Preston Global
Business crisis & risk specialists since 1968
Nationally acclaimed for strategic and tactical solutions.
Business Crises & Emergencies. Yes, They Can Differ.
CRISIS –An event, customarily beginning slowly with minimal citizen notice leading to dilemmas and apprehension. Also, it’s seriously incompatible with occupational progress as well as positive public opinion.
EMERGENCY – Sudden disaster, tragedy, earthly or atmospheric danger, or startling notification requiring immediate action and response.
Rereading both definitions reminds how onsets distinguish one from the other. Situational variances separate the two problems. Certainly no identical twins here!
Think corruption, irrational debt, scamming, brand discontent, theft, structural malfunction, obnoxious competitive tactics presaging sabotage, and overlooked C-Suite errors. All evolve slowly until full awareness. They are crises, hardly ever swift in movement until well advanced.
Emergencies, foreseeable and at times preventable, fit a dissimilar category: Fire, cardiac arrest, chemical spill, terrorist attack, mass shooting, violent protest, poisoning, vehicle crash, tornado, equipment malfunction, unexpected leadership death, as well as immensely compelling threats.
Perhaps you’re curious as to why we believe so adamantly in sorting out these perilous topics. Answer: Because they are indeed no-time-to-lose business hazards!
Preston Global
Daunting incidents arrive in sundry packages.
Accidents differ from abuse. Violent behavior adopts many forms. C-Suite gaffes emerge because of bias, poor research, staff errors, or inadequate debate.
Troubles, abnormal and routine, interrupt CEO inner sanctums as if they were robots created only to barge in at the worst possible times.
They hurt corporations, service firms, institutions, and high-profile individuals. Here are several we resolved.
Convincing a preeminent U.S. investigative TV reporter to alter his planned negative story about our client’s business policy.
Halting an emotionally troubled employee’s death threat against medical center executives.
Swaying a CEO not to partner with suspicious foreign investors.
Reversing a “lost cause” statewide referendum in only 14 weeks.
A sniper melee against major university ends successfully.
Assisting authorities. Death threats by little known terrorists were reported to us by a college president after appearing on TV’s Larry King Live. We had just finished a campus-wide vulnerability assessment at his request. Reacting immediately, we located the suspects and our findings to federal officials. Successful ending.
Authoring speeches, gaining deliverers national acclaim.
Bizarre matter. Lifeless newborn vanishes from hospital morgue.
Devising original strategies to avoid rumors and therefore fears about job losses before two national companies merged.
Changing press and public opinion when an unknown candidate tossed his hat into the primary campaign for governor. He won.
Baffling harsh foes ready to disrupt a Prime Minister’s U. S. visit.
- After researching transnational extremist activities and data, we warned publicly five months before 9-11-01, the following: A one day coordinated terrorist attack in several U.S. locations would occur before year’s end. Irresponsible domestic fear-mongering instantly followed. However, within two hours of that fateful event more than 235 calls reached us – as near as our headquarters in Lexington, KY and as distant as Seoul, Korea. Current as well as potential clients wanted ASAP discussions about how our firm might create for them, preventive measures.
Each posed grave risks to the organization and leader status. Numerous reasons promote career-defining moments. One is carelessness another, coincidental. Three words, therefore, emphasize our initial process:
AVOIDANCE . . . DETERRENCE . . . MITIGATION.
Our Mission
Relieve C-Suite misery anytime, anywhere
What do most execs overlook after encountering their first crisis – particularly one severe?
Something foreboding, either unintended or planned, disturbs C-Suite focus. Sit in the CEO’s chair. While considering several answers, think about rising above perceived abrupt setbacks
Was Sequential Complications implied at all? It’s our profession’s label for Domino Effects.
Understanding “Sequential Complications” isn’t complex. Shortly after crises grab public notice, an aggressor drills deeply into his or her rival’s shocked system keeping the target off-balance.
The provoker’s second purpose derives from crises being multi-categorical. Picture a cool summer night. Clouds pass. Irritants buzz. They bite. These so-called hybrids assure extra crises. For the first instant, our predicting, preparing against, and countering agonistic early moves foes try, will lessen harmful opinions invading the mindsets of a then undecided audience.
Selecting correct repellants is key. Next, we advise coupling anticipation with our own aggressiveness to force challenger reactions rather than grant recurring ownership of salient issues driving public opinion. Our tool box always is crammed full of options. Nuff said.
