| The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) had a story | | | | what do you do? |
| recently on the front page of the business section | | | | - Have a crisis plan. Spend the time, money and |
| screamed the headline, "Violations Briefly Close | | | | energy to have someone internal or a consultant |
| BowTech." Yikes! Any disruption of normal business | | | | conduct a vulnerability audit, develop a plan and |
| operations is considered a crisis. So, this, my friends, | | | | practice it. A crisis doesn't mean injury or fatality. |
| was definitely a crisis. Apparently BowTech had some | | | | BowTech lost time and money because of the |
| major building and fire code violations to correct to | | | | shutdown - ask any businessperson if lost revenue is |
| ensure the health and safety of employees. The | | | | a crisis. |
| facility was shut for an entire business day. The | | | | - Get media training. With good media training, your |
| problem with this article wasn't the violations, per se. | | | | executives will understand the principles of |
| While BowTech likely should've been more vigilant | | | | communicating your organization's key messages and |
| about its facility, the major problem from my | | | | how to respond to media questions. Strong media |
| perspective was the clear lack of communication | | | | training will give your executive team the skills to be |
| planning the company had in place. | | | | able to handle questions on just about anything (and |
| BowTech executive John Strasheim could not be | | | | having a consultant on call to coach in a pinch isn't a |
| reached for comment Friday. | | | | bad idea). |
| Double yikes! Rather than having a plan in place, | | | | - Build relationships with key media. Remember that |
| BowTech allowed the media to tell its story without | | | | public relations includes building relationships with your |
| even a written statement. While slightly better than an | | | | community and good media relations includes local |
| actual quote of "no comment," not able to be reached | | | | reporters, editors and producers not just your trade |
| is deadly. It's likely John was very busy trying to | | | | and niche media. Whether or not you do business in |
| correct the violations, but rather than appear diligent for | | | | your community, when a crisis happens, your local |
| ignoring the media in favor of business operations, the | | | | media will be an important channel for communicating |
| company appears disorganized, possibly unrepentant | | | | to your community. |
| and even negligent. | | | | Of course we'd be happy to answer questions or talk |
| Interruptions in business operations are inevitable. So | | | | crisis. |