MediaLINK: Future Imperfect

Eurozone - A crisis waiting to happen?

2012-05-14T14:19:00.000+01:00

French colleagues around at the time report that General de Gaulle was a man of few words; one of them being "Non" But he wasn't averse to soundbites: "How can you govern a country which makes 146 types of cheese?"

Imagine how much harder it is for the European Union with a domain stretching from the Baltic to the Aegean. Election results in France and Greece demonstrate there is no longer an appetite for austerity and despite scolding from Chancellor Merkel, the days of the complete Eurozone could be numbered, with some members taking an early exit.

It started well; after World War II the desire was to co-operate not fight. We had the ECSC, EFTA, then the EU: lots of initials, little actual co-operation. So how could the venerable ideal of a European Union become so unstuck?

No one seems to have been doing the horizon scanning; what worked for Bonn, now Berlin, might not cut the mustard or garlic on the shores of the Med. This story is less about political differences and more about economic realities. The elephant in the room in the EU has always been there are two Europes in terms of economic drive; even in one country. Italians in the heartland of the north term people in the south as the Mezzegiorno, not much happens in the afternoon.

If corporate Crisis Management were to be applied to the collective governments of the EU, we would ask the following questions: Was the Euro resilient enough and where was the mitigation strategy in case things went wrong? Could the potential dismantling of part of the Eurozone have been avoided? Shorthand, yes. But it needed much more in the way of what we in LINK would define as: Collect the data, identify then manage the issues, and try to avoid the tipping point into crisis; things the Eurozone clearly did not do enough of.

Is your corporation doing enough now to plan for the risk scenario which now looks high likelihood and high consequence in the breakup of the Euro?

LINK Associates International offers the privacy to practice crisis management and crisis communications in two purpose built multi-room management training facilities: Ivory House, London, and Trent House, Derby.

Fuelling The Crisis?

2012-04-03T09:51:00.000+01:00

A World War Two poster issued by the Information Ministry around the time of the Blitz is now re-doing the rounds on t-shirts, coffee mugs and even duvet covers. It reads very simply: ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Some things never go out of fashion. Compare that with the conflicting messaging coming out of the UK Government last week on possible petrol shortages even before a strike had been called.

The tanker driver issue has been bubbling on for over a year, so following classic crisis theory, Ministers should have known and been prepared. It's called 'horizon scanning'; an early warning system of problems ahead. There should also have been a unified management plan with agreed communication objectives, delivery system and of course, key messages.

What did we get? Crisis theorists talk of "prudent over-reaction", in layman's terms, act now to mitigate problems later. But as alway it is how you tell 'em. Prudency turned into panic buying, queues at the pumps, rationing and fuel up 10p a litre as forecourts had to buy more expensive fuel on the wholesale market and pay additional costs for extra deliveries. All just before the school holidays.

Was it really a key message to suggest filling up and maybe add a jerrycan or two (anyway, is that legal under HSE regs)? Then there was confusion over who was doing the key messaging as responsibility was split between the Cabinet Office, Department for Transport, and Department for Energy. Hardly a unified management plan and it is now clear there were fundamental inter-departmental disagreements on how the crisis should be managed. Belatedly, the PM has taken control.

Two years ago, Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff to the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, published a a book entitled The New Machiavelli, and it's worth looking at what he wrote about the fuel crisis of 2000. "The part of a Prime Minister's contract with the voters on which the electorate really expect them to deliver is crisis management. If they fail in that they lose support very quickly indeed."

All sorts of conspiracy theories have emerged during the last week: possbily that the crisis was fuelled to draw attention away from the cash for No. 10 dinners story; or even to stop opposition to VAT on takeaway pasties. What is evident is that Downing Street could do with some lessons in crisis PR (such as offered by LINK at the new management training facility in Central London).
LINK Associates International offers the privacy to practice crisis management and crisis communications in two purpose built multi-room management training facilities: Ivory House, London, and Trent House, Derby.

On a wing and another prayer

2011-11-09T10:07:00.000+00:00

Perhaps the best soundbite to emerge out of the protest outside St Paul's Cathedral came at the weekend from Ken Costa, former chairman of Lazard's Investment Bank who has been tasked by the church to head a group looking at what can be done about the issues which have been highlighted. He is, he said, looking to reconnect "the financial with the ethical." And he goes on to argue that maximising shareholder returns should no longer be the sole criteria for judging how a company is run (or sins).

Sterling stuff but there is still a whiff of a church trying to catch up. The structure of the Church does not allow a command and control system in the normal form, so the fragmented system in place has allowed the Cathedral response to appear disjointed. The Archbishop of Canterbury has, in the word of one commentator, broken his silence and attempted to rest control of the agenda; it was a rudderless ship with events taking over.

Either way the protestors look to be there into the New Year, as the Corporation has abandoned plans for legal action to remove them. Belatedly, St Paul's has invited the activists to take part in negotiations to downsize the camp.

From mid-October when the first tents were pitched it was evident that there was no coherent story coming out of the Cathedral authorities. One of the basic tenets of robust crisis management and communications is you need to decide where your are positioning yourself very early on; and then stick with it.

It is also a salutary lesson in making sure you know who your neighbours are and what crisis they may cause you. The Stock Exchange functions on, buy, selling and exchanging, whilst the Cathedral staggers on losing money. For advice on taking the drama out of a crisis and to review if your crisis systems are robust enough for your neighbours ‘events’, LINK can provide you with the tools to meet the challenges around the corner (literally!).

To find out how, contact us by emailing info@linkassociates.com or phoning +441332222299.

On a wing and a prayer

2011-11-02T16:11:00.000+00:00

To lose one cleric may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. (With apologies to Oscar Wilde.) St Paul's has now lost its Dean, following on from the resignation of the Canon. All driven by confusion of how to deal with the anti-capitalist protest on the doorstep.

To be fair it is hard for a symbol of the established church in England to come up with a coherent way of dealing with an event which has managed to close the doors of St Paul's with a subsequent loss of revenue and international prestige. Hard, but not impossible.

From the start the signals emerging from St Paul's did indicate much confusion over how to deal with the tented protestors: embrace them as carriers of the true faith or criticise them for what they are doing to the cathedral? Either might have been preferable to what became the impasse of inaction.

