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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here, you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hello, everybody, welcome to my show. Before we start our chat today, let's keep the conversation going online. You can connect with me on social media. My Twitter/X  iss Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. And you can find his image Group International on Facebook.  So let's get the show on the road. Crisis Communication is today's conversation subject. And crisis communication is a critical aspect of personal branding, especially when facing difficult times. By the way, it's also crucial for corporate branding, how you handle a crisis can significantly impact your brand's reputation and of course, trust with your audience. So today, I will share some essential strategies for managing your brand effectively during the crisis. And shearing you come through stronger and more resilient. So when that crisis does arise, the first thing you need to do is acknowledge the situation properly. And crisis do come it's just the amount of when not if you say your initial response is crucial. Delight can lead of course to speculation and misinformation. And of course, what will happen is your reputation will be damaged and potentially worsen because of the lack of urgency in responding. So addressing the situation head on with honesty and transparency and see is something we always recommend, however, not every company or leader addresses crisis in the same way, especially when it's a multinational corporation with unlimited resources, because sometimes you'd think that the more money and resources and power they have that would get that right. And in many cases Hey, I should be get that not so right. And a good example of that is the recent story. Or then I will share as an overview, the management consulting firm PwC, historically known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, was one of the least one of the big four accounting firms faced significant reputation damage and financial repercussions due to major scandal in recent times in Australia. The crisis involve ethical breaches and misconduct leading to a loss of trust among clients, the regulators and of course, the public. So just to give you some context, they faced ethical breaches as PwC was implicated in several high profile scandals involving coughing, conflicts of interest, audit failures and unethical practices. These incidents included the misuse of confidential government information and providing conflicting consulting services to the audit clients. In other words, they were advising the government and the clients at the same time. And of course, that was a clear conflict of interest that I'm sure others clients do as well. But of course PwC got caught. The result was now that they record regulatory bodies impose sanctions and fines on PwC, highlighting the firm's failure to adhere to professional standards and of course, ethical guidelines of the Australian Tax Office. For instance, the ATO and other international regulators scrutinize PwC practices. Of course, it even led right to China where there's another, you know, probe there on other issues going on right now. But that's what happens when reputation starts to sort of implode because in this case, it has an, you know, a processional effect right across the globe. Anyway, it led to increased regulatory pressure. That, of course, has also impacted other consulting firms. So the impact on reputation and client trust has significantly eroded PwC is integrity and reliability. And because of the scandal, clients question, the firm's ability to provide unbiased and accurate auditing and consulting services, the public perception of PwC was damaged and has been damaged as a result of their actions. And of course, the media coverage of the scandals highlighted systematic issues within the firm. You want to do a Google search to see what I'm talking about. 

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This negative publicity contributed to a decline in PwC his reputation as a trustworthy and ethical organization that, in my opinion will take years to rebuild, and of course regain trust. The financial Fallout has also been extensive. You know, most companies worry more around how much money they're gonna lose out and will will this will how the share price is going to be affected. And of course, the financial fallout of this is very evident because financial Fallout also drops dramatically to reputation damage. So PwC has faced a decline in revenues as a result of what has happened and clients have reconsidered the relationship with the firm. Some clients terminated the contracts, while others reduced their engagement levels in leaving, of course, a significant financial impact some of those clouds of course, the Australian Government, the firm also incurred substantial legal costs and fines due to regulatory actions and lawsuits. As these financial penalties further strike PwC has resources and affected its profitability. And finally, there is now an increased oversight. And of course, what comes with that is more cost set to regain trust and comply with regulatory requirements BW said to invest in in House Oversight and compliance measures these additional costs have impacted the firm's financial performance, and also has upset many people that work there impacting the culture. So not only do you get reputational damage, financial costs, that really were not debt prior, but also you've got a culture damage. And of course, culture damage is one of the hardest to recover from other than of course, reputation. So these are typical, what we would say is leadership, you know, challenges, of course, and this is also that's resulted in leadership changes. So PwC implemented changes to their leadership, as a signal, of course, the market as a commitment to ethical conduct, and to restore some sort of stakeholder confidence, a new broom was brought in and of course, new leaders were tasked with driving culture, and procedural changes within the firm. The firm also introduced stringent compliance procedures and ethical training for employees to prevent future misconduct and ensure adherence to professional standards. So they are doing all the right things, of course, from an image point of view that they are signaling to the to the world that they are