Rising above

A book by a veteran journalist and a communications expert examines what we can learn from how companies face unexpected crises.

THERE is a common saying: “By the time you hear the thunder, it is too late to build the ark.” When unexpected crises occur, it always comes down to practice, planning and preparation – you can never be too ready for anything.

According to authors M. Krishnamoorthy and Dr David Kirkham, many Malaysian officials were caught by surprise when the MH370 incident happened last year, and as a result, made many mistakes when initially dealing with the crisis. While they improved dramatically as time went on, the initial mistakes were difficult to recover from, the authors said.

Their book, Flying Through Crisis: MH370 Lessons In Crisis Communications, examines memorable moments on how Malaysian officials fared in managing the media, rightly or wrongly, and explains how to prepare and perform professionally in managing the media.

“If you have an organisation that has had no training, and you get hit with a crisis, you have no choice but to learn on the job. And when you do that, you tend to make mistakes. And recovering from these early mistakes is what people tend to remember, because people tend to focus more on the negative than the positive,” says Kirkham at an interview last week.

“The book does not speculate over the final resting place of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 nor does it seek to explain why the Boeing 777 disappeared. What it does do is provide sound and entirely practical advice on how to handle communications in a complex and long-running crisis,” Krishnamoorthy adds.

Flying Through Crisis was created after a year of research on the subject, and contains eyewitness accounts, reinforced with case studies of international and Malaysian journalists reporting on radio and television, and in newspapers. It also examines the role of social media in relation to the mainstream media.

“We’ve tried to be as balanced and objective as possible. We’ve also been critical of journalists in the book. Some of the things they’ve done have been reprehensible,” Kirkham says.

Krishnamoorthy, 65, is a veteran journalist who has worked with both local and international media, including The Star, and broadcasters such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and others. He covered the MH370 event for over two months while working with international media. Kirkham, 72, who hails from Liverpool, Britain, is an international crisis communications expert and trainer who has trained people in many countries, including Australia, Britain, China, Japan, and Russia. The two have a combined 60 years of experience in crisis communications.

The authors say Flying Through Crisis addresses media relations, press conferences, written statements, interactions between media and families, social media use, training spokespeople, media agendas, angles and politics, and delivering key messages. Additionally, the book introduces dynamic strategies as a framework for planning by crisis teams.

“For example, one way of facing the media like a champion is by having a mock drill. Even Obama doesn’t take things for granted. He has one for every press conference,” says Krishnamoorthy.

“There is no substitute for preparing immediately before. Think of what questions you don’t want to be asked, and if you get them, what you are going to say. What are the messages you want to put across? A lot of people think they’re just talking to the journalist. They’re not! They’re speaking to the public,” Kirkham points out.

The duo bring up the time when the Prime Minister held a major press conference in March last year to announce that MH370’s journey had ended in the South Indian Ocean; the book discusses why he chose to end the

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