What were the key messages the cathedral wished to put into the public domain? Who was to be the public face of the church in this time of crisis? All along, St Paul's seems to have been on the back foot leaving the initiative with the campers. It does not have to be this way.

LINK can help you with strategic analysis, to identify the issues then manage them, and most importantly to communicate YOUR views rather than other stakeholders, especially the media, telling the public what you think. LINK can help you OWN the story.

To find out how, contact us by emailing info@linkassociates.com or phoning +441332222299.

Goodnight Irene

2011-08-30T16:55:00.000+01:00

For a reader whose memory stretches back into the 1980s, you might recall the above track from Dexy's Midnight Runners. Over the weekend it was turned into a slogan by some residents of the US East Coast who refused to evacuate in the face of the hurricane. “Come on, Irene!” proclaimed the posters of the protesters. “We can cope” was the sub text.

As the hurricane, downgraded to a Cat 1 storm, moves on the inevitable questions are being asked. This was no Katrina so was there over-reaction by politicians and press?

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is categorical that he would make the same decisions again. “We were unwilling to risk the life of a single New Yorker” was his defiant assessment. Two million people were evacuated; transit systems were shut down, and thankfully the death toll seems to have been kept to a minimum.

Damned if you do; damned if you don't. The legacy of Katrina lives on, but we believe the essence of all crisis planning is what we term “prudent over-reaction.” Irene was reduced to a tropical storm but it was 400 miles wide, slow moving, taking half a day to pass over and still has the potential to cause flood surges in low-lying areas.

Imagine the headlines if the administration had not acted too decisively. Too little, too late, perhaps?

For information on how LINK can help your crisis planning, contact LINK Associates International by emailing info@linkassociates.com or phoning +441332222299.

Quote, Unquote

2011-08-08T10:47:00.001+01:00

Economist John Maynard Keynes once said of the business cycle that in the long run all would be well. He added waspishly, "but in the long run we are all dead."

Watching last week's unraveling of the financial system he might have a point ... but this time in the short run. $2.5 trillion has been wiped off global stock exchanges. It has been the worse week in the markets since 2008 and Lehman Brothers.

And the response from government? As another economist J K Galbraith put it, "In the US though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes." Barack Obama has been characterised as being well meaning but ineffectual. Things have hardly been any better in Europe.

When it emerged Eurozone finance ministers were briefing at cross purposes about support for the Italian and Spanish bond markets, the European Central Bank said of these "undisciplined communications" that they were merely "constructive ambiguity." Worthy of Yes, Minister.

Some bright spots? The EU Commissioner for Monetary Affairs talked of a Monetary Fund to police the activities of Eurozone members. The catch is the technical work will not start until September: Gardez les vacances! The restaurant is closed 'lundi et aout'. OK, Drake played bowls whilst the Armada was at the gates but he did seem to know what he was doing.

At least Angela Merkel broke into her holiday, but what did her office say in response to the crisis? Another quote: "Markets caused the drama. Now they have to make sure to get things straight again."

Er, no. It is increasingly clear markets need tighter supervision; there is an unsupportable amount of private debt that cannot be financed without massive global economic growth; and there is an increasing need for the smack of strong government. Roosevelt's New Deal, basically Quantitative Easing although it wasn't called that in the Great Depression, used the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Interstate road building program to propel the US out of the trough.

Something as creative is now called for both from Governments, using Keynesian principles or otherwise and from the Banks themselves.

One exit quote, again from Keynes: "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." Tell that to the markets.

For more information on how LINK can help your company steer through a crisis, contact LINK Associates International by emailing info@linkassociates.com or phoning +441332222299.

Dipping below the radar

2011-07-21T16:29:00.002+01:00

The word Radar … Radio Detection and Ranging … was coined by the Americans. Pity nobody shared it with US company News Corp. It has become self-evident that the Murdoch Empire did not have in place anything approaching a crisis management plan to deal with the fallout from the phone hacking scandal, which could still engulf the corporation. Leaving aside the issues of corporate governance, although the shareholders probably won't, it is extraordinary that seemingly nobody in the company was using radar to scan the horizon for potential incoming. After all, hacking is hardly new.

Perhaps even more extraordinary is that a media conglomerate seemed very unsure about how to deal with the media when the crisis broke. As we have pointed out before, summarily sacking 200 journalists who had nothing to do with the hacking does nothing to endear you to the Fourth Estate. There seemed to have been no joined up thinking. Do we appear before the Select Committee or stay away? How do we deal with the BSkyB bid? What are the key messages? Surely, it wasn’t just us who knew nothing about it?

Of course the UK operation is small in comparison with Murdoch interests in the US and Australia. Consider Fox News, THE revenue generator. But being based in the US does have its drawbacks. Think corrupt practices act and the alleged payments to the Met? What is the Murdoch Empire doing to sandbag what could happen outside the UK? Given the exposure of the last couple of weeks, you wonder.

Another American, Benjamin Franklin, argued that the only certain things in life were death and taxes. To that we add corporate crisis. Assume it will come and prepare accordingly. The corporate communications library has many examples of were companies have used crises to come out stronger; to enhance reputation rather than torpedo it. But it does need to be woven into the corporate culture; prudent over-reaction rather than wait to be engulfed.

Still the whole thing does appear to have produced at least one heroine. Step forward Mrs Murdoch.

For information on how Reputation Radar could help your company contact LINK Associates International by emailing info@linkassociates.com

A hacking good crisis

2011-07-11T17:30:00.002+01:00

Maybe more of a Sun headline than that of a News of the World (NotW) lead, but after 168 years of exposures what more fitting end could there be for a paper dedicated to making the news? But is it the end? The Murdoch business machine is not going to easily let the circulation figures for NotW be lost and the rumours of a Sunday Sun seem to indicate the direction they are thinking of taking.

So post crisis planning and turnaround may already be well advanced and perhaps the only question left to answer is how to long to mourn the News of the World before launching its successor.

But crises are not like that and News Corp are starting to show all the indications of an organisation stumbling around seeking a way out. They played what they believed was their strongest card in shutting the news paper and hoping the high profile death would cauterize the wound and stem the impact. Now they have the chairman thrust into the limelight and questions are being asked over how far the contagion can spread.