actually going to do the right thing. PW sourcing guides in transparent communication with their clients, regulators and the public to address concerns and demonstrate accountability. Now, I use the word transparent, certainly transparent as much as we know. But of course, there's also been conjectured to that because some have also questioned how transparent whether in the first place, the, in my opinion, they could have apologized much earlier. In hindsight, yes, I suppose that's a lesson for all of us. And also a lesson for a lot of companies that have not handled crisis management in the correct way that I would say specifically has not been the best at times with the PwC. But however, the firm has issued public apologies and outlines steps taken to rectify the issues, and the much political pressure. It also serves as a critical lesson in the importance of maintaining ethical standards. And the far reaching consequences of ethical breaches, especially in a culture right now, with trust, as we noted many, many times before, is going down the proverbial and of course, creates a problem then, you know, right through other organizations, competitors, as well, and of course, other industries. So while the firm is working towards rebuilding his reputation, the financial reputational damage, though, underscores the need for robust governance and ethical practices, of course, in the professional services industry. So to recap, refocusing on transparent communication, ethical leadership and house compliance. You see, his goal there is to regain the trust and reinforce its commitment to integrity and excellence, because this is essential. This is a worldwide firm, one of the top four. And it's essential that they get this right because it's had an impact right across the world. As a disclosure, I had buys PwC numerous times over the years, and always found them to be a positive experience. So of course, what that means is, you know, there's so many different silos in large corporations at times, you might work with one particular department that is absolutely fantastic. And then at times, other departments might not be operating the same way. In my experience, though, it was a positive. 

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So the lessons for us a clear communicating what happened, the impact it might have, definitely, you've got to work that out and the steps you are taking to resolve the issue and be consistent. Your audience will appreciate your openness and honesty, which can help maintain that trust in your brand long term. So you might lose some clients. But overall, if you look at the 8020 law, specifically, at least the majority of your clients, you would expect to hang around because of your honesty. So during the crisis, say avoid jargon, and complex language that might confuse your audience. Remember, you're communicating to your audience here and also beyond. So you gotta get that very basic without complicating things further, so stick to the facts and provide updates as a situation about what we also recommend is use a woman by use all available channels, including social media, email, snail mail, your website, of course, to deliver your message consistently. And remember empathy and compassion, also a vital during a crisis, if you don't want to have a situation where bravado over the rules the heart, but show that you understand the concerns and feelings of your audience. And at times, if you try to avoid that, that will come back to bite you acknowledge the impact of the crisis might have on yourselves obviously, as a company, but also your clients, and anyone else for that matter, the stakeholders and express genuine empathy. In other words, be fair to nips take decisive action to address the crisis, outline the steps you're taking to the resolve the issue, and also prevent future occurrences. This will include launching an investigation, you know, what happened, implementing new policies, or enhancing your customer support teams. And what I mean by all of this is, you're gonna have a whole plan in place before this actually happens. So what I'd like to do is share with you now a story about how we help the client manage their brand, their personal and business brand during a serious crisis. The key players in this crisis were our clients. Of course, this was the CEO and the company, the crisis. Well, it was an accidental death of a client's customer, and the involvement of lawyers. So what I wanted to do first is explain the crisis briefly. And of course, I can't name any names because this was a very serious accident, I have no permission to talk about it, other than in terms without noting the names. And that's the reason I am sharing this because I had been given that permission. So it was an accidental death of a client's customer. The immediate emotional reputation impact on the company was severe. And I'm going to explain why in a few moments. And we're also explained the initial steps taken acknowledging the incident and of course, preparing a response strategy, a strategy, Mark, all was taking the front foot in managing the crisis. So what we did was we acted swiftly to address the incident, we set up a communication plan to handle internal and external stakeholders. And we ensured from moment set, GO, empathy and support towards affected family. And the community. And the community in this case was, of course, workplace colleagues. And this is also part of the story because it's a very big part of the story, the lawyer involved, and of course, their overstep. And what I mean by that, well, the clients lawyers, obviously got involved very soon after we were called Dean, not unusual, fairly, fairly common, but what was unusual from my dealings, and for some other clients, I'm sure they've had similar clients, as well, you know, when dealing with lawyers, but without experience normally we were we're at K in that space. But what happened in this situation was the lawyers adopted immediately a transactional legalistic tone and their approach conflicted with the empathetic and sensitive communication strategy we put in place remember, there was a death in the workplace, okay. So you can get to transactional there, this is not a courtroom, this is a human experience that somebody has died and basically you can go in there acting much out and with your bravado, this is human beings them in a particular person is deceased. 

