http://adage.com/article/agency-news/penn-state-enlists-ketchum-crisis-communications/231016/
Pennsylvania State University, in the wake of a damning sexual assault scandal involving football coaches and children, has obtained Ketchum to handle their crisis communication plan. Although I think its great that Penn State leaders finally took some responsibility and admitted that they had a problem, I have to wonder why an organization, as large as Penn State, did not have a plan in place and allowed for a PR disaster to spiral down hill even after all the sexual assault allegations were out in the open.
Crisis communication is so important and can effectively help you overcome a crisis when it is done properly and thoughtfully. However, having a plan in place before or emergency blows up is key to containing the crisis. While you may not be able to plan for exact emergencies or crises, you can have a general plan that can be easily adapted to the specific circumstances. It seems to me that Penn State dropped the ball in so many ways. The circumstances are awful, but maybe, if a proper crisis communication plan in place that was executed in a timely manner, they wouldn’t have had to bring down the entire University.
It is true that every organization should have a crisis communications plan to curb potential crisis. But mostly organizations overlook the current problems because they only see short-term benefits and/or don't want to risk their reputations. What they don't know is that the damages brought by future crisis are thousands of times bigger than those of current problems. Like the Penn State sexual assault scandal, the reasons why the senior executives of Penn States failed to report the sexual assaults could be: (1) they didn't realize that could become a future crises; and (2) they didn't report the assaults for the purpose of not ruining the school's reputation. It is important to emphasize how to identify potential crisis and what to do to minimize damages of potential crisis when PR pros write crisis communications plans for organizations.
ReplyDelete