 |
 Why Your Disaster Recovery Efforts Must Include Communication Planning©
by Rick Alcantara
A few years ago, an article in Across the Board magazine said, "It is no longer a question of if every organization will experience a crisis [but] ... when and what type of crisis will occur, how it will happen, and how well prepared the organization is to respond." Since then, significant crises have rocked the financial, government, religious and energy sectors. They have also plagued the airline industry, food manufacturers, tire makers, oil companies and others.
The firms that failed to prepare for contingencies, often fed the media frenzy, perpetuated lost sales, damaged their reputations, and created additional legal, legislative and marketplace problems. Conversely, organizations that planned and tested their responses, in many cases, shortened the crisis period, reduced their losses and learned from the situation.
The key difference - disaster planning. Unfortunately, many firms mistakenly believe that disaster planning begins and ends with their operations recovery plan. They think they can "manage risk" by just "getting things back to normal" as quickly as possible. Unfortunately the focus on churning out widgets, avoiding legal liability and responding "no comment" simply won't cut it in the court of public opinion.
Numerous researchers, lawyers, and companies have found that loss of company reputation or equity can be more costly than a legal battle over a disaster. That's why your company should devote time, staff and financial resources to developing a crisis communications plan that aligns with your operations plan.
The crisis communication plan will rank the impact and probability of certain risks, offer detailed responses to various scenarios, identify who speaks on behalf of your organization, crystallize key messages, and list contact information, roles and responsibilities, critical audiences, essential equipment, and backup facilities.
The communication plan will enable your organization to react quickly and efficiently during times of extreme stress. While its strategies cannot minimize legal exposure, they can, according to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Jeffrey Kaufmann, Idalene Kesner and Thomas Lee Hazen, "reduce the chance of escalation, interference with normal business operations, and damage to the company's reputation and bottom line."
The absolute worst time to learn crisis management is during a crisis. Instead of learning on the job (or in the line of fire), commission a crisis communication plan today. Secure your legal counsel's buy-in before circulating the document. Then, test the plan annually or semi-annually.
While you may have no control over the timing, scope and duration of a crisis, you can definitely minimize your risks by integrating a strategic communication plan into your disaster recovery efforts.
Rick Alcantara is founder and principal of Tara Communications LLC, a strategic public relations, marketing and Internet firm that helps organizations plan, implement and measure their communications. You can reach him at 856.740.0312.
Click Here to go back to the Main Think Pieces page
|
Print Document