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So you got to basically not just pretend you care, but you actually have to be care you got to live If the care, so the negative impact of the lawyers actions were aggravated emotional distress in the affected family. And of course, our team had to intervene and mitigate some of this damage at the same time, because we know what we do. And we know how good we are in doing what we do, we had no problem sharing with a small firm, that what they were doing with this particular partner was just wrong. And of course, our job, you know, you don't want to keep on doing damage control, when you've got team members, in this case, the law firm that wasn't playing really exactly as the team because they wanted to actually lead the whole conversation here. So what we had to do was re establish control over the communication strategy. We offer the public apology of K, of course, we had to work in such a way where they, you know, because the lawyers would say specifically, never apologize, never say sorry, et cetera, that goes against everything we believe in, as coaches, and of course, leaders in the transformational world. So expressions of genuine empathy, were important of the company's leadership. And of course, we got that. And we also offered support to the affected family, including counseling and financial assistance. And what that meant was looking after them, okay, the best way we can, of course, until WorkCover, took over and did their job. So that was more like emergency care, you know, until some of the other players got involved. But the key actions taken was this number one, a communication strategy, clear, empathetic and consistent messaging to the public. Of course, the family in this case, and of course, all stakeholders, regular updates to manage the narrative and present prevent misinformation, because misinformation will happen if he had to respond to this effectively. And also internal coordination awaiting, you know, different groups of people and departments as part of the crisis management plan. And then included, of course, the law firm, training Saudi employees, that if they do get inquiries from the media, how to respond to them, and also, of course, how to redirect them to the right people that will have a response, and also community engagement to show solidarity and support as it made the news. We also organize memorials, and of course, tributes to honor the deceased. So the key was, the final analysis was you need legal and PR balance, in this case, coordinating with legal teams to ensure compliance without compromising and also maintaining a balance between the legal requirements and the public relations. This is very, very important. We don't advise lawyers on the law. And it's very important that lawyers do not advise us on how to run communication campaigns. And that was a big lesson for us. And of course, as I said, most firms that we work with, including law firms, we never had that problem. But obviously, there was a little bit of ego tripping going on here. The lessons learnt was importance of having a dedicated crisis management team, balancing the legal advice with empathetic communication. It's about respecting each professional competencies and letting them do their best work. You know, the necessity of a swift, genuine response in maintaining trust and credibility is essential. And managing the internal and external stakeholders during a crisis, of course, is also important or essential, as we've already know that in the final analysis, restoration of the company's reputation happened to a point although of course, there was reputational damage and financial damage in the early days, of course, long term, there was restoration of the company's reputation. If they were told specifically because of the way we help them, get this back on track, strengthen relationships with the community and stakeholders. And in my experience, many businesses think that a crisis is very simple to handle. However, I can tell you, it's much simpler when you have a strategy in the right team to navigate it because without that, what will happen is pain can set in and before you know it, there goes reputation and the last thing you want to do is lose reputation. So to wrap up effective process communication involves property knowledge with clear and consistent messaging, empathy, decisive action, and ongoing transparency, of course is also essential. We believe if you follow some of these strategies, you can navigate difficult times with grace and resilience preserve and even an even enhancing your person business brand's reputation. Remember, people remember what you did in this crisis and less about the actual event. They probably will
not remember the event, but they will remember how you left them feeling from their experience in the event. So I trust that today's episode was valuable. If you need my help and your personal branding journey, please contact Patricia, patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au. Until next time, thank you for tuning in!

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence, and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for personal coaching, seminars, and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.