Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail

By now many of you have heard about the crisis that pizza giant Dominos has faced in the past week in which two employees posted videos on YouTube in which food was mishandled and contaminated. This story should not be ignored as an isolated incident, but can be used as a lesson for business owners everywhere.

Whether you’re an international conglomerate or a small regional business, social media and networking sites are changing the way the business world works. Gone are the days in which companies can ignore this growing area of Facebooks, Myspaces, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Gone also are the days in which organizations can take a moment and strategically devise a response plan to such crisis.

Many have criticized Dominos for not immediately addressing the issue. This goes to show that when a crisis strikes, an organization’s publics expect a response immediately, not hours or days after the event occurs. This only further stresses the importance of having a crisis plan that is easily implemented should something arise.

Furthermore, this also stresses the importance of having an online presence. Your company cannot wait until disaster strikes to quickly rush to the computer and establish an online presence all while dealing with an inquiring media, angry customers/clients, and employees with questions.

Dominos reaction, while not as quick as some would like, was an appropriate one. After filing a formal complaint with police and having a warrant issued for the employees, they had YouTube pull the videos. At the same time, Patrick Doyle, President of Dominos, posted a response and apology to the videos in the same forum. Dominos also set up a Twitter account to deal with this publicity nightmare.

Finally, while Dominos appropriately reacted to this crisis by getting the message out to their target publics in the same forum in which the videos were originally found, this issue is much deeper than ensuring you have a crisis management plan in place. This is also a testament to how important employee relations are. In organizations small and large, it is imperative that those who are on the “front-lines” selling your product fully believe in what the organization is doing. Once employees feel they have been mistreated, underpaid, or unrecognized for their efforts it can create the perfect environment for a disaster such as this. Today, more than ever, the importance of being prepared and having a business model that keeps everyone from janitors to CEOs happy is being seen all the time. If you’re prepared for the worst, then generally the worst won’t happen.

 

Best,

Matt Cafrelli

President