When Crisis Strikes

Francis Herd

Description

'This is a must-have handbook on crisis management whose moment has come. Every CEO should get a copy!' – Alistair Mokoena, Google South Africa Country Director

In the past few years, so many scandals have rocked corporate South Africa that crises seem to be the norm rather than the exception. In the glare of the public eye, with cameras, microphones and cellphones in their face, many leaders who excel in organisations suddenly become scared, confused and can even appear shady.

When Crisis Strikes looks at a variety of crises in the age of social media in South Africa and abroad, with examples of who got it right, who got it wrong and how they could have done better. The organisations range from schools to local companies to multinationals caught up in state capture claims and giants such as Boeing and BP.

The book provides ten simple and effective rules to help manage crisis situations. The practical advice in each rule is backed up by academic research that draws from public relations, marketing, management, leadership and psychology. It combines insights from a seasoned journalist and an accomplished academic to give you the advice and tools to ward off a crisis before it strikes and, if it’s too late, to resolve a situation quickly and with integrity.

Sujets

• Communication médiatique
• Anglais
• Industrie
• Business
• Economics
• English
• Public relations
• Social media marketing
• Internet marketing
• Idioma inglés
• Marketing et communication
• Industries

Informations

• Publié par: Pan Macmillan South Africa
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781770107137
• Langue: English

Extrait

Francis: To my ‘book baby’, my daughter Celine, who was born while we were writing. May life bring you much joy and no crisis you can’t handle.
Nicola: To my parents, who instilled the importance of ethical values and a love for learning.


When Crisis Strikes
Ten Rules to Survive (and Avoid) a Reputation Disaster
Francis Herd and Nicola Kleyn
MACMILLAN

First published in 2020
by Pan Macmillan South Africa
Private Bag X19
Northlands
Johannesburg
2116
www.panmacmillan.co.za
ISBN 978-1-77010-712-0
e-ISBN 978-1-77010-713-7
© 2020 Francis Herd and Nicola Kleyn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Editing by Sally Hines
Proofreading by Wesley Thompson
Design and typesetting by Triple M Design, Johannesburg
Cover design by publicide


Contents
Introduction
Polony and the Balony of Tiger Brands
Rule 1 : Stop the Harm
Frankie’s, My Dear, Woolies Doesn’t Give a Damn
Rule 2 : Respond Quickly and Conspicuously
KPMG: Rogue Reports, Dead Cows and State Capture
Rule 3 : Match the Crisis Response to the ‘Crime’
Vicious and Sweet: Comparing Tiger Brands to Maple Leaf Foods
Rule 4 : Apologise If You’ve Messed up
Connect the Dots: Big Corporate Culpability in State Capture
Rule 5 : After Ethical Breaches, Excise
‘I’d Like My Life Back’
Rule 6 : Be Human
St John’s College: A Headmaster Schooled on Air
Rule 7 : Make Decisions You Can Defend
Bad Blood Flying SAA into the Ground
Rule 8 : Respect the Power of Relationships
Pick n Pay and Poisoned Tins
Rule 9 : Be Accessible to the Media
Caught on Camera: Sober as a Judge (Not)
Rule 10 : Plan While Living ‘Live’
Postscript: A Word on COVID-19
About the Authors
Acknowledgements


