What would your reaction (heaven forbid) be if one of your acquaintances were to have a heart attack?  You might have one drink less in the club that evening and even go for a walk the following morning.  And if you are bold enough you might even force your spouse to join you.  Your comments on the incident could range from:

"Man, could he pack a drink"

"God, he loved to eat"

"He was really overweight" - after all he is a kg heavier than you. 

Crucial to all this, is a state of mind that all of us know, have experienced and keep experiencing.  It is a misplaced self-confidence embodied in the belief that "it can't happen to me".  Sadly enough this belief is not restricted to individuals, but companies as well. Hardly surprising given the fact those companies are run by people with similar dispositions to you and me.  They see other companies struggling under the burden of one crisis or the other and yet seem strangely oblivious to their own risks. "It can't happen to us" seems to be their attitude. Here's hoping that your company is not one of them.

It can happen to you

Crisis can come in all sizes, shapes, and magnitudes.  Most of them catch us napping.  Some crises may seem less dramatic and less in the public domain but they can still cause damage.

 Here are a few examples.

1. You are a biscuit manufacturer.  A consumer finds broken pieces of glass bangles in a packet of biscuits he has bought.  He threatens to go to the media.

2. You sell branded rice.  There are cockroaches in a pack that a cantankerous lady has bought.  She feels that gives her an opportunity to come on TV.

3. In torrential rain, your new building collapses killing people on site.

4. Your company employee is involved in an embezzlement case

5. There is a leak of toxic substances from your plant.

6. There is a fire in your factory.

7. There is flood in areas surrounding your manufacturing plant and this damages your stocks and impacts your bottom line.

All of these are events that we would not like to happen.  But they have happened.   And will continue to happen.  The question is "Do you have a crisis management program in place?"  And the worrying thing is that even as you are running like a headless chicken (one hopes you are not) trying to handle the crisis, the media wants you to handle a press conference as well!   NGOs are snapping at your heels even as they anxiously scan the environment for media opportunities to air their views and wave their banners.  The situation can be daunting.  And it is hardly surprising that many of us are found wanting. Whenever one thinks of crisis, the first name that comes to mind is Tylenol.  One remembers John F. Kennedy's statement, "When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents change and the other represents opportunity".  The handling of the Tylenol case by Johnson & Johnson certainly underlines one fact: behind every crisis lies an opportunity to keep your head; and to demonstrate that you care.   Although the Tylenol case has been often quoted and talked about, we can still learn from it and it is still worth repeating in brief.

The mother of all crises

In 1982, seven people died in Chicago mysteriously within a few days.  Authorities determined that each of the people that died had ingested an extra - strength Tylenol capsule laced with cyanide.  News spread.   The result was panic and chaos.  Jerry Della Femina said, "I don't think they can ever sell another product under that name (Tylenol).  There may be an advertising person who thinks he can solve this and if they find him, I want to hire him, because then I want him to turn our water cooler into a wine cooler". 

He was wrong.  Perhaps like most advertising people, he had a hazy view of public relations.  Tylenol regained its position as one of the top selling "Over-The-Counter" drug in the USA .  They did this first by handling the crisis and secondly by handling the come-back of Johnson & Johnson and Tylenol.  Crucial to both was an effective PR strategy that was meticulously executed.  It started with putting the customer first.  All Tylenol products (a staggering 31 million bottles worth US $100 million) were recalled.   The company established relations with the Chicago Police, the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration to search for the criminal and announced rewards.  The media praised the company for their socially responsible actions in an environment filled with callous corporate entities.  A few months later, Tylenol was reintroduced with a new triple - seal tamper resistant packaging and this launch was enthusiastically received by media.  And later analysis revealed that the Tylenol story was found in over 125,000 news clippings across the country!  It had made even bigger news than J.F. Kennedy's death!   Tylenol is testimony to the value of how public relations can turn a potential disaster around.  I wish more Indian companies would look inwards at their own state of (un) preparedness to potential crisis.  

Crisis Calls

Not long ago the UK tabloid, "The Sun" (which is hardly my cup of tea) certainly made news with its report that it was able to buy information regarding bank accounts and credit card details from a Delhi based person who collected data from call centers.  This had all the makings of a potential PR crisis.  The industry quickly rallied around in defense, knowing the western media's paranoia about losing jobs to India. An industry that makes news can be at the short end of the stick when things go wrong.  And the problem with industries like these is that media tars the whole industry with the same brush as the company in the crisis. So a crisis in one company in the industry could have larger-than-life repercussions on the whole industry.  Does your industry suffer from similar characteristics?

At the end of the day

1. Identify possible and potential crisis

2. Put together a crisis management team

3. Designate and allocate responsibilities to your team members

4. Train them on how to handle media

5. Train them on how not to rush to media!

6. And keep subtly hinting that it could happen, without raising a false alarm every time

Time to recall Rudyard Kipling's famous words,

"If you can keep your head while all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all
men doubt you,

But make allowance for their
doubting too.

...You'll be a man, my son"

Yes, though no one wants a crisis, it does give us an opportunity to be men.  And before you have a personal crisis do yourself a favor: just go for that annual health check-up. 

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO brand-comm, which offers public relations advertising and brand consulting.   Feedback can be mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Issue BG71 Feb07

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