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Crisis Management Trends...

This is the final chapter in our book! We have successfully planned how to best avoid and tackle a crisis if Tiffany & Co. were to encounter one. The last chapter wraps up the whole book and discusses trends in Crisis Management.
As the development of the landscape theory continues a theme we will see internally is that organizations will begin to increase the amount of planning they put into crisis management. Crisis will not be seen as much externally as they will affect the organization on the inside as a whole. The victims of crisis are going to becoming more and more public and will be seen as major stakeholders for the organization at the time of the crisis and the stakeholders will lose more and more trust in the organization.
As organizations strategically plan for a crisis in the future the crisis management plans are going to be primarily electronic based and it will be an ongoing process for the organization. Externally crisis management teams will be interacting with more than just those involved in their own organization. We will see a lot of collaboration amongst separate teams and stakeholders.
When the crisis finally hits in the future the main way to communicate with the public will be through the organizations website. Externally as the internet continues to grow it will have much more of an impact on the outcome of a crisis whether positive or negative. The public can communicate with each other much easier now thanks to social media, this could be either good or bad for organizations.
Organizations will continue to try and learn from a crisis after it hits and it is encouraged to research both internally and externally. An organization should really try to get feedback from as many people as possible including those affected and not affected by the crisis, this way they can learn from mistakes and how they can avoid this from happening again.
In conclusion, as you have seen throughout my blog, Tiffany & Co. is not an organization that has dealt with a majorly known crisis in the past. Hopefully with the help of my blog and research if there were something to happen Tiffany & Co. would be able to avoid it or deal with it in a successful manner.

Chaos Theory!

This week in our Crisis Communications class we are learning about the Chaos Theory. The chaos theory is a mathematical and physics theory but our book teaches it to those people that are not familiar with those disciplines. The chaos theory is often used to analyze crisis. With our book being focused on how all the different stages of a crisis, it is necessary to familiarize us with analyzing the crisis using the chaos theory.
This theory helps you to find the clear cause of a crisis. Our book states that a chaos is a time whereby when something happens such as a crisis it actually follows an unknown or hidden pattern. Although Tiffany & Co. is not known for dealing with many crises at all, if they were to encounter a crisis they could use the steps that go along with the Chaos theory. Chaotic systems have two main characteristics, Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions and Unpredictability in the Long Run. Stated simply the sensitive dependence on initial conditions occurs when a slight change in any initial condition can lead to a completely different outcome in the system, which eventually led to the crisis. Unpredictability in the long run is when chaos in the long term cannot be predicted although it is possible in the short term.
When a crisis hits many would claim it to be complete chaos when in fact this is usually not the case. Chaos is a system of events rather than one single event. Crises are usually just one single event they will lead to certain after effects but this would not be chaos if it is a single event. There are five components of the Chaos theory which includes Bifurcations, Attractors, Nonlinearity, Feedback, and Self-Organization. When dealing with a crisis Bifurcations can be seen as the defining moments in the span of a crisis. An attractor can be related to the cause of the crisis. It is very rare that one event causes a crisis many different events or attractors can be linked as the cause. Nonlinear can be explained in a crisis sense that not all things happen in a cause and effect instance. One would never know but a small event may have a major impact on the crisis and vice-versa. Feedback can result in both negative and positive effects. Self- organization relates to the way a company handles a situation after the end of the crisis. It has to do with what needs to be changed within the company and what has been or needs to be changed externally.

Ethics!

This week in our Crisis Communication class we are studying business ethics. With Tiffany & Co. being an internationally well known business they have a lot of responsibilities to fulfill. Tiffany & Co. has something called a corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is composed of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. In order to fulfill the economic part of the CSR they must maximize their revenues while cutting expenses and maximizing their profits. By doing this they will increase their shareholders wealth. They must abide by the law, by keeping up to date with all regulations and industry standards. A major issue for Tiffany & Co. would be to make sure that they are involved in ethical practices. With all the mining that must be done in order to offer their customers with the best products they should make sure they are not involved in any suspicious behavior. One thing I have noticed with Tiffany & Co. is that they definitely fulfill their fair share of Philanthropies. They are constantly involved with charities and benefits, whether it is them sponsoring a benefit or donating to an auction there is often news releases about their involvement.

