WHO raises pandemic alert to Level Five – The second-highest level

The World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to its second-highest level Wednesday, indicating the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico is nearing widespread human infection. Dr. Margaret Chan, the U.N. agency’s director-general, said the decision to raise the alert to level five on its six-point scale means all countries "should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html for the full article.

The declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

What are you doing to prepare your organization against this? Beware thinking that this will not impact locally.

Look at today’s newspaper headlines……

I would suggest an urgent revamp of your Crisis Management & Crisis Communication plans. How ready are you?

The time to act is now!

Now’s the time to Review Stakeholder Relationships

What a time to be sending out my newsletter! Yes, just after SA’s election day.

Why today? Well I think that the message to you, has to be, that it will be vital in the oncoming weeks to ascertain who of your contacts and stakeholders are still in power or are still covering the same portfolios.

Now will be the time to redo stakeholder profiling of political parties and the government stakeholder. Perhaps you made friends and built relationships in the past with contacts that will now find themselves in the same position as a minister with no portfolio. Perhaps the persons you ostracized in the past is now in a power role.

One of the biggest lessons to learn in stakeholder reputation management is that every time there is a new issue, new project or new campaign, it is vital that you redo stakeholder profiling. People’s roles and positions, views and perspectives can change overnight.

The lesson is that constant monitoring and management of relationship building efforts is an ongoing affair and not a once-off. (To learn more about this, consider attending the next Stakeholder Reputation Master Class)

It’s All In How You Ask The Question!

Experienced market researchers, accident investigators and law enforcement officials will tell you that how you ask questions can influence the results you get.

This is what my son shared with me the other night, when I asked him what he had learned that day at university (He is studying Creative Brand Communications).

His reply reminded me of the two priests who got into an argument about smoking and praying at the same time. They couldn’t resolve it, so they decided to each write to the Pope and have him decide it.

When both had received their answers, they got together. "What did His Holiness tell you?" asked the first.

"He said that it was fine," answered the second. "What did he tell you?"

"Very strange," responded the first. "He told me that it was forbidden. What did you ask him, anyway?"

"I asked if it was all right to pray while smoking. He said that prayer is always appropriate. What did you ask him?"

"I asked him if it was all right to smoke while praying. He said that smoking would defame the sacred act, so it is forbidden."

Often, it’s all in how you ask the question!

Technorati Tags: Problemsolving,Communication

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

I just read an extract of the book, ‘’Without Warning’’ by Rodney Johnson (http://www.withoutwarningcoach.com/blog/the-book/)

This book has some valuable lessons for Reputation Managers, such as the question: Do you have an uncomfortable suspicion that your business has a problem lurking in its depths? Is there an issue that you keep catching a glimpse of out of the corner of your eye, but can’t quite get hold of?

This is what Rodney N Johnson’s book, ‘Without Warning’ is about, and he calls these ’silent problems’, as opposed to simple, complex or wicked problems.

• A simple problem is one in which everyone agrees on the problem and on the solution. If not solved correctly, this could become a complex problem.
• A complex problem: one in which everyone agrees on the problem, but disagrees on the solution.
• A wicked problem: a problem (or nest of problems), in which people disagree over what the problem is, so a solution can’t be identified, and without agreement on the problem or a defined solution, you won’t know when the problem has been solved. Different groups of stakeholders understand the problem differently; any proposed solutions can’t be tested or evaluated other than subjectively.

Nasty.

But a silent problem is different, and Rodney Johnson (RJ) defines it like this:

A problem that is being avoided, neglected, or going unnoticed… A problem that is intentionally being silenced.

This is perhaps the worst kind of problem of all. At least a wicked problem can be acknowledged and struggled with. But one that you’re not aware of? How are you supposed to deal with that?

Whose problem is it?

One of the many silent problems RJ uses as case-studies is the sub-prime financial fallout which we’re all too familiar with now – warnings were given, but disregarded.

