Über das Unmögliche reden lernen

 In times of crisis, PR practitioners become leaders. Advisers look to us to disseminate information to the public and craft strategic plans to remediate tough circumstances. Learning from one another’s experiences will in turn strengthen our profession.

Case in point, this weekend the attacks on Mumbai left India devastated. An AdAge article on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, recapped the unfortunate event.

Terrorists attacked ten targets in the center of India's financial, marketing, media and film industries. Three days of fighting between members of an Islamist group called the Deccan Mujahedeen and India's police and military resulted in 179 people dead. Most of the fighting took place at the city's premier hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal, which are frequented by foreigners.

 

 I was in at the Bangalore’s Forum Mall when I got the first call about the bomb blasts behind it in Madiwala. Having grown up during the time when Punjab insurgency was at its height and traveling through Delhi was a hurdle race through checkposts, the Bangaloreans (is there such an entity?) response to the Friday happenings was interesting. There was not even a controlled aggression visible on the faces of the security staff of the Mall. I actually walked back into the Mall a second time to put up a ticket I left in the PVR vending machine and voila this time I dint even pass through the metal detector because the Security Staff was checking with the public on where the next blast had been reported by ?? (TV or radio). The next blast was somewhere near Adugodi, a close by area.

 I have been working with PR agencies in India for almost 12 years and the last 3 years have been with a leading agency in India. One of their key clients that I handled was on mobile telephony. As is true to the nature of the client, crisis was an everyday issue.

Crisis always led to chaos and chaos to confusion, resulting in numerous phone calls, direction less running around and tension. I wondered why such situations cannot be approached in a more systematic and planned way. While conducting my study with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) UK, I chose Crisis Communication as my personal project. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts and the theories behind it.