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How to de-power your PR in a crisis

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power outage sign imageOn August 27, a very angry Hurricane Irene came calling all up and down the east coast, including Virginia – which is where I live. I have plenty of hurricane experience, including a sojourn 500 miles offshore in a schooner during a Category 1 hurricane. I don’t recommend that experience unless you really want to know what your laundry feels like on max-agitate in your washing machine.

Landmasses with human habitation that are visited by hurricanes always have plenty of wind and flooding damage, and our experience with Irene was pretty typical. Lots of trees were knocked down, which took a lot of power lines with ’em, meaning that lots of local utility customers were in the steamy dark once Irene blew town.

#1 cause of a PR crisis: lots of unhappy people.

No one – at least, no one with a mature level of life experience – could have expected Dominion Virginia Power to restore everyone to lighted bliss immediately. Those of us who were here during Hurricane Isabel (hurricanes with “I” names must hate the Commonwealth of Virginia) knew we were in for a sweaty, dark few days, at least.

Crews from utilities in surrounding states came in to help Dominion crews get us all lit up again. They are still working their butts off, and they are most certainly not the target of this post’s ire.

Because Dominion has truly screwed the PR/crisis-comms pooch on Irene’s aftermath.

All the interactive outage maps in the world – and Dominion has some great ones – mean squat to customers who have to huddle in a local Panera or library to view them. Announcing where crews are working via local media is of some help.

What Dominion failed to do, however, was put a face on the problem. One of their top leadership team needed to become the face and voice of Dominion as they worked to restore their customers to the grid. As I write this – Sunday, Sept. 3 – 20% of Richmond-area customers are still without power.

That means that 1 out of 5 Dominion customers in this region are still in a Bronte novel, at least at night, wandering from room to room clutching candles. The contents of their refrigerators and freezers are long gone, and if they have an all-electric kitchen, they ain’t cooking dinner, either.

No one from Dominion’s senior leadership has been very visible during this event. The company’s Facebook page has been the wall where the unhappy sweaty scrum have been posting their displeasure, which has only compounded the problem, since the person or persons who manage the page seem to be as clueless as the rest of us. One response they posted in reply to a customer’s inquiry about the fact that the middle of a street was still dark, while the houses at each end had been restored:

I am sorry, we aren’t quoting specific restoration times. I don’t have the level of operations information you are looking for.

Why on earth is the person who is representing a utility on a major social network NOT given access to operations information at a meaningful level? This tells me that Dominion views social media as a one-more-thing activity, rather than a key communication tool.

#fail

For next time, here are my recommendations. Dominion may or may not ever see these, but I already feel better for posting them.

  1. Make a top leader the face and voice of the company during the crisis.
  2. Have that face-and-voice respond to media inquiries at least daily, if not more frequently. What that leader says must be mirrored in/on every online outlet for customer-facing company information … which includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al.
  3. If you don’t know, say “I don’t know.” Shiny-happy-people, pie-in-the-sky, promise-the-world will only lead to the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Possibly yours.
  4. Tell the truth. This goes hand in hand with #3.
Simple. Works for a utility, a consumer-products company, a hospital, a factory. Have a leader lead, tell the truth.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Sustainability Story Will Be Written By Technologists

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The Greater Richmond Technology Council’s Sustainability Summit on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 led a series of conversations about a variety of sustainability/green topics, from carbon footprint and energy resource management to implementing and best practices for ‘going green’. The discussions, led by business technology experts, touched on IT issues, but were really driven by the recognition that sustainability is a business responsibility enabled by technology.

In all of those conversations, panelists made similar points:
    -Sustainability programs are becoming a business imperative, and not just for PR reasons
    -Sustainability initiatives can deliver operational efficiencies with clear bottom-line value
    -Getting buy-in across the enterprise is the first step to meaningful sustainability efforts
    -Technology/IT has become a leading force in enterprise sustainability programs

In his opening remarks to the Summit, Gov. Tim Kaine said that 25% of all development in Virginia has happened in the last 30 years. The state is losing 60,000 acres of open space every year, putting pressure on one of the state’s leading economic sectors: agriculture. These facts make it imperative to develop a statewide environmental policy, which is under development. The Commonwealth has developed an energy plan, with buy-in increased due to rising energy costs. "Low cost doesn’t encourage conservation," said Gov. Kaine, noting that 2009 has been designated as the "eco-year" for his administration.