Question: if someone able to impose a solution had been willing to say ‘here’s a problem’, would it then have become a complex or wicked problem? That is, is it a silent problem only as long as no-one with enough authority to deal with it has spotted it or taken responsibility for it?

If there were warnings, then someone was aware of the problem, so it wasn’t silent for them – but presumably they didn’t have the clout to tackle the issue. A silent problem, then, is a leadership issue: it is a problem that is being ignored by management.

You’re the manager: how do you know if there is a silent problem? Or do you wait for a whistleblower or until the Media conducts an investigation?

This extract really made me think – Do we wait until reputation risk manifest? Or do we deal with issues whilst they are small? Are we prepared as Dr Roger von Oech wrote in the book, A Whack on the Side of the Head, to slay some sacred cows. To ask, which sacred cows or hidden problem can destroy our hard-earned and carefully crafted reputation?

Read more: http://www.chloregy.org/opinion/leadership/16406-without-warning-on-leadership-whistleblowers-corporate-culture-andnsilence

This book has implications for communication channels and risk experts.

Company Reputation affects Career Choice

Your company’s reputation can either draw talent or scare them off.

Did that thought ever cross your mind? If not, here is why it should.

- If you were starting out on a career path, would you really want to work for an Enron- type organization? I mean, come on, do you really need a resume stain on your next career choice?

- Who would want to join a company where the stigma will tarnish you by implication?

These are the immediate thoughts that crossed my mind when I read a blog post from Hill& Knowlton.

They commissioned a research organization to conduct a survey of more than 500 students from some of the world’s leading business schools, to find out how important reputation was in attracting talent.

Here are some of their findings:

• Reputation matters, and the reputation of the company is based on far more than just its financial performance and the quality of its products and services.
• The employee experience matters deeply. Talent is not prepared to sit and wait for the golden opportunity of 20 years hence; they want it now.
• Values matter too – everything from ethics and corporate governance to environmental policy and social responsibility. The reason it matters so much is that the leaders of the future have a clear understanding of the link between reputation and financial performance. 

If that does not make you think, what will?

The Truth (A Lesson in Communication)

There was a security guard who continued to be deployed for 3 years in the same establishment.. One night he got drunk. This was the first time it ever happened.. The duty manager recorded it in the log book;’The security guard was drunk tonight’.

The guard read it and he knew this comment would affect his career, so he went to the duty manager, apologized and asked the manager to add that it only happened once in 3 years which was the complete truth.

The manager refused and said, :what I have written here is the truth.

The next day it was the guard’s turn to to fill in the log. He wrote, ‘The duty manager was sober tonight".

The manager read the entry and asked the guard to change or add to it explaining the complete truth because this implied that the manager was drunk every other night.

The guard told the manager that what he had written in the log was the truth.

Both statements were true but they conveyed misleading messages.

How good is your Credit Reputation?

How good is your Credit Reputation?

The other day I saw a sticker in the window of a small business that stated: “ Maybe if a man pays cash, maybe his credit is no good!”

Or are you the type of person that when you go to see the Bank Manager for an overdraft extension, that on his suggestion you sit down on the chair, you rather sit down on your knees in the praying position?

Many years ago, a person would have a personal word-of-mouth reputation among friends, but now a credit report is the person’s financial reputation in print. The information in this report is considered reliable (if not always accurate – but that’s another issue) until disputed.

Creditors rarely care why a bill is not paid and so routinely will report to the credit bureaus their payment experience with a borrower/debtor. A very foreseeable result of not paying any credit account on time, is the appearance of negative information (late payment(s), charge off or collection) on the credit report.

In an age when credit reports are part of the application review process for business and personal loans, investments, employment or promotion, or various kinds of insurance, the information in a credit report can make a huge difference in the cost of service (interest rate, risk rating) or acceptance or denial of the application.

