CEO crisis manager

Good to see Qantas Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, extolling the virtues of crisis management in Business Review Weekly magazine. "Flexibility and adaptability is really key," says Alan Joyce, the diminutive, Irish-born Chief Executive of Qantas, without any hint of irony. "We have a fairly refined crisis management team and crisis management process, probably more so than many other companies." Joyce was talking about a broad range of threats including the volcano turmoil where Qantas lost $10 million during the threat to air travel. "It's what (my predecessor) Geoff Dixon calls the constant shock syndrome...we plan on a steady state and then we plan scenarios and risks around that. But the volcano would not have been on the risk register." (BRW May 6-12,2010 - Managing the Unmanageable)


There is determined growing recognition among CEOs that crisis management is part of day-to-day planning. The process, its respondents and its leaders need to have matured either in an arena of real crises or with the experience of test runs. Best practice is practice. CEOs and crisis teams need to practise together. Organisations never know when the worst case scenario can happen but they can be prepared to handle adversity and minimise the impact when it does.

CEO crisis leadership

As we can see from current global crises, there is no hiding place for the CEO in a crisis. And when the big one hits, it is the CEO who will end up facing the music.

It is inevitable the CEO will be pursued for their views and opinions. What did they do? What did they say? Every stakeholder involved in the organisation knows that the company stands the best chance of surviving if the leadership is from the top and on top.

Ensuring the cultural approach to managing a crisis must have the imprimatur of the CEO. It is they who should proactively oversee the corporate crisis management strategy that will work in a crisis situation. However, the levels of unpreparedness, inexperience and defensive reactions that still exist in many organisations generally indicate that many lessons have not yet been learned.

To see the CEO walking the talk in crisis planning is a statement of strong leadership that will direct the organisation to the high ground when the worst case scenario happens.

In the end, the buck stops at the top. In rapid escalation, the sooner the CEO leads the agenda, the better.

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.

Social media for crisis response

Major corporations and government are faced with the reality that frontline crisis communication is now being seriously influenced by social media. The use of Twitter, Facebook and blogs is a paramount tool in taking the high ground.

Treading the proven path of communicating with key stakeholders through the usual internal and external media continues to be a priority but it is essential to listen to and talk the language of crisis conversation on the web.

Don't wait to deal with social media until a crisis occurs. Get your social media strategy together before the worst case scenario so as to gain maximum social media optimisation. Be sure you have the language of conversation right too - social media needs to be delivered with open dialogue and the process linked to the most effective internet search engines. Social media requires careful monitoring so that the key issues related to the crisis are being identified and dealt with as they occur.

Remember - news editors, producers and journalists are watching the web to read conversations in every crisis. Social media has to be part of your response strategy.

List your crisis stakeholders early

In every crisis, stakeholder communication must start immediately in order to maintain effective control. It is an axiom of crisis management, if not business generally, that what you say is as important as what you do, and that you do what you say you will do.

How you communicate with stakeholders will have a direct bearing on the duration, intensity, and economic cost of the crisis.

List your key stakeholder groups. Get them up on the whiteboard. Some will be enemies and some will be friends, but in order to handle their needs and expectations, you must communicate with them fast.

Without being industry specific, key stakeholders will normally include:

* employees and next of kin (first and foremost)
* senior management and Board
* unions
* customers and suppliers
* financial analysts, bankers and shareholders
* insurance companies and legal representatives
* affected and interested third parties such as local community, academics,
environmentalists and special interest groups
* media including the web
* the general public

Identify your crisis stakeholders and confirm communication strategy for each early. Proactive organisations do this before a crisis hits to get ahead of the agenda.

Mining crisis next-of-kin

It's rare for a US President to directly blame a company and government for a major crisis. President Obama has blamed the country's worst coal mining disaster in 40 years on the Massey Energy Company and government mismanagement. The explosion in West Virginia on 5 April killed 29 men and injured two. The President said: "Owners responsible for conditions in the Upper Big Branch mine should be held accountable for decisions they made and preventative measures they failed to take."

Only four years ago at Sago Mine, also in West Virginia, 12 miners died in another horrific mine accident. This event will long be remembered for the devastating media coverage where it was stated "12 Miners Found Alive" when in fact 12 miners were later declared as fatalities.

Common to both these disasters were the sad and tragic faces of family members searching for information and confirmation. A scene too often presented in these industry emergencies.

Ahead of any major emergency or crisis, a number of essential actions will prepare an organisation to communicate with employees and next-of-kin. They are:

* designate who is accountable for coordinating communication with families
* pre-arrange internal training to deliver bad news to families
* make provision for counselling rooms to manage enquiries from families
* establish detailed records of families' names, addresses and phone numbers
* arrange protection of families from the media and outside stakeholders
* establish guidelines on communication with contractors
* develop a message strategy for spokespersons to update information
* establish a dedicated family call centre and train telephonists

Organisations will be judged on how they treat people in a crisis. Effective communication is the key.

The crisis 'blame game'

The blame game is inevitable in crises and this is particularly evident related to the Royal Commission Inquiry into the Black Saturday February 7, 2009 Australian bushfires in the State of Victoria.

Blame for the warning system, for emergency preparedness, and leadership of coordinated responses has been levelled at the Chief Fire Officer of the Authority, and further blame is now being levelled at the then Police Commissioner, who held a senior Disaster Plan responsibility and has been questioned about her failure to perform her duty on the day. She is particularly criticised for "leaving her post" although she had delegated her role to take a break for dinner.

More than ever, crisis leaders are met with increased scrutiny from key stakeholders about their strategic thinking and their integrity of leadership. What is clear is the court of public opinion's perception of their leadership in crisis. And often that is shaped by the leaders' personal attributes and values and not their response process management. Too often some media will focus on a leader's lack of integrity and decisiveness which leads to serious negative perceptions of what otherwise was a job well done.

In the end, a leader's role in times of crisis is to communicate a vision and reassure stakeholders of what is happening and the direction of the response. Every crisis leader is on "centre stage" and under public scrutiny from the beginning to the end recovery.