I highly recommend a crisis plan to, if possible, prevent a crisis. This approach can provide as a decision base and behavior path for all actions. The crisis plan should include a statement summarizing the company's philosophies and ethics. An organization with a solid reputation will survive a crisis better than one without. The historical behavior of a company will strongly influence the stakeholders' perception of the company in a time of crisis.
Crisis management has three sequential objectives.
The first is to prevent a crisis. Ideally, your company takes a proactive approach to crisis management and you, as a public relations professional, will develop and update the crisis plan to prevent a crisis when possible. The second, if a crisis should occur, the public relations practitioner's objective should be to modify the negative effect on the company or its products. Thirdly, the company's behavior through the time of crisis should provide as a platform for the future. Fla. This site was last updated Wednesday, April 19, 2001.