Friday, July 28, 2006

Breaching The Walls of The Bunker

Executives around the world believe that it takes companies slightly more than three years to recover from a crisis that damages their reputation.

That at least is the conclusion drawn from to market research carried out by Burson-Marsteller.

The research is based on the opinions of 685 business "influentials" - CEOs, senior executives, financial analysts, business media and government officials in 65 countries.

It shows that quickly disclosing the details of a scandal or corporate misstep should be management's top priority, as it begins the process of restoring corporate reputation.

The latest research conducted by the firm took a closer look at the crisis
management strategies that a company should use to protect, manage and build its reputation.

According to the market research, the top ten crisis management turnaround strategies are:

-Quickly disclose details of the scandal/misstep (69%)
-Make progress/recovery visible (59%)
-Analyse what went wrong (58%)
-Improve governance structure (38%)
-Make CEO and leadership accessible to the media (34%)
-Fire employees involved in the problem (32%)
-Commit to high corporate citizenship standards (23%)
-Carefully review ethics policies (19%)
-Hire an outside auditor for internal audits (18%)
-Issue an apology from the CEO (18%)

Deborah Bowker, chair of Burson-Marsteller's U.S. Corporate/Financial Practice said:

"A crisis can have a devastating impact on a company's reputation in terms of its profitability, credibility, competitive position, and ability to retain and attract top performers.

However, companies can lessen their recovery time and be welcomed back into the fold, with their reputation restored, if they follow a few well executed and integrated turnaround strategies
."

Bearing in mind the long list of recent disasters that the ICAEW have inflicted on the membership, and the brand value, of the ICAEW; including, but not limited to, the following:
Do you not think that the ICAEW should take heed of the above advice from Burson-Marsteller?

I certainly do!

The question is, are the ICAEW open to advice from outside the Moorgate Place bunker?

2 comments:

  1. Ken - BMs view is one born out of PR - the principles are fine but the execution is all about command and control (IMO). I have problems with that but yes - it is a start.

    As for breaching the walls, the barbarians are already at the gates.

    'nuff said.

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  2. Dennis Howlett said:

    "As for breaching the walls, the barbarians are already at the gates".

    He got it wrong - the barbarians are the ones on the inside!

    100 big cats fat on expenses claims.

    Already on the look out for a new Pied Piper!

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