Silent Crisis Management

By: Oscar RossignoliEditor when a company is the victim of a smear campaign and is attacked in the media, in the vast majority of cases its officials are not prepared to face this situation. The underestimation of the potential risks and not having formed and trained a Crisis Committee is one of the main causes that lead to a company’s officers to doubt when reacting to the media. Arise questions such as:-will it be convenient to react? – And if we rather more complicamos things by making statements? -What we must say without getting into more trouble? -Who is the best person to leave the public arena? – And if reacting bring us legal problems? -Do with what journalist talk that it misrepresented not our version? -We pay journalists speak well of us? These and many other questions arise when, one Monday, we buy newspapers and we are surprised by a five-column headline and on the front page with the name of our companies accused of a situation which, we know, it is a misleading information and that will damage its corporate image. The worst mistake that officials of a company in a crisis situation can commit is staying silent and let time elapse. Crisis management is urgent because the actions to be taken have to be immediate. Why? If we do not act in time negative adjectives begin to position itself in the minds of our hearings and without realizing, our corporate image begins to be destroyed. When, at last, we decided to react we hired an expert in crisis management and then the investment of resources (time, money and positioning) is much higher than that it would have made if we don’t grow the scandal. Rebuild is three times more expensive to build, we must never forget this. To this we add that, paradoxically, silence also communicates something.