Most PR practitioners will attest to the fact that the hardest and most challenging time for an organization is when faced with an external crisis. Whether or not it's an act of God, the pressure is always at its worst for any CEO and more so for PRs. Danny Rogers : How PR Executives become the story, raises some interesting points about companies in a crisis. He observes that there is a growing trend of "Campbell-isation", where the PR speaks on behalf of the company whereas in the past they have always been the "hidden persuaders".At the time of writing this post, Toyota is the most talked about crisis. Fresh in everybody's mind it seems to be the worst crisis in history...or is it? We'll probably wait and see how long it will take them to regain back their reputation, if ever. Not forgeting Corporations like Nestle that has faced reputational issues year after year...
PR Executives grapple all the time with issues that could potentially redefine the reputation of an organization. They confront a fundamental probability that they could control events in order to contain potential crisis or safeguard reputation.
While some believe that careful planning and developing message strategies can mitigate the long-term effects to organizations, the reality is quite different. Crisis prevention and response may be addressed by accurately featuring the difficulties of complexity, uncertainty and control. Unforeseen events, confusion and immediate inadequate/missing information constitute the reality of crisis and therefore demands focused flexibility in planning and responding.
References
PRWeek(2010), Danny Rogers: How PR Executives become the story.
http://prweek.com/uk/news/search/983034/Danny-Rogers-PR-executives-become-story/
BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk
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