In 2020, a year marked by disaster, executives and communications professionals were thrown into economic, social and health frenzies — forced to adapt their policies and messaging to fit the fast-changing social climate.
The Boston University Alumni Association and College of Communication hosted a virtual conversation Wednesday titled “Current Trends in Managing a Crisis” to discuss the tools businesses can use to communicate successfully during disasters.
Four experts in business and public relations were welcomed by COM Dean Mariette DiChristina to the panel discussion on how businesses can adapt in times of tumult.
But as the BU panelists said, crises are never predictable.
Mike Fernandez, a senior vice president and chief communications officer at Enbridge — an energy delivery company — said the unpredictability of situations is what makes crisis management an indispensable skill.
When it comes to staying on top of current issues, Fernandez said “you can’t.”
“There’s just so much, and so things are moving so rapidly,” he said during the panel, “so that agility becomes a really key principle.”
During the panel, Kenneth Freeman, dean emeritus and professor of the practice at Questrom School of Business, pointed to the 2017 United Airlines incident when a passenger was forcibly removed from a plane, prompting outrage from the general public.
Freeman said the incident is a perfect example of an unexpected crisis and the importance of handling it well.
“United had no clue, despite having an emergency response plan that’s pretty sophisticated, what to do,” he said. “[They] suffered traumatic impact on their reputation because they didn’t know how to be nimble and quick and deal with a crisis that they had not predicted “
Fernandez, who has a contact at United, said the company’s default response to the crisis was protecting its employees first and foremost.
“When this event happened, their muscle memory went to defend the employee,” he said, “as opposed to ‘Okay, what’s the situation and how is this going to look to a host of stakeholders from investors to customers to prospective customers?’”
Businesses can, however, collaborate with communications teams to make sure the company is prepared, Freeman said.
Students in communications programs are typically given more opportunities to practice crisis management than those in business programs, Freeman said, referencing his work in creating and teaching a graduate-level crisis leadership course for Questrom.
“I benchmarked other institutions, and found precious few business school courses as it related to crisis leadership,” Freeman said. “I found many more courses in crisis communication in communication schools, including, of course, at Boston University College of Communication.”
Amy Shanler, associate professor of public relations, said the panel discussions highlighted how normal business operations are becoming obsolete in the modern era because “crisis is always by our side.”
Shanler, who serves as the co-director of PRLab, said crisis communication does appear in the student agency, because they are working directly with clients.
“We really changed the balance of the work we were doing,” Shanler said in an interview. “Our council really changed to focus on stakeholder relationship management and it was a very different kind of experience for our students.”
She added that even before the pandemic, PRLab students talk to their clients about being “crisis ready.”
COM senior Hailey McCloskey, an account supervisor at PRLab, wrote in an email the past year’s social upheaval proves to her how crucial crisis communication is in today’s society.
“Between the Coronavirus pandemic, the election, and the socio-political unrest plaguing our world today, crises are more frequent, and occuring on larger scales,” McCloskey wrote. “Being able to react in a timely and efficient manner is a necessity for PR professionals.”
