Crisis
The defence: rapid narrative assessment, the statement, the apology that lands, and the year after it.
What we do
In the first hours, an assessment of the narrative as it stands: who is making the case, on what evidence, to which audience, and what they need to hear in order to stop. One of us reads it as a case, the other as a room full of people deciding.
Then the statement and, if one is owed, the apology. An apology works when it says what was done in the words the injured party would use, takes the responsibility that is yours, and commits to something checkable. We write it with the litigation exposure in the room and tell you which sentences cost you money and which cost you the audience. Your own advisers rule on the law, and where something needs a practising advocate we refer it out. You choose.
Then the recovery: what you say and do over the following year, so that the crisis becomes one episode in a record. That is usually where executive voice begins.
We do not defend a party we are investigating, and we do not investigate a party we defend.
What you do
Come to us before it is public if you can. Tell us everything, including what the lawyers have told you not to say, because we cannot defend a position we do not know. Be available for the first seventy-two hours, and decide who speaks: one person, whose name is on the statement.
How it is priced
Crisis work is retained before the crisis. A retainer buys an assessment of your exposure now, a plan for the most likely cases against you, and our availability when one arrives. For a client who is not retained, work during a crisis displaces everything else we are doing, and the fee reflects that.
The full list
From the first hours to the year after.
The first hours
- Rapid narrative assessmentWho is making the case against you, on what evidence, to which audience, and what they need to hear in order to stop.
- The holding statementWhat can be said truthfully in the first hours, before the facts are settled, without saying anything you will have to take back.
- Stakeholder triageWho needs to hear from you first, in what order and through which channel: staff, customers, regulators, the press.
- Monitoring and listeningHow the story is moving, who is carrying it and where it is heading, through the first seventy-two hours and after.
The response
- The full public statementOne person's name on it: what happened, what you are doing about it, and nothing that will need correcting later.
- Apology design, led by the behavioural halfWhat was done, in the words of the people affected, the responsibility that is yours, and a commitment someone can check.
- Statement pre-testing before releaseThe statement tested on the people it is aimed at, quietly, before it is published.
- Media question and answer preparationThe questions you will be asked, the ones you dread, and answers short enough to say under pressure.
- Internal and employee communicationsYour own people hear it from you before they read it elsewhere, with what it means for them.
- Spokesperson and media trainingRehearsal on camera in our studio for the person who will speak, with the hard questions asked first.
- Journalist relations and placementYour account put to the reporters covering the story, accurately and on the record.
Afterwards
- Recovery arc planningWhat you say and do over the following year, so the crisis becomes one episode in a longer record.
- Post-mortem and preventionAn honest account of how it happened and what changes, so the same case cannot be made against you twice.
- Reputation rebuild programmeThe work after the crisis, usually where executive voice begins: positions held in public, over time.
- Standby retainer with a defined response timeAn assessment of your exposure now, a plan for the likeliest cases against you, and an agreed time to respond when one arrives.
If it is happening now
Write with Crisis in the subject line, and say in one line what is about to become public, and when.
If nothing is happening yet, ask about the retainer. It begins with an assessment of your exposure as it stands.
One person should write: whoever will be available for the first seventy-two hours.