Gwinavere Johnston, CEO
Now that all the crisis public relations pundits have weighed in (ad nauseum) about what Toyota should be doing, I’d like to add a note.
So far, it’s been like rolling thunder. One day it’s one recall, two days later it’s another. For the past three weeks, you couldn’t read a newspaper, listen to radio or watch TV – let alone online media – without hearing about another problem for Toyota.
The company is in disarray, they don’t seem to know what’s happening from one day to the next, and their reputation for quality has been severely tarnished. Pity them and their public relations staff. Are they getting any sleep?
What’s happening to Toyota is a crisis counselor’s worst nightmare. One of the principles of crisis communication is to get the bad news out, take you licks and get it over with no matter how hard that is. Toyota is learning that lesson the hard way.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
You hit the nail on the head! All too often a company’s knee-jerk reaction is to try to cover up something like this, when the only logical reaction is to take it on the chin and admit that you screwed up…and then FIX the problem and recoup as much of your reputation as you can. Then, you work very hard to see that it does not happen again! Any time you give the media an excuse to go on a witch hunt, they will blow the event way out of proportion and it will be 10 times worse than if you made the announcement yourself.
Larry W. Lindsey, Pres. & CEO
AFI Media Group