HEADLINE NEWS: What to do when something goes awry

It has been a tough month for a number of New Zealand and global leaders. Locally the Treasury caught a fair amount of flak around a hacking incident, that wasn’t what it initially appeared to be; ANZ New Zealand is grappling with “concern about the characterisation of certain transactions following an internal review of personal expenses” and in the United Kingdom the battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and hence that country, has seen much sabre-rattling and mud-slinging around contenders’ personal lives.

So what is an organisation to do when the actions of someone in a senior leadership role are perceived to fall short of the standards required?

First up, crisis management experts say, it’s important that organisations look to plan for these events well ahead of time.

Fleur Revell-Devlin, the managing director at Impact PR, says one of the most common challenges her company faces is trying to mitigate a situation when then has been no crisis management preparation.

“Relevant executives need to be media trained and they need to be aware that they cannot put