Author: Jonathan & Erik Bernstein

Looking at the past and present state of this important field

Did you know that the first federal emergency management effort was in 1803? Or that losses owing to natural hazards totals more than $1B every week? This collection of historic facts and information about modern trends in emergency management from Emergency-Management-Degree.org will educate you in a hurry.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Take the time to put together this potentially life-saving stash

An emergency kit can save your life, or that of a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker…you get the idea. They’re easy to make and can be stored in the places you frequent – one for home and one in your vehicle can cover most people. The prime reason most don’t seem to have emergency kits is simply not being aware of the need.

Ready.gov recommends the following for a basic emergency kit:

• Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Manual can opener for food
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger

Employers can help their workforce and give themselves a leg up in terms of reducing lost productivity by having these types of supplies handy as well.

Keeping emergency kits just makes sense. They’re inexpensive, last for many years without you paying any attention at all, and they could make all the difference in a disaster.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

 

How you’re perceived online can improve, or sink, your chances of landing that dream job

This post isn’t addressing crisis management, at least not in the traditional sense. However, we do speak with students across the country during guest lectures, as well as encountering a good number of job seekers ourselves, and thought the info in this BCjobs.ca graphic was too valuable to not pass along. The internet truly is a double-edged sword when it comes to the hunt for employment. After all, actions from many years past or a moment of stupidity can come back to haunt you. But, with a little bit of work, you can also showcase your personality, knowledge, and ability like never before.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Give your reputation a leg up with every step you take on social media

Social media is used for many things – marketing, sales, customer service, and SEO to name a few. But, one common thread that should run throughout all of these is a focus on improving reputation. In this simple infographic, internet marketing pro Andy Jenkins shares some advice on how getting social can give your reputation a boost:

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Online behavior has a direct impact on real-world results

Representing your brand well on social media is one of the most important things you can do to protect and grow your reputation. Solid effort that catches the attention of, and engages with, stakeholders will take you far. On the flip side, if your online attitude and customer care turns people off, or if you decide to go to the dark side and manipulate using questionable methods like false reviews, you’re in for a big hit to business.

In a stat-filled infographic, the Chartered Institute of Marketing has shared a ton of useful information on just how brand transparency on social media impacts reputation:

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter,Crisis Manager]

Simple steps to protect your systems

This infographic from F-Secure may be in comic strip form, but the topic is no joke. The use of ransomware is growing rapidly, largely due to the fact that it puts money directly in attacker’s pockets without them having to turn around and sell information on the black market. By taking the simple steps outlined below you can drastically reduce the impact a ransomware attack has on your organization.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter,Crisis Manager]

Are you doing all you can to keep private information secure?

Just about every organization keeps private information regarding customers, employees, or both on hand. With attendant responsibility to keep that information secure. While it is true that skilled hackers may be able to penetrate any system, it’s important that you take every precaution to prevent that. This is not only for the up-front reason of making it more difficult for anyone who means harm to break in, but also that if a hack does occur you can point to your practices and say with honesty, “We made sure our security practices were those recommended by a security firm with impeccable credentials” or “our security practices were very much in keeping with industry best practices.”

The folks at ShareFile brought in experts to put together a list of the 5 key principles of an information security plan, which they state as:

1. Inventory your data. Keep track of all personal information stored in your files and computers.
2. Trim down and minimize. Store only the data that is crucial for operation of your business.
3. Keep it locked. Make sure to lock your computers and file storage to keep information secured.
4. Remove what is unnecessary. Trim down non-essential data and do away with the irrelevant and unimportant.
5. Be prepared for the worst. Devise a strategy for dealing with unfortunate events involving a security breach.

If you’re looking to assemble your own plan, or want to double-check that an existing one covers all the bases, ShareFile’s full Data Security Guide is a worthwhile read.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter,Crisis Manager]

Great no-cost resource for crisis education

One of the great things about the internet is the vast amount of knowledge available on any subject. Near and dear to our hearts, of course, is anything related to crisis management. Resources with quality content are always a welcome find, and we realized many people aren’t aware that FEMA offers a completely free course focus on social media in emergency management. While FEMA has taken a beating in the past, the organization took those hard lessons to heart and made its emergency management efforts both realistic and effective, making it a great source for information on how to handle ugly situations.

There is always something more to learn when it comes to crisis management. We’ve checked out the FEMA course ourselves, and the information within is a solid resource for anyone looking to improve their emergency management capabilities.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter,Crisis Manager]

Create a solid foundation for communication in crisis

Crisis communications plans cannot be cookie-cutter, but there are certain principles that apply to just about every situation. Get the core bits down pat, and you’ll leave yourself significantly more room to think about incident-specific actions or outside-the-box solutions to the issue at hand.

In a simple yet highly informative infographic, India-based reputation firm Astrum did a great job of presenting Crisis Communications 101 in visual form:

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is vice president for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter,Crisis Manager]

[Editor’s note: This guest post, originally published on the Triad Strategies blog, looks at the impact of VW’s $14 billion U.S. owner compensation agreement, and what it may mean to the company if similar amends are to be expected overseas where nearly 20x the number of vehicles have been affected. Although VW’s annual revenue is about $236b, we’re looking at the potential for a devastating $300b payout if the EU deal looks similar to the one here in the States.]

A few months back, we posted a couple of items regarding Volkswagen’s diesel emission test cheating scandal. We opined that by blatantly violating the law, the company’s brand had been severely tarnished, and the Road to Brand Redemption would be exceptionally long and hard.

That ka-boom you may have heard a few days ago, even above the din of “The Brexit,” was another shoe falling on Volkswagen. U.S. government lawyers announced a proposed settlement with the company, totaling $14.7 billion for compensation to owners of the 475,000 emission cheating Volkswagens and Audis sold in this country, for buybacks of the vast majority of them and, essentially, in fines.

The size of that settlement, still subject to federal court approval, would be second only to that reached last year with BP for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which began at $18.7 billion and grew with additional claims. Until now, the largest class-action settlements against automakers were the $2 billion agreement with GM over faulty ignition switches and $1.4 billion with Toyota over flawed accelerators.

When last we examined the Volkswagen fiasco, we laid out the steps that the company had taken as it began its journey to redemption. To review, Volkswagen almost immediately admitted its transgressions, accepted responsibility, apologized, promised full cooperation with regulators and investigators, assured customers it would “make it right” with them, and replaced the company’s leadership.