CIPR

Luke Johnson, writing in the Financial Times, comments that

...today, every Chief Executive needs to understand PR and how to make the best use of it.

Whilst Luke's article focused on the business benefits of public relations, he also touched on crisis management, a topic which dominated last week's discussion at the Institute of Directors' annual Chartered Director 'Review of the Year'. The subject was risk and reputational risk, including how the board determines, monitors and manages risk and how it rebuilds the organisation in the aftermath of a crisis.

The CIPR was part of a panel that included former directors at Ernst & Young and HBOS and the Civil Aviation Authority. Paul Mylrea, Head of Press at the BBC and CIPR President-Elect was also part of this panel. As we discussed volcanic ash clouds, the financial crisis and the 7/7 London Bombings, all of the speakers underlined reputational risk as a key dimension in the board's planning and response to crisis. The personal reputational risk of those CEOs and Chairs that are the public face of an organisation in such times was also a key point of discussion.

The discussion was a broad one, but as it related to PR, the consensus was that public relations practitioners must work hand-in-hand with the board to monitor and manage reputational risk, particularly in relation to trust and transparency, and that CEOs and Boards must be trained to respond and deal with such risk. One speaker discussed a 'culture of candour', the role of the board and its advisors in creating such a culture. As PR practitioners facilitating dialogue and feedback with publics, monitoring perception and reputation, our role is to advise the board with candour, not just in times of crisis but in the management and discussion of any reputational risk to the organisations that we advise.

I'll be doing some more work with colleagues on reputation risk issues in the New Year, but to summarise a few key points from our President-Elect:

• the worst thing that could happen to your organisation is often the mundane thing that is not on the crisis plan
• the people that can do most harm to an organisation can be friends, family and colleagues - not the obvious choices
• the worst time for the worst thing to happen is now.

On a positive note, excellent planning, monitoring and building a trusted relationship with the board will help organisations respond well in times of crisis, helping the organisation to retain and regain reputational capital.