There is something called the Landscape Survey. This survey looks for clues in the organization’s internal and external environment for anything that may be unethical. The first and most important place to look at in an organization is the board of directors. The founder of the organization has a major role in the ethics that goes on within a company. They then look into whether or not the company is running safe and the environment they are providing for both employees and customers. They also look into the company’s economic motives and lastly they see how vulnerable the organization is in the chosen industry. In order for an organization to avoid an ethical crisis they must abide by all government standards. For a company like Tiffany & Co. they would have to make sure they are practicing environmentally friendly manufacturing. They must also be up to date on all industry standards.

If an organization does encounter an ethical crisis they need to be ready to accept that some people will lose trust in them. Although this is often the case an organization should always be ready to answer questions about whatever crisis they are confronted with. If they can give their shareholders, customers, and employees a clear explanation it can help with any further damage that may be a result of the crisis.

Podcast

Tiffany & Co.

http://www.divshare.com/download/10954207-491

Organizational Learning!

Most people look at a crisis as a very negative event. Although many crises do end with a few or possibly a lot of bad outcomes, some if not all crises can teach an organization many things. Once a crisis is completely over there is actually still more work to be done. This may be the most important part of a crisis; this is known as the learning phase. Here the organization, such as Tiffany & Co., must evaluate the crisis and anything that could have been changed during the events of the crisis as well as what needs to be changed in the organization overall. In order to make sure future crisis will be handled to the best of the organizations ability the crisis management plans need to be altered in some ways by what is learned from the previous crisis.

When it comes to Tiffany & Co. I have mentioned several times they have not dealt with any major crisis, at least not recently or publicly. This could mean one of two things for Tiffany’s they may have learned from smaller crisis in the past or possibly they have just been fully prepared and paid close attention to warning signs. For an organization like Tiffany & Co. if a crisis were to occur they have such a large worldwide corporation they would definitely have a lot of research to do at the closure of the crisis to see how it was handled in the many different branches of their organization.

In order for an organization to be completely ready and aware of a crisis they must constantly be developing new ideas on how to adapt to the current lifestyle of not only their customers but the entire world. An organization must be constantly learning what is going on around them, with their customers, their employees, and the organization as a whole. If an organization does not keep up with their surroundings they will never be able to survive a future crisis. Organizational learning should be a constant for all of those involved in the organization anyone from the CEO to an everyday employee. A company like Tiffany & Co. is very popular and so well known for their premier jewelry that they need to be informed about what is going on around them to make sure they can keep their positive reputation.

Crisis Communication!

What’s Next?! The crisis has hit Tiffany & Co. now what do we do? It is good that we have already put together not only a crisis management team but also a number of different crisis management plans. We have made a number of plans for many different families of crisis and thankfully we now can handle our crisis in a somewhat organized manner.
The first step for us to do is to communicate with our internal stakeholders this would be anyone from the owners to the managers and employees of those stores involved. We must keep them all on track with what is going on within the company and with the crisis itself. It is very important that we have a command center set up so that when any questions arise it is very easy to contact those in charge, with letting all the internal stakeholders know where the command center is is very important. Having the general employees informed about the crisis is also essential because they are always in the spotlight. They will be some of the first people that will have questions asked to them and they need know how to answer or if to answer these questions at all.
When dealing with our external environment we must first designate the spokesperson that will be the main contact for this particular crisis. Three main externals we need to deal with would be our customers, the news media, and the internet. We want our customers to be well informed about what is going on so that they do not have to make up stories in their head about what is actually happening. It is best to always communicate with the media is quick as possible so that they do not mix the story up and make the crisis worse than it actually is. When the media asks a question we always need to be ready to respond. The internet is very important as well because the internet is a main source of information for a large amount of customers. Negative information on the internet will spread quicker anything. That being said the internet needs to be monitored extremely closely.
After the crisis is over and all the stakeholders are well informed it is necessary to conduct the post crisis analysis. Here we can finally see how the crisis was dealt with and if it was dealt with in a positive way. We must decide if the outcome of the crisis could have been less damaging then it resulted in or if the results are of good standing. After evaluating this we can decide what needs to be changed for next time.