Meanwhile what would the leader columns add as the obituary? News Corp seems not to have anything remotely in place to deal with crisis; instead it reacted like a wounded animal aiming to escape at all costs. First call the paper "toxic", then close it down. Over 200 disgruntled ex employees - your best or worst ambassadors - on the streets of Wapping. And with big mouths. Not the best idea.

Where was the horizon scanning and data collection? This is not the first time the paper had issues with its collection of material yet there seems to have been nothing in place to deal with an event which is having a critical impact on the bottom line. With the arrests in 2006 did they really believe they had got away with it, surely with their knowledge and reliance on investigative journalism they would have realised the chances of covering up were slim. Communications in the digital age are not secure and the history created through emails and payment systems remain for long periods as records for regulators to read at their leisure to decide if they are indicators of former crimes.

As the net widens how many more organisations will be dragged into this story, could NotW be the only paper to use hacking? Has anyone else paid the police and what other politician has employed or worked with individuals of questionable ethics? But that’s the nature of crises. Reputation Management costs and it pays to do the analysis and get the messaging right.

Finally a couple quotes which may be used in evidence:

We will continue to engage constructively with the regulatory process.

(Quote: News Corp press release 30 June 2011 in response to the BSkyB competition commission decision)

The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.

(Quote: James Murdoch announcing the last issue of the News of the World in the press statement

"Fair & Balanced" a trademarked slogan used by Fox News Channel, a subsidiary of News Corporation

They think it's all over

2011-06-01T08:53:00.001+01:00

Football, say the pundits, is a game of two halves. Try telling that to FIFA boss Sepp Blatter who told the press, "Football is not in a crisis, only some difficulties." Remind you of the Winter of Discontent? Crisis, what crisis? This game is already in extra time as the allegations continue to mount.

Sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Adidas have already raised concerns. "The current allegations ... are distressing and bad for the sport." "... The negative tenor of public debate is neither good for football nor for FIFA nor its president."

And the FIFA response? Blatter as a former journalist castigated a reporter at his press conference, which he unusually conducted alone (a visual signal here?) for showing lack of respect. We are not in a bazaar, he told him.

He went on to say, "We are in a game and all the little devils can enter the game. We have to fight against these devils." Delusional, said one commentator.

The worse thing you can do with a crisis is not to recognize it. Because if you do not you cannot put in place systems to deal with it. Next stage? A penalty shoot-out?

Dust off the Plans

2011-05-25T14:54:00.002+01:00

Knowing what to do when everything starts to fall apart around you is a key skill that Politicians and Directors need. Forget competence when things are going well. It’s when they aren’t that the true mettle and character of leadership shows through.

Just as Greece is lining itself up for another round of Ponzy scheme investments, which are seemingly designed to keep the European banks from revealing the true scale and interconnectivity of the bond debts. We lose the head of the IMF to allegations of a serious assault, which not only exposes the fragility of the European Community, but the gulf in culture between America and France.

The visual imagery of a handcuffed over paid foreign banker was too much for the American media circus to miss whilst in France the assumption of guilt over innocence was viewed with a slightly more Gallic perspective.

As an unfolding crisis it has everything: from raising questions over standards of leadership through political intrigue to conspiracy theories. Added to which the opposing cultural views expressed in the American and French media all to be followed by a bun fight over who takes the job. Will it be a European pro the status quo and the funding of the Greek debt or a “non” European, who may just see the problem from a slightly different perspective. Who needs reality TV?

Timing and positioning will be all important. What is clear is that whoever gets the job they will have to dust off the plans for saving the Euro and plan to spend some time understanding the Greek economy - that’s if the ash cloud does not get in the way.

Land of the Rising Sun?

2011-03-17T11:19:00.001+00:00

A week is a long time in politics; in a quake zone it can seem forever. It was just last Friday that so much destruction was wrought on north eastern Japan. Few cannot have been moved by the images beamed around the world. As one US reporter said, it was like Apocalypse Now meeting My Worst Nightmare. Ocean-going trawlers thrown onto dry land, houses smashed like matchwood, and a death toll already over 11,000. An appeal has now gone out for more body bags and coffins as local supplies are overwhelmed. Our thoughts are with the relatives.

To make long term matters worse the quake and accompanying tsunami ... ironically a Japanese word ... has renewed the arguments about nuclear power, thought by some experts to be capable of generating one fifth of world energy supplies in the near future.

The scale of the unfolding crisis makes it inevitable that information will be confused, difficult to obtain and often simply not available. But nearly a week after the disaster struck it is not clear who is taking charge of events at the Fukushima plant. Leadership and ideas appear to be lacking whilst at the sharp end a small team of heroes expose themselves to life threatening conditions and the world watches as the reactor temperature lies in the hands of a helicopter pilot.

As the situation continues to deteriorate it is becoming harder to separate fact from opinion. Pundits (sorry, that should read "experts") interviewed on the main news channel have continued to play down the worst case scenarios and yet opinion continues to be divided on how dangerous it is; a chorus of academics cannot agree on the Chernolbyl comparison. What is clear is this is a crisis demanding international leadership.

Japan needs friends, more importantly it needs to be able to trust in an international community that can deliver not only immediate aid and support for lifesaving and mitigation of the disaster but also one which is working to solve the long term problems. Will an International statesman or stateswoman with the vision to identify a long term solution please emerge soon? Because unless one does, the ripples of this crisis will continue to reverberate around the world and threaten a financial tsunami. What is needed now is a fast response to the problems on the ground and immediate action to develop a strategic plan which will support a Japanese recovery.

Many correspondents in the quake zone have commented on the quiet dignity and resilience the Japanese people are showing in the face of such adversity. Traditionally Japanese culture has been insular, a people priding themselves on self-help and self-reliance. In the face of such a catastrophe any offers of help should be welcomed. The countries of the G8 have a vital role to play in making sure help - humanitarian and technical - gets to where it is most needed and then they have to deliver the economic rebirth of the land of the rising sun.

Let's hope that someone is analyzing this crisis and seizes the opportunity to demonstrate that Globalisation means more than increased sales.