There is thus a huge potential for reputation risk in your individual capacity, should you default on paying an account or get in arrears. The negative reputation risk in this case can make or break the application. When I talk to audiences about Reputation Risk, I often sketch out the potential damages that can occur. In the case of an organization, a credit downgrading can impact the business severely. For an individual the loss of credit – such as increased cost of credit or the loss of a credit opportunity – may be devastating.

In business the issue of cash flow is paramount. It is the role of the Credit Control department to stay on top of things. They cannot afford to carry slow payers or late payers and you will quickly develop a negative reputation with them.

But as in good stakeholder communications, there are some things that you can do. Good and open communication is a vital tool in this regard. Talk to your creditors is a much better option that trying to avoid them. Go and see them. Explain your position. Show them that you are willing to pay, but just not able to at the moment.

In credit control departments they generally define 3 types of people:

- Those customers who generally tend to pay late and might need reminding

- Those customers who will eventually pay but are experiencing some financial problems and;

- Those customers who cannot pay at all

It does not matter which category you fall in, be careful and communicate soon if you do have a problem.

Here is something from another angle. I wonder how many companies who say they practice stakeholder management, ever bother to listen to small entrepreneurs who do business with the company. The way Creditors tend to treat the small business person(people like myself) is shocking. They lose invoices, delay the process through elaborate administrative processes (not all of them legally imposed) or stall. Many times it is because clerical staff do not understand the concept of the importance of cash flow.

So companies, this e-mail is also for you. What is your Reputation like in the eyes of the person who did work for you and now have to struggle to get paid? Just because they are small, be careful. Today activists have the means to do harm to your good name. If I have to put the times it has happened to me where I have worked with delegates – lovely dedicated people – only for their backroom staff to do harm, on my blog, there will be some red faces in corporate circles.

Technorati Tags: Credit,Credit Management,Reputation Risk

ISO 31000 – The Proposed New Risk Management Standard

I just read an article about the proposed new ISO 31000 standard in the Enterprise Risk magazine (http://www.enterpriserisk.co.za) of March 2009.

In the article, the author and ex – Chairman of IRMSA, Steve Winks writes about the new way to define risk i.e that risk will be defined as ‘’the effect of uncertainty on objectives’’

The central issue of the definition is "objectives" -that is, the objectives of the individual or entity concerned.

The change in definition shifts the emphasis from "the event" (something happens) to "the effect" which is the effect of the event on objectives. So, the "risk" isn’t the chance of having a fire (for example) but the chance that value will be destroyed and or income flow disrupted (assuming preserving value and income flow was part of the objective).

From both definitions, it can be seen that risk is particular to the objectives of the individual, organisation (or even society) and that it arises because those objectives are pursued against an uncertain background. Although the individual or organisation controls their objectives, they cannot control or predict the background environment fully in which they operate. And it is this background environment, overlaid on the particular objectives, which generates uncertainty and thus risk.

Because risk is directly linked to objectives, it is obvious that risk is not inherently "bad". Many objectives can only be achieved by being willing to accept at least some risk. If risk can be managed effectively, opportunities can be exploited. Risk is generated by every decision that is made by an individual, organisation or society – small wonder that it is beneficial for individuals, organisations and governments to become increasingly proficient at understanding risks and knowing whether, how and when to "treat" those risks in order to improve the chance of realising objectives.

Risk is best characterised by describing both the effects (referred to as "consequences") and the chance of experiencing those consequences (known as "likelihood"). The level of any particular risk can be expressed by combining the two considerations (i.e. the potential consequence in terms of the objectives, and the likelihood of those consequences being experienced). If the resulting level of risk is either too high or too low for the entity whose objectives are at risk, then the risk can be treated so as to adjust the size of the consequences and/or the likelihood of experiencing those consequences.

I must say that this in line with my thinking and advice to clients.

When it comes to reputation risk, it is important to discern between a reputation event and reputation risk. (See words in bold above).

a Reputation event includes any action, incident or circumstance which induces, or is likely to induce, reputation risk for an organization. For example, such an event may arise from market rumours, severe regulatory sanctions, or heavy financial losses. Some of these events, if not acted upon swiftly and effectively, may turn into a full-blown crisis (e.g. a bank run).

