Category: Crisis Preparation

Don’t Hit ‘Send’ On Those Emails Before Calling Your Attorney

By Stephanie York/Hennes Communications Q. We have an emerging issue. When should we contact our attorney? A: When an organization is facing a crisis or an emerging issue that may evolve into a crisis, employees typically start talking about it – especially via email and texts. It’s easy to fire off messages to colleagues, managers […]

New to Crisis Management? Here’s a Quick Primer.

From Gail Baker, writing in Higher Education Today, a quick primer in crisis management, suitable for any organization, company or government agency. The day starts like any other. Need to handle a complicated personnel issue, post an enrollment update, and answer budget questions. As you prepare to leave for a meeting, there’s a call from […]

Crisis Communications Strategies for an Always-On Media Environment

By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know we’re constantly encouraging you to have a crisis management/crisis communications plan in-place before something happens.  We are also constantly reminding you understand that you only have minutes to respond to a crisis situation; to train and test your team; to […]

Are You Leading Your School’s Culture, Or Is It Leading Your School?

[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] David Wolowitz is an attorney with McLane Middleton, a law firm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  He is also one of the country’s most in-demand experts on sexual misconduct, with a focus on independent schools. We first met David a number of years ago when we served on a panel together.  […]

The Case for Crisis Management Teamwork

[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications]   We are often asked how we interact with a client’s legal team when a crisis strikes an organization. While the traditional view assumes that communications and legal work in constant conflict in the crisis war room, in our experience, these two disciplines can actually complement each other and build […]

Why You Should Take Citizen Journalists with a Smartphone Very Seriously

[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] There are always raised eyebrows in our media training sessions when we tell participants they are always on the record – that in today’s social media world you’re not only on the record with reporters, you’re on the record whenever you talk about your company at the grocery store, on […]

A Crisis is Coming – Is Your Board on Board?

From our esteemed colleague, attorney David Wolowitz: What makes an independent school succeed or fail when crisis strikes? More often than not, the difference hinges on whether the administration and board work collaboratively. The greater the crisis, the greater the stressors on the relationship between the two. Advance planning is critical. A crisis is no […]

Why Auto-Marketing is Another Threat to Effective Crisis Management

By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications Those who know me know that I’m a travel junkie.  Time and budget prevent me from taking all the trips I’d like to take, so I do a fair amount of armchair travel. That includes skimming the daily email feed I get from Conde Nast Traveler – a publication I’ve […]

Crisis Comms 101: How the British Civil Aviation Authority Guided Stakeholders Through Thomas Cook Turbulence

  Thomas Cook was a British travel group company.  On September 23, 2019, Thomas Cook went into compulsory liquidation.  Around 21,000 worldwide employees were left without jobs and 600,000 customers were left abroad, triggering the United Kingdom’s largest peacetime repatriation. Thomas Cook’s corporate collapse last month left authorities with an enormous problem. More than 150,000 holidaymakers […]