Anatomy of a high profile crisis response - a first hand account

A recurring theme we hear at docleaf from those who have responded to a crisis is the variety of unexpected tasks that people take on: tasks for which they had no training or experience, but which they had to take on as an immediate necessity.

This is an excellent account that details at length how a HR director had to respond to a high profile kidnap situation on the other side of the world. It's a great description of the great range of simultaneous demands placed on those responding to a situation where news updates may not be easily available.

Reading Jared Shelly's post it's difficult not to consider just what each of us might be called upon to do if faced with Susan Lebrato's challenges.

Swine flu - communicating through a crisis

A second crisis case study this month, and a refreshingly open analysis of a council's response to a child death from the H1N1 virus.

While many departments will be hard at work developing plans for business continuity and welfare of staff and customers during a pandemic, the communications team of any large organisation is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the external messages are both honest and reassuring. At the same time they need to manage internal communication so that it allows rapid and accurate information flow and good decision making.

Here is Emma Marsh's case study from Hillingdon council.

How Nokia made the wrong call in Iran

When Nokia supplied Iran with new telephony technology to improve management of digital traffic, they did not anticipate that this would be used for repressive purposes and that they would take the rap for their involvement.

In a recent article for the Measurement Standard, Dodd and Foster describe how Nokia got into this difficult position and make some suggestions on steps companies can take to deal with unexpected social media backlash.

Protecting your online reputation from friends' best intentions

Most of us who use social networks understand the potential risks of posting material that might not show us in the best light to prospective or current employers. But what can we do when others decide to post that embarrasing picture from a school disco, however old it is? Or when a well-meaning person spills a secret on your "Wall" that you have been carefully hiding from those at work?

Read Brad Karsh's advice at Advertising Age and don't miss the link to the bank intern/fairy who gets caught out lying to his boss,

docleaf Briefs

Two stories from Italy this month... first a real crisis for a hotel that wishes it had been careful to check its latest offer before it was too late. A hotel near Venice has accepted that its rooms were mistakenly advertised online at one cent (€0.01), instead of up to €150. (BBC)

Nearly 230 people took advantage of the offer, booking on average more than six nights per person at the Crowne Plaza, 20km from central Venice. The hotel is run by the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) which says it will honour bookings made while the mistake was online.

The company says the mistake was made at the offices of IHG in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. "Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honouring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation," the hotel group's Monica Smith said.

The wrong pricing for 1,400 room nights could cost the company up to €90,000.

And finally... Two Swedes expecting the golden beaches of the Italian island of Capri got a shock when tourist officials told them they were 650 km off course in the northern town of Carpi, after mistyping the name in their GPS. (Reuters)

"It's hard to understand how they managed it. I mean, Capri is an island," said Giovanni Medici, a spokesman for Carpi regional government, told Reuters Tuesday. "It's the first time something like this has happened."

The middle-aged couple, who were not identified, only discovered their error when they asked staff in the local tourist office Saturday how to drive to the island's famous Blue Grotto. "They were surprised, but not angry," Medici said. "They got back in the car and started driving south."

The picturesque island of Capri, famed as a romantic holiday destination, lies in the Gulf of Naples in southern Italy and has been a resort since Roman times. Carpi is a busy industrial town in the province of Emilia Romagna, at the other end of Italy.

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