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| Are Crisis Plans Useful? | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 3 2008, 02:30 PM (806 Views) | |
| WGCI | Dec 3 2008, 02:30 PM Post #1 |
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Crisis Communication Plans are a central part of this industry. However, over half of American corporations have none, and for most of those who do, their plan is so out of date it might be useless in a real crisis. Many executives feel that a crisis plan only gets in the way of a good management team. Yet most PR specialists feel that without a plan important steps will be overlooked. What is your opinion? |
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| mrblake1 | Dec 15 2008, 10:51 PM Post #2 |
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Hello, I'm new to the group and work as a newspaper reporter in Louisiana. I find that too many times the plan gets kicked to the side by companies dealing with crisis issues. In the past I worked on crisis management issues and conducted seminars. I say stick with the plan and adjust to the situation. But what happens is the folder stays on the desk and gets covered over by phone messages when the stuff has hit the ceiling. For instance, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a refinery had a large "junk" oil spill and I knew many of the players who were in charge of responding. I also knew the company had a plan. What happened was the company did it's best and succeeded to a point in minimizing the incident. The PR team was charged with telling the public that things weren't as bad as they seemed. Non-truths were told and the local media took it hook line and sinker. But the point here was that the plan that was supposed to be used wasn't supposed to focus on clouding the truth, but to manage the incident and information that was released. Earlier this year the company got slapped with a big fine from the EPA and lawsuits are going to follow. The company looks bad. I believe had they stayed with the plan, the long term fall out would not have been as bad locally where the community thinks the company is trashy. And it doesn't help that the company is owned by a Latin American government that's getting on the United States nerves. |
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| Steve Wilson | Dec 17 2008, 06:36 PM Post #3 |
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Plan or no plan, there is no excuse for giving out false information in a crisis. That doesn't mean you tell the news media everything you know, but it does mean that everything you tell them had better be the truth. And that includes not trying to minimize the impact of something if it really was bad. As was stated during the recent US Presidential Campaign, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. I am a little surprised the local media didn't challenge what the company said and I'd be interested in seeing what the media and the community say once they found out they were lied to. |
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| ebieniek | Feb 11 2009, 02:13 PM Post #4 |
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I agree that crisis plans can be useful...at least good plans. My question is: How much should a good crisis plan cost if you're paying an outside firm to do it? And to some extent, what should it contain? Are most plans today computerized? How much does that add to the cost? Our budget is somewhat limited and I've heard you can pay upwards of $50K to $100K for a plan. Is that the going price? Is this something we can do ourselves with our own resources? |
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| Steve Wilson | Feb 12 2009, 09:25 PM Post #5 |
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Let me respond to your questions one at a time. Cost: The cost of a "good" crisis plan depends considerably upon the size and complexity of your organization, as well as the number of locations you have and many other circumstances. It will also depend on how detailed you want to make the plan and how much of the work you are willing to handle yourself - or have others do - inside your own organization. The more information you can provide to the firm writing your plan, the easier their job will be and that should reduce the cost, at least somewhat. You can also provide a lot of the information for the plan internally and you shouldn't have to pay your outside consultant to handle what really amounts to clerical duties. We've found out that we can shave thousands of dollars off some crisis plans by taking the plan to a fairly complete draft stage and then let the client attach the finishing touches such as contact names, phone numbers and essential information that we'd probably have to get from them anyway. As for the cost of hiring an outside consultant? I can only speak from our own experience, but we've completed some basic plans for around $10,000, while more complex plans can run $30K or more. Obviously, if we have to visit all or most of a company's sites to complete the plan, it will increase costs. Is $50 to $100K the going price: Not necessarily. You can cut costs considerably by doing more of the work yourself. Computerized plans: This will increase cost, but it can also make the plan a lot more usable considering you can always have it available via a secure web site or installed on your own laptop. The consultant can either offer you a computerized version of your plan, or they can do what we sometimes do; show the client how their IT department can computerize it themselves. Obviously this places more of a burden on the client, but it certainly reduces costs. Whether you want a computerized plan or not, I personally believe you should start off with a traditional plan on paper, test it and make sure it works before committing to a computerized version. Can we do it ourselves with our own resources? You can try, but I'd probably advise against it. While there are books and workshops that will counsel you on how to write a crisis plan, it's probably better to have someone with experience in writing crisis plans at least helping out along the way. It's my belief that the best plans are developed jointly between an experienced crisis management specialist and the organization that needs the plan. The consultant can't write a good crisis plan for you without your help. The more help you provide, the more ownership you'll have the ultimate plan and the more you'll be able to reduce costs. I'd strongly suggest you involve your specialist or consultant early on in the development of your plan. It should expedite the final product and make it a better product for you overall. The least expensive plans are the ones where we take the client's information, develop a format that will incorporate it into a general plan and then let them finish the project. We would then look over their final draft and make suggestions. |
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| CrisisMan | Mar 8 2009, 04:51 PM Post #6 |
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Going back to the original question: Are Crisis Plans Useful? (1.) Only if you actually use them. (2.) Only if you can find them in a crisis. (3.) Only if they are up to date. (4.) Only if they are designed so that the first time anyone will ever read one is in the middle of an actual crisis. I guess the bottom line is that if you're going to go through all the expense and effort of creating a crisis plan, you had darn well plan on designing it so that it will be used in a crisis. The best way to assure that is to make the plan an integral part of crisis team training, exercises and make sure everyone on the team not only has a copy of it, but that everyone on the team is actually familiar with it and knows how it fits into their specific job function on the team. |
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