"Coping with Catastrophe: Crisis Management Becomes the New
Corporate Discipline"
TIME Magazine Excerpt:
By Barbara Rudolph
"Says Steven Fink, president of Los Angeles-based Lexicon Communications and
author of...Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable: 'Companies are beginning to
realize that what happens to a Union Carbide can happen to them, whether they're big or
small, publicly traded or privately held.' It is the element of surprise that is most
unsettling to executives confronted by sudden catastrophe. Says Fink: 'The savviest chief
executive in the world often falls victim to a kind of paralysis when a crisis strikes.'
"When the fifth floor of a high-rise office tower under construction in Los
Angeles collapsed...killing three people, the general contractor...was besieged: 'People
were banging on our doors. We didn't know where to turn. No one was prepared to address
the problem.' The company hired Lexicon Communications, which organized a team of safety
engineers and (company) executives to assess the possible causes of the collapse."
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By Jennifer Booton
"Carnival
has had 'plenty of opportunities to get [its] crisis management house in
order' but hasn't done 'anything at all,' according to Steven
Fink."
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by Shelley DuBois
"Shuttering the paper abruptly might
not rid the company of the problems it's trying to solve. 'They're trying
to bury the body along with the smoking gun, and you just don't do that if
you're managing a crisis properly,' Fink says."
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the Complete Article
"Learning from Exxon: Prepare for Crisis, It's Part of
Business"
The New York Times Excerpt:
By Steven Fink
"(T)hose who say Mr. Rawl (chairman of Exxon) should have gone to
faraway Valdez just because 'it is the thing to do in these types of crises' are overly
concerned with symbolism and naive about the exigencies of crisis communications and
management.... From my own experience working on the crisis management team at Three Mile
Island, I have learned that there are certainly times when a chief executive needs to be
at the scene of a crisis. But a chief executive must think twice about entering a hostile
environment just to serve the interests of photojournalists. While it is vital for an
executive to consider how a story plays in the media, in a war generals manage the battle,
not the reconnaissance."
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by Shelley DuBois
"The threat of losing money from further civil litigation and losing the good will of the public are serious issues for these banks, Fink says. But, as for firing a couple of executives,
'That's only window dressing. If the problem is systemic, and I'm not saying it is, but just getting rid of one or two people doesn't solve the
problem.'"
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By Steven Fink
"The Dow Corning Corporation revealed itself last week as a company adrift without
a moral compass. It finally released memos showing that for two decades it had known
silicone can leak from its gel breast implants into some women's bodies.... But putting
truth on the bench to be called on only if deception strikes out is a crisis management
error of potentially lethal proportions.... Crisis management is a well-traveled path
with clear trail markings. Dow Corning should have been able to follow it."
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By Rachel Laing
"Pat & Oscar's parent company, Worldwide Restaurant Concepts,
enlisted Steven Fink, President of Los Angeles-based Lexicon Communications, a
crisis management firm. The firm has particular expertise in food-borne
illness; it handled the last major E-coli contamination in San Diego County --
the Jack in the Box outbreak that sickened hundreds of people and killed four
children a decade ago. When Fink met with Pat & Oscar's executives,
[the agreement was]: Don't let the lawyers run the show. In other words, don't
let the fear of litigation shut down communication with the public or prevent
the company from taking responsibility for the incident....
"Fink kept open the lines of communication to the media to get out the
message that Pat & Oscar's had isolated the cause of the problem and corrected
it. In addition to changing its lettuce supplier, the company instituted
its own lettuce-washing procedure as an added precaution. Camera crews from
local TV stations were invited into the kitchens of the restaurant to film the
procedure.
"Most importantly, the message that the company was not to blame for the
outbreak was repeated over and over."
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Article
"Taco Bell may have also confused the public by closing and then reopening
restaurants, even though the source of the contamination is still unknown. 'Some
would say that was a sign of being proactive: closing the store in order to
protect the consumer,' says Steven Fink, president of Lexicon Communications
Corp, the nation's oldest crisis management firm. 'But then Taco Bell reopened
the stores and nothing had changed. Why did they close the stores and then
reopen them? That sends a mixed signal that the company doesn't have a handle on
what's going on.'"
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By Kate Macarthur
"According to Steven B. Fink, president of Lexicon
Communications Corp., which handled E. coli crises for Jack in the Box and West
Coast chain Pat & Oscar's, the company has been smart in putting its
president on the front line of the problem. But his reassurances about food
safety in Taco Bell ads could be undermined by the company's inability to
pinpoint the cause of the illnesses."