Reputation risk means the risk that an organization reputation is damaged by one or more than one reputation event, as reflected from negative publicity about its business practices, conduct or financial condition. Such negative publicity, whether true or not, may impair public confidence in the institution, result in costly litigation, or lead to a decline in its customer base, business or revenue.

This uncertainty is what makes reputation risk so difficult to quantify or predict. Reputation Risk management therefore needs to include elements of reputation event or incident management, reputation risk consideration, environmental scanning and issues management.

Quite a mix! The starting point in managing reputation risk in an organization starts with a simple question. Is Reputation Risk a strategic risk on its own or a consequence of a risk?

For more information about the importance of definitions, go to my page – http://deonbinneman.wordpress.com/faq/definitions-create-lenses/

In the past, reputation risk management was confined to damage control and fire- fighting after the event or crisis (Reactionary Approach – Reputation Event or Incident management). Now there has been a paradigm shift towards a Proactive approach which includes building up “reputational capital” before an event (problem or crisis0 arises.

To build reputational capital and minimize reputation risk requires an understanding of the drivers of corporate reputation and the risk and opportunities that each driver offers. That knowledge coupled with the understanding that no Company, organisation or individual whose livelihood depends on public support can afford to function without a reputation building and a crises communication plan will enable companies to formulate robust strategies for building, sustaining and protecting corporate Reputation.

Technorati Tags: Corporate Reputation,Reputation Risk,Crisis Management,Risk Management,ISO

Spin is not enough

Last week I e-mailed a company that had some negative publicity suggesting to them that they     needed to be careful as their reputation risk profile is increasing. Incredulously I received a mail back from the company stating that management was perfectly happy with the performance of its spokesperson.

This is a clear showing how managers can misunderstand reputation risk and so-called spin. Protecting an organization’s reputation start way before you have to field media questions and appear in a negative light in the media.

It is much more than just issuing statements to the media or starting an internal witch-hunt for the persons that leaked certain information to the media.

It is about acting proactively, investigating the allegations and realising that there are some dissatisfied stakeholders. What is clear from the articles in the media is that this company’s internal stakeholders are dissatisfied. That is why Reputation Risk is often defined as the state of negative public opinion when the reasonable expectations of stakeholders are not met. It can result in loss of sales, share value decreases and breakdown in relationships.

What this company does not realise is that Reputation damage is rarely a once-off incident. If you dig deep enough into an incident, you will find intent; you will find a policy that made the accident possible.  The earliest warning signs involve issues of integrity or quality.  Where a company is accommodating policies that disadvantage either customers, employees or shareholders – even if they’re not doing anything illegal that is the beginning of an environment where the values of the company are going to make a decision possible that ultimately could do a lot of damage.

Everybody’s reputation breaks. There is no’ such thing as an indestructible reputation.  Even the best company’s reputations have. You have to look at it as a suit of armour.  Sooner or later your reputation will be in jeopardy, and how thick will your armor be?

Unfortunately there seems to be in many companies a tendency to treat reputation risk management like a faucet. Something that you can switch on when the time comes. This stems from the inability to realise that damage control and fire- fighting after the event or crisis is a Reactionary Approach.

Internationally there has been a paradigm shift towards a Proactive approach which includes building up “reputational capital” before a problem or crisis arises.

It will do this company good to realise that to build reputational capital require an understanding of the drivers of corporate reputation and the risk and opportunities that each driver offers. That knowledge coupled with the understanding that no Company, organisation or individual whose livelihood depends on public support can afford to function without a reputation building and a crises communication plan will enable delegates to formulate strategies for building, sustaining and protecting corporate Reputation.

This thinking and understanding is far more than just having a “spinmeister” employed.

Reputation Defence Master Class

I am working on a new 3 Day Reputation Defence Master Class – it will be the holy grail of Reputation Risk Mitigation. DEON BINNEMAN