You watched the crisis public relations of BMW and MINI, and I saw the “5S airplane model” of workplace crisis management

For operations, you may encounter situations where you need to deal with emergencies in the workplace. How should we deal with these emergencies? This article takes the crisis public relations events of two well-known brands as examples, and summarizes a set of "5S airplane models" in the public relations handling process of these two events, hoping that it will be helpful to you in the workplace.

1. Introduction

There are bound to be many crisis situations in the workplace, such as "customer complaints, leadership lectures, system errors, work delays", etc. If not handled properly, it will greatly affect personal career development.

This article uses the two cases of "BMW MINI Booth Crisis" and "Haidilao Rat Gate" to summarize a set of workplace crisis management methods "5S Airplane Model" for everyone.

I hope you all have a happy work and a happy life~

2. Negative case: Crisis public relations incident at the BMW MINI booth in Shanghai

I believe that you are all very familiar with the crisis incident at the BMW MINI booth in Shanghai, so I will not go into details here. Our focus is to review BMW's crisis public relations history and see what negative points can be seen from the crisis public relations handling measures:

3. Positive case: Haidilao "rat gate" incident in 2017

1. Quick Case Review

Let’s look at a comparative case.

On the morning of August 25, 2017, Kanfa News, a subsidiary of Legal Evening News, published an article titled "Reporters spent 4 months secretly visiting Haidilao: rats crawled into food cabinets and hot pot colanders were used to clean sewers." In the article, reporters went undercover at Haidilao Jinsong and Taiyanggong stores in Beijing and found that bad things were happening in the kitchens of both stores.

In the Jinsong restaurant, a rat was found crawling into the food cabinet in the back kitchen, and the staff washed the broom, dustpan and rag together with the dishes. In the Taiyanggong restaurant, the reporter found that the hot pot colander was used as a tool to remove garbage from the sewer.

2. Crisis response process

3. Summary of response results

Haidilao's crisis public relations this time was called a "textbook operation" by industry insiders. It quickly reversed the direction of public opinion while the existing negative events remained unchanged. About three hours after the incident broke out, Haidilao quickly made two responses, one internal and one external. In fact, after Haidilao issued an apology letter and a handling notice, it calmed the anger of many consumers because of its quick response and sincere apology.

Haidilao's crisis public relations in the "rat gate" incident was undoubtedly successful. It responded quickly and gave feedback within four hours, had a complete crisis handling plan, the management took the initiative to take responsibility, appeased employees, and introduced authoritative institutions, etc. Haidilao achieved transparency in this crisis public relations incident. The overall transparency of crisis public relations has restored the confidence of customers for Haidilao. In particular, Haidilao gave the specific person in charge of each rectification measure in the announcement of rectification measures, which made the public feel that Haidilao's rectification was real and seemed to be able to see how the person in charge of Haidilao promoted the rectification.

4. Crisis PR in the workplace: “being lectured by the leader”

The two cases, one positive and one negative, have given us a great shock, from BMW MINI's " It's not my fault, you think too much, it really doesn't matter " to Haidilao's " I will take the blame, I will correct this mistake, I will do it right away ". The contrasting public relations results also prove that excellent crisis public relations can not only turn danger into safety, but also increase more brand recognition and market position.

In the workplace, there are actually many scenarios that are very similar to crisis situations, among which "being lectured by the leader" is very representative.

Below I will analyze the similarities between the two in five aspects.

1. Golden Hour Rule

There is a golden 4-hour rule for crisis public relations, especially in the current era of the Internet's fission and high-speed communication, more governments, media and the public will pay close attention. As the saying goes, "Good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels a thousand miles." How quickly a company responds and how it seizes the opportunity of public opinion directly determines the direction of the situation.

There is also a golden 12-hour rule for being reprimanded by the leader. If the employee does not take the initiative to understand the cause of the accident, seek solutions, or communicate with the leader within 12 hours of receiving the warning, then the situation will inevitably slide into the abyss.

2. Since you are found, either you take direct responsibility or you manage the responsibility

After a crisis occurs, the public will be influenced by their first impressions and other people's opinions. They are also willing to play the role of savior and chief judge, and will continue to speculate and forward opinions, thus constantly pushing the situation to a climax.

After a crisis occurs, the company must first identify its own position, because as long as the matter is related to you, you either have direct responsibility or management responsibility.

Moreover, as the stronger party in the social economy, enterprises should bear more social responsibilities. Even if the other party has other hidden secrets or other responsibilities. At this time, we should not argue about how much is right or wrong, we should not hold our own opinions, and we should not arbitrarily pass the buck. Such stupid moves will only arouse public disgust, and at the same time make the public believe that the strong attitude of enterprises is overbearing and unreasonable and makes things worse.

For example, in the BMW MINI crisis, the public firstly paid attention to whether there was any instigation from the company, which was the direct responsibility of the company; secondly, they paid attention to whether there was any management failure, which was the management responsibility of the company. However, BMW MINI made a series of stupid moves, so it is no wonder that more people firmly believed that "BMW is really eating the Chinese people's food and smashing the Chinese people's pot".

Even when being reprimanded by the leader, he still behaves like this! If the leader finds you, it means that you are the one who caused this mess, or your subordinates helped you to do it. Is it unfair? It is not unfair!

Therefore, it is crucial to understand the boundaries of your own responsibility. Unless this matter really has nothing to do with you, you can fight back with confidence. Otherwise, as long as you have the slightest management responsibility, you will have to stand at attention and take a beating.

3. Before telling the truth, I want an attitude

Perhaps some of you have noticed that BMW MINI’s statement also mentioned “poor internal management”. But why does this apology attitude always make us feel uncomfortable?

