Tag Archives: crisis management

opinion and insights

Implications of WikiLeaks’ forced transparency

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Overexposure to sunlight“Sunshine is a great disinfectant,” transparency advocates love to quip.  It’s a solid metaphor.  However, in my opinion, when the folks at WikiLeaks force transparency, we’re talking about a lot more than sunshine.  We’re talking about being bound in the desert sun against one’s will. 

Last week’s WikiLeaks disclosures of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables sent ripples through nearly every corner of government, media, business and elsewhere.  Just wait until the next batch of disclosures occur.  We know that corporate leaks are coming.  Businesses had better be ready.

Implications of future WikiLeaks disclosures (as well as the eventual copycats it will spawn) are far reaching.  It’s probably far too soon to have a firm handle on all of the effects.  Thus, what follows are initial thoughts on implications based on some of the best perspectives I’ve read so far (many of which are captured through links throughout.) 

 

Unchecked power.  Forbes’ Andy Greenberg provides a great verse from his interview with WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange: 

Like informational IEDs, these damaging revelations can be detonated at will.

In my view, that’s what makes WikiLeaks especially dangerous.  It’s not a static repository server where people dump secret documents.  Assange and his team have the sole power to hit “publish” or to ignore what they receive.  Only they know when that button will be pushed.   There are many moral hazards here:

  • WikiLeaks can move markets.  What is to stop WikiLeaks team members – or friends-of-friends – from shorting stocks a day or two before a major leak?
  • WikiLeaks is not accountable.  Assange is shadowy; the people who work for him have yet to cast even a shadow.  If their informational IEDs do cause undue harm, what happens?  They shrug?  One writer in The Economist calls the recent release a “poor editorial decision” and recommends “an ethical review board.”  Was the decision editorial?  By what measures would a review board hold this group accountable?  Who watches the Watchmen?
  • Who died and made Assange boss?  In this interview with Time magazine, Assange asserts:  “…It is not our goal to achieve a more transparent society; it’s our goal to achieve a more just society.”  Should one person or organization have the power to damage governments or corporations based on a singular view of what is and is not just?
  • WikiLeaks is not omnipotent.  It believes the latest cable disclosures did not harm soldiers.  Some disagree and believe the leaks have done major damage, such as The Washington Post’s columnist Charles Krauthammer.  Example:

Take just one revelation among hundreds: The Yemeni president and deputy prime minister are quoted as saying that they’re letting the United States bomb al-Qaeda in their country, while claiming that the bombing is the government’s doing. Well, that cover is pretty well blown. And given the unpopularity of the Sanaa government’s tenuous cooperation with us in the war against al-Qaeda, this will undoubtedly limit our freedom of action against its Yemeni branch, identified by the CIA as the most urgent terrorist threat to U.S. security.

  • By design, WikiLeaks enjoys very crafty legal protection.  Assange’s servers are housed in very specific areas of the world, according to The Economist, in order to create “a legal structure that allows him to answer only to his own conscience.”  What other person or organization enjoys that level of power?
  • What if the information WikiLeaks doesn’t post gets used inappropriately?  Let’s not forget that the people at WikiLeaks have raw documents that they (sometimes) redact or choose not to publish.  What if WikiLeaks gets hacked?  What if someone at WikiLeaks sells or uses that data inappropriately, perhaps for nefarious purposes?  How do these hazards remain in check?

  Continue reading Implications of WikiLeaks’ forced transparency →

crisis response, opinion and insights

Qantas: 54 alarms (and three cheers)

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Earlier this month, I posted some thoughts on key social networking crisis management lessons that may – or may not – emanate from the Qantas A380 emergency landing.  To my knowledge, many of the posed questions have not been addressed on that part of the crisis response.  So let’s continue to set those social media questions aside.

However, let’s not overlook some of the real-world lessons from the situation.   For example, this AP story provides a harrowing account of what the crew faced in the cockpit.  Key excerpts:

“The amount of failures is unprecedented,” said Richard Woodward, a fellow Qantas A380 pilot who has spoken to all five pilots. “There is probably a one in 100 million chance to have all that go wrong.”

