Masonry Magazine April 1993 Page. 41
Ten Tips for Crisis
Communications
A business perceived as unresponsive in a crisis will face the chimera of ill will again
and again, as it defends itself in courts of law and courts of public opinion.
By THOMAS E. EPPES
President, Price/McNabb
Public Relations
legal advisor, but keep in mind that a
lawyer's job is to keep the company
out of court, not to keep the company
from going bankrupt because of nega-
tive publicity.
Continued on Page 50
VERY INDUSTRY is vulnerable
to crises which require effective
communications with the public.
Pick up any newspaper and you'll
find stories about businesses faced
with disaster, struggling to influence
the way they are portrayed in the
media. Some fail.
Tragedies like the Valdez oil spill
and the chemical disaster in Bhopal,
India, draw worldwide attention. But
a crisis may draw only local attention
and prove equally devastating to the
small or medium sized business
caught in a vortex of bad press.
Everyone has heard about some
catastrophic event that kills a busi-
ness: labor disputes, accidents, legal
actions, safety violations, layoffs,
product liabilities, food poisonings,
rumors of financial improprieties or
the slings and arrows of disgruntled
workers. Yet I have found few small
and medium sized businesses that
can point to a written crisis commu-
nications plan capable of helping a
company get the facts out to the
media accurately and ensure the
company's side of the story is told.
Timing is very important during
any crisis. Failure to show a quick re-
sponse will generate ill will long after
a crisis is handled. A business per-
ceived as unresponsive in a crisis will
face the chimera of ill will again and
again, as it defends itself in courts of
law-and courts of public opinion.
Ten Tips for Crisis Communications
in Business
■Prepare a written crisis communi-
cations plan in advance. It should
offer a method for determining what
information to release, when, where
and by whom.
Before a crisis occurs, senior man-
agement should seek media training
from qualified professionals.
In advance, establish a crisis man-
agement team. It should include key
executives and the senior public rela-
tions representative. It may include a
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MASONRY-MARCH/APRIL, 1993 41