The Financial Times had a recent column discussing the always-interesting topic of the relationship between communicators and lawyers in a crisis. Communicators wanna communicate; lawyers wanna lawyer. The problem is when the lawyering gets in the way of the communicating and the communicating gets in the way of the lawyering.
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Verizon’s latest data-breach report, its 12th annual, finds an increase in C-suite executives targeted, a steady dose of ransomware, and a turning to web-application compromises for the retail sector as opposed to point-of-sale manipulations. These are trends to be aware of for both prevention and communication purposes.
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Boeing’s disastrous performance in communicating its 737 Max crisis took a turn for the worse this week. We now know the company was aware of a software problem at least a year before it told anyone, and its statements have been evasive. This violates a cardinal crisis communications rule: Get the full story out at once so, at some point, reporters stop digging.
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A recent survey finds a chasm between IT professionals and other employees when it comes to data breaches, and it’s clear what’s needed to narrow that gap is some more communication. The type of talk we have in mind — to prevent breaches — is an important part of crisis communications.
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Mattel’s Fisher-Price has been laboring for several years to respond to criticisms of its popular Rock ’n Play Sleeper, which allows infants to nap on an incline. Opponents say it’s bad for the tots. Fisher-Price has defended its product even as, earlier this month, it was recalled.
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Sometimes a crisis is a single critical piece appearing about your company or organization in a major (or not) news outlet. Think The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal. BuzzFeed. The question will then arise as to whether to issue a statement in response to this piece and, if so, how? We have seen some examples of such statements recently, and notice some similarities and differences.
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