In fact, if we compare Haidilao's statement carefully, we can find that the difference between the two lies in two words: attitude; and the most direct reflection of attitude is also two words: "number of words" and "tone".

BMW's statement is short and has no corporate seal (although it is an official media, it lacks corporate credibility without a seal), and the tone of the whole statement is cynical, insignificant, and understated. In contrast, Haidilao's statement has many more words, and it feels sincere at first glance. The content is also powerful, resolute, full of affection and regret. It makes people feel full of responsibility.

As a country with a history of thousands of years, the Chinese have mastered the writing skills to perfection. As the saying goes, "The writing is like the face, and the writing is like the person". Even if you have 50% affection, you can never write an article with 100% power.

Being reprimanded by the leader is nothing more than this! If you are serious, then the boundary of responsibility for the mistake is only the oversight; if you are perfunctory, then the root cause of the mistake is attitude. Attitude is the root of things. If you are incompetent, you will only make one mistake; if you have a bad attitude, you will always make mistakes. Correspondingly, if you are serious, the leader will discuss the matter; if you are not serious, the leader will also blame you for something else. So, you must have a correct attitude, don't let a bad attitude cause you trouble.

4. I asked questions in great detail, but you just skimmed through the details.

Having a correct attitude can only control the speculation and fabrication of public opinion in the short term, but in the future we must show sincerity in doing practical things!

Comparing BMW MINI and Haidilao, we can find that after the first statement, BMW not only did not immediately start to make corrections, but was still looking for excuses, not realizing that the public is no longer concerned about your responsibility, but what improvements you are making right now!

In contrast, Haidilao has taken a series of actions, including issuing a notice of handling internally and a statement on actively implementing rectification and actively accepting social supervision externally, truly fulfilling its promise of "making a mistake once, never making it again".

Sincerity cannot be expressed with a simple “I’m sorry”, but must be explained through a thorough investigation. The purpose of thorough investigation is to answer a series of questions, such as “how to minimize the risk, how to punish the party responsible for the risk, how to establish a long-term mechanism to eliminate the risk, and how to introduce a third-party agency to supervise the risk”.

According to subsequent reports, Haidilao has completed rectification in its stores nationwide, with more than 60 old stores nationwide being the focus of the renovation, with each store spending an average of 50,000 yuan to upgrade surveillance. In addition, Haidilao has added a back kitchen display area, live broadcasts of the back kitchens of all stores in Beijing, and Haidilao has set up visit cards in stores, so consumers can apply to visit the back kitchens. These are long-term measures to get to the bottom of the matter.

After watching the documentary "14 Seconds That Silenced Japan", I was deeply moved! Japan's ability to dig deep into the 14-second mistake is indeed worth learning from. If you are only criticized after being reprimanded by your leader (just like losing a ball) and do not investigate and reflect afterwards, then this criticism is really worthless. If we ask more questions such as "Why did it go wrong this time? What's wrong with our organization? What's wrong with our process? What's wrong with our performance? How can the industry solve it in the long term? How can we fundamentally eliminate it?" These whys can not only help us find the root cause of the problem, but also turn passivity into initiative and impress our leaders.

5. Workplace Crisis PR 5S Airplane Model

1. Application scenarios of aircraft models

In terms of crisis management in the workplace, the author has summarized a 5S airplane model diagram, which can be used to perfectly deal with various crisis issues in the workplace. For example, it can be applied to scenarios such as "customer complaints, leadership lectures, system errors, work delays" and so on.

2. Detailed explanation of the aircraft model

The entire 5S aircraft model is divided into 5 parts, which correspond to the 5 structures of the aircraft.

The cockpit of the fuselage = Speed ​​​​First Principle (Speed); responsible for speed bonus

If the plane does not have enough speed, it cannot take off; therefore, the principle of speed first is firmly grasped in the cockpit. Only by responding in a race against time can we gain the initiative and allow the plane to take off.

The fuselage itself = the principle of shouldering the matter ; shouldering the core carrier

The fuselage of an aircraft is the core and foundation of the aircraft. If the fuselage is fragile and hypocritical, the faster the speed, the greater the possibility of the aircraft being torn apart. Therefore, the fundamental principle of everything is to uphold the principle of taking responsibility.

The tail part of the fuselage = System operation principle (S ystem ); responsible for unified coordination and control;

The tail of an airplane controls balance. After a crisis occurs, its impact is multi-faceted and the response must also be multi-faceted; it is impossible to deal with it through a single department or a single method. At this time, a three-dimensional system operation is needed. It is necessary to coordinate operations through information channel control, technical solution tracking, and consistent internal and external calibers.

Therefore, whether the aircraft can be balanced requires coordination and control, as well as system operation principles.

The left wing of the fuselage = the principle of sincerity ; responsible for the balance of sensibility and emotion;

How can an airplane operate smoothly and stay within the main channel without turbulence? It needs the support of two wings. The left wing of the airplane controls the sensibility, and the right wing controls the rationality. Only by "speaking the most true truth with a humble attitude" can people accept it calmly.

So, the left wing of the plane, we positioned as the principle of sincere communication.

• The right wing of the fuselage = Authority Confirmation Principle ( Standard ); responsible for rationality and impartial authority;

Trying to justify yourself will only make things worse. Only by introducing a third-party authority at the right time and providing more convincing arguments can we win over the rational mind. Therefore, the right wing of the plane is the principle of authority confirmation.

6. A concluding poem

We are neither involutionary nor resigned in the workplace. As workers, having a good crisis management model and a good attitude can make our work smoother and happier. Here is an impromptu poem:

"There are thousands of things to do at work, but crisis public relations is the first thing to do; I don't know how to use an airplane model, and I'm in tears after layoffs and salary cuts."