Corporate America: Tragedy strikes. Are you ready?

With much higher frequency than any of us would like to realize, terrible tragedies claim center stage in the media. Some of them are natural, like Hurricane Sandy and the Oklahoma tornado. Others, like Newtown and Boston are unfortunately man-made. Invariably, these events touch companies in different, and sometimes surprising ways. Maybe employees were harmed or emotionally scarred. Physical locations may have been destroyed or the supply chain disrupted. Odds are that customers’ lives have been upended. How should the social corporation respond?

Following these horrific events, politicians, celebrities, and our national sports teams have proven extremely agile in their powerful support for the impacted areas & communities. We now expect a swift, coordinated response. For Hurricane Sandy, we witnessed our celebrities & politicians jump into action mode with integrity – from Bruce Springsteen and President Carter, Governor Christie & President Obama, plus 100+ celebrities. This list included some that are not typically associated with serious issues, including the Jersey Shore cast and Housewives of New Jersey.  In the aftermath of the Boston tragedy, we witnessed the Red Sox poignant observance play out over multiple games.

We also hear about everyday people – our friends, family, and strangers doing heroic things during/after these events…rescuing a man trapped under the Oklahoma rubble, running towards the carnage in Boston, wrapping a tourniquet that saved a limb and life.  We then watch the victims show remarkable bravery as they come back… how a parent endures life without his/her child or how a dancer plans to dance with a prosthetic leg.

These acts inspire. They reaffirm our belief in the goodness of mankind. They uplift our connection to our communities.

But where are the corporations?  Where is their powerful response?

Too many corporations are surprising silent in some of the most events that clearly begged a response. The words and thoughts don’t flow on social media. The on-the-ground response at local offices or stores fails to materialize.

We know they care.  As consultants & advisors to many senior management teams, we both have spent thousands of hours sitting in conference rooms developing brand strategy and marketing plans.  We know these matter substantively: Brand matters; omni channel marketing matters; community engagement matters.  All of these are intended to make the companies an integral part of the communities in which they do business. And in taking a line for AJ Lafley’s recent return to the helm of P&G, we certainly know that consumers matter.

So why doesn’t the senior leadership of corporate America make their voice firmly heard?  Based on our collective experience, we offer five reasons for unresponsive brand and market reactions:

1. Stuck in shock – Just as the general public gets caught up in the breaking news reports so too does the team senior management team, huddled at headquarters around the big television screen. There’s typically an immediate feeling of distraction at headquarters. But unless the team was directly impacted, within a few days inertia will return the team into business as usual mode.
2. Lack of a real-time community view – The complexity of an event and the speed at which a crisis unfolds may prevent a core management team from fully comprehending the many ways in which key communities and the diversity of stakeholders will be impacted. Without intimate two-way communication with people on the ground, it’s very difficult to truly understand the scope and scale of some of these events.
3. A critical page is missing in the playbook – Traditional scenario planning too often lulls organizations into believing that employees only to break the glass when then alarm goes off.  The magnitude, characteristics, and impact of recent tragedies defy conventional crisis planning processes.
4. Fear of capitalizing on the tragedy – We know that genuine brand efforts prove most impactful.  Management teams are appropriately concerned that a response will be seen as sel-serving and commercial. The logic is that doing “something” might backfire. If a child loses his or her life, should a clothing company say something, do something, or just shut up? If a tornado strikes, should a battery company ship in emergency batteries? Free? For sale?
5. New technology is run by an old organization structure – Communities expect immediate responses. Immediate responses are impossible when five levels of management have to review, edit, reedit, vote on, and then vet a response with outside counsel. People on the front-line need to clearly understand the core values of the company and feel empowered to speak and act on behalf of the organization.

How well did your organization perform during the last disaster? Did the response advance or detract from your brand identity?  In our next story, we’ll provide a list of questions to grade your own response and start to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of your branding crisis management plan.


This blog post is collaborative effort of Nancy Ross and Paul Tyler

Nancy Ross – Founder and CEO of C-Suite, a brand and marketing strategy firm working with leading global corporations

Paul Tyler – SVP of strategy and brand management for Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance.  Opinions in this piece reflect his own, not those of the company.