A Book Review on Crisis, Issues and Reputation Management by Andrew Griffin

Tags

Andrew Griffin, Communications, Corporate Branding, Corporate Communications, Crisis, Issues, Marketing, PR, Reputation

Crisis, Issues and Reputation Management by Andrew Griffin, was a very enjoyable book to read. It contains examples of incidents that escalated into or had the potential of becoming crises. This includes O2’s connectivity outage and other major incidents (Nestle, Unilever, General Electric, McDonald’s, Coca-cola, Tesco et al), and how some triumphed, whilst others failed to protect their reputation during a crisis. Moreover, the book discusses the importance of reputation and how it is crucial  to know when to act, or to wait during crises and/or issues.

Furthermore, it discusses how social media, plays a vital role beyond its usual functions during a crisis, and how it integrates well with any crisis communication strategy a crisis management team (CMT) may have. This, I would say was one of the most enjoyable part of the book – it does not only talk about social media as a useful communication tool, but also clarifies and describes its role as tactical rather than strategic. In addition, I believe this is the current message that many practitioners within marketing, but particularly PR are trying to communicate to others within communication.

Overall, an excellent literature and one which I would highly recommend for those who want to understand the difference between crises and issues, and how corporate citizenship, or corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be successfully handled and managed by a communication team.