Simulation methods and applications

Public Relations a. What does proactive planning mean?

Proactive planning means planning ahead in case of an incident so that a company is better prepared to survive a crisis. Planning helps companies have the necessary strategies and procedures in place so that they can provide the immediate response required when dealing with a crisis. Thus, with proactive planning, companies can more readily identify and prioritize communications with internal and external stakeholders and have a thorough understand of the PR tools needed to reach these audiences.

What feedback mechanism would you develop in this situation?

To gauge public opinion, the company should create a blog on its Web site. Although blogs can provide negative feedback, it's important to discover if there's anything wrong. For employees, the company can use the hotline as an opportunity for the employees to provide feedback and can implement anonymous opinion surveys and open door policies so they can express their concern. The company should begin to closely monitor all media channels for positive and negative coverage, monitor the stock market for investor sentiment and sales for consumer reaction. The company should consider face-to-face meetings with all agencies, special interest groups and the community and allow opportunity for them to express their concerns on how the event has been handled.

c. What is an ineffectual way of deploying this plan? Give some examples of what not to do in this situation.

The worse thing Greenergy could have done was to have chosen a message option other than being completely honest. For example, a lie would soon be discovered in today's information age. This type of dishonestly would have destroyed the company's credibility and support for its new wind turbine products which were already encountering some consumer resistance. Choosing the wrong order for the communications hierarchy would also present issues.

If the company had gone to the media without first consulting with regulatory and government agencies, it could have given out incorrect or incomplete information which would make it appear out of touch with the situation and perhaps dishonest even if it was attempting to be truthful.

d. When do you need a proactive crisis management plan?

A company should always have a proactive crisis management plan because it is impossible to tell when a crisis may occur. A proactive management plan helps the company manage the unforeseen event more effectively because the company has identified how to provide complete and accurate information and disseminate it as quickly as it can. When an incident occurs, the company will know who will speak for it, who they will speak to and how they will communicate to each audience.