As we’ve seen recently with both Starbucks and Disney, when a crisis hits, you must act fast. Earlier this week CommCore CEO Andy Gilman was quoted about this in the CNNMoney article, “Strategy for Disney and Starbucks: Quick, bold action against racism.”
Companies should generally follow three rules when responding to a crisis: Be fast, be factual and be flexible, according to Andrew Gilman, founder of the crisis communications firm CommCore Consulting Group.
Disney acted quickly and responded to the facts. In this case, he said, there was no room to be flexible.
“They basically tried to cut out the cancer rather quickly by removing Roseanne,” Gilman said.
“This is the instant ‘good job,'” he said. But “they haven’t changed the narrative.”
He added that a member of Disney’s leadership team should send out a memo to staff reaffirming that Barr’s statements don’t align with company culture.
… “You can criticize Starbucks all you want to on whether this [response] is too little,” Gilman said. But “that’ s a good debate to have.” Rather than focusing on the incident itself, critics are now wondering if Starbucks’ anti-bias efforts are enough.