Gov. Kaine is pressing the Southern Governors’ Association, whose members include 16 southern states, to adopt a regional climate change accord, matching efforts by other regional governors’ associations. This would help to address the concerns of two major industries in the Commonwealth, agriculture and forestry, both of which are highly vulnerable to climate change.

The Summit’s panel discussion "How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?" explored the importance of determining an enterprise’s carbon impact – the first step in developing a sustainability plan. "Green" calculations have become a regular feature of RFPs, making meaningful data collection and carbon output management a requirement for ongoing business development. The economic landscape dictates change in how business approaches sustainability, which technology & IT can help drive as a central part of 21st century enterprise.

The Carbon Footprint discussion was led by Guy Chapman, Managing Director of Dominion Resources, with input from:
    -Steve Cole, Program Strategy Director, IBM Energy & Environment, IBM: discovering an enterprise’s carbon footprint, and then working to reduce it, can create a competitive advantage in addition to environmental benefit.
    -David Lobato, Laserjet Business Sustainability & Environmental Programs Manager for the Imaging & Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard: as simple a step as duplex printing, rather than single sheet, can save as much as 800 tons of carbon emissions annually for a mid-sized company.
    -Dennis Tracz, Director, James Madison University Center for Entrepreneurship: sustainability has become a new study discipline at the JMU School of Engineering, whose graduates will bring new ideas and new business opportunities to the marketplace.
    -Kevin Xiao, a senior at Maggie L. Walker Governors School: Xiao created a carbon emissions calculator that allows individuals to determine the carbon impact of their homes, schools, and workplaces, which helps create awareness and spur positive action to reduce emissions.

The second Summit panel discussion, "Implementing & Best Practices for Going Green", looked at specific ways that companies are approaching sustainability initiatives. Led by Jeff Ziegler, President & CEO, TechTurn, the panel gave real-world examples of their company’s sustainability efforts and results:
    -Kevin Gerber, President & CEO, Packet360: sustainability is an enterprise-wide practice. Intelligent data centers sense load decreases, helping decrease power consumption by consolidating virtual machines and enabling them to power off large parts of the data center in off-hours.
    -Mike Magruder, Data Center Support Specialist, Federal Reserve Information Technology: consolidation and virtualization are where FRIT has seen the biggest impact, and has driven 80% of the cost savings delivered by green initiatives. What started as a power cost-savings effort helped FRIT realize how big their carbon impact was, driving ongoing efforts at reduction.
    -Jim McGlone, VP Sales, Tridium: automated systems that enable communication and power conservation across all platforms of an enterprise can deliver a daunting amount of data, making both monitoring and management a challenge. However, that level of awareness can help get a 20% reduction in resource usage, in addition to the value derived from process automation.
    -Jean Peters, Senior VP Strategic Analysis & Planning, Genworth: what started as a voluntary effort, led by an ad hoc committee, has become a complex journey to finding the business value in sustainability. The company has seen a big reduction in power consumption annually (900,000 kilowatts), and has fostered a company-wide culture shift that embraces ongoing carbon reduction efforts.

The third panel, "Energy – Conservation vs. Reliability", discussed how rising demand for IT has added to the drive for energy efficiency. Jeff Zeigler of TechTurn led this conversation, with input from experts in power distribution equipment and data management:
    -Dave Rubcich, Director of Sales, Emerson Network Power/Liebert: demand for IT has driven development of power management for running and cooling data centers. Centralization trends have increased demand for ways to control the impact of managing large amounts of data.
    -Dennis Tolliver, ISS/Blade Specialist, Hewlett-Packard: deploying Blade servers can help a company shave 30% off the power costs of their data center. Virtualization and software management allows flexible IT asset usage and reduction of physical asset inventory.
    -Mark Wensell, VP & GM, Peak 10: data centers have been accused of increasing carbon emissions, but the reality is that aggregating data operations reduces carbon emissions by creating efficiencies, while controlling the data environment, security, and liability.

George Favolaro, Managing Partner, Esty Environmental Partners, gave the Summit keynote address. Favolaro noted that sustainability has become a hot-button issue, particularly for business. Asking the question "why green business?" leads to discoveries in the impact of energy prices, energy security, regulation, and climate change on both a company and its customers. Examining that impact brings process change and efficiencies, product development, revenue savings, reputation enhancement, and brand loyalty.

