Category Archives: opinion and insights

crisis response, opinion and insights

Too Soon to Qantify the Qantas Response?

5 Comments

If you are unfamiliar with Wednesday’s dramatic events that happened to Qantas, Austrialia’s national airline that has never had a fatal accident, the events are nicely chronicled on this post from Tnooz, a news and analysis site on the travel industry.

Condensed summary:

  • Qantas A380 makes a safe emergency return landing in Singapore after a Rolls-Royce made engine broke apart minutes after takeoff.
  • Passengers aboard the plane quickly Tweet and upload photos of videos of the engine and emergency landing efforts.
  • Reuters reports that CNBC television learns of a plane crashing near Singapore.
    • Note:  I could not evidence of a misreported crash anywhere on a CNBC website – beware of media sourcing media!
  • People on the ground on the small island of Batam upload photos of logoed engine parts (around the same time Qantas may have told Australian media there were no signs of wreckage)
  • On Wednesday evening, Qantas posted updates to its Facebook page.  The same night, one Tweet from its travel-tips account redirects inquiries to official Qantas channels, and its U.S.- targeted Twitter account adds a link the next day.

The Tnooz reporter concludes that the airline could have done more on Twitter to reassure the public.   Ragan.com’s Matt Wilson calls the situation “Qantas’s big #fail in quelling tweeted rumors of a crash.”  Crisisblogger Gerald Baron raises good questions and challenges, but ultimately grades the situation a C- to F grade. 

In my view, Qantas deserves a little more deliberation on its deliberation.

Continue reading Too Soon to Qantify the Qantas Response? →

crisis response, opinion and insights

Pros and cons of “Citizen Broadcasting”

2 Comments
Courtesy: 2mhdmdj

Last week’s dramatic, dangerous and bizarre situation at the Discovery Channel headquarters served as another reminder for the need to be ready to respond to senseless and unpredictable workplace violence.  

It was also a reminder that social networks are designed to scoop the media in the initial stages of an emerging crisis.  Some of the obvious reasons for this were captured in this story in The Washington Post.  Best callout:

Before camera crews and reporters could race to the scene, a shot of alleged hostage-taker James Lee was flashing around the world via Twitpic, Twitter’s photo-sharing service that lets people see whatever a cellphone camera captures seconds after the shutter snaps. The shot — full of menace and dread — was apparently taken by an office worker peering from a window several floors above the Discovery courtyard. The photo was apparently passed from an unidentified Discovery employee to another, who posted it on Twitpic.

 

Courtesy: Jeff Lake

Social networks “scooping” traditional news will continue and grow more common.  Some have tagged this as trend as “citizen journalism.”  I don’t like that tag.  “Journalism” typically provides context and has an embedded editorial process.  Instead, I prefer the term “citizen broadcasting” for these types of real-time alerts.

Depending on the type of crisis, “citizen broadcasting” can be a good or bad thing for the public. 

Continue reading Pros and cons of “Citizen Broadcasting” →

opinion and insights, planning and prevention

Lady Gaga journalism and the reputation economy

7 Comments

Two very interesting articles crossed my desktop this week.  Reading them within hours of each other left me head-scratching.

The first was from the Fall 2010 Preview issue of American Journalism Review, titled “Traffic Problems.”  The article summarizes how the ability to track the popularity of specific online articles affects a newsroom’s future focus.  Key callouts:

 High-minded headlines and stories about foreign wars, the federal deficit or environmental despoilage might have paid the bills in the age of Murrow and Cronkite, but they only go so far these days.  Shark videos and “naked Lady Gaga” headlines get major play on “serious” news sites for an obvious and no longer terribly shocking reason: They draw traffic….

“Journalism always put a premium on speed and scoops, but up until recently we never had to make the decision that speed trumps vetting or verification,” observes my colleague Roxanne Roberts. “That dynamic is shifting because of the need for hits. It’s a very slippery slope from an ethical standpoint….”

While there are consequences for being slow, there aren’t many consequences for being wrong, Roberts says: “The feeling nowadays is, ‘we don’t make mistakes, we just make updates.'” By trying to grab traffic at all costs, “We’ve placed the premium not on being correct or thoughtful, but on being first. When you do that, everything is Balloon Boy….”

Continue reading Lady Gaga journalism and the reputation economy →

crisis response, opinion and insights

Preliminary lessons from the gulf oil spill

9 Comments
Provided by Deepwater Horizon Response's photostream (Flickr)

I don’t like to “rate” crisis responses as they’re unfolding, but I suppose you could glean lessons from the 4th inning of a baseball game when they’re evident.  Thus, I decided to join the opinionated crowd by responding to a question posed on a LinkedIn PR News Group discussion on “What are the top 3 crisis management lessons you’ve learned from the BP oil spill?”

Here are expansions from my short replies, with links that help round-out perspectives.

 

1) Companies that take great business risks must have a commensurate risk management system when things go ker-plewy.It’s easy to criticize BP, if you enjoy fishing out of a barrel.  BP is the designated “responsible party” among all responders of the Joint Incident Command, and as such, the lead butt to kick.  BP also has a history of mishaps and mammoth profits that make many uncomfortable.  Their executives have certainly made some blunders…even before the spill.  (Describing risk calculations in “three little pigs” terminology is colossally stupid, and the company’s oil spill response plans were based on unrealistic data.)

Of course, several parties were pushing limits to get oil out of the deep sea bed, without the equal attention to the safety net required in taking such risks.  Learning nothing from White Star, this was akin to not having enough lifeboats on the Titanic.  Those involved include BP, Transocean, Halliburton and the government’s formerly-named Minerals Management Service.  More analysis is required to untangle the blame.

Continue reading Preliminary lessons from the gulf oil spill →

opinion and insights

Paine’s Echoes

1 Comment

My passion for history was recently reignited through DVDs offered by The Teaching Company.   (I highly recommend courses by professors Guelzo, Childers and Fears.)   The courses help me draw insights from some of the world’s greatest challenges and apply them to modern-day crisis management. 

You think today’s corporate leaders-in-crisis are up against the wall?  Compare them to General Washington’s challenge in early December, 1776, when the prospect of sustained independence for the American states (nee, colonies) was most bleak. 

Washington’s dwindling Continental army and militia were badly defeated in New York, chased across New Jersey and were licking their wounds on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.  Congress recently abandoned Philadelphia for Baltimore, to add distance from advancing British Regiments.  Many soldiers were lost to battle or defections (indeed, nearly 3,000 swore allegiance to the king through an amnesty proclamation offered by the British).  Remaining soldiers were near the end of the one-year term of enlistment previously imposed by Congress.  Continue reading Paine’s Echoes →