1. Texas Hospital Association
Surviving A Crisis When Everything
Seems to Go Wrong
August 7, 2014
John O. Ambler
Chief Communications & Public Affairs Officer
Memorial Hermann Health System
2. Crisis?
• Tylenol, Exxon Valdez,
BP, Johns Hopkins
• Different handling =
different results
• Consequences can be
long term damage to
reputation and $ billions
of costs
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Fall 1982 – Tylenol
Potassium Cyanide
tampering -- seven
dead in Chicago.
March 24, 1989 – Exxon Valdez
strikes reef spilling 750,000
barrels of crude oil -- considered
to be one of the most devastating
human-caused environmental
disasters.
3. What can we do?
• Be prepared
• Build reputation
• Honesty and integrity
• Engage
• Communicate
3
5. Reputation Yields
• Loyalty
• Support
• Benefit of the doubt
• Opinion leader
• Engaged workforce
• Favored by customers & applicants
• Insulation against harmful news
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6. Prepare for a Crisis
• Organize crisis team and develop a plan
• Identify spokespeople, information
sources and approval authorities
• Develop and preapprove likely messages
and materials
• Develop dark website and portal materials
• Secure executive approval of plan
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7. Guidelines for Crisis
Communication
• Never speculate
• Be honest in what you say
• Build trust with all stakeholders
• Work as a team internally
• Employees need to hear it from you first
• Use social media to monitor and respond,
carefully
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8. Spokesperson
• Preselect and preapprove spokespeople
• Ensure they are media trained and you
are confident of their abilities
• They must be credible and relevant
• Show compassion
• Frequent, timely updates
• Try to give reasons, not just “no comment”
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9. Other Crises Defenses?
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Size and resources
Respected, innovative enterprise
Top talent
Admired management
Connected with opinion leaders
Extensive communication
Third-party endorsements
10. It my not be enough!
• Hubris is the common
theme in most tragedies
• Let me tell you about my
Enron experiences
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11. Crises Protection?
• Size – Fortune five
• Respect and Innovation – Topped Forbes list
• Talent – Top 3 graduate school recruiter
• Management – Internationally admired
• Connection – Friend of President
• Communication – Extensive internal/external
• Checks – Ratings, auditors & Wall Street
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Welcome to
12. Enron Case Study
Bankruptcy Day One
• Most workers laid off
• 200 person communication and
government relations staff down to 2
• Suppliers remove water coolers from
buildings
• Satellite TV trucks outside building
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…for the next 6 months!!
13. Bankruptcy
Environment
• The NYT, WSJ and Washington Post
each had a dozen reporters on the story
• One reporter had 400 internal sources
of former and current employees
• The news dominated the papers,
programming and late night TV for
months
• Remaining employees had to pass
reporters’ gauntlet to get to work
• A succession of CFOs
• Justice Department investigations
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14. Bankruptcy Environment
(cont’d)
• Assets received only fire sale offers
• Morale extraordinarily low
• Employees vilified
• Congress on offensive
• 60 Minutes denied Enron request to comment
on story about its operations
• Media coverage primarily from
investigative/crime reporters
14
15. After four months,
a positive story
The Washington Post
April 26, 2002 | Frank Ahrens | Copyright
Still in Enron's Pipeline; Hard Assets Like Transwestern Are the Fallen Firm's Best Hope
This windswept ridge is 1,200 miles away from Enron Corp.'s gleaming Houston
tower and the slick executives who managed the energy giant's trading outfit. Here, a
big guy with blue eyes rubbed a pinch of Copenhagen snuff and surveyed the
Ponderosa-pine high country on a spring afternoon. He yelled above the roar of
natural gas compressors.
"We've always felt like we were more of a contributor than we got credit for in the big
picture," said the hulking David Roensch, who is known as "Tiny." "Historically, we've
been the cash cow. We generate the dollars used to fuel other Enron businesses.
"Now, we really feel that way," he said.
For the past three years, Roensch has run Red Rock Project Station 2, a
compressor site on Enron's Transwestern natural gas pipeline. …
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16. The Slow Recovery
• Brought in outsider to gain credibility
• Acknowledge and investigate past, but
focus on restoring value for creditors
• Focus on ongoing operations with value
• Communicate extensively with employees
• Restore employee morale
• Rebrand
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17. Lessons Learned
• Relationships essential
• Honesty/not gaming gains credibility
• Have to work to gain trust
• Only go as far and quickly as
management and employees can handle
• Employees need to hear first/concurrently
• Highlight ongoing value of organization
• Eventually need to reset dialogue to future
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18. Lessons Learned (cont’d)
• Reach out to
– Media
– Community
– Government
– Opinion leaders
– Even adversaries
• Demonstrate personal sincerity,
compassion and ethics
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