How to Define A Crisis

As your business involved in a crisis, you can lay low and hope the problem passes. Fat chance! Or, you can develop a response and present your side of the story. Your call.

Behaving like an ostrich, you watch a crisis unfold dan grow. You could surely go down the drain if the crisis blasts off. Take Lapindo as an example. Starting out from the word “efficiency”. Yepper, they were cutting costs drilling down the earth not with full safety tools. Alas, the efficient tools hit something then the mud kept bursting out. It has grown fast than anyone could ever imagine. It went from a tiny local operational mishap, to national blunder. Last barb is with Tempo Magazine. By all means, zillions of rupiahs shall be the pitched and tossed on the table. All five Bakrie’s public companies are sitting at the brink of terrible debts.

If you don’t seize the opportunity and define the situation, chances are good that someone else will do it for you. That the media shall not take it for granted. That the people shall sue your negligence. That the government shall blow the whistle. Being proactive always takes less energy and effort than trying to react in the aftermath.

Really, how are you going to define a crisis? There are steps. Assessment and expertise. Know the very bottom of the problem. Expose it to your stakholders. Reimbursement for the victims–if there is any–as quickly as you can. You may wish to develop, in advance, model statements to provide to the public and media during likely crisis scenarios. There you go. Make a matrix of possible future scenarios when a crisis occurs.

Too long to discuss here, but there are many books you could quote on this. One sample, ” Strategi Public Relations – Bagaimana Strategi Public Relations dari 36 Merek Global dan Lokal Membangun Citra, Mengendalikan Krisis, & Merebut Hati Konsumen” by Silih Agung Wasesa.