Preparing for Crises before they happen

So this weekend I'm taking a one-credit course on Crisis Communication. Very appropriate at this time wouldn't you say. With everyone from the U.S. government right down to the peanut corporation going through some sort of 'crisis', knowing what to do at times like these is key to maintaining the reputation of your company and ultimately its bottom line.

I guess what it all comes down to is being prepared for anything. In class tonight we talked about 'strategic blindness', the idea that you can't see what you can't see. Interesting stuff. As we go through this undeniably rocky economic period there are a few ways we as PR people can help companies prepare themselves beforehand:

• Position papers: Most large corporations have these. They are basically multi-purpose documents that you have on file which state your company's stance on certain topics. They can be given to the media for clarification on issues and can be useful in a crisis as they're prepared statements which can help you to stay on message.
  
• Fact sheets and company history: These documents should always be on hand and updated regularly! You don't want to go scrambling around for accurate names and numbers when the media is digging around for information. In this way, you can somewhat control the firestorm.
• Stock photos and video: Again, you may not be able to control the news (especially in this the age of cell phone cameras) but at least you can provide the media with positive images of your company, instead of that picture of your truckdriver with his pants down below his butt parked outside the corner store on company time.
• Identify vulnerabilites.
• Look at the issues the competition has dealt with and prepare for those.
  

I must say that I find most large Trinidadian and indeed Caribbean companies to be at least cognizant of the importance of reputation...but I'm afraid the same cannot be said for Trinidadian government and politicians. I sometimes wish I could call in a 100 person crisis communication contingent specifically to deal with T&T politicians who in my humble opinion could ALL benefit from a good dose of image repair, because frankly their credibility is non-existent! But I'll take it one step at a time :) My crisis course continues tomorrow, we'll be doing mock press conferences on such, so I'll have another crisis post tomorrow. Bye!