Treat 'crisis manual' like the Bible

A mourner pays his respects to the victims of the sunken Sewol ferry during a memorial ceremony at Yongju Temple in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. / Yonhap

This is the second in a three-part series highlighting crisis management basics for
multinational corporations in Korea after the Sewol ferry tragedy. ― ED.

By Kim Kyong-hae

Kim Kyong-Hae

We do not yet know the full, official causes of the Sewol tragedy, but we can definitely say that what transpired after the boat began to sink was a travesty of unskilled crisis management. If there had been a crisis management manual and if the crew had full knowledge of the manual and dealt with the accident appropriately, many more lives could have been saved.

It is often said that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the world's best-known crisis management organization, starts from the manual and ends with the manual, demonstrating that this is the most fundamental element required. If your organization does not have one, then it should go back to basics to be fully prepared for "known unknowns."

In the wake of the Sewol tragedy, the Park Geun-Hye administration has outlined plans to establish a National Safety Authority to manage safety effectively and systematically. With the government moving quickly in this direction, there could be a strong impact on how foreign corporations manage safety in Korea. In particular, each city and provincial government is expected to set up a bureau that will exclusively handle safety and crisis matters. Each bureau will closely monitor foreign enterprises with manufacturing facilities in those cities or provinces, meaning they will need to be fully prepared for this new era of crisis management.

The fundamental element that must be developed and put into practice is a crisis management manual, and the first step is a crisis audit of employees, management, media and outside experts. The audit can help identify potential crisis types, and we can use those hypothetical situations to develop major categories around which the manual can be built.

The manual must concretely and clearly identify the spokesperson's role. The manual must also create a taskforce that will quickly assemble in a crisis. According to the crisis situation, a taskforce member should be designated as the spokesperson. In some cases, more than one spokesperson can be designated, assuming that roles and responsibilities as well as messaging are clear. The public relations or communications director need not automatically be made spokesperson.

In the initial period of any crisis, the media will request an official statement, so a holding statement should be created in advance. The details of each crisis will obviously be different, but a holding statement can speed the initial communication, while also providing clear guidance on what needs to be said and ― most importantly ― how it should be said. Liaising with the media quickly in the immediate aftermath of a crisis breakout is critical, and the manual should also include a sample advertisement that can be placed in key media with the company's public apology if it is deemed necessary.

Once the manual is produced, the emergency contacts list must be continually updated. The three Ps (Prepared, Proactive, and Practice) of crisis management are required for effective crisis management and, through these three Ps, crisis management can become deeply rooted in the corporate culture. It is useless to produce a crisis management manual that gathers dust on a shelf. It must be put into practice and all the identified scenarios rehearsed.
The government will demand ever stronger crisis management capabilities from all Korean and foreign corporations but, regardless of the government's expectations, crisis management is an indispensable element that must be undertaken, without fail, if a corporation wants to survive.

There is also opportunity in a crisis. Crisis management has become a hot issue among media in Korea, with journalists eager to identify a multinational company that outperforms in crisis preparedness. The resulting media spotlight can substantially enhance the company's image and standing.

Creating a crisis manual is an investment for which we hope there will be no payoff. But because we cannot predict a crisis, we must prepare for the worst. Any company involved will be inundated with media inquiries and public outcry. At this time, a foreign CEO will be faced with a dilemma to which he or she must respond calmly. A person who learns how to deliver messages and deal with the media by preparing when times are good ― particularly with media training that introduces Korea's unique media landscape and how journalism here is practiced ― then he or she will be fully prepared to turn a crisis into an opportunity.

Kim Kyong-Hae is president of the Korea Institute of Crisis Management and Strategy affiliated with PR consulting group Communication Korea. He can be reached on kyonghae@commkorea.com.