Minus top tier expertise, a single dilemma can haunt leaders and/or their brands incessantly. Prior outcomes with poor results inspire social and traditional media to rehash noxious stories
Uniting Preston Global’s Nine Pillars Concept subdues business perils, which frees busy execs for uninterrupted crucial duties. Now you know why we manage crises inside, rather than far away from our client’s environment. Efficiency!
Bad time anniversary articles, plus TV forum snippets naming individuals and businesses, shamed rightly or wrongly during previous eras, take extra tolls. Droves of reporters, critics, and commentators love recalling past faults.
We justify our role as specialists in crisis/risk averting, control and solutions based on client gains via unique creative, strategies and tactics.
Perceptive governance flips negatives into positives.
Expert chefs know when to enhance the contents of what they’re cooking. Timing is central to controlling heat, swirling food, flipping meat, and adding sauces spices, or a bit of the finer liquids.
Similar results ensue when handling a crisis. Knotty situations might change zero hour or day. Even so, your key strategy is controlling as many moves (remember the chess reference?) Hostile forces will purposely or carelessly alter the public landscape.
If you await good amid bad news, take heed. Crises and emergencies need not inevitably convert into “that dreaded career-ending moment.”
Leaders can attain a superb career-defining outcome. Still, caution mandates some facts about crisis repair.
First, “correcting,” primarily trying in-house mending, Becomes time-consuming and monetarily expensive. (This truism reinforces our insisting on prevention).
Second, leaders tackling unusual (to them) hitches adversely restraining progress and brand growth will find three routes.
- Hire a specialist in prevention and response who also can perform other business tasks.
- Rely on Internal control from competently trained personnel.
- Contract specialists; be wary of generalists.
Great value from in-house staffing come when teams are formed, expertly trained, and mentored. Still, most leaders dismiss the idea. Fewer than half major U.S. corporations house crisis teams.
If surveying C-Suite actions plus inactions has taught us anything, it’s that legal, reputational, and personal vulnerabilities await senior executives. You might ask,
“Why do capable leaders place themselves and their enterprises at-risk by snubbing avoidance?”
My purpose for citing personal experiences spanning, for me, seven decades of global crisis control as well as emergency management, is to teach! Making life less traumatic for clients and society seems proper.
Preston Global, “reverses the adverse.”
Our Team
Meet With Our Expert
Mitchel Conner
Emily Parsons
Ellen Stevens
Slighted in most college management classes.
By Tom Preston
Data doyens tracking corporate,
professional firm, or institutional
crises depend on best estimates.
Yet, estimates are guestimates!
They range from near-accuracy
to rubbish. Facts are imperative!
Gaining much more information
regarding business crises than any
prior time will prove invaluable. If
you wonder why, merely scrutinize
what’s missing now.
We start with incident varieties and
totals of each. Next, we learn where
events occur plus their outcomes. By
combining facts, our ability to relate
overall harm from multiple damages
will enhance our ability to pass along
a more accurate portrayal of the harm.
Also, the stage is set for prevention,
which eliminates additional expenses
needed while crises are administered
and positive reputations upheld.
If progress remains static, our reasons
surge when predicting higher numbers
as well as affiliated costs such crises
inflict. Unless those who should, reject
current lethargy and wisely opt for true
accountability, will this quandary end.
I challenge three groups to grab the
reins in reducing this dilemma: They are
higher education leaders, commercial
alliances, and public relations societies.
Here’s why. Very few key executives are
prepared to cope skillfully with crises or
emergencies. There’s a good reason.
Most colleges/universities do not train
future execs in avoidance, control, and
resolution. Various journalism schools
offer a course in crisis communication,
but that fails the thoroughness test.
Crisis communicator obligations exceed
crafting approved statements, intended
for external or internal audiences, and
being a sometime spokesperson.
Their central role during this century is
A to Z guidance. That is, having talents
materially assisting key personnel trying
to understand what happened, why, and
how instabilities might be managed best.
Without such capabilities, you can expect
future complications. Or worse!
Consider this scenario: You’re employed
at a troubled establishment. Maybe you’re
also a shareholder, supplier, or in a service
firm relying on income from an entity
under duress. The long list of relationships
surprises most people.
Even First Responders often are victims of
another’s, yes, avoidable mistake. Many
place innocent citizens at-risk. Guilt spreads
Few complexities, impediments, “no-win “
situations, and fierce acts are immune from
what ought to be avertable.
Accordingly, groups who can yield positive
differences should be called upon. You’ll find
out more after reading part two on August 4.