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:

• The failed merger


• The unseemly public row with ICAS over the name


• Poaching members from other bodies


• Using the services of Media Strategy, a PR company that breached the Code of Practice of the Association of Professional Political Consultants


• Postponing the new exam syllabus until 2007


• Not introducing and ethics paper until 2007


• The Durgan Debacle


• The failure to publish the results of the investigation into the Durgan Debacle


• The failure to conduct an independent review/investigation into the causes of the Durgan Debacle

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?

Desperate or Incompetent?

I understand that one of this site's regular visitors contacted the ICAEW, a few months ago, to ask about how the "Pathways to Membership" (backdoor route to membership) of the ICAEW would work.

Today he finally received a response from them, in the form of a phone call, asking if he was interested in furthering an application.

I don't know whether this is a sign of desperation, or plain incompetence (given how long they took to come back to him).

Where's Damian?

Anyone know where Damian Wilde's blog has gone?

Report

So when are the ICAEW going to share with the membership the report into the Durgan Debacle (ie the report on the failures of the tendering process)?

Seems that I was right about the timing of Anstee's resignation announcement, being used to draw attention away from the internal control failings in the ICAEW bunker.

Consolidation Dead For Five Years

The consolidation of UK accounting institutes is a dead issue for the next five years, according to the new president of CIPFA Caroline Gardner.

I wonder if the ICAEW agree with this view?