But it did.

Engine pieces sliced electric cables and hydraulic lines in the wing. Would the pilots still be able to fly the seven-story-tall plane?

The wing’s forward spar — one of the beams that attaches it to the plane — was damaged as well. And the wing’s two fuel tanks were punctured. As fuel leaked out, a growing imbalance was created between the left and right sides of the plane, Woodward said.

The electrical power problems prevented the pilots from pumping fuel forward from tanks in the tail. The plane became tail heavy.

That may have posed the greatest risk, safety experts said. If the plane got too far out of balance, the Singapore-to-Sydney jetliner would lose lift, stall and crash.

And then there was that incredible stream of computer messages, 54 in all, alerting the pilots to system failures or warning of impending failures.

And now, the important part:

Continue reading Qantas: 54 alarms (and three cheers) →

opinion and insights

Crisis Management: Mastery and Proficiency

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A few weeks ago, I participated in a Ketchum leadership workshop where we probed dependent, independent and interdependent leadership styles.  Respectively, this can be defined most simply as “you do it,” “I’ll do it,” and “we’ll do it.”   Neat.  

During the session, I raised the following:  “It’s tough to lead others if you’re not recognized as having mastered something.  And mastery can only come when you’ve pushed through the complacency of just being proficient.”

Okay, so this wasn’t an entirely original thought.  Just a few hours before the session I happened to have read this Forbes’ article by Amity Shales, which contains this nugget:

(My father, Jared Shlaes…) gave the best career advice I’ve ever heard: There will come a moment when you are bored with an area of study and will want to try something new. But that boredom is the signal you’ve achieved mastery. You’ll be quitting at the moment when it’s most costly to do so. Only a mastered trade can be properly monetized.

How do these thoughts on mastery and proficiency apply to crisis management?  It gets back to a statement I’ve often made.  “It takes about 5-7 years to learn all of the rules of crisis management and the rest of your career to challenge every single one of those rules.”  You have to constantly challenge assumptions and look beyond the obvious to be a master of your craft.  (That’s why I and others strongly favor experienced crisis managers and teams over plans.)  

I’ve recently stumbled on other viewpoints complementary to this one: Continue reading Crisis Management: Mastery and Proficiency →

crisis response, opinion and insights

Too Soon to Qantify the Qantas Response?

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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? →

"Three Tough Q's" Interview Series

Three Tough Q’s: Hilka Klinkenberg

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Perhaps you’ve heard that the Chevy Nova once lacked sales in Latin America companies because the automobile’s name translates to “doesn’t go” in Spanish?  Although that story isn’t really true – it’s an iconic example of the perils of remaining ignorant of cultural sensitivities when doing business across borders. 

When companies face more serious cross-border crises, there’s usually a lot more than lost sales on the line.  Thus, I remain amazed at how many multinational businesses do not incorporate “cultural risk management” into their ongoing issues and crisis management programs. 

Understanding and addressing cultural risk is the realm of Hilka Klinkenberg, who is one of the senior members of the Global Coaching & Consulting Group.   

 Hilka and I connected back in 1994 when we explored whether she can lead a workshop at one of the Ketchum global director meetings.  Over the years, we’ve shared thoughts on client crisis situations that involve many a cultural faux pas.  We recently re-connected and Hilka has graciously agreed to address these Three Tough Q’s:

 

Q1:  Do multinational organizations need to “press their hands against the hot stove” before taking cultural risk management seriously?

No.  However, that seems to be the preferred modus operandi.  Cultural risk avoidance should be incorporated into the enterprise risk management of any large or small organization doing business outside its national boundaries.

Cultural risk arises when individuals or organizations are unaware of the basic values intrinsic in other cultures.  Consequences range from mild insults that can affect the tenor of a relationship – to possible imprisonment and huge financial losses.  Cultural crises can affect a global company’s product development and production, legal and political issues, human resources and relocation, marketing and advertising.  And, in today’s virtual world, any flashpoint can go viral in an instant. Continue reading Three Tough Q’s: Hilka Klinkenberg →