What Were They Thinking?: Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad, and the Totally Clueless

Prudential’s Terror Threat: The "Rock" Gets It Right

The threat of a terrorist attack is a constant worry in our daily lives—for good reason. Many terrorism experts believe that another attack is coming; we just don’t know when or where. Given this fact, it’s reasonable to assume that most organizations have a disaster plan that includes a comprehensive crisis communication strategy. But they don’t. It is estimated that the majority of American workers don’t have any idea what such a plan would be in their individual workplace. So what would you do if you were informed by credible government sources that your organization was a target of a terrorist threat? How would you make this information public? How would you keep your employees calm? How would you keep your stockholders from jumping ship? How would you protect both life and assets? No easy tasks for sure, but these are the kinds of questions we all have to be able to answer before disaster strikes. Prudential CEO Art Ryan, Vice President of Global Security Hank DeGeneste, and Chief Communications Officer Bob DeFillippo were thinking that they needed to handle a pressure-filled “under fire” situation with great care, or the company might easily and quickly take a serious hit to its reputation and image. What were they thinking?. A thoughtful and unified communication plan can help a company or organization not only maintain, but actually enhance its standing in even the most dire of circumstances. The Lesson. 116 Prudential’s Terror Threat THE “ROCK” GETS IT RIGHT Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 116 Consider the case of Prudential Financial, which was specifically identified as a prime terrorist target of al-Qaeda. The call came from federal government officials to Prudential CEO Arthur Ryan on Sunday,August 1, 2004. Immediately Prudential executives, lead by Ryan, put a communication plan in place that serves for all of us as an example of getting it right. Step-by-Step Ryan’s first step in handling this crisis was to identify his key communication people. He turned first to Bob DeFillippo, the company’s chief communications officer, who would coordinate all communication efforts. It was DeFillippo’s role to determine how and when the insurance giant would share sensitive information with employees, the media, and other key stakeholders. The job of sharing this information would be reserved for Ryan himself. DeFillippo also called in Hank DeGeneste, vice president of global security at Prudential, to help him communicate directly with Prudential employees. In August 2004 I spoke with DeFillippo at length about Prudential ’s handling of the situation,1 and he made it clear that one of the most significant aspects of the success of the company’s communication efforts was the immediate and direct involvement of Art Ryan. Ultimately, key stakeholders determine how an organization is evaluated in a crisis. In the case of Prudential, evaluators would certainly include Wall Street and the media, but most directly it was Prudential’s employees who would be most affected by the frightening news and would have the greatest impact on how the company handled the crisis. Many employees were rightfully reluctant to take what they saw as a risk in entering the twenty-four-story Prudential office complex in downtown Newark, New Jersey, which was the specific location of the terrorist target. If they expected to calm those fears, PRUDENTIAL’S TERROR THREAT 117 Adubato_final_book 5/20/08 4:31 PM Page 117 Prudential execs needed a communication plan to give accurate and up-to-date information. According to Eric Battenberg, writing in the fall 2004 edition of The Public Relations Strategist: “The company immediately began communicating [information and safety] measures to employees and explaining the strategies behind them. It did this through an emergency telephone hotline that employees could dial into and through e-mail from CEO Art Ryan.”2 In addition to the electronic communication via e-mail and telephone hotlines, creating opportunities to communicate faceto -face was also critical to the corporation’s crisis communication efforts. DeGeneste lead employee town hall meetings immediately after Ryan was informed about the threat to the company. Providing immediate, real-time, and honest communication helped jittery Prudential employees feel much more secure. These actions assured them that Prudential’s top management was actively engaged and concerned and was making it a priority to inform them regarding any and...