Strategic Defense review won't fly!

2011-03-07T14:51:00.002+00:00

Every organisation understands the importance of an effective strategy and that one of the key indicators of crises is the failure to meet its stakeholders expectations. As reports from Libya signal a rapidly deteriorating situation where protest dissolves into a civil war, the role of the British Armed forces and the Coalition's defence strategy is brought into stark focus.

Following the strategic review which seems to have been neither strategic or about the UK’s defence can we really feel that the Coalition approach to defence is providing support to businesses trying to deliver export growth to the UK in difficult parts of the world. Think of the emerging risks not just to Libya but to the Arabian Gulf states and North Africa, both during current events and going forward as nations struggle to find stability. How much further can this spread? What other opportunities to resolve old conflicts may arise? Where are the new safe havens for pirates?

At present the government seems to have settled on a very narrow view of our defence requirements namely the continuation of a land war in Afghanistan at the expense of other capabilities to contribute to protect our interests. Whilst appreciating the need to get the defence budget under control, the cut and burn approach in the short term to capabilities other than land warfare has already been shown up as deficient by the slow and hesitant approach to responding to the need to recover UK nationals from Libya, finally achieved by a mix of chartered commercial aircraft, surface warships scheduled to be decommissioned and an aging fleet of military transport aircraft.

It isn’t going to get better unless David Cameron and his team get their blinkers off. So we must assume this will be the normal state of affairs certainly for the rest of this parliament and well into the next. Businesses operating in those areas of the globe where instability is rife should be lobbying for greater consideration to be given to the need to protect our people and business interests abroad. After all that is no more than the PM promised us in his statement to the House of Commons:

this Review is about how we project power and influence in a rapidly changing world.

…Our national interest requires our full and active engagement in world affairs.

…And it requires too that we stand up for the values we believe in.

In the mean time we should start to look at the ‘Big Society’ solution translated as self help. Make sure your travel risk assessments are up to date, your people know how to contact you 24/7 to report problems, that you have developed your evacuation strategies and know how they will be invoked early.

It is also good practice to talk to the local embassy or consulate so at least they know how many people need to get out and from where, should the proverbial hit the fan and a spare resource can be found to help.
And perhaps number 10 would like to attend one of our courses on avoiding crises.

A Tale of Three Cities

2011-02-23T14:50:00.001+00:00

Handling a crisis relies on understanding the issues, recognizing future impacts and responding appropriately. So who is taking the lead in the Middle East?

No doubt who was first off the blocks in fronting up to the crisis in North Africa and the Middle East. Step forward UK PM David Cameron who flew out from London to take part in what used to be called shuttle diplomacy. First a photo opportunity in Takrir Square, followed by a meeting with the new military caretaker government, then private meetings with some of the protestors who were described as inspirational. Except the Muslim Brotherhood, who seemed not to have been invited.

Condemning the "appalling and unacceptable violence" in Libya, he went on to Kuwait to address the parliament asking them to embrace this "precious moment of opportunity" and preached the virtues of democracy.

Meanwhile in Washington the administration did not seem sure of where to place itself. As one commentator put it they have struggled to find a consistent voice in the crisis. It was left to the Libyan delegation at the UN to grab the headlines with unequivocal condemnation of the "genocide" in their country ... and then resigning. Belatedly the Security Council has pledged to meet to discuss the issues.

Finally, across to Moscow to a strangely tongue-tied Putin saved by President Medvedev who conceded that what was happening will have "a direct impact on the situation in Russia ... the situation could lead to disintegration and bigots coming to power." Not much evidence in either Washington or Moscow of people wanting to get on a plane but let us give the last word to Medvedev; "Fanatics may seize power in the Arab world which could affect Russia for a decade." Not the punchiest of soundbites but you know he understands the issues. Real question is will he try to do anything about it?

And that will inform international crisis management for a long time to come. For issues management, crisis training, crisis facilitation and exercises contact LINK Associates 01332 222299 or email info@linkassociates.com

New Dawn for the Middle East

2011-02-21T14:49:00.001+00:00

The rapid spread of protests have caught the policy makers flat footed, with some Western powers praising the Iranian protestors whilst appearing less certain of the position to take with the Bahrainis and rightly delivering outright condemnation of Colonel Gaddaffi, who appears to have declared war on his people.

For the moment people power is flexing its muscles, nowhere more surprising than Libya with over 200 dead; (live on the internet) demonstrations in Morocco; street battles in Teheran; (live on YouTube) continued unrest in Egypt; more protests in Bahrain. What started out as a little local difficulty in Tunisia brought down the president there and eventually ended the 30 year reign of Hosni Mubarack in Egypt, the Arab world's most powerful state.

The protests could act as a trigger for a significant crisis, threatening to affect a region, which is of critical importance to the financial stability of many countries. Whilst politicians talk of democracy there are a range of scenarios that look far more threatening. If a solution is not achieved quickly and the protests continue the impacts could be far reaching.

We are witnessing an internet generation challenging the traditional order with information and protest action spreading at the speed of a virus through the web, monitored across the world through mobile phone photography and web sharing. Where will it end? The old order is threatened not only in the countries of the Middle East, but also in the political circles of Washington and Whitehall.

We may all catch a nasty cold from the fallout; now could be the time to review how the potential crisis could affect your organization. Start the monitoring, run the issues and brief your teams, look after your people.

Oil, what oil?

2010-08-09T10:56:00.001+01:00

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon
- Edward Lear

Last week's White House presser had the chief energy adviser saying the "vast majority of the oil has either been cleaned, skimmed or contained." Not quite the catastrophe the administration had wanted to hang around the necks of "British Petroleum" aka BP. More an alignment with sentiments expressed by Tony Haywood.

Yes, this is still Exxon Valdez x five. But hardly Apocalypse Now. Universities in the southern states have been forthright in condemning the idea that this was the worst environmental disaster on record. One academic said nature cleans up its own way. With or without the Coastguard.

As the Obama administration starts to change tack on the oil spill catastrophe, it raises interesting questions on the perception of crisis and the role of the stakeholders. In playing down the impacts and amplifying the positive, whose crisis is the White House trying to close? Is it really suggesting that the crisis is over?

