Issues and crises

Written and posted 11 Jun 2019

Do you include a risk management plan when you organize significant communication activities? A risk management plan should be part of every important communication activity so you can minimize the impact of potential problems and are not caught completely by surprise if something goes badly wrong. Risks are present in all communication activities, especially in […]

Written and posted 12 May 2019

More than two thirds of organizational crises are predictable – because they are largely created by management’s own actions or inactions. Over the past decade, this consistent fact has been revealed by the Institute for Crisis Management’s crisis monitoring. Mismanagement is the biggest cause of crises, accounting for around 25-30% of cases of smoldering issues […]

Written and posted 10 Sep 2018

The rise of social media and online commentary avenues like blogs and websites mean that bad news travels a long way quickly. Such bad news is often inaccurate or sensationalized. Companies worldwide consider reputation damage as their top risk management concern, according to Aon’s Global Risk Management Survey in 2017.  Reputation risk leads to share […]

Written and posted 15 Mar 2017

Most organizational crises are predictable and preventable. About 75% of crises have been smoldering for some time – their causes are apparent, but no action has been taken to prevent them or reduce their impact. Only about half of organizations around the world have a crisis plan in place, and only about 30-50% of organizations […]

Written and posted 2 Mar 2017

Crises are rare events. They are unexpected, unwanted and unpleasant. Experience shows if you don’t plan for crises, the consequences are much worse when a crisis strikes. Find out how your organization’s next crisis could be caused. International surveys show organizations are generally not prepared to deal with crises. But first we need to know […]

Written and posted 1 Mar 2017

After a major earthquake hit Japan in March 2011, followed by a terrifying tsunami, many people tried to call their loved ones but soon found that landlines were down. What could be done to reach people? Social media. Within an hour of the earthquake striking Japan, Google launched their Person Finder app on their home […]

Written and posted 1 Mar 2017

Author René Henry (www.renehenry.com) has kindly granted permission to publish this excerpt from his latest book, Communicating in a Crisis: A Guide for Management. There are 10 steps a company, organization or institution needs to take or have in place to hopefully prevent a crisis, quickly close the crisis, or to meet the crisis as […]

Written and posted 1 Mar 2017

The Institute for Crisis Management  has published an annual “crisis report” about news coverage of crises in the United States since 1990. In 2015, the firm tracked a total of 212,000 crisis stories in the news. The Institute defines a business crisis as “any problem or disruption that triggers negative stakeholder reactions that could impact […]

Written and posted 1 Mar 2017

Since 9/11, the world has become a more dangerous place. Every day we see in the media the latest terrorism incident that has been thwarted or happened in countries around the world. And, of course, there are all the types of corporate crises that could happen, many related to the Internet and information technology. According […]

Written and posted 1 Mar 2017

Contrary to disaster movies and journalistic clichés, panic hardly ever exists in disaster situations. Panic is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘excessive feeling of alarm or fear…leading to extravagant or injudicious efforts to secure safety.’ In examining 50 years of disaster situations, including the ‘9/11’ terrorism in the USA in 2001, scholars have concluded that […]