Crisis & Issues Management
Hill & Knowlton advises clients on how best to navigate serious or complex issues while keeping their reputations intact, working closely to ensure that a client's first response to a crisis is appropriate. How a company behaves in the first hours of a crisis can determine whether it sustains or avoids major damage to its reputation.
We believe that key message development and stakeholder communications are the two critical factors in a crisis. These elements allow us to set strategy, train spokespeople and provide onsite logistical assistance and ongoing counsel as a crisis unfolds. Often our most notable contribution is preventing situations from becoming media events.
We have handled riots and protests, allegations of corporate criminal behavior, ethical issues, product health and safety and financial issues. Our crisis specialists have averted situations for many high-profile brands, introduced communications and coalition-building programs to inoculate companies from reputation legal and other risks, and promoted transparency surrounding company's working practices and environmental programs.
Depending on client need, our support includes crisis vulnerability assessing, crisis communications planning, crisis media training, crisis simulation exercising, information monitoring and analysis and 24/7 crisis response.