Certainly the crisis has not ended for BP. Theirs is really just starting. While the cap may have been placed on a high media profile through killing the oil well, as the emergency response scales down the corporate exposure ramps up. Early out of the blocks in this phase are the lawyers. Just watch them move.

Which leaves the possibility that someone has decided it's time for the White House to implement crisis management. In the rush they almost repeated what BP's Tony Hayward said about the "small drop in the ocean" following the Gulf of Mexico spill. The comment for which he, too, was pilloried.

By playing down the impacts of the spill so early in the aftermath of the event, it seems to suggest a move to pre-selected conclusions by an administration already under scrutiny following Hurricane Katrina. With a President whose ratings were defying gravity, it is not necessarily the best way to reach achieve closure. You might question some of BP's communication issues in the first weeks but full marks for keeping an eye on the main event; stop the leak.

What is even more interesting is how this feeds through to issues management in the US. First, a better grip on the facts seems a pre-requisite. Second, a distancing from a purely political agenda while remaining really close to the politicians and administrators. And third a follow-through of policy driven by gathered intelligence rather than by an often knee-jerk reaction.

This is something we in LINK call “Reputation on the LINE”.

Easing off the accelerator

2010-02-09T10:58:00.001+00:00

This could be the week of sticky pedals as Toyota and the Bank of England face the truth about what happens when you take your foot off the gas. Has the UK economy reached its cruising speed? And it is now all down hill to an economic recovery?

The question now in everyone's minds is how safe is it to ease off, is the timing right and what happens if it starts to unravel? Will the economy continue to accelerate or will the brakes cut in?

But whatever happens it's hats off to Mervyn and his team. Not many people have managed 0 to 200 billion in less than a year; it has to be a new production record. Even Jeremy Clarkson and the Top Gear team would have to admit that's some performance. But what happens next? Will the impetus last until we vote on the next occupant of Number 10 and will the momentum just be sufficient to carry the Labour Government through?

Timing is everything. If the Bank has cut the acceleration too early we are going to witness a UK economy slowing in the face of an election as reality starts to dawn. This would result in us seeing through the fog of quantitative easing to judge our real economic performance against the rest of the world's unsupported economies.

As house prices rise and the feel good factor returns in the pre-election euphoria, will we become speed junkies and return to printing money? Or is that all behind us as we move into our environmentally friendly risk-free future, with little to worry us apart from that niggling doubt about the effectiveness of the brakes?

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

No Grit for the Oyster

2010-01-12T11:01:00.001+00:00

No war plan ever survived the first hour of battle, according to Clausewitz. So where was he when you needed him?

The current situation serves to demonstrate how weak our politicians are at handling complex and overlapping issues. To which can now be added problems with forecasting.

Not down to us says the Met Office. All UK contingency planning is based on our five-day forecasts, “which are massively reliable.” Just so. And after that? With increasing regulatory demands ... careful about clearing your own pathway ... and political interference in energy supply, UK systems appear to be suffering from short term vision and a failure to achieve long term infrastructure improvement.

Last November the AA reportedly warned the government about inadequate salt supplies only to be warned about scaremongering. So who got it right? And who mentioned climate change?

Is the crisis to be a failure to sustain energy supply or a global warming disaster? The Department of Energy and Climate Change announce thousands of new wind turbines¹ the day after National Grid announced that gas supplies to the UK fell following temporary technical problems in Norwegian gas fields.

Well that’s good news; billions of pounds of investment to secure the future of our energy supplies. Sorry that should have read “Well that’s good news; billions of pounds of investment to fight climate change”.

If only the hot air of pre-election posturing could be used to fuel the nation’s energy demands then we would be well placed to coast into the barmy weather of spring and reduce our carbon footprint.

So which crisis comes first, the climate or the energy supply? And are they really separate issues? Can we afford, in an economy that is building debt as fast as it can, not to address such complex issues. Will billions on offshore wind farms really deliver the future we need? Are there better and more cost effective ways to achieve the same results, with perhaps with increased reliability?

Propping up the economy and fuelling a mini feel-good factor for a short run into the election will not deliver the sustainability in energy supply that we need. Perhaps it’s too much to hope for in an election year that politicians will put the country’s needs before their own. At least we know that one decision has been made this year, to not push Gordon out into the cold. Perhaps 2010 will be the year when our leaders deliver pearls of wisdom and demonstrate an understanding of issues management and crisis avoidance. If only we had enough grit left for the oyster!

¹ 8 January 2010 - Press Notice - Offshore Wind Expansion Biggest Ambition In The World

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

Dancing around the issues

2009-06-04T04:31:00.012+01:00

With TV programmers looking to fill the entertainment slot left by Britain’s Got Talent, Prime Minister's Question Time from the Commons may provide the solution. As choreography goes it was a fine display yesterday with ministers manoeuvring around Gordon Brown. A variation of Strictly Come Dancing with partners voting themselves off the dance floor.

If only they moved as quickly to solve the crises they have created. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, “To lose one cabinet minister is unfortunate; to lose two.....”

As the anger of the electorate surfaces, the linkages between bankers’ bonuses, recession and politicians’ greed set the context for a prime-ministerial annus horribilis. What we have here is a government which was slow to react to the financial crisis and then segued into the expenses shambles with a less than effective response. There is a consistent failure to demonstrate even a basic understanding of crisis management and a continuing inability to analyse potentially dangerous situations. To return to the dancing metaphor, the response is slow, slow ... and there is no quick, quick. Plainly, there is little or no radar scanning of how emergent issues will arise.

Which brings us to flipping. No, not the exuberant steps of the Paso Doble but rather a more mundane expenses fiddle based on housing allowances. Awful in itself but symptomatic surely of much deeper weaknesses which will surface to impact on our previously treasured parliamentary democracy.

So how would our politicians fair in a Parliament’s Got Talent series? Would any survive the audience’s vote?

Our offer of free crisis training for the parties still stands. So far no takers.

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

Right said (Sir) Fred - it's a hole new crisis

2009-03-05T11:37:00.021+00:00

Those readers old enough to remember Bernard Cribbens and his song about men trying to dig a hole and then giving up. might pause to reflect on how it all ended. After many attempts to dig said hole, the lads abandoned it. In the lyrics the line was: Right said Fred, let's have another cuppa tea and then go home. Or in Gordon’s case, lets go to the White House.

