Crisis management

Abstract

Crisis management is a much-discussed area of PR work. Unlike the other areas of PR planning that we have looked at so far it is about reacting to rather than creating events. It can also be about the life and death of an organization. A badly managed crisis can see a company closed down, personal reputations destroyed, and years of work undermined. A well-managed crisis on the other hand can not only avoid these hazards but can even, in the long term, enhance the reputation of the organization concerned. Crisis management matters.

It used to be possible to “bury” issues in eastern Europe — it isn’t any more. A multinational in Central and Eastern Europe is as vulnerable to a crisis, if not more so, than one anywhere else.

Alistair McLeish of PR Consultancy MMD