Apart from a short statement offering to hand back her CBE in the wake of the drama about the Post Office scandal, former chief executive Paula Vennells has kept a very low profile in recent years.
Since the 2019 court victory by 555 postmasters against the Post Office, she has been conspicuous by her absence from the limelight.
Her strategy of dealing with her own personal crisis was, arguably, not to have one and hope she’ll be left alone.
By contrast, Baroness Mone decided to go all guns blazing when attacked over her husband’s company, PPE Medro, making £60m profit from defective Personal Protective Equipment. This was a significant U-turn after previously claiming to have had no involvement and threatening to sue anyone who suggested otherwise.
Out came a glossy, over-long promotional video, in which she attempted to take control of the narrative, and an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. In short, her reported defence was that lying is not a crime and everyone in government knew what she was doing.
Few would claim that either strategy has been a success. So, what should you do when faced with a crisis?
Firstly, take a step back and consider what you want to achieve through your communications and the process to getting there.
Mostly, people will want to protect their company or personal brand. Putting your side of the story and conveying the action you are taking are important but so too is the way you do it.
If you care what people think of you, the Vennells approach is a non-starter. By refusing to communicate, you look as though you have something to hide and leave a vacuum for people to fill by saying what they like, within the law. Although making false statements is libellous, there can be many correct statements that are damaging and fair comment is also acceptable.
Despite handing back her CBE, the public opinion of Vennells is, arguably, now so low that even if she is exonerated by a public enquiry, her personal brand and that of the Post Office may never recover.
So, why did Mone’s strategy fail so spectacularly? It all comes back to how you convey your message.
In a crisis, two elements are vital – credibility and empathy. You must make people believe you are a decent person doing the right thing, or at least putting right any wrongs. In short, an interview is about getting people to like you.
All credibility was lost when she admitted lying about her involvement with PPE Medro. Everyone has lied at some stage in their life, but when you admit it publicly over such a big issue, how can you ever expect anyone to trust you again? It really is a long way back after that, particularly with the media that you have threatened to sue for telling the truth.
As for empathy, you need to be able to read the room, or have advisors who can do that for you, to help you come across as likeable and relatable.
It may well be that Mone and her family have suffered sleepless nights but playing the victim after making £60m profit from tax payers’ money during a health and cost-of-living crisis was never going to work. Frankly, it’s astonishing that they thought it would and hints as to how out of touch they are with ordinary people.
Her only hope of restoring her reputation would be to dial back on the self-pitying, apologise genuinely for the lying and to pledge that £60m profit to a good cause. Even if they are not found guilty of any wrongdoing, the profit and how it was achieved will continue to leave a nasty taste in the mouth.
It’s a lot of money to give back but how much do you value your reputation?
Most of my work is in helping companies to communicate effectively when they have a crisis that adversely affects their clients.
Good crisis communications can literally make or break a company in this situation and certainly have a material effect on the share price (if you’re a public company) and people’s willingness to buy from you in the future.
Speed is vital – a crisis may not always be the company’s fault, but you will look culpable if you drag your feet over helping those involved.
Often the future of a company can be determined not by the crisis, but by how you handle it. Whilst no-one would ever welcome a crisis, particularly one involving deaths, some companies’ relationships with the public have improved due to the way they acted during their most difficult hours.
I worked with a travel client that had a coach crash in South Africa. The scenes were horrible, with many injuries and pictures of the coach cut in half, splitting the company’s logo.
If it had been handled badly, the takeout from many of the public would have been ‘I’m not travelling with that company because they kill people.’
But the company responded excellently, getting their top executives to the scene immediately, offering all help possible to those affected and their families and communicating throughout.
They showed everyone that they genuinely cared, while at the same time being able to control their emotions to act quickly in the best interests of holidaymakers affected.
So, the takeout became ‘That was terrible for those poor people travelling on that coach but thank goodness they were with company X who were able to help them.”
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Jeremy Skidmore is a communications expert and runs media and presentation training courses for many big brands.
jeremyskidmore.com