The hole gets deeper; Lord Myners says he knew something but not everything about the pension deal. Yet Harriet Harman says the government will seek legal action to stop Sir Fred getting the full whack. Something m' learned friends think might be hard to deliver. But that doesn’t matter because apparently the case is not scheduled for Court Number One at the Old Bailey but at the court of public opinion. Presumably it’s the one across the road in the pub.

So does all this matter? Two Western elder statesmen, asked many years ago about why things in politics went wrong, said it was first down to events, dear boy, events (obviously English). The American opined that when you are in a swamp being bitten by an alligator, you wonder why you are there in the first place.

With no one able to figure out how to drain this particular swamp and stop the financial sector from dragging us all into the alligator pit, it is good to know the priorities are clear. Lets avoid finding a solution and just blame Fred.

What we have here is a classic dissonance. The quantum involved for Sir Fred's pension fades into insignificance when compared with the bail-out money paid by the taxpayer to the bank. Yet that is what is grabbing the headlines.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Sir Fred’s pension, if the Government want justice should they start by apologizing not just for getting us into this mess but for not finding the safe route out of the swamp.

Surely the time has come to confront the realities of the economic crises rather than teeter round the edges. And the G20 summit is still to come. Perhaps they will know what to do with Fred’s pension.

But for Gordon as he flies back to the UK a warning. Please remember that many a good ship has foundered on the (Sir Fred) Goodwin Sands. Now is the moment to increase the level of Reputation Radar.

Postscript:

For those of you brave enough to follow the Future Imperfect trail, contact us if you would like to receive a Reputation Radar briefing on the threat of social disruption which is due for issue later this month.

And finally - we are running a G20 breakfast briefing on the 20 March To reserve a place call Emma on 01332 222299 or email link.training@linkassociates.com

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

Storm in a coffee cup

2009-02-25T11:42:00.015+00:00

It is a sign of the times that nearly eighty years ago, as depression swept the western world, the British Empire or what remained of it sat down, brewed a nice cup of tea then tried to figure what went wrong.

Today as the greatest minds in Europe plus our own Prime Minister prepare for the April G20 summit, the true state of the British economy is brought home, not by an infusion of leaves from Ceylon, but by that standard bearer of globalisation, Starbucks.

As the Seattle financiers pour over their figures, the stark reality hits home. Britain really has been ground down by the crisis. But never mind don’t worry, while folklore tells us that the tea cup approach often resulted in the problem being discussed and solutions identified, today’s coffee fix provides a far more dramatic answer. Shoot the messenger.

Well perhaps not just yet. Starbuck's chairman Howard Schultz, who used the phrase "spiral of decline" about the UK economy in a CNBC interview, has apologised. He had gone on to say that consumer confidence in the UK is "very, very poor" and the place that concerns Starbucks most is "Western Europe and specifically the UK" But he has said sorry. So that's OK.

Lord Mandelson our Business Secretary rides to the rescue of Gordon and the British economy, fresh from promising yet more loans which are not yet available due to unforeseen but entirely predictable circumstances. The Secretary of State tells it as it is. It’s all down to the Starbucks business plan. So would Starbucks please come up with a solution? Like how to save the failing LDV truck plant?

With economic data pointing to a deepening recession (please note we did not raise the spectre of a spiral of decline) our economic leaders agreed that Germany could impose sanctions on the UK hedge funds. We continue to wonder who is in charge of UK strategy and what are the crisis management skills of our political masters.

Perhaps they should consider attending a course, one with plenty of breaks for coffee. Starbucks, of course.

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

NIMBY ... or not in my back yard until “buddy can you spare a loan?” – all currencies accepted

2009-02-09T11:46:00.020+00:00

For those with a long memory, you might recall that globalisation was touted as a sort of business panacea; embrace this concept and all will be well with international trade. A keen supporter, surprisingly, turned out to be Bin Laden himself (or perhaps one of the 20 plus people the CIA believe might be him.) He appeared in a video wearing a Taiwanese watch; carrying a Chinese Kalashnikov; speaking into a Japanese camera; and transmitted via a US satellite uplink, espousing his particular version of the Internationale.

Ah, things were so simple then. Now, it is not a good time to be a foreigner in a globalised, UK, world. Workers at nuclear power plants in Sellafield, and Heysham joined oil refinery workers at Lindsey to protest at the employment of non UK nationals, leading Lord Mandelson to proclaim that the strikers were pursuing the “politics of xenophobia”.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Paris, the French do what only they can do so well: la greve entier - total strike - in protest at what the unions see as the failure of the government to deal with the economic downturn and the influx of the “pied noir”. Globalisation brings social unrest. Discuss.

But there is a broader point here; EU law provides for non-discrimination between domestic workers and those from the rest of the EU. Quite clear. Except a tad undermined by Gordon Brown’s now infamous outpouring some two years ago about “British jobs for British workers”. Perhaps he meant something else, but the devil, as always, is in the reporting.

So what do we have? Essentially a collision between the supporters of liberalising the economic system, a.k.a. globalisation, and an unlikely combination of bedfellows from the Left and nationalist Right in the UK pursuing the end of the free market.

Elsewhere what has been called President Obama’s “Buy American” clauses in the $800bn pump priming package indicates just how far sympathy is moving. But underlying all the hype is that history, to paraphrase one US car maker, is not just “bunk” but shows that protectionism just does not work. It increases costs and supports the mediocre business over the excellent. It destroys incentives and supports countries which get their revenge, i.e tariff barriers, in first. Remember the UK’s own “imperial preference” and what that did to trade?

A leading investment analyst has argued that protectionism “makes the world a less efficient, more expensive, lower growth and more dangerous place than one built on the principles of free trade and open markets.”

As UK inc offers loans to its Indian, American and French car makers there is another thought; some cynics have argued all this economic crisis stuff is playing into the hands of the Labour Party and its policy wonks. The banks have been all but nationalised; other sectors are on the brink, Government loans are available to support their preferred industries, the House of Lords is back on the agenda and the unions are stirring.

