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Dear Reader
We are now in the third issue of The
Communiqué and the response, so far, has
been very encouraging. Do let me know what you
think and any suggestions for making the newsletter
an essential read for you.
Andy Jarosz, Editor
Contact:andy.jarosz@docleaf.com
Links to articles in this issue:
Are
you as ready as you think you are?
Get a full crisis health check from as little
as £495
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Expert opinion suggests that in
most cases the answer is No.
Companies have a crisis plan (somewhere) but as
times change, and staff change, people forget
their responsibilities in a crisis situation,
or the plan is no longer relevant as a business
evolves.
If you have not tested your crisis response recently,
or have not had your plans independently reviewed
to check whether they are still relevant to your
business, then have docleaf conduct this simple
and pain free check of your business and its state
of readiness. Even better, the fee can be as low
as £495.
To find out more and book your session,
click here.
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| Kenya
Airways show poor response in aftermath of
crash |
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Kenya Airways is reviewing its crisis
management plans as a matter of urgency after
one of its planes crashed after take off from
Douala, southwest of Cameroon, killing more than
114 people recently.
According to local newspaper reports shocked relatives
and friends of the passengers were thrown into
confusion when they were:
1. Told to go to two different places to seek
further information and:
2. Given leaflets with an emergency telephone
number which turned out to be a public enquiry
address in South Africa.
Later three crisis management centres were set
up in Nairobi but at one relatives were initially
barred because they did not have identity cards
and there were also scuffles between police and
journalists.
The crash was the second fatal mishap for Kenya
Airways, the first was in 2000.
To read the article click here.
You will need an Adobe Acrobat reader as the article
is a pdf to save you having to register with the
site.
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Airport security may start at
home
Technology will drive the
start of aviation security out of the airports
and into the travel agents or the home as
authorities struggle to strike a balance
between the necessary screening process
and lengthy queues at airports, FastFutures
chief executive and futurist Rohit Talwar
predicted at the recent TTI conference.
Read more about his predictions
here |
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Management’s
5 Errors
There are five reasons why
managers and organisations fall to properly
protect core assets, says Nancy R. Lockwood,
a human resource content expert for the
Society for Human Resource Management. They
are:
1. “It cannot happen here” attitude
2. Reluctance to make crisis preparedness
a priority
3. Remaining unaware of risks inherent to
the business
4. Ignoring warning signs
5. Relying on weak, untested plans
.
The SHRM, the world's largest association
devoted to human resource management, represents
more than 200,000 individual members
Read the full report here
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Watch
out for
the activist shareholder |
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The billion pound
take over battles for Sainsbury’s and Boots, two
of the icons of Britain’s High Street, signal
that shareholder activism has crossed the Atlantic
and arrived in London.
This time the attack is coming from the private
equity firms and Brian Armstrong, a partner in
Ashton Partners, a Chicago-based strategy advisory
firm has a 10-point communications action plan
advising publicly quoted companies on how best
to respond to this crisis. Check it out here
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Colleges
sign crisis pact
In the first crisis pact
of its kind in the United States, five colleges
in Connecticut – St. Joseph, Goodwin College,
Trinity College, the University of Hartford
and Wesleyan University – have agreed to
assist each other in the event of such incidents
as fires, hurricanes and other disasters.
This agreement is believed
to be the first of its kind in the United
States, and calls on other colleges to maintain
communications, coordinate transport, provide
housing and food, and if possible, accept
students from other campuses.
According to the Hartford
Courant this mutual emergency
aid pact, was planned before the Virginia
Tech shootings.
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Reputation
recovery
The road to reputation recovery is not
an easy one, as Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross outlines
in her column for the Ethical Corporation,
publisher and conference organizer. She
explains that there are several “rules of
the road” when repairing a tarnished reputation: |
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1. Take the long view – on average, companies
should expect that recovery will take about 4
years to successfully rebuild a damaged reputation
2. Face the crisis head-on – the company and its
chief executive needs to be publicly forthcoming
about what they are doing to resolve the crisis
3. Break into easy pieces – the path to recovery
should ideally be broken into short segments (around
90 days each)
4. Don’t underestimate your critics – avoid being
caught off guard by organized (and disorganized)
criticism in the recovery process
5. Act responsibly – the value of corporate responsibility
should not be overlooked
The bottom line is that a crisis does not need
to permanently damage a reputation – with responsible
and organized action, companies can use best practice
to turn what is a negative event into an opportunity
for change and positive growth.
