Crisis Management: Author Says Fighting Back Often Can Be the Best Strategy
A product mishap, allegations of impropriety or some other public relations disaster could devastate your business. When such a calamity hits, how you deal with it could mean life or death for your operation.
A lot has been written about how companies should respond in a crisis situation that rains bad publicity on the business and its top executives. And a lot of it is flat-out incorrect, according to communications consultant Eric Dezenhall, co-author of “Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management is Wrong.”
Dezenhall, CEO Dezenhall Resources Ltd., based In Washington, D.C., says the conventional wisdom in the crisis management arena is dominated by tactics he refers to as “Mother Goose little chestnuts.” They include such as things as publicly taking responsibility right away, apologizing and communicating as quickly and openly as possible.
Those strategies sound good, he says, and they can be appropriate responses in some cases. But when the crisis is being exploited – or caused – by “motivated adversaries” with an agenda of their own, such contrition is likely to be ineffective, or even harmful.
“There is a nexus in this country between the media, plaintiff’s attorneys and advocacy groups,” Dezenhall said.
The result, Dezenhall says, is that we live in a world where crises often are blown out of proportion, or even manufactured, in the pursuit of ratings, large court judgments or the fulfillment of political agendas.
Know the Facts
Having an agenda does not mean the accusers don’t have a point, Dezenhall said. In fact, very few public relations disasters are based entirely on “completely unholy” accusations. In many cases, companies are partially guilty as charged. But the “guilt” can be the result of perfectly understandable factors – such as a drug that is safe and effective for most people, but unsafe only in very rare cases.
“You first have to determine where you are on the continuum,” Dezenhall said. Once you have done that, he said, you are ready to act accordingly.
There is, Dezenhall said, no one set of responses that will be effective in all cases. Much depends on the facts, how they are being used, and who is involved.
In the case of a product-related crisis, Dezenhall said, companies might be tempted to immediately order a complete recall and hold a press conference to reassure the public that managers are taking strong, corrective action. The problem with that, however, is that the product might not actually be defective or unsafe and the managers could do more harm than good if they launch a communications effort without knowing all the facts.
As an example of where a good offense proved to be the right defense, Dezenhall cites the case of Wendy’s, which was hit with bad publicity when a woman claimed to have found a human finger in her chili. Instead of recalling all of its chili and apologizing, Wendy’s launched an investigation of the incident and discovered it to be a hoax. The accuser, Anna Ayala, had placed the finger in her chili in hopes of winning a legal settlement from the fast-food chain.
Once the truth was revealed, Dezenhall said, the company was able to reassure the public and restore confidence in its practices – without having to recall its products or “admit” responsibility for something it was not responsible for.
Dezenhall said the important thing to remember is that getting past a crisis is not merely a marketing challenge and the solution involves more than just communicating well. A successful strategy relies on knowing the current culture and how the crisis might be used by those with an axe to grind. In other words, companies need to think like politicians.
“Companies need to adopt a more political model,” Dezenhall said, “and understand that the other side has an agenda.”
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A product mishap, allegations of impropriety or some other public relations disaster could devastate your business. When such a calamity hits, how you deal with it could mean life or death for your operation. 