Who needs revolution? Perhaps the previous issues of Future Imperfect have been barking up the wrong crisis tree. Why push the Government to conduct a detailed analysis of the crisis in order to take corrective action when they already know what they want and are likely to get it; lets get straight to the depression.

Our thanks to PM Gordon for pointing this out earlier in the week. And in passing does anyone recall Clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution and what it laid out?

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood

2009-01-27T11:53:00.001+00:00

No. It was not about an attempt to “bury bad news.” Just coincidence that Bank Governor Mervyn King’s gloomy outlook for the UK economy hit the Press on the same day as the Obama speech. His predictions about “a difficult year for us all” had been underlined by the announcement that the Royal Bank of Scotland had made the biggest corporate loss in British history. So could it be that we are about to be rescued by the US 7th Cavalry, also known as the Federal Reserve Bank? The pound, which has fallen in value by 25% since mid-2007, could certainly do with some support.

Obama’s address has been variously described as “not enough like Lincoln at Gettysburg” or “in the great traditions of Paul Revere and the call to arms” (against, you recall, the British invader). So whilst opinion remains divided on the rhetoric, what is clear is that he firmly placed crisis at the top of the agenda. According to one US TV commentator on Pennsylvania Avenue, “he was, in American parlance, telling it like it is.”

The speech highlighted the indicators of crisis as a nation at war, the economy badly weakened and the collective failure to make hard choices. So how did it stack up in terms of crisis analysis, crisis management and planning for the recovery?

If an assessment of the address from a crisis and reputational perspective is conducted what would be the outcome and has the President identified a route out of this economic mess?

Well, some of the underlying fundamentals were positive. There was a clear messaging that the person in charge is well aware that the crisis has hit and that things have to change.

Perhaps even better than the recognition and commitment is the realization that the worst may not yet be over; “The oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms” indicates a darker and more imperfect future. Whilst UK Government is attempting a recovery plan without seemingly understanding the crisis, at least the President appears to be grappling with the impacts, if not the root causes.

“Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”

And he goes further to highlight that in a crisis there are emergent properties which need to be addressed. The use of the phrase “Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land” indicates that his administration has, to some degree, thought through the implications and impacts.

A good start which indicates many positives but one which unfortunately does not go quite far enough to indicate that the way forward is understood.

Yes, there are those who need to be blamed; “a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” A theme echoed this week by our own Prime Minister and Chancellor. But there is no indication just yet how these faults are to be rectified. Key to much of this, though, is how Obama has raised the bar in his speech; and how these heightened expectations can be managed in the critical first 100 Days.

Hard work and spending on infrastructure is offered but, surely, can only be seen as a short-term palliative; “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.” Coupled with science and environmental visions - a Green New Deal has already been talked about - it appears the cracks can be papered over. But with cross-Atlantic echoes of Gordon Brown’s “spend, spend, spend” solution are we to see similar weaknesses or is there more substance behind America taking the lead in crisis management? Watch this
space ... and the foreign exchanges.

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

Easing our way out of a crisis?

2009-01-12T11:58:00.022+00:00

Funny how some situations often have a buzz phrase attached. "Book him, Dano", from Hawaii 5-0; or "You're nicked", from The Sweeney; or "Loadsamoney", courtesy of Harry Enfield. Which brings us neatly to financial crises which have generated their own vocabulary. The pound in your pocket; subprime loans; crisis? what crisis; and now, step forward quantitative easing ... a buzz phrase you will be hearing more of in the future.

It's jargon for printing our way out of the current credit crunch. Like the Weimar Republic and Mr Mugabe why not just print more money and all will be well. Watch out, too, for the concept of the "bad bank" ... something being seriously considered. Basically a state bank would be set up where all those so-called toxic loans could be parked out of harm's way ... and then covered by the taxpayer.

And it's not over ... the creation of "green collar" jobs is on the agenda both here and in the US, a sort of New Deal where instead of building roads and dams, jobs would be centrally funded to combat climate change and the abuse of the earth's resources. Even that is not quite as it seems. For a start it could be part of a classic decoy ploy where those under threat try to avoid the real issues by focusing efforts on often unrelated activities. And there is more.

As one leading commentator has put it, this concept is less FDR in the Great Depression, rather more like wartime interventions by government when the markets became mere pipelines for funneling funds to finance the public sector deficit. FDR's solution was innovative, being implemented not at the start of the Depression but as a means of recovery. In contrast, the current owners of the crisis are hoping to use the technique to avoid having to do any crisis analysis or innovative thinking. We still seem to be tackling the symptoms of the disease rather than the cause and while we continue to do this the solution will be obscured. Today's interest rate decision by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee means we are at the lowest level of rates in the Bank's 315 year history. Yet as one major high street retailer put it this morning, it is not about the price of credit, rather its availability.

It is generally accepted now that the slide to recession started earlier than was first thought; that early warning signs were ignored; and that an ostrich-like pose was adopted by people who should have been scanning the horizon. As any plumber ... that is if you can find one ... will tell you, there's no point in trying to seal a wet joint; first find out why the pipe is leaking.

No doubt the "feelbad factor" has replaced the "feelgood factor". But was it really that good? Booming house prices and easy credit built an economy resting on shifting sands and there were bound to be tears in the end. Already those re-writers of history have been busy at their laptops. The fundamentals were fine, some argue, it was just the volatility in the banking system last autumn which rocked the economy to its foundations. This rather ignores several other indicators. For example, unemployment was already rising at the beginning of the year.

Belatedly the Bank of England admitted it had not realised just how bad things were getting. Fine. But neither had the FSA, government or the banks themselves. At least the Bank was trying to warn us. But how did the lack of vision happen and could it happen again? In the meantime are we confident that the powers that be have used even basic crisis management techniques to analyse this situation or will we all be paying off, via the budget deficit, the cost of that lack of awareness for many years to come?

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

Skirts ruffled for the old lady of Threadneedle Street

2008-11-14T12:04:00.022+00:00

Sometimes it can seem really hard to get it right. Abraham Lincoln probably came closest when he argued that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. The Bank of England must feel exactly that way at the moment.

Has it judged the crisis correctly or reacted too late?

