Managing Communications in a Crisis

The difference between a drama and a crisis is down to good management - or more specifically, good communication. How you communicate with everyone: shareholders, other business partners, employees, the press, and so on, in the hours and days following a potential business crisis is critical. Get it right and the crisis may even strengthen your corporate reputation. Get it wrong and you can imagine the consequences for yourself. Managing Communications in a Crisis details how crisis situations can be identified and dealt with, ensuring the risk to the organisation's financial well-being and reputation is minimised. The book deals with all aspects of communication management in a crisis. Part I considers definitions of a crisis and the theory behind dealing with crisis communications, both externally and internally. Part II explores the practicalities of crisis management communications, the identification of audiences and how each should be dealt with and by whom. The third part of the book contains valuable checklists and succinct supporting information for the key aspects and roles of the communication process. The combination of these three approaches will help you to develop your own crisis strategy, tailor-made for your organization. The text is supported by a wide range of case histories. Some of these you will recognise and others, perhaps through good management, never entered your radar. The authors are highly experienced advisors to companies of all sizes in the demands of crisis management communications. Their company, The Aziz Corporation, is the UK's leading executive communications consultancy, specialising in presentation skills, media handling and crisis management.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Understanding Crises and the Theory of Communication; Chapter 1 Understanding crises; Chapter 2 Elements of crisis management; Chapter 3 Stakeholders and audiences; Chapter 4 Third-party endorsement; Chapter 5 Communications in a crisis; Chapter 6 Science versus emotion; Chapter 7 How the media works; Chapter 8 Single-issue lobby groups; Chapter 9 Lobbying; Chapter 10 The price of failure; Part 2 Practical Crisis Communication; Chapter 11 Practical steps to prepare for a crisis; Chapter 12 Internal audiences; Chapter 13 The spokesperson; Chapter 14 The crisis team; Chapter 15 Crisis planning and whistle-blowing;

About the Author :
Peter Ruff's media career began at a local newspaper, then onto local radio and into the BBC, where he worked for 18 years on news and current affairs for both radio and televsion. For four years he was the BBC's Moscow correspondent and, in 1986, informed the world of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. After leaving the BBC he became Director of Communications for a major international waste company that was under pressure from environmental campaigners. Later he took charge of media relations for the chemical industry, dealing with environmental crises involving the chemical, oil, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Through The Aziz Corporation, he advises major FT 250 companies on crisis management communications. Khalid Aziz spent the first twenty years of his career in the media. Trained by the BBC, he went on to work for a range of news and current affairs programmes from Newsbeat on Radio One to Panorama. He worked extensively as both presenter and producer, receiving industry awards for his broadcasting excellence. Khalid founded The Aziz Corporation in 1983 and today it is the UK's leading spoken communications consultancy. Crisis management is a key element in the company's consultancy portfolio, along with other areas of communications such as media handling and presentation skills.

Review :
'...a useful guide...an immense source of knowledge for handling crises...written extremely carefully and thougthfully. It will help managers in general - and not just crisis specialists - to identify in advance points of their areas of weaknesses and strengths in managing crises, and also in developing perspectives in communication planning for handling crises.' Dr Debi S. Saini, Effulgence: A Management Journal 'This practical toolkit for managing crises will be of value to senior executives in large organisations who have a responsibiltiy for media relations and the protection of the organisation's reputation and goodwill - the latter attributes being the first casualties in a poorly managed crisis.' Economic Outlook and Business Review,