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The Role of the CEO Marcus Evans Conference on
Crisis Communication Reputation Protection
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Stephen Lock CIS General Manager

• 13 years international PR experience 4 years
  IR over 9 years in litigation support and crisis
  management
• Cambridge law graduate ex-Lazard banker
• Past experience Nike, Kazakhstan Mineral
  Resources, Sintez Oil Ukraine, Elite Models (BBC
  litigation) Tommy Hilfiger, Manoukian family (HRH
  Prince Jefri of Brunei litigation), Blue Circle
  Industries (contaminated land Myanmar), Barings
  Bank collapse Parliamentary investigation,
  Industrial Bank of Japan, Michael Jackson
  (Granada TV litigation), British Biotech
  Parliamentary investigation Franklin Mint (Diana
  Princess of Wales Memorial Fund litigation), Mont
  Blanc Tunnel Disaster, certain parties connected
  to Lockerbie trial
• Specialist in Litigation, fatal incidents,
  complex fraud and anti-counterfeiting cases

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Orthodoxy might suggest that crises should be
led from the top, but are CEOs actually
effective?
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Acute crisis

• Michael Bishop British Midland - Kegworth
  Disaster 8th January 1989
• Got in his car and drove straight to the crash
  site and gave immediate reaction to camera
• His distress determination won the nations
  respect
• This was a high-risk strategy, but it came from
  the heart and won
• BUT reaction might have been very different if
  pilot error had been known earlier in the news
  cycle
• Peter Ford the Zeebrugge ferry disaster 6th
  March 1989
• His first words The doors on these ships are
  held by massive hydraulic pins, they dont just
  pop open
• Causal speculation over sympathy
• His appearance not a good visual he was
  demonised

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The danger is that the person becomes the
definition of the companys response and its
lingering memory.
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Chronic crisis burning issues

• Monsanto GMO perhaps the best example ever of
  great PR destroying a great company. Bob
  Shapiro didnt front up the global PR, but that
  didnt matter...
• In public health, medical or other science-based
  issues, the CEO is often the last person you
  should use.
• Science-based crises are the toughest well ever
  face...because of their lack of certainty and
  their duration
• British Biotech 18 months of corporate scandal
  (faked Marinstat cancer drug trials)
• Battle Royal between CEO Keith McCullagh
  whistle-blower Andy Miller
• Andy cried before Parliament Keith sneered.
  Keith was ruined in the press and then in
  business

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Managing the CEO in a crisis

• Practicalities and locality...a foreign CEO
  flying in to front a national incident is a
  double-edged sword
• In an acute crisis, the CEO may have actual
  command control issues which out-weigh the
  public face issues
• Political regulatory issues will always get
  first call, over the media
• Above all, concentrating on serving the CEO may
  distract from the Communications team serving the
  media and public
• but CEO-arrival is a good visual, even if
  circumstances may advise no interviews given

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Rationing the use of the CEO

• Very likely best to use in high-profile set
  pieces ( e.g. Parliamentary)
• TV is highly problematic
• is your CEO a good performer?
• Soft issues like charisma and reaction to
  criticism especially live TV should be your
  guideline, even if it is not something you want
  to discuss openly with the boss!
• What will you do if you are trying to be honest
  open have the CEO fronting an issue and
  then get an invitation to a TV debate?
• Is it about matching person-to-audience?

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Real Public Interest Issue Management

• When bad things happen to good companies, there
  should be a three stage approach to any crisis
  management approach
• What do we think?
• What do we know?
• What can we prove?

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Using the three-stage test

• The golden rule in that in fatal or
  likely-to-be-fatal incidents, child-related
  situations or public health or pharmaceutical
  issues, you should only stick to what you can
  prove
• But the reality of corporate life in a 24-news
  cycle is that you can (and maybe should) go
  further in other situations and discuss what you
  know but cant yet complete on all the proof
  points
• No-one is going to let you base your response on
  what you think least of all the insurers
• It is sad but true that in many crisis
  situations one of the first calls the CEO/CFO
  makes is to the corporate / product / officers
  liability insurers. What they say may be the key
  determinant in what you can say. We need to get
  over this increasing reality.
• in some crisis situations it will truly be the
  case that protecting insurance cover will be
  more important than good PR (bad PR may
  jeopardise corporate survival no insurance
  cover will kill it stone dead).

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Issues we dont like to talk about...

• The corporate continuous even if it takes
  dumping the CEO. Managing the different agendas
  between the CEO and the Chairman
• The CEOs courtiers often lose focus
  protecting the CEO can become more important than
  handling the outward reflection of the crisis
• In any crisis most executives, at all levels,
  focus on protecting their job today and their
  career tomorrow
• MPD maintain plausible deniability (an issue
  about future litigation and public enquiries)

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Locks last law!

• Lectures on crisis PR can be dangerous because
  every crisis worthy of the term is different
  and we should be wary of off-the-shelf
  thinking. But so long as our PR has
• speed
• accuracy
• clarity
• Well do fine!

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The Role of the CEO Marcus Evans Conference on
Crisis Communication Reputation Protection