Twenty Moments Any Organization Needs to Prepare For

Here’s your opportunity to get rich and famous.  Well, at least famous.

This week is “stay at home and recover” week (long story, but it involves a deviated septum, a skilled surgeon, some Tylenol and a Lazyboy).  So what better time to get some long awaited work done on my book?

As part of the process, I’m compiling a list of credibility crisis moments for any company.  I’ve compiled a list of events that can happen to you or your business/organization.  Every single one of these is realistic, easy to slip into, and causes sleepless nights for corporate communicators all over the globe.

What would you add?  What events have YOU run into that you can share with your fellow communicators?  (Remember – commenting on a blog post automatically makes you sexier.) 

I’ll deal with strategy and tactics later.  For now, I’m just concentrating on what you need to develop a strategy FOR.

TWENTY WAYS TO GET YOURSELF IN TROUBLE

Wonky test results
e.g. You get an email or a voicemail from the production line “I’m not sure what to make of these numbers.  We haven’t gotten any phone calls yet, but it looks like we’re getting some cross contamination on the floor… do we need to be worried?

Afflicted competitor
e.g. Your product is clean, and you run a clean business… but your competition has just been arrested/had a product recall / done something stupid.  How do you differentiate without throwing mud yourself?

The loony with a microphone
e.g. Your product causes cancer?!?  You employ sweat shop labour?!?  It’s preposterous, it’s absolutely not true – but that’s not stopping the weirdo from distributing flyers outside the supermarket…

The activist group
e.g. Greenpeace is taking one small part of your business and blowing it way, WAY out of hand – or you conduct yourself in line with ‘good scientific principals,’ but that doesn’t mean PETA is going to back off.

Kaboom – there goes your facility
e.g.  You get a phone call at 4am.  Your emergency plan is in a nice neat binder and within easy reach of your desk… which is currently on fire, along with the rest of your headquarters building.

“You have the right to remain silent” – (but you never should)
aka the Martha Stewart or Conrad Black problem.  What do you do when your Chief Executive is facing corruption or ethics charges?

Recalls
e.g Those test results are a whole lot more public now.  How do you react when you are very publicly accused of selling a faulty product?

Boycotts
e.g. The local union is upset with your labour practices, and urges consumers to avoid buying your products.

I’d like to believe you – but I don’t know you from Adam
e.g. You’ve got a great new product, that does great new things… but no one believes you.  In fact, when people get sick from something else, they tend to blame you.  Why?

Jesus wouldn’t drive your SUV – or eat your apple.
e.g. Eco activists unveiled a “What would Jesus Drive” campaign in California a few years ago.  How do you react when someone picks a fight with you, not on scientific grounds but purely on a ’subjective, religious’ basis?

Unveiling – the Chief Executive Slimeball
e.g. Has the star of your TV show been caught sleeping with his staff?  Is a messy divorce going a little too public?  Sure, it’s not illegal, but it’s certainly not the image you want to represent.

Layoffs AND bonuses? Great!
aka the AIG problem.  What happens when you reward your top performing executives, while at the same time laying off frontline workers?  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this is going to go…

What hand grenades and credibility attacks have in common
e.g. Being attacked by the medical community?  Sure, you could ‘attack back,’ but really – who’s going to believe industry?  Credibility attacks only roll one way – downhill.

When your competitors have dirty hands
e.g. Your competitors are bankrolling the activist group that’s attacking you?  Can you prove it?  And how do you unveil that?

Labour fairness? Unsafe work conditions? Really? Come on now…
e.g. 75% of your employees are happy and satisfied.  The other 25% seem pretty intent on giving you a bad name.

Lies, damn lies and statistics
e.g. Statistically – 99% of lung cancer sufferers have matches in their pocket.  Sure, it sounds ludicrous – but what do you do when the media starts running with that story?

Picking your fights with pissed off customers
e.g. How do you react when someone creates “Yourcompanysucks.com?”

The Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide
e.g. What happens when sound scientific principals are just used for scaremongering?  Dihydrogen monoxide is an industrial fire retardant, fatal if ingested in large quantities, and kills over 2,000 children a year who get exposed to it.  I defend it’s use every day.  Scared yet?  It’s Di (2) Hydrogen (H) Mon (1) oxide (oxygen.)  Or… H20.  Plain water.

Sometimes, people are just plain stupid
e.g. What happens when your employees post youtube videos showing themselves picking their nose and serving it to a restaurant customer, or using a prep sink as a bathtub?

It’s not our fault!  Honest!
e.g. Your entire service goes offline at a critical time – because the construction company next door severed a power cable.

Those are the quick and easy problems any company can run into.  What situations can you think of that are going to give you a headache?