A classic BCM blooper?

If you don’t have something nice to say… By Gary Hibberd.

As we all know business continuity is about doing the right thing at the right time, which isn’t always easy to do. As professionals we try and prepare for the worse and hope for the best, by considering a number of risks and then looking to address how we might respond to them, both individually and collectively as a business. It’s a serious business and one that doesn’t offer too many moments of levity. However, on hearing that the Air Traffic Controllers were going on strike in Ireland this week a colleague of mine who was due to fly to Dublin thought he would check their site for an update. After a number of minutes he sent me a link and asked for my thoughts. On opening the internet page I almost spat my coffee across the room as I read the opening line:

“Due to industrial action by overpaid and underworked air traffic controllers in Ireland, Ryanair has been forced to cancel 52 flights today (20th Jan) affecting over 6,000 passengers. Please see the below list of cancelled flights which were scheduled to operate to and from Ireland today (20th Jan).”

(See screen shot of the above announcement.)

Now, I’m a simple business continuity manager with over ten years experience and I openly admit I’m not a media expert, but I did think the words here were a tad on the emotive side and I would suggest quite provocative too! I appreciate that the cancellations caused serious issues for Ryanair and (more importantly) significant disruption to its passengers, but to begin by openly insulting an entire profession seems, in my opinion, an incredible act of arrogance and I do have to wonder at which point the Ryanair crisis management team agreed that their business should openly insult an important group of professionals in a business which is heavily unionised.

Managing the media and public perception is something which should be of key concern to any business and therefore as business continuity practitioners it is our role to ensure that our business does not put out the wrong message at the wrong time. Thankfully the vast majority of organizations seem to understand the importance of retaining a professional and impassive stance to such events and should refrain from name-calling. The net result of which ensures that the business is seen to be focused on finding a solution to customers issues, rather than entering into bitter disputes which the customer has little or no control over.

In summary, I feel that it is vitally important to engage with your media and marketing teams and ensure you are aware of any press releases which may be as a result of some crisis event. If you don’t, then you might just find yourself the topic of another ‘Classic BCM blooper’!

Author: Gary Hibberd, risk and business continuity manager. Author of the Business Continuity Management Toolkit

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•Date: 22nd Jan 2010 • Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: Crisis communications
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