In the interim, perhaps the most important question is “How good is the analysis and who is in charge, the Bank or the Government?” Last week’s 1.5% cut in the interest rate took us back to 1955. It also took our interest rates below the eurozone for the first time. So panic or shrewd policy? The jury remains divided.

The FTSE came off over 5.5% at the close following the announcement and the reason is not hard to find. On the one hand, interest rate cuts are good news ... cheaper lending; easier borrowing etc, etc. On the other hand the sheer scale of the dramatic slashing of the rate ... against the run of the play according to many commentators ... left many people reeling from the sense that this recession really is going to be deeper and longer than even the economic Jeremiahs had predicted.

Acting too late and too aggressively are just some of the accusations being thrown around. The Monetary Policy Committee seemed to profess surprise last week about just how quickly the recession took hold and referred to a very marked deterioration in the economic outlook. How good is their information feed? Trawl through any media archive from early summer onward and you wonder where they had been. Production falling; house sales collapsing; consumer confidence ebbing; job losses increasing. Oh, and let’s not forget the credit crunch. A sorry catalogue, indeed: but one that was being transmitted on many radar screens around the country. An open secret if there ever was one.

Was anyone at the Bank listening? The Bank has been praised for its academic level of analysis. But who was scanning the horizon to see what was happening in the real world? Policy produced in this sort of vacuum can have little connection with the realpolitik affecting the lives of ordinary people.

Then the Government emerged in the role of the 7^th US Cavalry, and we know what happened to them. Pass on all the cuts or else. Or else what? Two of the biggest banks have set their faces against quasi-nationalisation and others have said they will pass on no more interest rate cuts in their entirety, but the Government persists. No room for tax cuts last week translate through what can only be assumed are No.11 leaks to all bets are off, even down to a basic rate adjustment, increase in tax credits etc. To reprise the Eurovision Song Contest: Inflation, nul points. Recession dix points. How the enemy has changed. The Pre Budget Statement is awaited with interest.

Not so much a policy then, more a way of fending off issues. What we are seeing now is much more about tactics on the day rather than strategy in the longer term. Not a recipe for success. When you face a crisis you have to set in place effective strategies otherwise you just keep on digging and the hole gets bigger.

There is a fundamental issue to be addressed here. Who is actually running the economy and, whoever they are, do they talk to one another. Do they have the radar tuned and do they have the ability to analyse events and develop strategy? The indications are not good. Everything points to reactive responses and not effective crisis management. Is anyone asking where the crisis is likely to take us?

Perhaps in the future, the whole role of sterling remaining outside the eurozone might be in the frame. But that’s for another Future Imperfect. For now if the Government is lacking crisis management and the Old Lady has lost her inflation target, perhaps we have to start analysing worst case scenarios.

Meanwhile take heart from the words, loosely transcribed, of probably one of our greatest economists, J M Keynes. “All will be well in the long term; except in the long term we will all be dead”. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long.

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.

How the tulip mania burst the economic bubble (or do we scent chaos in the market?)

2008-10-14T12:10:00.015+01:00

Scottish journalist Charles Mackay wrote a book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds in which he attempted to find some rationale behind the herd instinct which seems to bedevil markets. Sound familiar? Well, Charles Mackay published his findings way back in 1841 and although more recently some of his conclusions have been debunked, his basic ideas still attract support.

Mackay was writing about what many argue was the first “economic bubble” ... Tulip Mania ... which engulfed the Dutch economy in the 1630s. It centred around an exotic bulb brought from the Ottoman Empire which became a “must have” purchase in the fashionable salons of Europe, almost regardless of price. The inevitable happened; the price rose to the point at which the market collapsed.

Surely this could have been seen coming? Mackay contends there is something in the “madness of crowds” which means that even if the problem was foreseen, the signs could still be ignored. Tracking back the current global meltdown we find the modern day equivalent of Tulip Mania exemplified this time not by a colourful tuber but America’s sub-prime mortgage market and the complex financial instruments wrapped around it. An economic bubble just waiting to go pop. People were encouraged to take out loans they could not afford to pay off houses which became worth less and less.

We’ve been there before. Just over a year ago Northern Rock went to the Bank of England for liquidity support. An aggressive business strategy of increasing market share in the mortgage and loans sector left it vulnerable. Northern Rock was exposed to short term loans on the international money markets; the sub-prime failures and the subsequent collapse of those same money markets made money much more difficult to raise. Word got around and despite reassurances from the Bank of England and the Treasury, customers turned up in their droves. On the 14^th of September 2007 an estimated £1billion was withdrawn. Three days later the government and the Bank guaranteed all deposits and shares rose 16%.

Another bubble waiting to burst? Not that the event was without warning flags being lifted. Earlier in the year the Bank of England itself had pointed out that developments in the US sub prime market had not only exposed vulnerabilities in new credit derivative markets but highlighted the “difficulty of valuing instruments on the basis of only a few years experience.” But was anybody actually listening?

Moving swiftly on to the present day and an unusual spectre; delegations from the UK Treasury and local councils going to Iceland in an attempt to unfreeze billions of pounds in assets held in the failed banking system. Over one billion pounds is owed to local authorities, other public bodies and charities. In addition talk at Westminster was of using draconian anti-terrorist legislation to seize Icelandic assets in the UK. Surely a new departure. Not that any of this should have been a surprise. A House of Lords debate earlier in the summer advised caution in chasing these returns from novel suppliers. But again, was anybody listening?

In the light of all of this, McLuhan’s global village looks increasingly like it is built on shaky foundations. Not just a scent of chaos on the markets, but a return to old fashioned protectionism. Already the emerging economies are taking steps to build walls around their trading positions and what else is the effective nationalisation of the banking system but outright protectionism. Whither the Free Market?

Now more than ever is there a need for some sort of radar mechanism which scans the horizon, tracks incoming problems and then formulates a strategy to cope. What we are observing is a fundamental failure in intelligence gathering coupled with policy decisions based on inadequate or misunderstood information.

Are we any better prepared for next time? In turbulent conditions it surely pays to invest in a storm warning system and a raincoat. And someone should keep an eye on the radar.

For more information, visit the MediaLINK website or call Mike Hogan on 07771 962911/ 01332 222299.