Crisis Management Tools | Stakeholder Outreach During Covid

Crisis Management Tools | Stakeholder Outreach During Covid

Bringing Brand Continuity to the Forefront

Warning: Videos by Craig may get you thinking!

This week, Orchan Director Dr Craig J Selby ran a public webinar for ACCA Malaysia, to discuss issues of Crisis Management, Stakeholder Outreach, and Business Continuity with Covid.

Short Teaser | Before the Webinar

They wanted to talk Crisis Management, but they needed to put it in the bigger picture of Covid. They needed to discuss Social Media, and they knew they wanted to touch on issues of Business Continuity.

What an eclectic collection of topics, or was it?

Actually, all quite relevant. At the heart of the Crisis intertwined with Covid is the need for business continuity, and the enhanced role that social media plays in the lockdown period. Moreover, the interconnectedness of these elements created a viable platform to show how stakeholder outreach can be effective in the current time, and how that contributes to business / brand survival in this period.

Our discussion started out with a discourse on a recent blog post by Orchan - "Same Storm, Different Boat" which quite emotionally sets a great context for where we each are today - as businesses, brands, individuals.  https://orchanpr.blogspot.com/2020/04/perspectives-on-crisis-we-are-in-same.html

We are in the same storm, we are not in the same boat!

Having set the broad context, it was important to delve deeper into the context of Covid, and how / why it is a crisis. Craig's perspective here may be a tad controversial; he doesn't call Covid the crisis per se, but successive governmental decisions to lockdown society and business. He does concede though that the two are intertwined - but the key point is to think about what the actual crisis is - it is not Covid, it is the business stagnation that results from lockdowns. This is the crisis we need to address and pull ourselves out from. Covid was simply the catalyst to this.

The Context of Covid

To survive, to enable Business Continuity, we need to reframe our expectations. Both Orchan Directors, Craig and Farrell, wrote an opinion piece earlier in the week, which was published by Branding in Asia (https://www.brandinginasia.com/return-on-relationships/) - a call for us to reexamine our 'Returns' - in this case highlighting the importance of Return on Relationship as a key survival and visibility strategy. 

Embracing ROR

The narrative moved to explore some social media fails. Awareness was heightened on the need for brands to do an immediate Communications Audit - to ensure that their messaging is in line with societies current needs. The past 43 days have shown us that many brands remain out of touch, tone deaf, and stuck in yesterday, rather than taking a forward-looking and inspirational approach to outreach. 

  

Communication Flops

Some of the examples used highlighted "worst practice" - important for us to realise and understand that such approaches detract from the message, and brand image; even though at heart, they may be trying to do good. Choice of words, phrasing, tone, all matter. Don't be opportunistic, don't hard sell, and don't play the blame game. 

Staying visible in a way that is meaningful for the future requires that your communications efforts right this minute relate to society in a positive frame.

Stop Saying That C-Word (https://orchanpr.blogspot.com/2020/04/stop-saying-that-c-word-its-offensive.html) was an opinion piece Craig wrote as a direct response to stakeholder outreach in recent weeks. It was a reflection on bad practice, and businesses role in society as community guardian as much as community provider. 

His vocalisation of the commentary certainly explains it in deeper terms, as we have to look at ceasing the use of a certain C-word; but more importantly, replacing it with achievable, meaningful, and forward-thinking concepts that take us to the future, not leaving us stuck in the past.

The C-Word | It's Offensive

Our webinar had over 100 participants, being members of ACCA Malaysia as well as members of the public who have been invited to participate in their outreach programmes. For us at Orchan, our belief is in the importance of discussing ideas, and finding ways to support the community through the sharing of perspectives, encouraging discussion and debate, and through taking an intensified thought leadership role. This was paralleled well by ACCA an their initiatives to help open up important discussions relevant for businesses and business continuity.