Air France - how did they respond?

When Air France flight 447 went down recently in the Atlantic, the airlines was faced with multiple challenges. Not only did they have to deal with demands for information from journalists from around the world, but they also needed to manage the distress and trauma of those whose loved ones were aboard the flight, despite the absence of facts.

How did they perform? We have featured a contribution by an airline strategist, who looks at what Air France did well, and what they could have done better. Read Shashank Nigam's entry here, and also the some of the informative comments below.

Seven steps to manage your team through a crisis

In the midst of a crisis situation, managers may be pre-occupied with saving the business (or in certain cases saving their own skins). Offering the right support to their team however, can not only help those individuals deal with a difficult situation, but also help the business by utilising the skills of its people.

The featured article is actually about managing survivors after a business call. What is clear from reading these tips is that they apply equally in dealing with a crisis.

Here is the Management Today article.

Logging on in the bedroom

A depressing story that should ring alarm bells for those who have replaced the words "goodnight dear" with "just finishing my spreadsheet".

A survey of city workers found that 25% spent at least two hours a week working at their laptops in bed! Apart from the damage this might be doing to their relationships (assuming that these 25% are not all single) the article focusses on the security risks of working on sensitive material in an unsecured environment.

See the CNBC story from Jane Wells.

Manage your online reputation - before a crisis strikes!

If something negative is put online about you or your company, it is almost impossible to have it removed. What can be done therefore to protect your name or brand against "death by Google"?

There are an increasing number of tools that can quickly and easily promote your reputation in the search engines, and minimise the impact of bad news when it does occur. The best part is, most of these tools are free. On the Marketing Pilgrim site, Andy Beal lists a selection of these, and advises how to maximise your online presence to protect you when the need arises. The advice can apply equally to individuals and companies.

docleaf Briefs

A sorry tale of a lost million..... A Tel Aviv woman naturally threw out her mother's mattress when she bought her a new replacement as a surprise. Her distraught elderly mother then revealed she had hidden her life savings of $1m inside!

By then it was too late - rubbish collectors had already binned the booty-filled mattress. The woman and her mother have so far searched three different landfill sites, in vain according to local media reports. Staff at one rubbish dump have been helping the women and describe them as "totally desperate".

The dump's management have increased security to keep away people hunting for the million dollar mattress.

"People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad," the daughter said. I wonder whether the mother is as calm about the situation...

And finally... losing one wheel on the motorway is dangerous, but four? A car travelling on a motorway in Switzerland lost all four wheels simultaneously, coming to an immediate halt in the middle of the highway, according to local police.

The car had just stopped and the passengers had changed from winter to summer wheels themselves, a common task in Switzerland where there is plenty of snow in winter, but used the wrong nuts when mounting the new set.

"When they then drove back on to the motorway, all of the wheels disconnected," St Gallen cantonal police said in a statement. "Luckily, no one was injured and no other vehicle was damaged."

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