Following the Media furore greeting the recent appointment of former RBS chief exec Sir Fred Goodwin by architecture firm RMJM, we asked two PR experts how organisations can manage the communication of controversial news.

As the same general principles apply to any contentious issue (from Johnnie Walker’s withdrawal from Kilmarnock or the go-ahead for the Beauly to Denny power line) it is worth focusing on the issue of how to manage contentious news in general rather than get distracted by the issues specific to the Goodwin/RMJM story because there are some fundamental lessons to be learned that are germane to all such instances.

The first is that controversial news is invariably readily identifiable by the organisation concerned prior to its release to the media (if it has not been identified as such then this is effectively a catastrophic failure of the public relations function). Given that the capacity for a news item to be deemed controversial can be identified in advance, it follows that the release of that information can, at least to an extent, be managed.

To what extent it can be managed will vary according to the specific case in question but, crucially, to whom the news is communicated, how it is communicated and when it is communicated are all factors that can be controlled by the organisation issuing the news.

Taking each of these in turn, controversial news should always, where possible, be communicated to those publics (employees, investors, shareholders etc) directly affected by the news prior to its wider dissemination via the media. The means of that communication should be as personal as practicably possible (one-to-one, face-to-face briefings, group meetings to telephone calls).

Similarly, the timing of releasing controversial news stories should be as soon as practicably possible in order to maximise the capacity for the release of the information to be managed effectively. The longer it takes to release a controversial story, the more likely it is that it will leak out via an uncontrollable source, unmanaged and with far greater potential for damaging an organisation’s reputation than if it had been communicated sooner and through the proper channels.
Of course, as well as managing the release of controversial news, the fact that it can be readily identified in advance means that the reaction of the media to it should be able to be anticipated by public relations advisers. Any organisation concerned about the protection and management of its reputation would therefore be well-advised to seek the advice of PR practitioners about how best to communicate news with inherent potential for controversy to the media.

Able to anticipate the media response to controversial news stories, PR practitioners should therefore be able to control, at least to some extent, the degree of controversy which some sections of the media will seek to stir up around any given story, by addressing the various controversial aspects raised by the news directly and as comprehensively as possible in the initial communication.

Graham Lironi is co-founder and director of Liquorice Media 

WILL FRED SHRED RMJM’S REPUTATION?
Global architecture firm RMJM raised heckles last week when news slipped out that it had appointed Sir Fred Goodwin as a senior adviser.

Politicians ranted, editorial comments fulminated and sources within the practice itself were said to be less than impressed, following 1,000 job cuts at the global architecture giant.

All told, an unedifying little spat that the media gladly exploited to provide a bit of light diversion from the long road of electioneering that lies ahead.

Given that an 11-year old could have seen that coming one wonders at the strategic logic behind allowing the story to drip out in to the media?  If there’s a golden rule about handling anything contentious it’s that you should start on your front foot and stay there.  Letting the story leak – for that is what seems to have happened – is an odd starting point, not to say a weak one.

But that consideration is secondary towhether Goodwin’s appointment was wise in any event.  After all, this chap is the media’s bette noir.

RMJM is a global business and whilst the British public may wish to recover its pound of flesh after Goodwin’s disastrous tenure at RBS, the good folk of Abu Dhabi, Philadelphia and Hong Kong probably care little for his background.  That clearly will have influenced the thinking of RMJM’s chairman, Sir Fraser Morrison.

Moreover, he will know that Sir Fred’s extensive international experience and contacts will retain some value in abusiness that must adapt and adjust to the shifting sands of global economic and political currents.  Whatever you may think about Goodwin’s evident hubris whilst at RBS, the value of his black book and wider experience will have lost little of its currency.

Don’t expect that to calm the siren voices among the political classes, of course.

“People in the public sector should think long and hard before awarding contracts to this company,” stomped Michael Connerty, the Labour MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk.  A good sound-bite that earned him some short-term limelight, but is it likely to live long in the memory of UK clients?

The story has already lost traction with the media and will be doing so with the wider UK business community and public sector commissioners.  The risk lies in it being regurgitated at each point RMJM finds itself in the UK news – and this may be the point at which it harms its business

Imagine, for example, you’re a senior officer in a major Scottish local authority and you’ve shortlisted an RMJM design for a new school.  The shortlist is announced in the local media, who then go on to remind their audience about the Goodwin connection and perhaps ask questions in their editorial about the firm’s suitability for such an important task.

Local politicians raise their eyebrows and officers, seeing which way the wind is blowing, find that RMJM’s bid deserves a marginally lower score than a rival’s.  Due process would be followed to the letter, of course.  But the result would satisfy more than it would upset.

And that is where the real risk lies for RMJM’s UK operations.  It’s a good job, then, that Sir Fred’s brief is an international one.

Dougal Paver, managing Director, Paver Smith & Co.