Bank of America Preps for a Crisis That May Not Happen
The best time to deal with a crisis is when there isn't one. That's apparently what Bank of America is doing. A recent New York Times story revealed that BofA executives are in a near panic preparing for a possible data dump by WikiLeaks. The group's enigmatic spokesman Julian Assange has said in interviews that he has an entire hard drive of information from an executive of a leading financial institution, which could be his next target.
There's no confirmation that the target is Bank of America. Still, BofA brass are taking proactive steps to prepare for the worst. And they should. No business, especially one as big as BofA, should be without a plan to deal with a crisis, even when it's unclear what the crisis is. In most cases, it's not the crisis itself that is the problem, it's how the company responds and deals with it that defines future success or failure. There are plenty of case studies of companies that have come out of a crisis in better shape than before due to the way they managed the response. Then there are other examples of companies (Firestone Tire Company comes to mind) that completely botched a crisis and virtually put themselves out of business.
“This is a significant moment, and Bank of America has to get out in front of it,” said Richard S. Levick, a veteran crisis communications expert. “Corporate America needs to look at what happens here, and how Bank of America handles it.”
OK, but if I was advising BofA, I'd tell them not to worry too much. For one thing, the "revelations," if you want to call them that, by WikiLeaks regarding US foreign affairs have so far been pretty underwhelming. They seem to show (gasp!) that American diplomats and negotiators are doing their jobs! I suppose that's worth a headline. And previous disclosures by WikiLeaks concerning Barclays of Britain and Bank Julius Baer of Switzerland were, well, you remember those stories right?
Also, will anyone be shocked if the WikiLeaks documents show that BofA was scamming its borrowers or misleading its shareholders, or that its disastrous acquisition of Countrywide, the big subprime mortgage lender, was a topic of internal debate?
On the other hand, if BofA thinks there are some embarrassing revelations to come, they need to get out in front of the story now - release the offending e-mails, offer apologies, fire some people involved, whatever. Don't wait for WikiLeaks to define the story. Because the story of WikiLeaks is not the substance of the documents it has in its possession, its the optics - the crusading truth-seeker lifting the veil of secrecy in government and corporations around the world, stoking the odor of scandal and corruption even when there is none. BofA's reputation can be damaged just by being in the same headline with WikiLeaks, even if no one pays much attention to what the documents actually say, and most people won't. That's why BofA should tell its own story, warts and all. Julian Assange's version will be worse.
Twitter Update: By now, most of us in the PR and news world know that when a big story breaks, the place to go is Twitter. The recent accident with the ski lift at Sugarloaf was no exception. Twitter had the pictures and first person accounts well ahead of most major news organizations. But even I was surprised at Twitter's global reach. Mere minutes after I tweeted that my son was one of the people trapped on the lift, I received calls and e-mails from the local TV stations and newspapers, plus the Boston Herald, New York Daily News, and even an invitation to appear the next day on the CBS Morning Show. For a variety of reasons, we declined, but it was another demonstration of Twitter's growing impact on news and news gathering.
There's no confirmation that the target is Bank of America. Still, BofA brass are taking proactive steps to prepare for the worst. And they should. No business, especially one as big as BofA, should be without a plan to deal with a crisis, even when it's unclear what the crisis is. In most cases, it's not the crisis itself that is the problem, it's how the company responds and deals with it that defines future success or failure. There are plenty of case studies of companies that have come out of a crisis in better shape than before due to the way they managed the response. Then there are other examples of companies (Firestone Tire Company comes to mind) that completely botched a crisis and virtually put themselves out of business.
“This is a significant moment, and Bank of America has to get out in front of it,” said Richard S. Levick, a veteran crisis communications expert. “Corporate America needs to look at what happens here, and how Bank of America handles it.”
OK, but if I was advising BofA, I'd tell them not to worry too much. For one thing, the "revelations," if you want to call them that, by WikiLeaks regarding US foreign affairs have so far been pretty underwhelming. They seem to show (gasp!) that American diplomats and negotiators are doing their jobs! I suppose that's worth a headline. And previous disclosures by WikiLeaks concerning Barclays of Britain and Bank Julius Baer of Switzerland were, well, you remember those stories right?
Also, will anyone be shocked if the WikiLeaks documents show that BofA was scamming its borrowers or misleading its shareholders, or that its disastrous acquisition of Countrywide, the big subprime mortgage lender, was a topic of internal debate?
On the other hand, if BofA thinks there are some embarrassing revelations to come, they need to get out in front of the story now - release the offending e-mails, offer apologies, fire some people involved, whatever. Don't wait for WikiLeaks to define the story. Because the story of WikiLeaks is not the substance of the documents it has in its possession, its the optics - the crusading truth-seeker lifting the veil of secrecy in government and corporations around the world, stoking the odor of scandal and corruption even when there is none. BofA's reputation can be damaged just by being in the same headline with WikiLeaks, even if no one pays much attention to what the documents actually say, and most people won't. That's why BofA should tell its own story, warts and all. Julian Assange's version will be worse.
Twitter Update: By now, most of us in the PR and news world know that when a big story breaks, the place to go is Twitter. The recent accident with the ski lift at Sugarloaf was no exception. Twitter had the pictures and first person accounts well ahead of most major news organizations. But even I was surprised at Twitter's global reach. Mere minutes after I tweeted that my son was one of the people trapped on the lift, I received calls and e-mails from the local TV stations and newspapers, plus the Boston Herald, New York Daily News, and even an invitation to appear the next day on the CBS Morning Show. For a variety of reasons, we declined, but it was another demonstration of Twitter's growing impact on news and news gathering.
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