Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
2/12/2018 Crisis Or No Crisis Communicate -Rahul Gupta - BW Businessworld
http://businessworld.in/article/Crisis-Or-No-Crisis-Communicate-/11-02-2018-140017/ 1/5
# Business News # StartUp-&-Entrepreneur # Hospitality-Industry # Smartcities # Technology-Leaders # Advertising-&-Event-Industry # Sustainability
11 February, 2018by Rahul Gupta
Print this article Font size - 16 +
Crisis Or No-Crisis, Communicate!
Communication during a crisis situation becomes the most important tool to take things to normalcy and sometimes also helps strengthencurrent positioning
Business Opportunities Free Samples Kroger Coupons Analysis Business card templates
Communication during a crisis situation becomes the most important tool to take things to normalcy and sometimes also helpsstrengthen current positioning. On the other hand, active communication during positive events amplifies its impact which ismuch needed for differentiation.
2015 was a landmark year in the history of Nestle, a Global Fortune 500 company. Not everything was good. Nestle has beenpresent in India for over 100 years now and has a series of brands under various categories like Milk Products and Nutrition(Everyday, Milkmaid), Beverages (Nescafe, Nestea), Prepared Dishes and Cooking Aids (Maggi Noodles, Sauces, Masala) andChocolates and Confectionery (Kit Kat, Munch, BarOne). An undisputed market leader in Rs. 4000+ crore noodle market,Nestle's Maggi noodle is a household name. Yet an event shook the market leader when Maggi was declared unsafe andhazardous by the food regulator when some samples revealed excessive lead content. Not only Nestle suffered a massive lossafter taking Maggi off-shelf from across India but the entire category sales went down resulting in collateral damage to theindustry.
A few years back, Cadbury which has become synonymous to Chocolate and an undisputed market leader suffered a similarfate. The FDA received the complaint about the infestation in Cadbury Dairy Milk bar. What followed was criticism and negativemedia coverage which brought down the sales drastically.
Communication is the key tool in the time of crisis or otherwise These two case studies make one thing clear - even if it is a market leader, the crisis can strike anytime and can bring the
Custom Search
Like
Socialize
Get Social! Follow us on yoursocial networking website.
Security Analysis: Sixth … Rs. 849.00
(details + delivery)
Luxor
Quick Bytes
5 'Best oApps AnGoogle P read mo
All You NKnow AbJeep WraUnveiledShow read mo
5 ThingsNot KnowBitcoin read mo
February 12, 2018 Magazine Issue Advertise With Us Careers RSS F
Get latest news and analysisin Indian BusinessLatest news updates and analysis fromBW throughout the day. You canunsubscribe anytime.
Allow Later
2/12/2018 Crisis Or No Crisis Communicate -Rahul Gupta - BW Businessworld
http://businessworld.in/article/Crisis-Or-No-Crisis-Communicate-/11-02-2018-140017/ 2/5
company or the product brand to its knees. There is no scope for complacency and it is important to build a resilientorganization which will be able to withstand such crisis. In both the above cases, Nestle India and Cadbury India, not onlyovercame the crisis but were also able to strengthen their current positioning. Both of them used communication as the key toolother than taking multiple measures. These case studies were widely covered by media and one can go through them.
Communication not only helps handle bad news but also helps amplify good news It is important to use communication as a key tool for stakeholder engagement. Irrespective of whether it is a B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Consumer) scenario, it is important to have a solid stakeholder engagement and makecommunication, a continuous process rather than a one-off event. Key stakeholders include customers, shareholders, partnersand employees along with various other industry players like regulators, media, advisors etc.
Figure 1 explains the typical journey of stakeholder engagement along with various possibilities resulting from differentcommunication strategy. Every company has a base level of engagement with stakeholders which it is able to keep alive througha communication strategy as appropriate. Yet when a crisis strikes or if there is the major positive event, companies typicallytake one of the three possible paths.
Path A) In a crisis situation companies often go in a state of denial and make defensive statements. They are often scrambling tosave their reputation rather than alleviating the concerns of stakeholders. Hence, this leads to disengagement. It is only afterthey realize that such stance is further damaging the situation, they define a recovery strategy and communication plan andthen execute it which may lead to heightened stakeholder engagement.
Path B) Companies are often not prepared in spreading the good news to its stakeholders in a systematic way. They oftenreinvent the wheel and due to the bureaucratic chain of approvals, the speed of information flow reduces quite a lot. This delaysthe whole process of heightened stakeholder engagement which can positively impact the company.
Path C) Resilient companies will often be prepared with a communication strategy irrespective of a crisis situation or a positiveevent. When the blueprint of communication plan is ready, it is the speed of execution which matters. Speedy execution may leadto a heightened stakeholder engagement much earlier than Path A or Path B. This helps yield higher value in case of a positiveevent as well as early damage control in case of a crisis situation.
