People Drive the Process
February 25, 2010 | Filed Under Crisis Planning, Compliance
You can’t turn on the news without seeing a large Japan-based auto company being pilloried by Congress. (This is the same company that was lionized by certain senators last year). Once a company’s executives are called to Congress, and made to stand with their right hands raised, the court of public opinion already has rendered a verdict.
What is different is that this company has a product development process named after it. Two of the bedrock principles behind this system are “Respect for People” and “Teamwork.”
These are more than bromides, since process is nothing but words on paper; until somebody does something, nothing happens.
In law school you learn how to assemble the facts, marshal applicable law and advocate an outcome. But you likely didn’t learn how to be part of senior-level corporate decision-making so you have a chance at influencing people and shaping outcomes.
Part of the job description for an in-house counsel is to pull back from the demands of all sorts of processes on a good day and spend even 10 minutes considering how the bigger picture is trending for your client. This task is about 100 times harder when you are facing a major crisis or regulatory challenge.
And it is paradoxically even more difficult when you are the GC of a very successful company, because some of your colleagues may believe that all those great processes will themselves ensure good outcomes.
Pandemic Legal Planning
April 27, 2009 | Filed Under Crisis Planning
The concerns about a possible swine flu epidemic are building; the U.S. government’s main website is here; the CDC’s is here (they are going avian a bit by Twittering here).
Going back in my archives, I found this Department of Treasury pandemic scenario planning site here. There is some excellent information there, summarized in an overview document.
Also, here’s other resources from the DOJ and the ACLU.
If this influenza spreads, in-house lawyers will be spending a lot of time with security, operations and HR personnel (hopefully not medical). No one has been through one of these; you will have workers who can’t come to work, and many others who won’t want to. Imagine what happens when someone enters a full conference room sniffling and then launches a major sneeze.
Working remotely will be an attractive option for many; it’s probably also worth investigating some flexibility on personal time off. You don’t want sick people coming to work because they’re low on or out of PTO. That’s why sick days used to accrue rather than being changed to the more flexible (but less protective) PTO.
Let’s hope this outbreak will be small and contained quickly. International air travel spreads a virus faster than anything.
Taking the big picture approach, here’s a Google Maps bird’s-eye view of where things stand, allegedly updated in real time (click on this little map, and move your cursor on the full-sized one that opens up in your browser):
A VC Take on the Economy
October 10, 2008 | Filed Under Cost Control, Crisis Planning
Some of the smartest guys in the room at Sequoia Capital have briefed their portfolio companies on how they see the economy, and what to do about it.
A copy of the PowerPoint has been posted to the Internet. You can view it below, and it works quite well on full-view when you click on the movie screen icon on the bottom right.
Slides 47 and 53 have a good summary of the VC Rx.
Certainly the first and third slides aren’t something you usually see in a mainstream corporate briefing.
Back to the Flu, Sure
December 10, 2007 | Filed Under Crisis Planning
As I was getting my flu shot last week, I realized that it’s been awhile since I deposited any bird pandemic droppings here.
Then I saw this report earlier today about a potential human infection in China. You can bet that pandemic media coverage will spool up over the next few months, even without a major outbreak.
And that leads to CEOs and board members asking “What are we doing about X?” sort of questions.
So here’s a few resources:
– NPR did an interesting interview on the subject a few months ago; they covered a Treasury Department scenario planning exercise.
– That Treasury-sponsored event has an “Untitled” web page here. There is a treasure trove of information, which is to be expected since the financial services industry is ahead of just about everyone else on crisis planning. (Note: some of the material says “not for public distribution,” so it may not be live indefinitely).
– The federal government has a general website here.
– A CDC-sponsored website is helpful as well.
Any discussion of pandemics (bird flu, SARS, or otherwise) is really about crisis planning. On steroids, if you will.
A closer look might be wise for many companies.
Crisis (Mis)management
August 8, 2007 | Filed Under Crisis Planning, In the News
Ask anyone who has trained for a crisis: it’s something you hope you never need.
So when Murray Energy first heard that its Utah coal mine had suffered a catastrophic collapse on Monday, trapping 6 miners 1500 feet under the ground, they presumably put their plan in action.
We saw the first phase, when Murray Energy founder and chairman Robert Murray followed Crisis 101 and rushed to the scene, dutifully taking center stage as the point man for the company.
And then he promptly dropped the playbook, started arguing with scientists as to the cause, and with reporters as to the type of mining methods used (see below):
(Here’s the link if you don’t see the video player).
The part about referring to certain people as “lackeys for the United Mine Workers” was particularly bizarre; he elaborated further yesterday about potential causes:
“This was caused by an earthquake, not something that Murray Energy … did or our employees did or our management did,” an irate Robert E. Murray, chairman of mine owner Murray Energy Corp. of Cleveland, said at a televised news conference. “It was a natural disaster. An earthquake. And I’m going to prove it to you.”
What?
I was always taught three main things to say in a crisis; and they go something like this:
1. We are saddened by these tragic events and our thoughts and prayers go out to the workers involved and their families.
2. We are very concerned about the safety of our fellow employees and rescue personnel and we are doing everything possible to bring everyone out safely.
3. We are cooperating fully with regulatory authorities, and will not comment on potential causes until we see the results of a complete investigation.
1, 2, 3. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I hope these workers manage to survive and admire the courage of rescue personnel and the fortitude required to be a family member of a coal miner.
My empathy goes out to those who are charged with advising Mr. Murray. What do you say to the founder of a company after a news conference like that when he asks: “Well, how do you think that went?”
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