Crisis Communications 1.0
by Pat McNamara

A reporter from a national newspaper is sniffing around, asking questions about your business and products to whoever will listen. Unfortunately for you, the reporter manages to find a former employee who has an axe to grind. Voila! Your carefully-crafted business image has been damaged in the blink of an eye.

While many hours are spent putting together a business plan, not as much planning is devoted to crisis planning and communications. Your company's business is largely supported by the brand you have built, and planning for strategic communications during a crisis is the key to your business' viability.

Preparing for the worst during the best of times makes smart business sense. While many of today's successful entrepreneurs have excelled in short-term goals, few have taken the time to develop strategic long-term plans.

The surest way to cope with an unexpected crisis is by knowing exactly how your company functions from top to bottom and inside out. After years of business, it might be difficult to remember how you established your roots. Developing a well-defined business plan before start up, or in the early years, is the best way to detail the bits and bytes of your success.

And while a sound business plan is key to a company's profitability, an equally important document - the crisis or communications plan - is one of the most overlooked aspects of many businesses. A crisis can be defined as any situation requiring the immediate response of management to unexpected events "with extreme legal, financial, governmental, supplier-oriented or customer-related consequences. Few entrepreneurs launch their business with grim visions of unexpected events, but as Benjamin Franklin once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

To create an effective contingency or crisis communications plan, begin by thinking of worst-case scenarios that could occur. In doing this, your areas of focus should include:

• Stakeholder checklist: who are the key targets that you would need to reach out to?
• What are our key messages?
• Who are our spokespeople?
• What backup does the company have in place, i.e. decision makers?
• What resources would be available to you and how quickly would you be able to access them?
• Clearly outline the potential crises .that could occur, such as a labour disruption, product tampering, disgruntled employees or operational shutdown, and analyze each particular situation.

By asking these questions, you will be taking the first steps in the creation of your crisis communications plan. No matter how bad the situation may seem, it is critical you move your message with speed while maintaining honesty and transparency, and be as accessible as possible. Running and hiding will only lead to speculation and misinformation, which often take the form of unfounded rumours that make the situation appear worse than it is. Once your message is out, take a poll of key internal and external stakeholders to determine if the message has reached the intended audience and how it has been received.

A thorough business plan and inclusive contingency plan is often put off by those who need it the most - small business owners. Without a plan in place, family-owned companies or those with only a handful of staff could see their entire business model collapse in the event of negative media coverage or the death of a key employee. Conversely, a solid contingency plan will ensure, a successful business can continue to carry on relatively unscathed even in the worst of times.

Check out the next issue of Tech Times to learn the basics of developing a comprehensive crisis communications plan.

Pat McNamara is President of APEX Public Relations.
Visit them online at www.apexpr.com