Managing the entire supply chain is critical, creating a cycle of leadership from suppliers through operations to planning. In the work Esty Environmental Partners does with companies such as American Eagle outfitters, Hanes Brands, Nestle Waters, Dow, and TechTurn, Favolaro has seen how doing something as basic as standardizing the boxes that products are shipped in can have a significant impact on reducing a company’s carbon footprint.

The common themes repeated in every conversation at the Summit – that "green" is becoming a business imperative, that sustainability programs can drive operational efficiencies and revenue savings, that culture change is critical to putting a "green" initiative in place, that technology is helping business create meaningful reductions in carbon emissions – indicate that sustainability has become a core issue for 21st century business. As IT has merged into all aspects of enterprise, it has become a driver of both the power of business data, and the importance of environmentally responsible business practice.

What Recession?

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I found myself listening to a pretty powerful group of people talk yesterday about the economic trends in my hometown, Richmond VA.  Jim Bacon, Jeff Cooke, Michael Sesnowitz, and Greg Wingfield all sat around – well, on stage – and talked about whether or not events like the Wachovia Securities move from RVA to St. Louis would cause an economic tremor in River City.

When I heard about the WachSec/AG Edwards merger, my reaction was "Opportunity!" – for new businesses, for watching some real-time change management, and for writing a new chapter in the Story of River City.  Turns out I’m with the smart set on this one, since that was the consensus of the experts.

The presence ofVCU – and the engagement between VCU and the region’s business community – is a prime example of how the practical application of knowledge can be the storied tide that lifts all boats.  A university that’s plugged into business trends provides learning – and a workforce – that’s relevant to need AND that drives innovation.  The very model of win/win.

The interplay and collaboration between education and business would really make an impact in primary education, too – wouldn’t it be great if kids were taught early to find a need and fill it, rather than to get-good-grades-and-a-job?  The primary/secondary public education system seems stuck in a 19th century model.  Some concrete input from the business community on early education might address that – who’s up for pitching that to the Board of Ed…?

Virginia TeleWork Initiative Offers Solutions to Traffic Jams, Workforce Issues and Economic Development

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Richmond, VA – Dec. 15, 2006 – Imagine being able to hire the best employees for your company, and not caring where they live.

Karen Jackson, Director of the Virginia Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband assistance, asked the central Virginia technology sector to picture that scenario as she spoke to the Greater Richmond Technology Council at its monthly breakfast on Dec. 14.

Ms. Jackson, who heads up the new Commonwealth initiative created by Gov. Tim Kaine at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in September 2006, is tasked with addressing workforce, transportation and economic development issues in the Commonwealth by leveraging and expanding Virginia’s broadband infrastructure.

Identified as a key success factor in the Virginia economy, state-wide broadband connectivity will allow businesses across the state equal access to highly skilled workers and reduce traffic congestion. Broadband access will also spur economic development, particularly in areas hard-hit by the decline in Virginia’s manufacturing sector.

During her presentation, Ms. Jackson illustrated the power of broadband in economic development with this example: in Galax, a southwest Virginia community with high unemployment after the closing of several furniture manufacturing plants, access to broadband allowed Galax residents to learn clinical coding, giving them opportunities to telework, coding medical diagnoses for clinical studies, medical insurers and medical billing. These jobs paid up to $30,000 per year, a significant increase over jobs available in local businesses.

The Commonwealth has asked that companies state-wide sign a telework pledge in support of the goal of having 20% of Virginia’s workforce teleworking by 2010. The state has committed to that goal, which will mean that 19,000 of its 95,000 workforce will telecommute by 2009, one year ahead of the deadline for private enterprise.

In addition to the economic benefits brought by broadband access and telework opportunities, particularly in rural areas, the telework program also addresses traffic congestion in the  Commonwealth, which is legendary in northern Virginia and Tidewater, and the demand for work/life balance that is frequently the deciding factor for highly-skilled knowledge workers when choosing where to market their skills.

The goals of Gov. Tim Kaine and Secy. of Technology Aneesh Chopra in expanding broadband access and telework reflect the legislative agenda of the GRTC, which calls on the Legislature to encourage the use of telework as a strategy in the Commonwealth’s efforts to increase the potential employment pool, reduce traffic congestion, enhance disaster recovery/continuation of operations plans, avoid productivity loss from inclement weather days, and improve employee satisfaction levels.

The GRTC’s December breakfast was sponsored by the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). CIT is a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies, creating new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology start-up companies and advanced technology consumers.

The Greater Richmond Technology Council is an association of businesses and organizations working together to promote the success of technology companies, and the growth of the technology sector of the central Virginia economy.