The need to stay CALM and SENSIBLE in times of CRISIS

The word ‘crisis’ when written in Chinese appears as two characters that spells out ‘opportunity’ and ‘danger’. Hence, the Chinese always believe when a crisis strikes, it is best to stay calm and think of ways to turn it around. Instead of turning defensive, we need to learn to turn the situation around to a positive situation or at best an opportunity.

When a crisis or issue strikes, there is not a single moment to lose. Many organizations turn into panic mode due to a tarnished reputation. In today’s quick cycle of news where verification and ethical news sharing continue to be lacking, many companies, organizations and governments are affected by fake news that can lead to not only financial losses but create a negative image amongst stakeholders, employees and even general public and damages their  reputation built over many years.

Let’s take a look at a local issue back in 2017 which affected a well-known brand, Bata, a shoemaker company which lost about RM500,000 within a month after an allegation stating the shoes contain the Arabic word ‘Allah’ in the pattern of the sole, went viral in the mid of 2017.

The company decided to withdraw 70,000 pair of school shoes from 230 stores nationwide following a comment from a school teacher that the sole of one of the models had the Arabic word ‘Allah’ written on the sole and the post went viral amongst school teachers and parents of the school requesting them not to buy the Bata shoe.

In actual fact, there was no such word in the shoes and the shoes were returned to the shelves after the allegation was cleared by the Printing Control and Licensing Board, Ministry of Home Affairs. This shows that with the presence of social media and internet there are high chances for the fake news to go viral and reaches wider spectrum of the audience. Most of the organizations find themselves unprepared to face the crisis and thus they suffer from huge consequences although in reality there are ways to handle the crisis better or pre-empted. It is a matter of knowing how to handle the media and the stakeholders involved.

Case in point, approaching the Johor Islamic Religious Department as well as ‘Al-Quran’ Division of the Printing Control and Licensing Board, Ministry of Home Affairs on the printing of the sole were the two well taken steps by Bata to manage the crisis. However, the decision to take 70,000 pair of the said model off the shelf was deemed as a panic move.

Moreover, when Berita Harian (media) approached them after the issue emerged they shouldn’t have refused to response to the media. They ought to reply Berita Harian that they are aware of the issue and will provide full story via an exclusive interview once the investigation is completed and confirmation granted by Johor Islamic Religious Department as well as ‘Al-Quran’ Printing Control and Licensing Board, Ministry of Home Affairs on the printing of the sole.

At the same time, Bata should also approach the headmaster (stakeholder) of Sekolah Agama Bandar Batu Pahat where the claim or post emerged with the company’s top Muslim management representative stating that Bata totally understand and respect their concerns but clarify to the headmaster that the news was not true. Bata can also persuade the headmaster to meet the authorities of the Johor Islamic Religious Department to get better clarification on this issue. These are the two important steps that should have been done by Bata within 36 to 48 hours.

Once clarification received from Johor Islamic Religious Department, Bata should call back the editor or writer of Berita Harian and explain on the next step that would be taken by Bata. They should inform Berita Harian that Johor Islamic Religious Department advised them to get clarification from the Ministry of Home Affairs. This would help Bata to solve the problem once the Ministry of Home Affairs clarified and confirmed that it is not khalimah ‘Allah’. They should have just informed Berita Harian about it. However, Bata failed to do so and instead recalled 70,000 pair of shoes from 230 stores nationwide which led to a greater loss. This action was not a sensible move.

Analysing this case further, the virality of the issue we found, was not extensive. When it started to go viral, only 237 shares detected. This number is considered small in comparison to Berita Harian’s readership of about 1.43 million and Berita Harian Online’s likes of 1 million.

Had Bata put a communication infrastructure and a crisis communication manual in place they could have dealt with the issue better without pushing the panic button.

Generally there are ways for a company or communications team to manage the potential crisis that may occur in the future. The question is how?

Managing a crisis boils down to:

·   Preparedness: How to be prepared? First and foremost, understand the entire business process and integrate communications process or crisis communications processes into the business processes. Next, make sure the top management especially the CEO or other spokespersons understand how the entire process works during any crisis. Thereafter, identify the potential crises that may occur, identify the different spokesperson who best fit to be the authority for different scenarios, prepare a sample holding statement by focusing on minimum 3 facts and not opinion, come up with internal Q&A and last but not least prepare sample questions that media and stakeholders might ask and the answers for those questions. 

Conduct drills once the preparation of documentation of processes are concluded and update the processes and manuals regularly to reflect the company’s changes in business process, media channels available, new industry threats/ issues and a viable reporting line to ensure there is no delay in crisis communications efforts.  

·   Response:  Assess crisis situation and respond accordingly. Identify the most effective communications tools and tactics, for example, whether to hold a press conference/briefing, do one-on-one interviews or perhaps just issue a media statement or an integrated PR approach. 

·   Recovery:  Monitor the situation carefully whether the actions taken had managed to drown the situation and concerns from the public and/or stakeholders or whether the issue is still emerging.

·   Mitigation: Identify best practices on how to avoid similar situation in the future and how the current crisis can be dealt better or differently. A complete report including crisis communications manual explaining how the current crisis had been dealt, should be prepared and disseminated to the necessary people in a company. This is so, in the future, when the same issue arises the team would know how to deal and manage it better. The key objective of the report is to educate future employees to be aware of the said crisis that have occurred including the best practices applied and lessons learned.

“Crisis management is not only about managing threat and danger. It is also about turning the crisis into an opportunity. When handled calmly and sensibly, one can turn the situation to favour one’s organization i.e. enhance credibility to company’s reputation and gain public’s trust.”

This article is contributed by Ivlynn Yap Cheng Theng, Managing Partner and Crisis Communications Lead Counsel.