The Crisis is Here!

This week in class we have finally encountered a crisis! Although this is not something an organization is excited about, for me as a student it is! We have done all the planning for many different families of crises and we would now be close to prepared if something did actually happen this week.

Now that the crisis has hit the first step for Tiffany & Co. is to decide who the leader should be for this specific problem. In my recent research on Tiffany & Co. I have come to notice that they are always sponsoring different events. As far as I know there has not been a major crisis with any of the events they have sponsored but for purpose of learning we will pretend there was one. If a crisis were to occur during an event they were sponsoring the first thing to do is find the person in charge of the event and have them make the first move as to how to handle the situation. After the leader is chosen they must assess the situational analysis which is one of the first parts of the CMT plan and they will decide what should be done now. They then must mitigate the strategies and assess the situation as the crisis continues to make sure each strategy they are implementing is running smoothly. After the strategies are implemented and assessed they then must choose the spokesperson that will do the majority of the communicating with both the media and the stakeholders about the crisis.

In the Mid-Crisis Stage this will inform Tiffany & Co. one of three things the first one being that the crisis is under control, the second one being that control has not been attained, or lastly that the outcome is completely hopeless. After damage is contained they must communicate with both the internal and external stakeholders and make amends wherever necessary. Towards the end of the crisis Tiffany & Co. needs to evaluate what is going right and what is going wrong for the means of how they can change things in the case that another crisis may occur in the future.

Organizational Strategy & Crises

This week in our Crises Communication class we are discussing intended strategies and realized strategies. Once a company decides what the intended strategy is, they then research the realized strategy. Ever since 1837 Tiffany & Co. has been a premier jeweler for America and has only expanded. After implementing the intended strategy a company always has other issues they need to deal with, which we call the realized strategy which is usually a result of the organization or the environment.

Organizational strategies can be divided into two separate categories either Corporate or a Business Competitive level strategy. While analyzing Tiffany & Co. I did this with the Business or Competitive strategy because it focuses on whom the biggest competition is and most importantly who are there customers as well as how are we going to treat these customers with the utmost respect. In this strategic approach a business is directed to use a generic approach. In the generic approach a company is supposed to emphasize the distinctive set of resources that they will be able to offer their customer base.

After putting the entire strategy together a company must always control what is going on within their organization. In this process the company must really look at all internal factors. They must then evaluate the performance of the organization so that it can be compared after the strategy is implemented. These factors will in turn help them to measure the success of their company both quantitatively and qualitatively. They then should take control where necessary.

The book then encourages that it is necessary to accurately access the performance of the company early so that they can identify any warning signs of a potential crises. For instance, we could say that Tiffany & Co. was having a lot of returns because the clasp on a certain piece of jewelry was continuing to break. They could then go back in the production line of that specific piece and see where the problem may have originated.

If a company continues to access the entire organization it could really help them in avoiding a crises. By coming up with a strategy and then accessing the realized strategy a company can be a step ahead of others by being aware of what is going on in the entire business. If Tiffany & Co. continues to be alert of their main competitors and employees they will continue to have a very smooth running business.

Crisis Management Team and Plan

In chapter 5 it focuses on the importance of having a Crisis Management Team (CMT). It stresses that you must put a team together before a crisis takes place so that they are able to make some plans for potential crises. The team should be composed of at least eight people in different areas of the organization. For Tiffany & Co. it would be composed of the CEO, Michael Kowalski, a member of the Human Resource team, Victoria Berger (President of Global HR), the finance director Patrick McGuiness, as well as the head of security. Without a doubt they will need more than one Public Relations consultant, a legal counsel, and some organizations may have professional crisis consultants. The CMT at Tiffany & Co. would probably be much larger than many organizations because I feel that as a result of them being a worldwide retailer they should have many different people on the team so that all threats are planned for accurately.

