Preparing for the New Year

Kelsey Eidbo

The start of a new year is a prime opportunity for company leaders and marketing teams to brush up on their approach to crisis response. Reputational threats are always changing, so it’s important to reflect on patterns that emerged over the past year, review your company’s crisis performance and identify emerging risks. Engaging in these exercises today can ensure your company has the right people and processes in place to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Organizations lucky enough to have avoided a major crisis in 2024 should not be lulled into a false sense of security. There’s always next year. Now is the time to learn from companies that came under the glare of public scrutiny. Here are just a few headlines that dominated 2024:

The CrowdStrike outage: A faulty security software update issued by CrowdStrike caused a historic IT outage that showed nobody is immune to technology issues and put the crisis response of companies around the world to the test.

Boeing’s mechanical failures: The company fell from “If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going,” to a federal investigation into the safety of its manufacturing practices, showing that consumer trust can’t be taken for granted.

Labor strikes: After 2023 saw the highest number of major union strikes in over two decades, work stoppages continued in 2024. Companies should take note that employees aren’t afraid to speak up for what they want and, now more than ever, they have the public on their side.

2024 presidential election: Numerous companies found themselves in the crosshairs of a particularly contentious U.S. election cycle. When misinformation began spreading online about retailers like Sephora, Kohls and Home Depot making large donations to President-elect Trump, the companies faced threats of widespread boycotts. Each had to act quickly to dispel the rumors and communicate their policies on making political donations.

Misuse of AI: A Stanford professor well known for research on lying and technology ironically blamed ChatGPT for lying about citations in a court filing. It underscores the need for corporate AI policies, human review and transparency. And the risks don’t stop there when it comes to leveraging AI, as my colleagues have outlined in our AI Reputation Risk Map.

A common thread is that people and companies are being held to a higher standard of accountability, whether as employers, service providers or industry experts. Companies must think ahead about their crisis response processes and make sure the right people are in the room to inform an authentic response that doesn’t complicate the matter further. Here are five steps to start:

Appoint a director of crisis communications

A centralized lead makes sure that each team member is collaborating and working toward the same solution. A director of crisis communications oversees the crisis response and serves as the communications point person for each team member, ensuring all efforts align with communications strategy and protocols. This may be a chief marketing officer or other senior communications leader with a strong understanding of the company brand and voice, credibility with leadership and employees and the authority to approve communications on behalf of the company.

Follow legal counsel’s lead (but find a balance in communications to maintain audience trust)

Working with legal counsel ensures a crisis isn’t made worse by running afoul of regulatory requirements, keeps the team abreast of legal developments and avoids introducing litigation risk.

In a situation such as a federal investigation or an employment dispute, legal counsel plays a critical role in providing parameters around what can be said, who should be engaged with and what could be used against a company in legal proceedings. Crisis communicators play a critical role in balancing legal counsel’s often preferred approach of keeping statements to a minimum and the company’s desire to keep clients or employees happy. Walking this line is crucial to maintaining stakeholder trust without introducing or further complicating legal troubles.

Monitor media coverage and sentiment to inform your approach

A team member should be responsible for closely monitoring news coverage and social media responses, providing summaries and sentiment evaluations to the team. This doesn’t just mean following mentions of your company, specifically. In some cases, it’s critical to follow crises embroiling others in your industry to stay on top of your own potential vulnerabilities.

Our research team operated in this role for law firm clients surrounding the 2024 U.S. General Election, compiling a database of news coverage on how the election was impacting the industry. While not yet a crisis per se, scrutiny of the election had the potential to trigger sensitive questions for firms, and keeping close track of coverage—including donations, likely cabinet picks, legal representations and more—kept us informed in real-time on sentiment and evolving news angles around how the election was reaching that specific industry.

Activating this type of monitoring during real time crisis response will help the team track how a crisis is evolving, anticipate the next angle, see how statements are being received and determine whether it’s time to pivot due to public response.

Pick the right spokesperson

In some cases, it may not make sense to publicly tie an executive’s name to a crisis, while in others, it is important to show leadership and underscore the human element of the situation at hand. A limited IT outage may be a situation in which a company can get away with providing general updates on impact, timing and where to go for questions. The CrowdStrike outage was different from the start. As it rippled through virtually every aspect of our personal and professional lives, the company’s CEO promptly released a statement, though some critics pointed out he didn’t apologize quickly enough. This underscores the need to remember the human impact of a technological failure.

Update your subject-matter experts based on emerging risks

Necessary subject-matter experts are determined based on the nature of the incident and the company itself. These individuals may not be called for every incident but should be aware of their role in crisis response and participate in training exercises as much as the core team. They may include internal leaders or external partners who specialize in IT, operations, human resources, policy, innovative technology, diversity, equity and inclusion, facilities management, supply chain management—or any number of issues, again, depending on the company.

This person’s responsibilities will vary and could include providing access to certain company information, historical or broader industry context, or technical information to inform communications. Partnering with the communications team and legal team will make sure the information is used effectively without introducing any risk.

As new threats emerge, it’s important to keep this list of experts updated and bring them into crisis communication trainings. AI is a great example: Who on your team can speak to the company’s policy and how it came together? How is AI use being monitored and how is the policy being enforced? Who has a good view of the AI-based tools the company is using? Knowing this information now can minimize the likelihood of a crisis occurring related to AI use and expedite the response if one does.

While we can’t predict what specific crises, we’ll find ourselves in next year, reflecting on the previous year and updating your team and approach is a crucial step to positioning your company for success.

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Kelsey Eidbo is a Vice President with Infinite Global and a member of its crisis and litigation PR team.