SPONSORS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT FEATURE
WHY THE RENEWABLES INDUSTRY MUST HAVE ROBUST CRISIS MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES. THINK OF THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU. IT MAY BE FANCIFUL AND UNREALISTIC BUT THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS AN UNCANNY KNACK OF OCCURRING.
WIND POWER Surely wind power is very safe and relatively crisis-free? True, but the key word is ‘relatively’. Turbines, for example, are complicated pieces of engineering and like all kit, they have the ability to go wrong.
Could a plane hit a turbine? – of course. Could there be an incident offshore during maintenance? – of course. And there are lots more examples.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED Therefore, it is essential that operators and their agents are on alert not just for the unexpected, but the highly unlikely.
ANTICIPATION AS WELL AS PREPARATION Twenty years ago, I would have given you simple advice: Be prepared – the Boy Scout rule. It still applies. Nowadays however, one has to not only be prepared, but to anticipate. This is key – especially in keeping up with electronic media, most notably Twitter.
SOCIAL MEDIA AWARENESS In the good old days, one usually had what was called the ‘golden hour’ to deal with a crisis. A team could be assembled to put together a carefully constructed statement and this would still be viewed as a quick reaction. They might use telex (if you’re over 50, you’ll remember that) or fax, which we will soon find only in museums.
In today’s world, you can have a Tweet in the air in 30 seconds – if you are slow on the keypad. You can have a picture on Facebook in the same time and send footage from your camera or mobile phone to as many TV stations as you want.
INFORMATION TRANSMISSION SPEED Just consider this one fact: The amount of bandwidth available in ONE second today is the same as the WHOLE year of 1998.
The increase in the speed at which information is transmitted is the biggest jump since the telephone and compares with Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press. And this is just one person transmitting information in two minutes. Naturally, this is retransmitted again and again and, within five minutes, half the world can be aware. Organisations, like cuckolded husbands, are often the last to know what is happening because they are not an integral part of the arena in which the information is being shared, and this is why they appear to be a step behind the social media world.
This has huge and obvious implications for business continuity and crisis management plans and procedures. Not to mention reputation management. But there is another crucial difference. Reputable media would not just ‘run with a story’.
JOURNALISM AND THE MEDIA There was an old adage in journalism: “If in doubt, leave it out”. (In fairness, there was another one which said: “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story”).
The problem is that the first rule has gone and the second one is the norm because of a change in the way that news is created and used. We are all journalists now.
FRIGHTENING CONSEQUENCES This has frightening consequences for Crisis Management Managers: A rumour becomes a fact. And rumours are very hard to pull back.
PREPARATION Preparation is therefore essential and includes having…
• A plan (obvious but so many don’t) • Procedures linking into Business Continuity and Quality Procedures
• Pre-prepared statements • Trained personnel • Incident rooms • Monitoring – to make sure you are aware of what is happening
It’s all simple stuff. But like everything that is simple, it is so often ignored. As BP found out in the Gulf of Mexico with Deep water Horizon – if you are not prepared you risk losing the company.
Tom Curtin Curtin & Co
www.curtinandco.com
e = See enhanced entry online = See video library online
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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