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Is your data crisis management plan in the clouds?

Australia’s ‘catch-up’ with the digital age highlights the power of information security to make or break your business plans today. China’s recent cyber attack on the Bureau of Meteorology’s computers – although denied by China – is a timely reminder to all Australian businesses and governments that such actions can compromise sensitive systems across the whole public and private sectors.

The much welcomed recent moves by academia, business and government for Australia to ‘catch-up’ with other nations in the development of our technology innovation sector brings this to the fore even more.

It is reinforced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement of a push to protect the nation’s commercial and strategic secrets from cyber attack.

Digital crisis management now should be high on the agendas of all risk committees.

As we move towards the magical 2020, issues and crisis management plans can mark the difference between business success and failure in effective responses to digital attacks.

The Melbourne-based information security firm Trusted Impact highlighted in a recent survey that key business objectives, such as revenue growth, product quality, time-to-market, customer loyalty, company reputation and shareholders value are all at risk if information security is not interwoven into the fabric of the digital organisation.

The pace of change is such that in the past decade, we have lost iconic brands, such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kodak and Yellow Pages to the digital age. Their demise highlights the adage that a ‘stitch in time, saves nine’ is just as relevant today as it was in the 18th Century when it was used as an incentive to the ‘lazy’ to fix a small hole before it became a larger one.

The ‘lazy’ organisations today will quickly have large reputational problems tomorrow because of global news services if their IT, communication and management people are not aligned in their mitigation responses.

The very nature of organisations moving more and more data to Cloud is a perfect example of the need to ‘be aligned and prepared’. Losing visibility as to who has access to your data in Cloud poses the question: “How do you do ‘incident management’ in a cloud environment?”

This question illustrates the large gap between those who will respond WELL to an incident to those that respond POORLY. A clear strategy as to how to develop and implement the issues and crisis management plan for 2020 is today’s ‘stitch in time’.

Crisis management crisis

Crisis management: Three or four word problem in a crisis

By Robert Masters

There is a major problem for business today facing a crisis or issue in the public domain.

We are in the midst of a bubble that is now international, with the crisis with Malaysian Airlines disasters and the conflict in the Middle East.

If you do not master the three or four word principles of crisis or issues management you will flounder.

However, you have a very good case study in the Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s handling of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 tragedy, and all sectors could do no better than take a leaf out of his book.

He displayed his strong understanding of the communication principles behind effective crisis management and put them into effect with precision and timeliness.

Acknowledgement, Sympathy and Action – the three principles of sound crisis management – were on display for all to see and study.

He also ensured that the supporting platform for the principles were also in place – Defend, Deny, Defer or Deflect.

He left the Australian community, and the superpowers, in no doubt that Australia was going to take strong action with the tragedy when he called on the world to ensure that the victims were brought home as expeditiously as possible and that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

His actions with families, international leaders and at the United Nations highlighted that he was not going to defer any decisions to a later date.

His naming of those responsible for the event highlighted that he was deflecting any doubts about who was responsible for the tragedy to the Rebels and Russia and what needed to be done to address this issue.

Further, he put into place a nationwide movement – which is now international – of sympathy and grieving for the families of the victims.

The Prime Minister implemented a most effective crisis management strategy that should be studied by all sectors.

To learn more about the three and four word foundations of effective crisis management contact Robert Masters & Associates, experts in effective crisis and issues management, planning, training and implementation.

RM

VicRoads waits for the horse to bolt?

By John Kananghinis

The recent tragic accident involving an out-of-control fuel tanker in Sydney and resulting in two deaths appears to have spurred some alarming claims by VicRoads.

Inspections of the remainder of the truck company’s fleet have resulted in over 90 groundings. This raises the question as to why these trucks were on the road in the first place if regular inspections were carried out by VicRoads? There is now an obvious communication issue for VicRoads, as well as for  the company.

As for the trucking company, Cootes, there has been little word from them in any of the media reporting of the tragedy.

This again highlights the need for all types of organisations to have a thorough risk assessment and issues management process, as well as a supporting crisis communication plan. These processes become all the more relevant within organisations with such high levels of exposure.

Even without such extreme risks as this incident has exposed, operating without such disciplines is “brave” indeed where there is any possibility of individual or community harm.

JK

Crisis Management – Spot & Stop Crises Before They Stop Your Business

Successful crisis management is more than just damage control. One of the critical features is the continual tracking of relevant issues and the ongoing management of an organization’s communication relationships.

Trying to do this when the crisis is in full swing is certainly leaving it too late.

Any organization with significant stakeholder and/or public exposure should have an issues management plan in place, enabling timely and efficient response, should a media crisis ensue.

An issues management plan tracks the development of matters that could develop negatively and puts in place actions to prepare for relevant internal and external engagement. It should be part of the staple operations kit of any Communication operator and, most importantly, the senior management group and Board.

It is the necessary precursor to the crisis management process that rolls into action when an issue ‘blows-up’.

Unless you track issue development and plan to handle communication around your risks, you are always going to scramble to get on top of the information demand in a crisis.

The recent VW case provides a perfect example of this.

The effective use of an issues management plan could have provided the company with the tools and opportunity to talk to staff, suppliers, dealers, customers and media much earlier and could well have defused the whole issue.

An organization’s leadership can reap significant rewards from effective issues management resulting in positive pre-crisis communication.

Handling problems properly can actually result in positive media attention, strong stakeholder advocacy and enhanced relations with governments and industry organizations.

The alternative can be both painful and costly.

Robert Masters

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