One impulsive statement, a single injudiciously timed comment, a lie, obfuscation, a sexual peccadillo, an inappropriate PR response, playing the corporate gorilla with those who 'get in the way' - and years of carefully nurtured personal, corporate or brand reputation can go down the tubes in a nano second. Are you at risk? You might well be.
The personal and corporate world in which we live has moved unobtrusively but inexorably into radically uncontrollable territory in the last few years. Although Blogs (informal, opinion-based web logs/sites/postings) may not have become the mighty corporate club they were predicted to be, they remain an unpredictable guerrilla element in the reputational marketing mix.
Clients, customers, service providers, manufacturers, contractors, politicians, individuals, all have instant, virtually cost-free access to global media via the Internet. Their voice or opinion on any issue can be and often is picked up and debated around the world. There is a 'transparency', visibility and immediacy via digital media that potentially nullifies the previous 'protection' of even the most powerful customer relationship management (CRM) program, PR division, lobbyist and spin budgets.
Your shareholders or stakeholders would vilify you for not having in place carefully crafted strategies for the survival and future growth of your business. Yet very frequently, the question of 'how would we (appropriately!) respond in the event of a crisis?' or to being trashed in a blog, is not even on the strategic radar screen.
A few months ago a female CEO took more than 24 hours to respond to a Financial Mail request for information and clarification and they went to press without the benefit of her comments. She then complained bitterly in a reader's letter to the editor about the 'treatment' she'd been meted out. She claimed she'd been 'very busy' and was therefore unable to respond timeously. She should in fact have been severely rapped over the knuckles by her fellow directors for dereliction of duty. That sort of egotistic prevarication and naïveté simply doesn't wash in the immediacy of the digital world. Years of careful corporate brand-building were flushed down the loo because of her ineptitude. Those who did read what she claimed were 'inaccuracies' about her company didn't necessarily also read her letters-page response. Even if they did, the damage wasn't undone.
Some damage, although seemingly a pinprick to a corporate giant - will never go away. Mention South African Breweries (SAB Miller), PR and Justin Nurse of 'Laugh It Off', Black Labour White Guilt infamy, springs to mind. Lesson: You can make as big a balls-up, by going for overkill (an SAB speciality) just because you have heavyweight corporate lawyers in your corner as you can by responding inappropriately or not at all.
Smaller business owners in particular, without the benefit of a formally configured marketing or PR department, run the risk of responding ineptly to media-interest issues. In large corporates, where guidelines for 'who may speak with the media' are sometimes fuzzy - all hell can break loose. I recall a journo calling an ad agency at lunch-time (yes!) to ask about their black empowerment credentials. Dunno if that was a brilliant strategy, a stroke of luck, or an accident. Whichever, the phones had been put on 'night service' so whoever was around would dial 9 and take the call because the switchboard operator had also gone to lunch. The journo lucked out and got himself a marijuana-mellowed creative type who knew diddly-squat about the actual BEE component but was very comfortable to slur his views on the subject. These puerile perspectives then appeared in print as the 'official' albeit un-named spokesperson response from the agency. Undoing that lot can't have been easy.
I had a recent encounter with Cats Digital Experience in Johannesburg's Sandton City over some tacky service. I got back an e-mail from their clearly untutored-in-matters-of-PR CEO. In a rambling quasi-apology he positioned their firm as the little guy fighting the Goliath of the established electronics retailers. Incomprehensibly, in an attempt to justify the experience, he described his company as 'the best of the worst' in the sector. One heck of a payoff line you must agree!
Can you any longer believe anything that South African minister of public enterprises Alec Erwin says? I can't. One lie, followed by another in the form of a 'denial' that he made the first comment and anything he says now gets blocked by my neurological spam filter. He was once a highly-rated, credible source. Even if it was in compliance with 'His Master's Voice' that he make the infamous Koeberg nuclear power station 'human instrumentality' sabotage comment - he's now a credibility lame duck - which is a pity.
As for former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma of 'moral regeneration' campaign fame, the masses will continue, as the Bard said, to toss their sweaty night-caps in the air and remain forever in his thrall. The cognoscenti however, will dub him a sleazy opportunist - beyond reputation rehab - whatever the outcome of his indictment on rape charges.
So just having the experience to do what you do as your 'speciality' is no longer sufficient. You could be a personal or corporate liability in waiting. The remedy? There are heaps of books on the topic. There are courses. I'm convinced you could do an on-line tutorial by going Google-ing the topic. But to continue in life or business without some plan as to how you'd respond in a reputation crisis is a short-sighted and dangerous thing.
The bottom line is this: Every individual in an organization is a facet of the corporate image - a mobile billboard in effect. They're individual 'downloads' of information about the company. In both personal and corporate terms, we need to revisit our risk.
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About the Author
Clive Simpkins is a change architect and strategist.
http://www.imbizo.com
