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by
Steven R. Van Hook, PhD
The
word crisis comes from the Greek krisis,
meaning "decision."
We've all been there. Those
moments
when we're pressed in an instant
to decide a course of action. Move
to the left, or move to the right.
Fight or flee. Offer an
explanation, or dummy up tight.
It's
a true test of what we are, either
as a company or a person, how we
handle ourselves in the middle of
a crisis. The bad news is we never
know for sure how we'll do until
it's test time. The good news is
we can prepare ourselves in
principle.
There
are three smart ways to approach
crisis situations:
1)
Avoid a crisis in the first
place (a pinch of prevention is
worth a mound of cure);
2) Quickly address and resolve
crisis issues before they
escalate;
3) Seek possible ways to turn
your crisis into an opportunity.
Here's
a classic model of how a crisis
can be turned into an opportunity
for good PR:
In
1986 someone put capsules
poisoned with lethal amounts of
cyanide in Johnson and Johnson
bottles of Tylenol on store
shelves. Before anyone could do
anything, seven people died from
the poisoned medicine. The
company met the crisis head-on.
First, they spent $300-million
recalling all samples of the
medicine bottles.
Then
the company introduced new
tamper-proof medicine containers
that changed the entire
industry. But most importantly,
the company was prepared, it
acted coolly, they answered the
tough questions, and in the end
maintained their dominance in
the market. They used the media
to demonstrate their concern and
their determination to resolve
the crisis. It was a message of
courage and leadership through
effective public
relations.
Click
on over to the next page, and
you'll find more crisis case
studies -- a real one from
California, and a hypothetical
from Russia.
Next page > More
Crisis Case Studies > Page
1, 2
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