Introduction
The reasons for this book are simple: the nature of the world we live in means crises are striking with more frequency and intensity. And yet, so many leaders are getting crisis management horribly wrong.
Organisations spend years trying to gain the attention and trust of customers, donors or investors, some with teams of public relations (PR), marketing and corporate social responsibility experts. But when companies become vulnerable, it only takes a few bad interviews, a leader who says ‘no comment’, or becomes defensive and arrogant, to jeopardise years of hard work, put jobs in danger and send investors scurrying. On the flipside, if leaders can keep their heads when crises strike, there is a remarkable opportunity to build reputations and deepen trust. Leader attitudes to crises make a substantive difference. Studies have found that leaders who think of crises as threats react more emotionally and are more constrained. But when leaders see crises as opportunities, they become more open-minded and flexible, and more effective in picking up the pieces. 1
The general view is that a crisis is a sudden, unexpected event that poses a major threat to an organisation (or a person). 2 But there are other takes as well. Academics Paul Frosh and Amit Pinchevski have argued that, given the explosion of smartphones, cameras and social media, everyone can now record or report on crises so they are no longer moments of interruption, but increasingly part of the very fabric of life. 3 Others, who reject the idea that crises just appear out of the blue, argue that crises are linked to the behaviour of managers who deal with them. 4 That’s why the involvement of top managers is essential in planning (only when leaders lead, will others follow), preventing, pre-empting and managing crises. Accountable leaders are now generally viewed as the main spokespeople in a crisis, especially if the whole organisation is under threat. 5 If you are that accountable leader, this book is for you.
Who we are writing for
This book is for leaders of organisations from multinational companies to small and medium enterprises, non-governmental organisations, schools and just about any organisations you can think of, as well as would-be leaders, practitioners and anyone interested in the theories behind crisis management. It will also be of interest to anyone who finds themself in the glare of the public eye, with television cameras, radio mics or cellphones facing in their direction. Given recording technology, social media and the speed at which audio and video recordings can travel around the world, this now means basically everyone .
As a journalist who has watched reputations being ruined live on air, and a dean of a business school who is often asked to discuss the ramifications of corporate crises, we have both been struck by a dearth of practical advice to help leaders make decisions in an era when crises are playing out daily and crisis management is being earnestly studied across various fields of academia. We collaborated to write this book together but you’ll also find anecdotes from each of us peppered throughout the text.
It’s simply too late to understand crisis management when crisis strikes; when investors or donors and regulators are breathing down your neck, journalists come knocking and you wake up to find a most unflattering picture of yourself on the front pages. You may get some good advice from subordinates or PR companies, but, if you’re not prepared, the voices of lawyers and insurers telling you about the dangers you face will always sound louder. We hope this book will help you to decide, when the pressure is on, what type of leader you will be, and give you the knowledge to assess advice and the tools to make tough decisions. You might be a regular winner of boardroom battles, but this is about preparing for the reputation wars.
What’s inside
This book presents a cross section of global and local crises involving companies, partnerships, a judge and a school. We have not focused on one of South Africa’s biggest corporate scandals, the collapse of Steinhoff, for two reasons. Firstly, the main concern has been evidence that fraud was committed at the very top. Our remit is not to discuss strategies for dishonest leaders to better manage a crisis, but rather to help honest leaders represent themselves and their companies better. Ethical leadership underpins all our advice. Sometimes the lines are blurred, and there are some good people left in companies affected by the actions of a few. That’s why we’ve devised ‘Rule 5: After Ethical Breaches, Excise’. Secondly, although new leadership is now in place at Steinhoff, we don’t have enough information to assess their recovery efforts and whether they will work or not.
Many of the organisations featured here have aptly displayed what not to do. But we’ll also show you examples of companies and leaders that have emerged from crises not only with the same trust and loyalty, but, in fact, with enhanced reputations. Crises can be complicated, and there may be a backstory. However, because crises unfold publicly and because perceptions are formed based on publicly available information, this informs the content we have used. When planning the book, we made a conscious decision not to speak to any of the corporates involved.
Each case study is followed by analysis and advice drawn from our own experience and research. We’ve sourced academic literature to bring you the most interesting theory from the fields of PR, corporate marketing, leadership, management and psychology. We’ve used endnotes to provide full references for anyone who wants to access these studies. While best practice in crisis management already exists, we have combined theory with real-world cases and devised ten rules for guidance.
The rules, of course, can be broken, and frequently are. There are some companies that seem to get away with anything and everything, and we’ll look at the reasons why. But the fact is that while some companies don’t get punished for bad behaviour, many companies do. For many organisations, breaking the rules can have dire consequences. We’ll also show that reputation is a finite resource. You can draw on it when times are tough as long as you have saved in the good years. Some companies can make withdrawals and weather a crisis, but, as crisis after crisis hits, you’ll eventually have nothing left.
From behind the mic
The countdown had begun to another live, in-studio television interview. I was in the anchor’s chair, and in front of me sat the CEO of Ford South Africa, Jeff Nemeth. I had spoken to him before and found him to be one of the more amiable, accessible leaders, and, as American business people often are, he was forthright and open. But this time was different: crisis had struck at his company.
During the interview, I noticed a transformation that I have seen many times during my broadcasting career. Nemeth’s openness was replaced by reluctance and caginess. His usual appropriate responses were substituted by attempts to defend decisions that didn’t make sense.
The day before, Ford had issued a recall of one of its SUV models in South Africa, the Kuga. Kuga engines had been catching on fire while drivers were behind the wheel. The recall came after no less than 39 Ford Kuga engines had gone up in flames. Thirty-nine!
The recall gave motorists a free repair at a Ford dealership. I asked Nemeth if this was the appropriate response since people were driving around knowing their cars could catch fire. Would he drive a vehicle after a simple fix?
‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘I’d