What not to do in a crisis - The Times (2008/04/18)

This article in the Times Life & Style section looks at some of the actions that should be avoided in a crisis situation - with comments from docleaf.

http://www.docleaf.com/images/news/times_april_08.pdf

Docleaf warning on crisis management (2007/10/10)

The opening seminar of this year's C&IT Corporate Forum kicked off yesterday with a message to client event planners to take a back-to-basics approach to crisis management.

David Perl, chief executive of crisis management specialist docleaf, warned of the dangers of not having a recognised action plan in place and not being up to speed with everyday details, such as delegate information and an agreed media-handling procedure.

The forum has run from Monday to Wednesday this week at the Marriott St Pierre Hotel & Country Club, Chepstow, and the first of two sessions from Perl showed that just six out of 18 corporates were aware of a specific crisis-management plan for their events. "Go back to your companies and find out exactly what plans are in place," Perl said. "If something does go wrong, do you have all your delegate's next of kin information? If your event happens at a weekend, how will you track down the correct person in your organisation? As soon as an accident, for example, hits the news, the phones will ring and potentially you are leaving the person on the front desk to field those calls."

Royal Mail head of events Sally Blakeney, one of those who said her company did have a solid crisis response plan in place, said that it was as much about logistics as breaking bad news: "Even simple details such as delayed flights mean you need to know exactly how to contact all of those who are relevant to the event," she said.

docleaf report in focus on chemical industry website (2007/08/03)

LONDON (ICIS news)--The chemicals sector is the most likely industry to face a crisis the next five years, according to a survey by a UK crisis management consultancy released on Wednesday.

The docleaf report said that chemicals, along with construction, appeared to be the least prepared to manage crises associated with the specific industries - including crime, litigation, natural disasters, serious accidents and terrorist attacks.

The chemical industry was criticised for not conducting simulations or having crisis response plans in place.

The number of industrial incidents in recent years also contributed to chemicals' position compared with other industries, as well as the expectations of future incidents.

Though the report advocated companies appointing a "director of crisis management", the UK Chemicals Industries Association (CIA) said it was more important to have a collective corporate culture of responsibility.

"We take the high-hazard nature of our industry seriously and appreciate the risks we face," said CIA chief executive Steve Elliott.

"The industry is well qualified and quantified to deal with risks including industrial incidents," he added.

The oil and gas sector was reported to be the most prepared.

This was "in no small part due to the severity of incidents that hit this sector and the negative fall-out that companies can suffer," according to docleaf.

Elliott said the chemicals industry could also learn lessons from recent serious incidents in the oil and gas sector such as the Buncefield and Texas City explosions.

The data was collected during April 2007 by independent research organisation VAR International. It surveyed 100 publicly quoted UK companies in 12 sectors - including 10 chemical firms.


By: Mark Watts

docleaf mentioned in the Times on need for travel companies to have crisis plans. (2007/05/18)

Happy times... but what happens when a holiday turns
Holiday companies should have a crisis management strategy to deal with disaster

see this link http://www.docleaf.com/images/news/times%20mark%20wanrer.pdf for article