About Sam Elam

This week an AFR article said that the CEO of Optus, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin was “labelled ‘unavailable’, ‘defensive’, ‘out of touch’ and ‘just not good enough'”; how the company communicated with its customers and the government during a day-long network blackout this week has been met with only criticism”.

And in this article that “a Canberra press gallery reporter breaks the story of the breach” and “reveals details that Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin doesn’t in her subsequent press conference. From the first moments of the crisis, the company had already lost control”.

And this….

“When Bayer Rosmarin eventually fronted the media as school children were heading to recess, she rolled out some obfuscatory waffle about the outage being too hard to explain, despite the media unpacking the likely cause”.

And like last year, when Optus had a data breach, there was no apology to customers as the first thing that came out of the mouths of the company spokespeople, including Bayer Rosmarin.

Surely since last year the company and their spokespeople have reviewed their crisis communications plan and done some crisis media spokesperson training.

But it doesn’t appear that way and the impression the company gave this time around was once again lacking in genuine concern for the primary stakeholder – the customer base. It appears they also forgot about the power of the government as a key and influential stakeholder. Again, the government attacked Optus ferociously and publicly.

Were there no lessons learnt from last year?

Here are four primary tips:

1. Have a good crisis communication plan that analyses the main stakeholders and know what they want and/or need to hear.
2. Show care and concern quickly to the people who matter the most and who are significantly and adversely affected – like customers.
3. Have regular media crisis training so you appear in control – impression is everything to shape opinions and attitudes.
4. Be fast communicating – don’t hide.

Transport NSW saw its Sydney Digital Train Radio System (DTRS) fail, resulting in the Sydney Trains network shutting down immediately and all trains halting for safety reasons. This, of course, caused extreme commuter chaos for the evening peak hour.

Sydney Trains chief executive, Matthew Longland, is obviously a strong graduate of media training and stakeholder communications and was quick off the mark to communicate with his stakeholders.

His communication and key messages were clear and to the point. He relayed the services that had been affected – nearly 3,000 of them – and ruled out any thoughts of a scary infrastructure cyber attack.

He expressed the need to shut down for commuter safety, communicated that most passengers were safely moved to platforms, and he put the incident into perspective, saying that the Sydney train network had never been affected by this system’s failure before.

Then Sydney Trains was on the front foot when the trains started running a couple of hours later, using social media and news media to get the message out.

The key to good executive communication and reputation protection is fast, factual information that stakeholders need; not corporate weasel words.

In this case, people needed to know if and when they could to get to where they needed to go. Particularly, for some, for the all-important commute home after work.

Executives need to learn media interview skills because they are often expected to be the public face of their company or organisation. They are expected to do this well to create the right ‘impression’ of their organisation to positively influence stakeholders and the public. This means they must communicate effectively with the media.

By mastering media interview skills, executives can:

1. Communicate their company’s message effectively: Executives need to be able to communicate their company’s message clearly and effectively during media interviews. They need to understand how to use language that resonates with their target audience and stay on message.
2. Present the right image: Executives need to present the right image for their organisation during interviews to build trust and credibility with their audiences and stakeholders. This includes using appropriate body language, tone of voice, and demeanour.
3. Handle difficult questions: Executives must be prepared to handle difficult questions, including those that may be sensitive or controversial or have the potential to cause reputational damage.

This requires them to learn advanced media interview skills and know how to respond to tough questions in a way that is honest, transparent, and respectful but also protects their organisation’s reputation.

Overall, media interview skills now more than ever are an essential requirement for executives who want to be effective communicators and need to represent their organisation in the best possible light.

Issues Management Communications and Spokesperson Guidelines for Airports During Baggage Handling Issues

It seems every week one of Australia’s airports experiences technical IT issues that affect the efficient handling and delivery of baggage.

The most recent one being in Brisbane.

Travellers, of course are the most important stakeholder in this issues management.

What do travellers want to know?

They do not want to have long, technical details on the IT system’s failures.

In this stakeholder engagement situation, they want to be acknowledged for the inconvenience and direct impact of a ‘go-slow’ on baggage or check-in as a result of the baggage systems not working. They want to know the extent of the issue and when it will be fixed.

They also want airport and airline staff (even though it may not be their IT issues causing the problem) to apologise for the inconvenience.

In Brisbane recently, the Brisbane Airport Corporation obviously had some effective key messaging and probably media training in issues management and communication. Its spokesperson communicated via the news media saying:

“The vast majority of passengers are flowing smoothly through the airport.

The issue is contained to the system serving Jetstar, Rex, Link Airways and Aerlink at the Domestic Terminal.

Technicians are working on the issue and the airport has reverted to manually handling baggage.

Check-in will be slower than usual this morning.

We are working hard to resolve this IT issue so that we can keep any flight delays to a minimum.

Brisbane Airport Corporation apologises for any inconvenience.”

They also updated travellers when the issue was fixed.

Although travellers are never happy about delays of any kind at an airport, Brisbane Airport were on the front foot with stakeholder communication and media keeping them and airlines informed. This is a great example of putting your most important stakeholders first in your communications.