Crisis Communications
Effectively using the Internet to communicate corporate crises
By Lisa H. Towle

OL. Adelphia. Arthur Andersen. Enron. Firestone. Ford. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Microsoft. Tyco. WorldCom.

As this partial list of corporations who’ve recently faced crises suggests, sooner or later almost every business will experience an upheaval that at the least threatens the confidence of its various constituencies — analysts, employees, shareholders, consumers and the media — and at the most its very survival. What truly distinguishes, then, is how it responds to an ambiguous, rapidly evolving situation. That is something Albert H. Segars, RBC Centura Distinguished Professor of Information and Technology Management, has studied at length, and it comes down to three words: effective digital communication.

Over the past three years, Segars has examined the stories of senior management at companies in crisis. What he’s found is an innovation and strategy gap as wide as the difference between smoke signals and the information superhighway. Too often, senior management, flummoxed by a negative turn of events, resorts to a “no comment” mentality. Embarrassed and in denial about the potential for the crisis to escalate, says Segars, “They don’t believe that what happened to others is the same as what’s happening to them … (and) they rely on an information vacuum in the hope the story will just go away or to cover up the fact that there’s been a lack of strategic planning.”

What’s really essential then to managing a crisis and regaining a solid footing are executives who stand ready to communicate in an open fashion. They know they must explain what has happened as well as offer actions that will be taken to remedy the situation. And they understand the importance of doing it rapidly by disseminating information via the Internet.

“I have found that the better companies view good communication as a strategic function within the business, not just issuing a standard press release here and there,” explains Segars. “Digital media such as a corporate Web site is an ideal tool because it offers a quick way to reach a lot of people directly and frame issues in a forthright and responsible manner.”

Writing in the August 2003 issue of Business Strategy Review about the channeling of information during times of organizational tribulation, Segars offered five points of effective crisis communication through the Internet.

• Credibility: Communications from senior management about the firm’s overall strategy and capability have enormous rhetorical importance, though readers must perceive the strategic direction as both focused and realistic.
• Efficacy: Key stakeholders must view senior management as a controlling force over the activities and outcomes of the business even when in reality such control may be elusive.
• Commitment: In order to generate new business and reinforce established relationships, senior management should take every opportunity to express appreciation of and commitment to customers and to build long-term relationships with customers.
• Responsibility: Value-laden corporate responsibility messages explain how the company is a “good citizen” in its relationships with business partners, employees and the broader communities in which its facilities are located.
• Resolve: Success in this arena means management articulating a course of action that is not only based on sound reasoning but achievable.             

Segars, who acknowledges that communications can sometimes be difficult to quantify in practice, cautions that none of these elements exist outside the other. All must be in place if a crisis communications program is to be part of an operations philosophy. He says, “If people see immediate recognition of a problem, if they see facts that fit the situation, and then they see action, there will be a large halo affect.”

And that is priceless.  

Contact Segars at (919) 962-8467, .