist bomb that blew up outside their 23-storey building.  They certainly had the support and understanding of the British population behind them.  However, regardless of this support, they had to ensure company, corporate and brand survival at the same time as showing that they were able to manage the situation.  They ensured continuity of operations and control of the situation. 

RELOCATING IN A CRISIS

What happens when your head office is compromised in a major crisis? You must leave your building and can't return for some time. This can happen as a result of a natural disaster, a man-made disaster, a systems collapse or an energy failure.  All of a sudden there is a need to move to temporary or new premises.

During a crisis exercise workshop, one of the first questions for the Crisis Management Team is:  "Where would you manage the crisis from if you couldn’t manage it from here?"  

Probably the most important element of any Team Leader’s responsibility is to ensure that the organisation can continue to function even though it experiences a major incident or accident.

Losing your building, your office, your site, your location or your precinct, should be an essential element of risk recovery planning.  The fundamental element in this situation is the back-up premises.  The time to prepare for this is well before an emergency occurs, not when an emergency occurs. 

Long before the horrendous World Trade Centre catastrophe, in one of the worst terrorist attacks in the City of London, the Commercial Union building was literally blown to pieces.  This Head Office building was rendered totally inoperable.  Three people lost their lives and 30 people were injured.  Almost immediately, the huge British insurance company was able to locate alternate premises. 

Their temporary crisis management team moved to a specifically identified location and managed the crisis issues from that office while the company set up an empty building to move all their staff and management into over a weekend.  Telephones, computers and communication systems were rapidly brought on line and staff were contacted about the move to this new location and briefed on the changing situation that had rendered their normal office unusable.

Their recovery plan allowed the firm to get back in business virtually over a weekend.      

Some organisations have made their crisis management team and its facilities portable.  In other words, they have prepared a comprehensive crisis and recovery transportable unit for dealing with a situation that prevents them from using their normal crisis control room.  The portable unit (a crisis case) allows them to respond quickly at any location with the appropriate equipment and supplies such as mobile and sat. phones, manuals, contact lists, maps and checklists.

Organisations that want to keep their losses to a minimum and need to take immediate control of a crisis situation, should identify alternative premises to manage a crisis well in advance.  These premises can take a number of forms:

  

1.   Close sites.  These can be alternative and temporary premises close by.  Usually these premises are linked with sufficient immediate communication access to the organisation’s main line of information.  This allows a switch-over to support the database and telephone system.

  

2.  Friendly neighbours.  This is a back-up site for full or temporary operation.  It might not have the immediate technical communication lines to link computers and telephones, but can give immediate access to key stakeholders and is still within close access to the original operation.

3.   Corporate regional office location.  This can be one of your organisation’s offices that is located some distance from the original organisation location.  It provides “hot”, instantaneous links to databases, telephones and email, but takes you away from the location of your crisis.

4.  The portable location.  This is more a mobile situation which has been pre-organised to give you an ongoing temporary back-up facility.  It can be set up from suitcases, in a van, bus or local hotel, and can provide the necessary switch-over to back up databases, telephones and communication systems.   This unit is often used by the transport industry and emergency services for managing protracted events that happen at distant and inaccessible locations.    

AIRSHIP INDUSTRY CRISIS RECOVERY FAILURE

Recently we conducted a survey of businesses, corporations and government to find out what their crisis management recovery program was like. Of those that had crisis management and recovery plans, 30% had not tested them in the last four years.  Not testing crisis management and recovery plans is as good as not having them. The likelihood of full recovery will be very low.
 

The worst kind of event can wipe out a plant, destroy vital information and virtually stop production, but it should not finish the business.  The minute a crisis is declared, the recovery phase runs parallel.  Alternative means of operation have to be put into action, customers need to be advised, suppliers need to be contacted, and employees have to be supported and brought into the picture early.  Assets and earnings have to be secured and brand reputation and corporate image need to be stabilised.

The transport industry places recovery and damage control high on their crisis management agenda.  Transport disasters have been the death knell of some transport companies.  Aside from Concorde and some specific aircraft, the only industry to actually die because of disasters is the airship industry.  In fact, there were only two disasters - the airship R101 and the Hindenberg.  And in real numbers, there was a combined death toll of less than 100.  Small numbers compared to the 1,403 lost on the Titanic.

  

In October 1930, the R101 left its mast in Bedfdordshire in the United Kingdom with 54 people aboard, loaded to the hilt.  The fittings on the airship included silver cutlery, potted palms and heavy Axminster carpeting.   

There were large supplies of the finest gourmet food and wine with plans for a banquet over Egypt.  It was also carrying more diesel oil than was needed. 

The airport of Le Bourget in France gave confirmation that the airship was one kilometre north of Beauvais.  Then came the report that the R101 had caught fire after not clearing a hill.  There were reports of a huge fire in the air and the sound of an explosion as the airship hit the ground and broke up.  The cause was never really clarified but it rapidly brought Britain’s airship industry to a close.

Germany persisted with airships, particularly with the magnificent Hindenberg, the ultimate passenger experience.   Magnificently prepared cabins, plush dining room, a library and even a smoking area.   This airship made flights to the United States and passengers relied on this as a regular form of transportation.

On 3 May 1937, the Hindenberg flew into her American landing area from Germany.  Families of passengers awaited at the Lakehurst Terminus.  The media were there.  A radio reporter, with his wire recorder, had decided that this was an interesting event to review.  He moved through the landing processes as the airship slowly lowered its bulk to the ground from the mooring mast.  Then, without any warning, there was a flash.  In the midst of this historic broadcast, the man, engulfed in emotion, screamed “it’s flashing, flashing, flashing terribly, it’s bursting into flames.”  This historical and frightening broadcast was one of the first on the spot broadcasts of an actual disaster in action. 

The crew of the Hindenberg did an outstanding job of helping injured passengers and crew from the burning inferno.  Thirty-six people died from a total of 97. 

This was the end of the airship industry.  The media gave the disaster world-wide headlines and the broadcast was aired on radio stations internationally.  Public outcry and fear was enormous. 

The airship industry reviewed its options but recovery was not one of them. Safety and lack of capability signed the death warrant.  The Germans removed other airships from their fleet and both the UK and Germany closed their factories and hangars.  It was all over.

Unpredictable crises 2010

The Financial Times has suggested that disaster management is a growth market, particularly related to unexpected events such as the tragic deaths and subsequent oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the sovereign debt crisis in Greece and the ongoing volcanic ash closing down air space in Europe.

Having the resilience to control an unpredictable event is the role of crisis management and when emergency response systems can't cope, strategic crisis management needs to kick in to respond swiftly to reputational brand and governance issues. The simple questions I would ask any organisation are:

* what are the worst case scenarios that could hit your business?
* what is the most inconvenient time for this to happen?
* do you have a strategic plan to deal with it?
* who will lead your response?
* can you contact/involve your key stakeholders rapidly?
* where will you manage the response from?
* can you continue to run the rest of the business?
* what are your short and long term recovery goals?

Now is the time to plan to limit the effects of an escalating unforeseen event. With a strategic crisis plan you can.