Tag Archives: crisis response

crisis response, planning and prevention

Tragedy in Japan: addressing natural disasters

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The situation in northeast Japan is grim and may soon get worse.

Source: CNN

At the time of this writing, the earthquake and resulting tsunami has led to early estimates between 900 and 1,800 dead. That does not include the nearly 9,500 people unaccounted for in the coastal town Minamisanriku. Japanese authorities are also presuming that two nuclear reactor meltdowns may already be underway. Broadcast media have already speculated on the possibility of another Chernobyl-like disaster.

The people of Japan will need help. If history is a guide, help will come. It will come from the U.S. and other governments. It will come from citizen donations that will funnel through charitable, religious and disaster-aid organizations. It will also come from emergency management and corporate citizen efforts of many companies that have the resources to pitch in.

I’ve written many “natural disaster” crisis communications plans for organizations. Below, I provide a brief summary of the typical contents of these plans. Perhaps this summary can help an organization that wants to pitch in – but may not know how to start organizing.

These plans are typically split into two halves: 

opinion and insights

Toyota recall aftermath: many protagonists fail inspection

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Last August, I wrote a blog post that compared the Toyota recall frenzy of 2010 to the Audi 5000 frenzy of 1986.  At that time, there were reports that investigators were having trouble finding any “sudden acceleration” problems tied to the Toyota electronics.

Four months later, I followed up with a post that covered the sensational media reporting of ABC News’ Brian Ross.  The February broadcast — in the thick of the media frenzy — featured dramatic footage of driver tests that pointed to software/electronic problems with Toyota vehicles.  The report leaned heavily on findings of a professor of automotive technology, whose work was commissioned by a paid advocate for trial lawyers (not disclosed in the original ABC News broadcast).  Tsk, tsk.

Earlier this week, federal investigators confirmed that there is no evidence of electronic failures that led to Toyota sudden acceleration incidents.  Thus, the circle is complete – the Toyota 2010 situation is the doppelganger of the Audi 1986 situation.  Both situations point to “pedal misapplication” as a likely cause in most of the reported accidents.  Both situations end with calls to move the brake and accelerator pedals a little further apart to avoid such confusion.

Summarizing this situation now is difficult, but this is a good callout from Jeffrey Liker’s post on Harvard Business Review blog:

So who won in this debacle? Journalists who wrote speculative and poorly researched sensational articles got a lot of internet hits. NHTSA got a lot of attention, a larger budget, and a reputation for toughness. It remains to be seen whether the lawyers suing Toyota will get anything. American drivers got a paranoid auto industry that will recall vehicles at the drop of a hat. There will be some positive safety policies relating to how runaway cars are shut off in an emergency, and we all may get “black boxes” that record our recent driving actions. And Toyota got a crisis that drove it to reflect intensively and to make dramatic changes to improve its responsiveness to customer concerns, so likely will emerge stronger — but lost billions of dollars of value in the process.

Other implications?     Continue reading Toyota recall aftermath: many protagonists fail inspection →

crisis response, opinion and insights

Poll: Impact of crises today – deep or shallow?

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Courtesy: Stuart McMillen, based on work by Neil Postman

 

Although penned more than a year and a half ago, I recently stumbled upon a thought-provoking cartoon by Stuart McMillen and based on text by Neil Postman.  I’ve posted two key panels to the left, but clicking there will take you to the entire cartoon. 

In full, it concludes that Huxley’s fears have become more prevalent than Orwell’s, and that the public has an “almost infinite appetite for distractions.”  Information and entertainment overload are thought to be contributing factors.  We are hyperlinked, super networked and gadget consumed.  (For example, how many travelers do you see toggling through email, Twitter, AP news and Angry Birds apps when in an airport?  How many of you are those travelers?  I’m partially guilty.) 

If the Huxley fears are accurate, it raises an interesting question for crisis/reputation managers.  

Does a crisis today have more impact or less impact than, say, a decade ago when bad news came from fewer focal points? 

By example, I’d venture to guess that the public was more informed about the Toyota recall or the Qantas’ emergency landing (caused by a faulty Rolls-Royce engine) than a decade ago.  But is the impact the same as a decade ago?  

Continue reading Poll: Impact of crises today – deep or shallow? →

crisis response

Toyota vs. ABC News’ Sensationalism

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Earlier this week, I moderated an interactive crisis management workshop on behalf of PRSA Charlotte.  We explored top crisis management observations from 2010 and then held an interactive discussion on BP/Deepwater Horizon disaster and on the Toyota recalls.  (These links provide you with summary points shared with the PRSA members.)

We ran short on time and needed to truncate an important part of the Toyota recall case.  The quick summary raised a few eyebrows in the room and we didn’t have time to explore some of the media sensationalism felt by Toyota.  As a promise made to those members and as interesting reading for the rest, I’d like to summarize that here:

  • By early February, there were swelling reports that “unintended acceleration” was occuring in some Toyota models.  Some believed this was caused by software.  This led to some sensational media coverage, leaving Toyota owners believing in “ghosts in the machine.”
  • On Feb. 22, ABC News’ chief investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, aired a segment where he interviewed David Gilbert, a professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University.  Here’s the segment:

Continue reading Toyota vs. ABC News’ Sensationalism →

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) →