'In crisis management, the key is to be prepared, be truthful, and be strategic'

Crisis management is one of the most crucial aspects of a PR professional's life. Like individuals, organizations go through crisis, and how they handle them can make or break their reputation. At the e4m PR & Corp Comm PR Masterclass, NS Rajan, Chairman, August One Partners LLP did the second masterclass of the day with the students in which he briefed them what is crisis communications and took them through the broad parameters which they should look for while managing crisis communications in the professional realm.  

He started the class by discussing the existing problems of the corporate world and how crisis affect their existence, “The mindset ‘nothing will happen to us’ is common among individuals and companies. However, when a crisis does occur, companies that are unprepared suffer significantly, while multinational corporations often have strict crisis communication protocols, many Indian companies lack robust strategies, making them vulnerable to severe damage.

 He further quoted Warren Buffet, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five years to ruin it. If you think about doing things differently this is a very wise thing because organizations are built over years but reputation can go overnight if some big mishap happens.” 

Next, he emphasised on the role of communications in crisis management, “Communication is the most important part of crisis management. By the time a crisis occurs, social media, TV channels, and other platforms are already discussing it. How you communicate externally is critical.”  

Rajan then mentioned that the prerequisites of a good crisis communications plan are fast and transparent communication, speak with one voice, publish only authenticated figures, act as good corporate citizens, take responsibility, be mindful of regulatory rules, don’t talk about victims’ names, brevity is essential, be confident, and cooperate with the idea.”  

He emphasized that social media can escalate crisis rapidly and then highlighted the challenges social media creates, “Social media stays forever so you need to be very careful what you say, you need to be mindful of what you can do with a blogger or an influencer.” He explained that unlike traditional media, it operates without editorial controls, allowing anonymous and politically motivated narratives to spread uncontrollably. Once information is online, it remains accessible forever. He illustrated the recent examples of the controversy surrounding the L&T chairman’s remark on a 90-hour workweek, which ignited a social media storm. He further advised the students that while managing crisis, one must be extremely cautious about the digital footprint.  

Lastly, Rajan concluded the discussion by explaining to students about how an organization responds to a crisis actually has far greater impact on the ultimate damage to its reputation, “Studies have shown that companies judged to have responded inadequately to a crisis see their stock value drop by 15–30% in the following months. On the other hand, businesses that manage crisis effectively can see their stock rise by 5–15% over the same period of two to three months. The stock market values the way you mitigate a crisis.” He summarised that how an organization responds to a crisis has a greater impact on its reputation and financial health than the crisis itself. Furthermore, mishandling the situation can make a crisis much worse than it actually is.