Stakeholders. How knowing them can prevent a crisis?

Do the right thing in the right time and be coherent from the beginning to the end it is very important in any public relations plan. When we do not follow these simples’ rules, we can all by ourselves build an issue with strong potential to become a crisis.

This week we talked in class, at University of Winnipeg, about the NYC marathon of 2012. After the Hurricane Sandy killed many people, the President and CEO, Mary Wittenberg, said it would not affect the NYC marathon.

The athletes who would flight all over to New York for the marathon doubted that it was true and talked on social media about their fears of coming and the marathon being cancelled right after. The mayor of NY, Bloomberg, also kept saying that it would not be cancelled and that it would continue as a symbol of vigilance.

So, the runners came… and then, the mayor cancelled the marathon.

According to him:

“The decision was made after it became increasingly apparent that the people of our city and the surrounding tri-state area were still struggling to recover from the damage wrought by the recent extreme weather conditions. That struggle, fueled by the resulting extensive and growing media coverage antagonistic to the marathon and its participants, created conditions that raised concern for the safety of both those working to produce the event and its participants. While holding the race would not have required diverting resources from the recovery effort, it became clear that the apparent widespread perception to the contrary had become the source of controversy and division.”

That is a good example of how important is to do the right thing from the beginning and to bee coherent. If they had cancelled it right after the Hurricane Sandy, the athletes would not be THAT mad.

At the end, all people want is for you to listen and respect them, no need to do any research to know that. Besides, it is important to have in mind that New Yorkers are really proud of New York, that they love the city, and after something so catastrophic such as the Hurricane Sandy, it should be acknowledgeable that the best to do was cancelling it. The importance of understanding your stakeholders in a crisis situation is THAT valuable. It is a simple rule (indeed), but it’s the one we tend to forget when under pressure.