WHEN OTHERS ABOUT YOU ARE LOSING THEIR HEADS…
Crisis Management And Prevention In Difficult Times
STOP THE PRESSES, by Richard S. Levick Esq. and Larry Smith. Watershed Press, Washington, D.C., 2nd ed. 2007. 233 pp. To order click here.
These are, as the medievalists are wont to say, parlous times. These are, in contemporary terms, litigious times. These are times of one crisis after another, besetting corporations with attacks from the national pulpit to the smallest venue.
Malpractice suits. Product liability suits. Sexual harassment suits. Shareholder attacks. Whistleblowers. Hostile bloggers. Fraud in the corporate suite. And on and on. Ad, literally, infinitum.
At the same time, there has been a burst of new media to replace or supplement the old media. Crisis comes all too frequently (Life, it is said, is what happens when you make other plans), and with the blossoming of media, it never comes quietly.
Crisis itself is not new. Embezzlement has been forever, as have been the warped souls who put poison in the medicine bottle on the pharmacy shelves. Products that kill or maim are certainly not new. And there’s certainly long been a standard in crisis response, even when honored in the breach.
What is new is new sources of crisis-causing issues, often fostered by new law and regulation. A feminist awareness, for example, of racial discrimination and sexual harassment,.
Shareholders energized by new law and regulation to attack the corporation. A proliferation of new technology and new products with new potential danger.
And what is also new is the decline in traditional media – newspapers and newspaper readership, for example, slowly sinking, as is the broadcast media – and the rise in new media, such as the internet, blogs, viral networks, and media still emerging to capture the attention and loyalty of a new generation of people. It’s one thing, it seems, to tell your story to an old newsroom hack who is more likely to be inclined to report facts dispassionately but without understanding the ramifications of a story and the back story itself. It’s another to tell your story to an enthusiastic blogger with a powerful point of view, with no long-standing journalistic tradition in his or her bones, and with no strictures on passion or extreme opinion.
The domination of attention, certainly by media that reports crisis and response, is now guided not by traditional means, but by the dynamics of new public concerns, and a broadening of education by the new media. Today’s public, it appears, knows more, cares more about certain events, and seems to better understand how they are affected by these events.
Thus, the welcome advice of this new book by two of the most knowledgeable and thoughtful people in the art of crisis control and prevention.
The authors understand – perhaps more than most of their peers – that risk, and understanding risk, is crucial to effective crisis prevention planning. They understand, as well, the risk of doing nothing – of not planning for crisis when no crisis seems to be on the horizon. They understand law and lawyers, and they understand the media, both old and new. They run what is undoubtedly one of the most effective and sophisticated public relations firms serving the legal profession and the broader business community. This understanding, and their experience in risk control and prevention, is at the heart of the immense value of this book.
They suggest, for example, that of all the obligations imposed upon corporate boards of directors by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2000, none was more urgent than to anticipate potential liability, and to plan for it. That while lawyers may understand the legal ramifications of white collar crime, they too rarely understand how to protect their clients and themselves from the ravages of the press. And best of all, they understand the dynamic and practices of the new, as well as the old, media.
The authors understand and convey, as well, the meaning of risk and how to tame it in sustaining reputation under attack. Here, the underlying message is the risk of doing nothing in dangerous times is as dangerous as the crisis itself.
This book is the perfect handbook for protecting reputations threatened or made fragile by crisis. Moreover, in describing strategies, they go beyond the mundane and ordinary. They understand brand, and what they describe as brand equity. In 14 succinct chapters, they describe the new strategies required to deal with the new public and media environment, and are meticulous in delineating, chapter by chapter, the best methods for dealing with the crisis team and how to build and manage one, how to survive the print, broadcast and internet media, the newest techniques for using the internet, the value, uses, and skills of the blog, and the subtleties of the legal marketplace.
Broken logically into chapters -- the crisis team…handling interviews and the broadcast media…blogs and the internet…communications in an age of heightened regulatory prosecutorial activity…product liability …and much more – the range of coverage is comprehensive. The appendences include a litigation planning guide, a crisis management primer, and crisis scenarios. In this turbulent, litigious, and media rich world, this book is welcome and necessary.
It is indeed a blueprint to carry attorneys and their clients through the worst imaginable storms.
It should be noted that the authors have the gravitas of not only wisdom and experience, but professional background as well. Levick a recognized leader in the field. He is also a lawyer. Smith is a prominent journalist in the legal field, and an editor of a major law journal. They know, from experience, whereof they speak.
This is an important book.