A senior manager of corporate communications for a multi-division organization works at organizational headquarters. On a Thursday afternoon, his company was notified by federal authorities that traces of anthrax had been found in a mail bin in a facility where mail is sorted for members of his Senior Executive Team. The facility is located outside of the headquarter's office complex and is staffed by both employees and contract employees.
Later that same Thursday, the federal authorities issued a press release about the anthrax notification to his company and posted the release on their federal internet site. CNN reported the story on TV and on CNN.com. One of the nation's premier newspapers published the story in it's Friday editions.
The communication manager didn't buy the Friday morning newspapers but employee occupants of the elevator he used that morning were discussing the incident as he headed to that Friday morning's quarterly Senior Management Meeting. The Meeting, in the company auditorium, involved a full house of about 300 senior managers. During that Meeting, the Company's medical director announced to the group that as a result of Thursday's anthrax notification, deliveries of mail from the outside world had been suspended temporarily at all divisional locations.
The Meeting ended about 11:30 a.m. and the communication manager went directly to his office and logged on to see what announcement about the anthrax incident had been made to the general employees population on the intranet or by e-mail, by the Chairman, HR or his by communication management executives. To his amazement, there had been no announcement.
Question:
As the senior manager of corporate communications in this situation, what would you have done? Would you have asked for permission to communicate or would you have prepared to ask forgiveness after you had communicated?
What would you have counseled the communication manager to do? Look at What
Happened? and see a consultant's opinion.
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