Here are some examples of corporate best practices
• Intel, the world’s leading maker of semiconductors,
suffered a huge and unforeseen crisis when it
emerged that a small proportion of its Pentium
microprocessors were faulty. Intel did not respond
quickly. After public outcry, the company recalled
and replaced the entire production run costing
more than one billion dollars.
• Soon after Merck announced that it would globally
withdraw its arthritis drug Vioxx because of its
link to cardiovascular events, CEO Raymond Gilmartin
appeared on CNBC twice within an hour. Lawrence
Bossidy, a powerful outside member of Merck's
board, had just been interviewed by the business
news network.
• Marsh & McLennan launched an internal investigation
to investigate the accusations that it cheated
its customers. Since a lawsuit against MMC was
filed, Marsh has replaced nearly all of its senior
management, sworn off the lucrative contingent
commissions, pared all but one management representative
from its board and laid off 3,000 employees.
• Shell’s CEO Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
of Royal Dutch Shell told staff in Houston, Texas,
that he would not tolerate “bullying” within the
company, and admitted that its dealings with business
partners had often been “arrogant.” rallied employees
telling them that the company’s business strategy
remained sound and that his key words to carry
it out were “transparency, integrity, solidity
and speed.”
• Reuben Mark, CEO of Colgate-Palmolive has developed
a system of "situation alerts" to keep
him apprised of any goings-on at the company.
The alerts, which arrive in red transparent folders
in Mr. Mark's office, must be filed to him within
24 hours of an event's occurrence. "Situations,"
which come from across the globe, can be anything
from an employee's injury to a competitor's price
cut.
When Coca-Cola was faced in 2006 with accusations
that its soft drinks had high levels of pesticide
residue and the Indian government started banning
the beverage, Coca-Cola addressed the problem
squarely. The giant beverage company ran newspaper
advertising featuring a letter from its company-owned
and franchised Coke bottlers supporting the safety
of the drinks. Researchers talked to consumers
and opinion leaders to inquire what they thought
and what they believed would be the best way to
prove that the pesticide levels were not dangerous.
The research armed Coca-Cola on how to get across
the message that their products were safe. They
used influential icons such as the movie star
Aamir Khan to offer plant tours and to talk about
the research findings.
Since Khan's reputation is strong and he is known
as a socially responsible individual, his support
made a difference. Sales of Coca-Cola and Pepsi
(who also initiated a campaign using a well-known
scientist) are up in India. India's Health Ministry
also pronounced after government testing that
there was little or no pesticide residue. As Coke's
India Marketing officer remarked, "We had
a communication that took the bulls by the horns."
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Crisis!
How Would You Respond?
How would you react
in a crisis? Do you have what it takes
to not only survive disaster but perhaps
even lead others out of danger?
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Three experts give their view.
If you're pretty sure you'd do OK, you're
not alone. Disaster expert Anie Kalayjian
says research shows most folks believe they
have what it takes to survive a crisis.
"We often fantasize about what we would
do or how we would act, and we often feel
positive about our ability to handle a crisis
when it occurs, says Kalayjian, a professor
at Fordham University and founder of MeaningfulWorld.com.
Unfortunately, Kalayjian says, research
shows people often don't react as well as
they think they will. They panick and are
far more excitable than they predicted.
Lehigh University psychologist Nick Ladany,
PhD, says he's not surprised. " We
would all like to think of ourselves as
that Hollywood hero or heroine who saves
the day, but in reality that's more often
the exception than the rule."
Al Siebert, PhD, says the best survivors
are the ones who are able to "read"
the new reality rapidly, focus on problem
solving, and take practical action -- all
within the moment.
For the full article click
here:
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10
Riskiest Businesses To Start
The specialist writers at Forbes, the US business
magazine, have come up with an amusing way to
present a list of the 10 riskiest businesses to
start.
See if you agree with them here
We’d like to hear what you think of our
new-style online newsletter. Your views and ideas
will help us published news and information that
is helpful to your work and your company. I look
forward to hearing from you. Please email me at
andy.jarosz@docleaf.com.
Best wishes Andy Jarosz, Editor
A collection of past eNews articles
can be found at www.docleaf.com/news/enews.php
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