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Drofa Comms team continues its journey of listening to prominent ideas of leading experts in the PR industry. This time we embarked on the new Thought Leadership webinar organised by IPRA, the leading global network for PR professionals in their personal capacity.
On October 13th, Drofa Comms had a chance to listen to Jonathan Hemus, founder of crisis management consultancy Insignia. Calling upon his twenty-five years’ experience in conflict management, Jonathan shared his view on a series of burning topics: why smart people do irrational things in a crisis; the most common mistakes made by leaders in a crisis; rules for crisis management success; and how to become a trusted advisor.
Talking about reaction to the crisis, Jonathan emphasised that PR people have the chance to tackle the turmoil both before its emergence and during it — the moment when there is an opportunity to make the biggest difference. How communications pros behave in 2 or 3 days after a crisis occurs has a significant predicted impact on whether you end up losing or gaining value and reputation in the aftermath. During the session the expert shared some characteristics of communications response that specifically help predict a successful crisis response and effective recovery of value. Some of them include promptly disclosure, demonstration of transparency and candour, taking responsibility for actions of those of your agents, and demonstrating credibly follow-up behaviours.
“When a crisis strikes, a company’s reputation, value and livelihoods of its stakeholders are all under threat. The ability of leaders to do and say the right things at this moment will determine the fate of the organisation and all those affected by it. PR professionals can play a major role in helping their senior management colleagues to navigate through a crisis but only if they fully understand the context in which they are working and the pitfalls to avoid. I see that more and more business leaders from different industries are finally giving due attention to the role of PR and communications in crisis management. This is really inspiring to observe, and I am sure that the trend will only continue.”, – highlights Mary Poliakova, Co-founder and COO of Drofa Comms.
About IPRA
International Public Relations Association (IPRA) is a leading global network for Public Relations specialists. It has been in the market since 1955 and is recognised by the United Nations. The organisation sets the goal to further the development of communication and the ethical practice of public relations. Mary Poliakova, Co-founder and COO of Drofa Comms, has recently joined IPRA, having become a permanent member of the association.