While most companies come back to the base level of engagement, it is the preparedness and speed of execution which makesthe company more resilient and agile and makes it a better brand in the eye of stakeholders.
There are 3 things every company need to be ready with to be more resilient
1. Keep Stakeholders Engaged: Identify key stakeholders who need to be nurtured. Keep a base level of engagement goingthrough continuous communication.
2. Define a Communication Blueprint and Execution Plan: Define templates/tools that would be leveraged duringcommunication especially during special events. Define scenarios, identify stakeholder behaviour expectations under variousscenarios and an execution plan for every scenario. This will increase the speed of information flow and faster and effectivecommunication.
3. Build a Communication SWAT team: This team should be the front face of the organization in various scenarios and shouldbe trained to execute the communication plan leveraging the blueprints. Identify the key skills needed and ensure this team isaccountable for the base level of stakeholder engagement and can quickly transition to a SWAT team in case of an event.
8th GlobEntrepreSummit:TakeawaIvanka TPM ModSpeeche read mo
5 ThingsAbout GlEntrepreSummit read mo
Five WayProtect YOrganisaCyber SeAttack read mo
BW TV
If not ApSamsungwhat? read mo
OnePlusthe best user exp read mo
Emails athe mostto a thre read mo
We haveIndia moto Mexicsays MexAmbassa read mo
Recently Published
2018 FoState Of EconomyOutlook read mo
TVS ApaLaunch ODecembeOfficially read mo
HOME COLUMNS COMMUNITIES EVENTS BW TV SUBSCRIBE TO PRINT COUPONS BW CONNECT
Get latest news and analysisin Indian BusinessLatest news updates and analysis fromBW throughout the day. You canunsubscribe anytime.
Allow Later
2/12/2018 Crisis Or No Crisis Communicate -Rahul Gupta - BW Businessworld
http://businessworld.in/article/Crisis-Or-No-Crisis-Communicate-/11-02-2018-140017/ 3/5
More From The Author >>
Richard Branson in one of his blogs has quoted Brian Tracy, celebrated public speaker and self-development author -"Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidlyimprove the quality of every part of your life". This quote can be easily extended to the context of an organization.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of thispublishing house. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thoughtto represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.
Tags assigned to this article:
communication nestle cadbury chocolates
Rahul GuptaRahul is passionate about Strategy and Change Management. He has around 15 years of experiencein Management Consulting, Business Transformation and driving Strategy and M&A across multipleindustries, business domains, technologies & geographies. Rahul holds an MBA from XLRI and is aGold Medalist in Engineering from Jadavpur University
GST WillHigher AEconomiCargill In read mo
A TreasuHandicraEuropea read mo
Around The World
Recommended by
PayPal
Online Shthe Best O- PayPal I
Mansion Globa
Looking foHome? FiPropertie
WomensForum
Who is yosoulmate
cool-technolo
Cable ComAngry AboSimple Ga
Cat
egor
y Ju
mpt
list
Get latest news and analysisin Indian BusinessLatest news updates and analysis fromBW throughout the day. You canunsubscribe anytime.
Allow Later
2/12/2018 Crisis Or No Crisis Communicate -Rahul Gupta - BW Businessworld
http://businessworld.in/article/Crisis-Or-No-Crisis-Communicate-/11-02-2018-140017/ 4/5
Advertisement
Next Previous
View More Articles
Subscribe To Our Newsletter
Your e-mail
Get latest news and analysisin Indian BusinessLatest news updates and analysis fromBW throughout the day. You canunsubscribe anytime.
Allow Later
2/12/2018 Crisis Or No Crisis Communicate -Rahul Gupta - BW Businessworld
http://businessworld.in/article/Crisis-Or-No-Crisis-Communicate-/11-02-2018-140017/ 5/5
BW COMMUNITIESBW Communities is an array of business news websites targeted towards niche communities and readers across various industries
Read More »
e Oriented Organizational Structure Foralities
loses about 3% of GDP due to road crashes’
nment approves construction of 1,86,777le houses for Urban Poor
Read More »
☞ IGH Commenced the Construction of IbisVikhroli, Mumbai
☞ Bangalore is Very Dynamic and ExpandingRapidly: Shipra Sumbly Kaul
☞ Davinder Juj Appointed as GM at Eros HotelNehru Place
Read More »
☞ Vibgyor executes The Democracy Wall, a campuinitiative for The Print
☞ Ministry of Tourism promotes luxury trains withThe Great Indian Blog Train
☞ Kokuyo Camlin engages attendees at Kala GhodaFestival with unique installation
© Copyright BW BUSINESSWORLD 2016. All Rights Reserved. Magazine Issue Advertise With Us/ Careers/ RSS Feeds/
Subscribe Now
Get latest news and analysisin Indian BusinessLatest news updates and analysis fromBW throughout the day. You canunsubscribe anytime.
Allow Later
