News

Vivid’s Hilary awarded crisis communications diploma

12 October 2011

Hilary is among 13 people with the Crisis (Response) Communications Diploma, awarded by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). She is the only person in Gloucestershire to have the qualification, for which she was given a Merit. The new course, which is taught at masters level, helps communications practitioners and strategists in managing a crisis or potential crisis.

Crisis management planning and effective communications around it is becoming increasingly important for businesses and their reputations. The need to invest by planning for it and responding if something happens are evidenced by the media coverage of things such as last year’s BP Oil Spill, difficulties at News International a few months’ ago and BAA problems when planes were snowbound at Heathrow Airport before Christmas last year.

“A number of businesses and organisations still believe a crisis can’t or won’t happen to them but we have seen too many high profile examples to prove that wrong,” Hilary said.

“A crisis might involve a threat to order, to lives, to reputation or to business. When we work with clients, we look at those things and the sort of things that could happen – then plan for the communications management around them. For example, what might happen if the company chairman is found raiding the pension fund? What if there’s an explosion at a company’s headquarters? It’s never too early to start planning.”

Hilary, a founding Director of the Gloucestershire-based consultancy, studied the course to add an academic element to her sound experience in planning and managing communications around crises. Many of the cases she worked on made national and international headlines, including the outbreak of Foot & Mouth Disease in Devon in 2001, the murder investigation involving Fred & Rosemary West in Gloucestershire in 1994, the building of the Newbury bypass in Berkshire in 1996 and two high profile sexual harassment & discrimination cases in the Thames Valley in the 1990s.

"It's often been said that trouble follows me around as I have had to deal with quite a few crises or potential crises during my career. Of course, some crises can’t be avoided and make headlines around the world but if you have a strategy to deal with them and the communications, around them, managing them is a lot less challenging. It’s often the communications and media headlines around them that are remembered and that can have the biggest effect on an organisation’s reputation,” she said.

“Other types of crisis can be avoided and, again, having the right strategy in place to deal with what might happen can mean it never does. Many potential crises never make the headlines because businesses have the right plans in place and test them.

“While my experience has helped me with those things, when I heard about the new Diploma, I decided it was something that I wanted to study to ensure my experience was matched by a formal academic qualification. I’m delighted that this essential business management skill has been recognised academically.”

 (ends)

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