Handling a crisis as a private firm works to different rules from the playbook most agencies were trained on. A listed company has duties to its shareholders and obligations to disclose. A private firm has neither, and it almost always benefits from saying less, in writing, after thinking, rather than more, immediately, under pressure.
The first discipline is to decline the live interview. A live interview during a difficult moment serves the journalist's story and rarely serves the firm. A written statement, issued after consideration and in the firm's own words, reaches the same readers without handing over the framing. Journalists who insist can be declined politely, and the pieces that result from written answers are usually more accurate rather than less.
The second is to separate what is said publicly from what is said to the people directly affected. Customers, suppliers, counterparties and staff often need to hear something that does not belong in a public statement, and they should hear it directly rather than by reading the same paragraph as everyone else. Confusing the two is among the most common mistakes made under pressure.
The third is to prepare rather than react. A firm that has thought about which situations could plausibly arise, and has drafts ready, handles the real event with a composure that cannot be manufactured on the day. The drafts are not for sending as they are. They exist so that nobody starts from an empty page while the clock is running.
The fourth is to remember that most crises are smaller than they feel at the time. Restraint usually turns out to have been right, and over-communication often inflates the very thing the firm was trying to settle. The exception is anything involving safety or a legal obligation, where speed matters more than composure and the advice above does not apply.
There is a fifth point, which concerns the people inside the business. They will read what is published, and they will notice if it differs from what they were told. A statement that survives contact with your own staff is usually one that will survive contact with everyone else.
Our own standard is set out on the press and media centre page. Written enquiries answered in writing within two working days, no live interviews, and drafts adapted to the specific situation and approved by the principals before anything is issued. The discipline is what makes it hold when something actually happens.
There is one more thing worth preparing in advance, which is who speaks. In a small company the answer is usually a principal, and it should be settled before anything happens rather than in the hour when a journalist is waiting. A single named person, briefed and available, prevents the situation where three people give three slightly different accounts and the differences become the story.
Finally, write down what happened afterwards, while it is fresh. What was asked, what was said, what was learned and what the business would do differently. That note costs an hour and is the only reason the next situation is handled better than the last one.
