Hi! Manager: Importance of accurate and timely information

Crisis management is a common practice for most businesses to alleviate the impact of this massive flood on corporate assets, business operations and continuity as well as their people.
Planning and preparation are the key steps in crisis management, before the crisis takes its toll on business operations. Accurate and timely information is what corporate executives are in need of to make appropriate decisions and best position their organisation to mitigate the impact from the crisis.
Crucial decisions are essential in every counter-measure to deal with the problems that may arise from the crisis at an early stage to avoid unfavourable consequences. If the required information comes too late, it can’t be utilised as a platform for decision-making for the future.
During this intensely severe flooding situation, all of us have been bombarded with information through various forms of media – television, radio, newspaper, website, Twitter, Facebook. Many times, we find the information from those media are conflicting, which puts us under stress and confusion.
While we are in need of fresh and concrete information for timely evaluation and effective countermeasure implementation, the precious time of some TV news channels that we have followed is allocated to something similar to drama shows of some particular persons. If those drama shows take just a few minutes, it is understandable that those stories make the news programmes colourful.
Theoretically speaking, the information from official agencies in charge of flood relief countermeasures should be accurate and timely. But what we experienced during this crisis is that information from those responsible are not only conflicting among different agencies but also confusing even within the same agency when different persons are in charge.
The other side of the coin is that the redundant communication system is a good lesson for all of us in case our organisations have to deal with a crisis. Having an effective communication plan in place will enable us to handle those outside like the mass media and general public properly.
First and foremost, a single spokesperson should be assigned by a company. In case more than one is required, they have to coordinate their messages carefully. The information given to outsiders must be concrete, clear, factual and timely. Anyone who wants information from the organisation has to contact only that spokesperson, who should not have other important assignments during the time of crisis.
If the organisational crisis draws the mass media’s attention, it is impossible to avoid dealing with them. So, concrete and clear statements must be made to ensure a clear understanding among them because they can be an effective means to disseminate the firm’s information to all stakeholders and the general public.
We must keep in mind that it is vital to effectively set up command, control and communications to ensure that our organisation responds appropriately to any crisis when it takes place. Most importantly, we have to reinforce our crisis management system, especially the planning and preparation before a crisis actually begins so as to avoid the problems we are now facing with improper management by the authorities concerned in this tragic incident of our country.

Panatda Chennavasin is the vice president for corporate strategies and corporate relations of Tri Petch Isuzu Sales as well as senior vice president for overseas marketing of Isuzu Operations (Thailand).  Her column is published every third Wednesday of the month.