Defining a crisis - soft or hard ?

There are no finite limits to the causes of a crisis and in managing them one of the first and probably most important questions companies should ask is:

What type of crisis do we face: soft or hard?

The answer will determine the communications strategy and what actions need to be taken to deal with the situation, so what’s the deference between a hard or soft crisis?

Soft crises

For example, we’re talking about:

• Plant closure
• Redundancies
• Employment tribunal
• Criminal court case
• Poor financial results
• Loss of a major contract
• Product recall

These are situations that can have serious implications for companies but they are not a surprise and have been in the pipeline for a while. The process of decision making and the timetable is known and predictable. Finally the company’s communications objective is clear.

Hard crises

For example

• An onsite accident
• Earthquake
• Explosion
• Kidnapping
• Terrorist attack
• Holiday drowning
• Murder

Such situations are more difficult to deal with because unlike soft crises they strike from out of the blue, usually have fatalities, there is no identifiable outcome or timeframe and the situation and communications objectives change hour by hour.

Making that decision – soft or hard – is a priority action in any well prepared crisis management and communications plan. Once taken you will then be able to focus on specific planning and deployment of resources.

Final word of warning: Don’t become complacent when dealing with a Soft Crisis because you think it is under control. You should always be prepared for the unexpected.

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New addition to the docleaf team

David Davis, one of the public relations industry's most experienced practitioners, has been appointed the first Head of Communications at docleaf, the travel and hotel's industry's leading crisis management company.

He brings to his role unrivalled media expertise gained in a long and distinguished career. In that time he was a journalist with the Press Association (Britain's national news agency) and The Times, vice chairman of Edelman (the world's largest independent public relations company) and President International of Medialink, the corporate television news and information service.

He has advised the management of FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 companies on effective ways to deal with crisis communications. Campaigns he has devised and led have included:

• Global media relations and later the re-launch of a major brand of canned tuna which had been withdrawn worldwide after it had been contaminated with botulism and killed two pensioners
• Advising a children's charity on media relations when one of its senior staff had been arrested on paedophile charges
• Dealing with international media on behalf of an exhibition company after more than 60 people died when a congress hall in Poland collapsed in a snow storm during a public event
• Successfully combating safety campaigners' demands for the withdrawal of a hover lawn mower after it had 'run away' and injured several gardeners. The mower later became the No 1 brand in several overseas markets, including the UK
• Counselling a local authority when a member of the public died from Legionnaire’s disease after visiting a local library

Dr David Perl, Chief Executive of docleaf, said: "The addition of David's media skills and expertise means that our company is the first that can offer a complete and integrated portfolio of crisis management, crisis communications and trauma support service across a spectrum of different industries.

He will be working directly with our clients, offering strategic advice, devising and implementing communications, focusing on dealing with the traditional press, radio and television as well as the on-line media which has become so important in managing crises".

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Some light relief- not for the feint hearted!

Those of you who know me or have heard me talk will know I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to all things aeronautical. This even extended to my honeymoon night being spent in separate twin beds at the old Heathrow Penta hotel as this bedroom overlooking the runway had a better view then the one with a double bed. Watching Concorde take off from Runway 270R was one of the evening's highlights.

Combine this passion (aircraft that is) with my other interest of crisis management and you have an interesting combination. When a colleague sent me some work related photos - I could not resist reproducing a couple of the more "eventful" ones here.

If you want to see the full set, then please click here to open them in a power point slide presentation.

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A collection of past eNews articles can be found at www.docleaf.com/news/enews.php

Best wishes and keep safe, Dr. David Perl, CEO - docleaf

Visit our website at www.docleaf.com

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