How to handle a corporate crisis? Two simple steps.
- Tell the truth
- Show and tell what you are going to do to fix things for the future
In the movie a Few God Men, there is an exchange in court between the two male stars of the show that goes like this:
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You want answers?
Tom Cruise (Kaffee): I think I’m entitled.
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You want answers?
Tom Cruise (Kaffee): I want the truth!
Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup): You can’t handle the truth!
In the past week I’ve observed the handling of a crisis in the UK and one in T&T that got me thinking about this movie scene. The News of the World and the Brian Lara Cancer Treatment Centre (BLCTC) approached their respective crises differently. I think the News of the World Folks did a better job. Although some may say that they should not have put themselves there in the first place. But that’s the nature of a crisis. Crises are not planned.
News of the World has said they are wrong. BLCTC has said that two former employees are wrong. As if, even if that were so, these former employees were working for Royal Castle at the time. BLCTC has spent a lot of time dealing with former employees, numbers and technicalese and not enough time on the apology . They needed to tell people what they intend to do to make sure that an “over-dose” of any kind never takes place again. And they needed to say they were sorry. Unreservedly.
Here’s the News of the World Apology.
Voicemail interception: An apology
In 2007, a News of the World journalist and a private investigator working for the paper were jailed for accessing voicemail messages between 2004 and 2006.
Since then, a number of individuals have brought breach of privacy claims against the News of the World over wrongful voicemail interception during that period, and others are threatening claims.
Evidence has recently come to light which supports some of these claims. We have written to relevant individuals to admit liability in these civil cases and to apologise unreservedly, and will do the same to any other individuals where evidence shows their claims to be justifiable.
We hope to be able to pay appropriate compensation to all these individuals, and have asked our lawyers to set up a compensation scheme to deal with genuine claims fairly and efficiently.
Here today, we publicly and unreservedly apologise to all such individuals. What happened to them should not have happened. It was and remains unacceptable.
I think the BLCTC folks can learn from this.