The goals of the team are to identify any threats the organization may be facing, for instance for Tiffany & Co. a threat could be any current competitors or threat of new competitors. They then must develop a crisis management plan based on whichever threats they feel are relevant at this time or could become major issues in the coming months. They then must train the team and the organization itself in the case that a crisis does take place and how they will manage it if it does happen. After a crisis occurs the team is still not done working they must evaluate the crisis and see what they can learn from it as well as what they may need to change for the next time when dealing with a crisis.

I have already listed a few potential crises that may occur for Tiffany & Co., those would be some examples of threats they could use as potential problems. They could then order these in importance and begin to make some plans on how to handle these issues if they become major crises. A major point in the crisis management plan is to train the team and employees how to handle a crisis if it were to occur. It is recommended that the CMT runs a few mock disasters in order to train its employees. For instance Tiffany & Co. has stores all over the world and although it would be a huge process but at least one member from the team should somehow visit each store so they can accurately prepare everyone for a crisis.

This week in our Crisis Communication class we are talking about strategic planning and how to assess the vulnerability of the crisis. No matter what the organization or company is they need to always be prepared in the case that a crisis may occur. They need to understand where the crisis could originate from and they need to plan ahead to make sure that when it becomes public they know how they will handle it or better yet how they will prevent it from ever happening. If the company has a crisis management team then they can be aware of what is going on both internally and externally so they can do all they can to avoid the crisis.

There is a strategic way to approach the prevention of a crisis that can be summarized in five steps. You need to begin with analyzing the external threats and the internal vulnerabilities. The team should then formulate a strategy after deciding what the most important things are in the internal and external environment. Then they must execute the strategy and finally control it.

Tiffany & Co. sells luxury goods and does mining all over the world. With America becoming such an environmentally friendly place I feel that Tiffany & Co. should be prepared for any issues that may arise from what they are doing because they could be very vulnerable to an issue of this nature. Although Tiffany & Co. is known to be socially responsible I feel that at any point this could be a problem because slowly but surely the earth’s resources are diminishing. Many people may look at the mining for luxury goods as a negative thing.

A crisis management team should be prepared to be able to back up Tiffany & Co. and the work they need to do to produce their products. There have been some disputes about mining for Jewelry companies and the CEO of Tiffany’s was quick to back up how responsible Tiffany & Co. is when it comes to mining!

This week in my Crisis Management class we are learning about crisis that occur because of the external environment. These crisis include Political issues, Economic Forces, Social Forces, and Technological Forces. When researching Tiffany & Co. I feel that Economic Forces could lead to the biggest crisis for them. Some things that fall into the Economic Forces category is interest rates, inflation, and exchange rates. Exchange rates may end up to be a crisis for Tiffany & Co. because they are an international company and have customers all over the world. The exchange rates fluctuate often and they need to make sure they are always accurate with pricing. Another crisis they can run into is the economic issues that customers may have. If the economy is not doing well they will not spend money on luxury goods such as jewelry. Tiffany & Co. needs to be conscience of these issues so that when they do become a problem they are ready to deal with it before it becomes a major crisis.

In this blog I will be focusing on Tiffany & Co. I will try to apply the information I learn from the textbook and in-class discussion to developing crisis communication strategies for Tiffany & Co. For example, Professor Laskin explained that crisis can be caused by an outside or inside error (deliberate or not). Tiffany & Co., for example, can potentially face a crisis from inside causes such as when current or former employees speak negatively about the management within the company. This website shines a bad light on the management throughout the entire company. The site may give Tiffany & Co. a bad reputation about how they treat their employees. Which could lead to prospective employees not wanting to work at any Tiffany & Co. There are also outside causes that pose a threat towards Tiffany & Co., a major one could be the many different companies that sell fake replicas of their jewelry. These businesses may discourage prospective customers to not splurge for the real Tiffany & Co. jewelry. It may also encourage current customers to shop with a more exclusive company that is not replicated as often. The website I posted on here is not the only company that sells Tiffany replicas there are many different ways that people can buy fake Tiffany's jewelry. These issue could lead to a downfall and major crisis for Tiffany & Co.

This is a student’s blog for Crisis Communication class at Quinnipiac University. As such, I as the author of this blog make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. Opinions expressed on this blog are Rebecca Gress' personal opinions and do not represent opinion of the Quinnipiac University or opinion of the instructor of the class.