In the readings, the quality of relationships between an organization and its key stakeholders was defined as the determinant of an organization's reputation and I couldn't agree more. A good reputation is crucial for a company if it wants to do well. This is where the PR practitioner comes in - he/she has to:
- help to ensure that the needs of stakeholders are understood and met
- encourage consistency in delivering positive results on promises
- help to articulate and frame messages that organizations want to deliver
Once a good relationship is established between the publics and the company and belief in the organization sky-high, profits will eventually soar through the rising engagement of services and usage/purchases of products from the organization etc.
However, there is a saying that goes along the lines of "A crushed piece of paper can never go back to its original, un-crumpled state" and this is certainly the same for reputation / image.
The 2nd part of this weeks' readings focused on Crisis Management and this is the chapter that probably interested me the most, beating the Media Relations chapter hands down.
Crisis is defined in the dictionary as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending; usually one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome. Usually an unpredictable event that could potentially trigger the start of the end of an organization, it has to be dealt with as soon as possible with as much finesse and grace as possible in order to ensure minimal damage to the organization's public image.
The readings revealed, through a study back in 2005 by Farmer and Tvedt, that 27% of organizations WILL NOT make it through a crisis when it hits them YET many of them remain unperplexed by the possibility.
Toyota Motors was chided in some quarters for not acting fast enough in light of the recent safety scandal which saw the recall of millions of Toyota cars due to malfunctioning accelerator pedals and brake systems. Akio Toyoda, the president of the company, maintained radio silence for a few days despite calls from the public everywhere, from Washington to Ontario to Timbaktu even, for a response from the company.
Thankfully, Toyoda acted relatively quickly after his radio silence, coming out to apologize for the company's oversight on a QC problem like this. While it was not an instant reply from Toyoda, which was even preceded by a reply from the deputy vice president, analysts reckon it was still enough to salvage some pride and keep Toyota's reputation intact amongst the global motoring population.
I personally felt that Toyoda, along with recent shamed celebrities such as Tiger Woods and Jack Neo, should have come up with a response, at the very least if an apology is unavailable yet, as immediately as the analysis backstage can possible allow.
Why a response at the very least? That's because it shows that the organization's willing to take responsibility (NOT akin to taking the blame for the mistake/scandal....yet!) and make amends to it. Stakeholders and publics love to see the organization assume responsibility as it will go to show that they understand the severity of the situation and will start making repairs to the relationship between the 2 parties that had been spoilt by the scandal.
To conclude, the Toyota recall scandal has proven that a crisis happens to any organization, regardless of size and stature, and that there is an urgent need to have a rescue plan for anticipated crisises. This is essential as executive bigwigs will no longer have the luxury of time once a scandal hit and the faster a response, the more minimal damage can be..
Onwards to the age of New Media!
Terence....OUT!
((: We used the same example of Toyota for crisis management. But mentioning Jack Neo, sometimes even fast response is not enough to handle the backlash from the public. People still are skeptical about his apology. Or maybe its just Singaporeans being too conservative? Everyone's excited about Tiger Wood's return.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with Yvonne.
ReplyDeleteHowever, with regards to Jack Neo's case, public relations does not really work. Instead, I think repairing the reputation is what's needed now.
I agree with Josephine that reputation reparations should be in line now.
ReplyDeleteI felt that Jack Neo's handling of the entire case was in bad taste anyhow as compared to Tiger Wood's conference.
Mr Neo should have had his wife in tow and had lack of planning prior to the conference as it can be seen in the video that has been circulating around. Oh well!