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By James Nash
"When nearly 40 people fell ill from suspected E. coli exposure from
eating at Pat & Oscar's restaurants in 2003, the restaurant chain's owners
did more than apologize. They quickly severed ties
with the supplier of the allegedly tainted lettuce. They set up a toll-free
phone number for patrons who feared poisoning. And over the course of a weekend,
they gave out more than $500,000 in free food to lure skittish customers back.
"Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., the Sherman Oaks-based owner of Pat
& Oscar’s, didn’t come up with those ideas on its own. It turned to one
of a growing number of crisis-management specialists in Southern California:
Pasadena-based Lexicon Communications Corp.
"Lexicon occupies a growing niche within the public relations industry:
helping companies defuse potential crises."
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Article
By John Schmeltzer
"There are things they should have done to keep people coming back to the restaurants," said Steven Fink, president of Lexicon Communications Corp. in Pasadena, Calif.
"And they failed to take any steps to assure their customers that it was safe to eat at Wendy's," said Fink.
"In the pitched battle between perception and reality, perception always wins. The perception was it was not safe to eat at Wendy's. Giving away milkshakes and coupons does not tell people Wendy's is a safe place to eat," he said.
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Franchise Times Excerpt:
By Steven Fink
"As someone who has managed crises for clients in all fields –
including fast food restaurants and other food industry clients – for more
than two decades, I observed Wendy’s crisis management efforts with
professional interest. After
Wendy’s skillfully navigated the first, usually treacherous 24 or so hours,
I was prepared to see the company skillfully and successfully manage the
crisis.
"But then the company suffered a brain cramp, and it was all downhill
from there. Wendy’s seemed to
have run out of ideas of what to do next, which is astonishing when you
consider how many other successfully handled crises there are to learn from
– including some well-known hoax crises – in the food industry.
Crisis Management by now is a well-documented road map, but Wendy’s
executives never opened the map.
"Worse, they completely lost
sight of the actual crisis."
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By Keay Davidson
"'In the pitched battle between perception and reality, perception always
wins,' warns Steven Fink, a crisis management adviser to numerous corporations struggling to repair damaged reputations. He pointed out that, in this competition, UC has both advantages and disadvantages -- advantages in the sense that it has run Los Alamos for six decades, and disadvantages in the sense that in recent years, it acquired the reputation, fairly or unfairly, of having badly fumbled that mission.
"Can UC repair its reputation in time to win the next Los Alamos contract? Fink, who has no connection with the competition, suggested possible ways that it can.
"Crucially, the University of California 'needs to demonstrate conclusively that it would do a better job -- despite the (scandal) baggage -- in managing this contract than its
competitors,' said Fink, author of Crisis Management: Planning for the
Inevitable and president of Lexicon Communications Corp. in Los Angeles, billed as
'the nation's oldest and most experienced crisis management firm.'"
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By Alexa Bell
"Fink teaches companies to avoid (crises) by recognizing danger signs and taking
action early on. Companies should be on the alert, he said, for situations that will:
- Escalate in intensity.
- Gain unwarranted attention from outsiders, such as the media or government.
- Interfere with normal business operations.
- Jeopardize the positive public image of the company or its officers.
- Damage a company's bottom line in any way."
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Dealing With the News Media During a Crisis
Franchise Times Excerpt:
By Steven Fink
"One of the most difficult aspects of properly handling a
media-driven crisis in the franchise industry is knowing how to respond when
multiple interests are at stake. The frustration for a multi-unit franchisee
escalates when, for example, a crisis affects one specific unit half-way across
the country, but the news media treat the brand name in such a cavalier manner
that your customers think the crisis is affecting all other units in the
chain."
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Article
by Len Lewis
"While the events of September 11 brought the issue of crisis management
to the forefront, so did the non-violent but devastating impact of the financial
and accounting scandals surrounding Enron, Arthur Anderson, Global Crossing and
Martha Stewart. But whether crises
are man-made or natural the one common denominator is the need for advance
thinking."
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"Let people know as
quickly and openly as possible what is going on.
Those affected by the crisis will appreciate forthrightness and resent
anything they take as an evasion. Obviously,
you want to share everything you know with government authorities and those
affected. Keep other customers and your staff fully informed as well.
Keep the message simple, direct, and honest."
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"Coping with Catastrophe"
